Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for friends
Friday fun is not what it used to be
It’s sad, but so true. Tonight there was a social event scheduled for the NCHS faculty. I was so excited when we planned it, because I knew the kids would be gone tonight and that meant I could stay out as late as I wanted to. There was once a time when I would have been the first person in the teacher section at the football game and the last one to leave the bar after the game. Instead, right now, I’m sitting on the couch trying to catch up with my blog and trolling around Facebook. It was just too cold and crappy outside and I am just too worn out from the week to go back out tonight. Dave and I had an early dinner and went shopping at Meijer, but were home by like 8:00.
Man, when did I get so old?
The preschool cookout and show
This evening Ben’s preschool had it’s fall festival. It involved a cookout, complete with a big bonfire and a potluck dinner and a show by three of the classes. I have no idea how the school could possibly organize such an event, but again you could tell that they’d been doing it for years…things ran like clockwork around that place.
Of course, in a classic case of good timing, Ali and her family pulled up right after us, so she and Ben were glued at the hip all night.
It was a beautiful evening and as soon as they were done eating all of the kids were running around the church yard like maniacs. Thank goodness it was outside! Emma was in seventh heaven to run around after the big kids, and it never even dawned on her that she was two steps behind at all times. I so love that about her.
Ben had been talking about practice for their show and how they were all going to stand on the stage and “do their song.” I really had no idea what to expect, but this is what we got:
It was so much fun…for the kids and the parents. Oh, and by the way, I’m not sure how Ben got stuck at the tall end of the line, but he’s not that much shorter than all of the other kids in his class!
Pigeon!
I took half of a personal day this afternoon so that I could go on a field trip with Ben. Pigeon Party! was at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts and Tomorrow’s Promise Learning Centre got to go. In my car was Ben and two other boys. Let me tell you, there is not much better than 4 yr. old conversation. At one point Ben told his little friends that we had the biggest house in the whole wide world. I got a big chuckle out of that one! I wish I would have taped them, because I can’t begin to replay it here.
We got to the Performing Arts Center and climbed the “millions” (Ben’s description) of steps to get into the theater. 
The timing was great, because as soon as we sat down the show started. We all loved the show. It was funny, the songs were super cute, and really, there’s nothing better than a show in which you can shout at the performers! I think the show really represented the books on which it was based really well.
Once the show was over, we walked back out to the van, stopping to pose for a picture 
on the steps of the Arts Center. After sitting in the darkness of the theater, the boys were blinded by the bright sunny day. We rode back to school, and my chaperoning duty was officially over. I even got an hour of free time before school was done, so I enjoyed some time to myself. Overall it was great use of half of a personal day. I’m so glad I was able to go…both because I loved the show and because I could tell Ben loved having me there. It was awesome.
We should have named her Sandy
I’m pretty sure that Emma is addicted to sand. The girl absolutely loves playing in our sandbox, but that’s not really a problem. The trouble comes when sand starts getting into places it just doesn’t belong. Tonight was a sticky humid night, and while we were playing outside with our friends, Ems was laying in the sandbox…both on her tummy and on her back at different times. She was sweaty to begin with, so consequently she was covered in sand. Her scalp literally looked like the beach. Ugh. And for some reason, she likes putting her fingers into her mouth when they’re covered in sand. Seriously, Emma? I’m not even going to talk about how much sand came out of her diaper when we stripped down to get into the bathtub. Ick.
Words cannot describe how much sand was in our tub at the end of baths tonight. I swear I had to rinse that girl’s hair for several minutes straight, and I’m still not sure that I got everything out. I’m so glad we have the sandbox. Sure, it makes for a holy mess at the end of the night, but that little girl truly loves it…which makes all the mess worth it.
School days, school days…
…good old fashioned rule days. Well, it came again…the first day of school. Even though it was just a teacher’s institute, it was somewhat fun to get back into the school buildings and feel the energy in them. I would find it hard to believe that any good teacher didn’t like the first few days of school. It’s so nice to see all of your teacher friends again, and we’ve had the entire summer to rejuvinate, refresh, and reenergize.
The true test will come on Wednesday, when the new high school start time goes into effect. We’re going from a 7:55 start time to a 7:15 start time. It may be only 40 minutes earlier, but man, they are a precious 40 minutes when it’s 7 o’clock in the morning! Let’s hope the students (and the teachers) can handle this huge change!
The new pool
Like pretty much everything in our lives, we describe places based on what Ben calls them. Today we went to “the new pool” with our friends Ali & AJ. The new pool is at Anderson Park, one of the park district pools here in town. We’ve never been to either of the park district pools since State Farm Pool is so nice and free for us. But our friends aren’t State Farm connected, so off to Anderson we went.
I have to say that this pool is awesome for toddlers. At its deepest, the baby pool is only about 22″. It was awesome for Ben, because he never felt overwhelmed by the water depth, and he could go anywhere in the pool by himself. And even Emma could wander around without me being too nervous. 
Emma and AJ spent a lot of time filling up their buckets and painting the concrete. There were two little sprinklers that worked perfectly for them to fill their buckets. They went back and forth and back and forth, and stayed very 
busy while having a lot of fun. Meanwhile, Ben and Ali were having fun on the submarine slide. The submarine is in the middle of the pool, and there are steps up both sides and a slide out the back. The must have gone down that thing about a million times!
By the time we left at 11:00 or so, all the kids were exhausted and Addie and I were both facing meltdowns. We had a such a great time, and we’re lucky to have such good friends.
A new work experience
Today Caroline and I worked at school together in the IMC for the first time. It was so fun! I’m really excited to work with her this year. I think that it will be a boost for my morale to work closely with a good friend. I know that she has a huge learnng curve ahead of her, but I think she’s going to be a great media specialist. I remember how overwhelmed I was when I started at NCHS. The beginning of school is so hectic, and I knew nothing about the building and very little about the district itself. I keep telling Caroline that she’s miles ahead of me because she knows the building, the staff, and the curriculum. Learning the IMC specific stuff will all come with time.
I hope that this excitement about this year stays with me longer than usual this year. I know it’s easy to forget how good I have it sometimes. Having someone thrilled to be done with planning, grading, and all of the other classroom stuff I dealt with for so long will be good for me to keep things in perspective.
School will be be here before we know it, and I’m actually looking forward to it a lot this year. That’s pretty exciting.
I’m almost a chef!
Tonight my friend (and new co-worker) Caroline had a cooking class for some of her friends. There were five of us “students” there, and she made several dishes for us while giving tips about various cooking methods and her specific recipes. It was so fun! While I do consider myself a relatively good cook, I learned a lot from Caroline. She is a true foodie, and I’ve never tasted anything that she made that wasn’t absolutely delicious.
I think the best tip I learned was to dry off whatever meat I’m trying to use before I cook it in a skillet. That way, you’re sure to get a good sear on it. Dave’s always trying to tell me that I need to leave things alone when I’m cooking them, but that’s pretty hard for me. But tonight Caroline reinforced that point for me. I even admitted to Dave that he was right!
It was such a fun night learning new things with my friends, and I think Caroline had as much fun as we did. Being the consumate professional educator, she had handouts with recipes and everything! I can’t wait to impress Dave with my new-found gourmet expertise!
Playdate craziness
Today we brought Ali home from preschool with us. Her mom had to take her brother to a doctor’s appointment in Peoria, so she was asking us for a favor, but it was a great opportunity to have her over for a play date. The pick-up went great. It was actually a lot of fun listening to them chatter with each other in the backseat. We came back here and I made lunch. That all went really well, too. The three kids (Ben, Ali and Emma) all ate well and again they chatted between each other. It was so cute. Then, everything changed.
After lunch we went outside to play. Three different times in the next hour or so, Ben had hysterical screaming fits and ended up back in the house on the couch. I felt badly disciplining him when his friend was here, but he was acting very inappropriately and I just didn’t feel like I could let it go. All three fits were because of something really tiny…and all of them basically centered around him not getting his way. It was super ugly behavior, and I hated it. Luckily, Emma was having a grand time with Ali here, and the two of them were getting along famously.
I hate these kinds of parental decisions. I obviously know that I couldn’t just let him have a tantrum and then get his way. But man, it killed me to have him crying so hard when this should have been a fun play date. The thing is, when Ali’s mom came to pick her up there was another crying fit because he didn’t want her to leave. I thought that four was supposed to be better than three. Ugh…you can’t win for losing with this parenting thing.
Thank God for Danielle
Yesterday morning my friend Addie came over to our house for a play date. Her daughter is Ali, Ben’s very best friend. She also has AJ, who is almost 18 months. Ali and AJ go to Danielle’s during the school year with Ben and Emma, so they are all very close. Often times, the four of them act more like siblings than friends…they bicker and they bug each other but they defend each other more and have missed playing together this summer. So we got them together to do just that.
Now, I’ve written about how much we love Danielle, and how we think she’s probably just about the best daycare provider on the face of the planet. But yesterday proved it. Addie and I were going crazy trying to keep everyone happy and calm. There were honestly a couple of times that the chaos and noise was so great that we just stood there, looked at each other, and burst out laughing. About halfway through the morning another friend Karrin dropped her daughter Anna Klare off here because she had an appointment to go to. That made our total five kids, and you would have thought it was 50. I don’t mean that Anna brought more chaos to the mix at all…it was already nuts well before she got here. They were just all over the place, and they didn’t want to stick with any one thing for very long at all. One kid would want to go outside, and the others would want to go in. Two would want to play downstairs, and two others would want to go upstairs. Then Ben would just go off and be by himself, and all Ali wanted was for him to play with her. Like I said…chaos. Seriously, getting lunch was nearly impossible for me and I had another adult here to help me! It was exhausting.
Both Addie and I commented on how incredulous we are at Danielle’s ability and her demeanor. After one morning of all of the kids together we were both frazzled, yet she does it every day and never appears to feel that way. Thank God we have her, because I know I could never do it all myself! We really do feel blessed to have her in our lives.
