wrekehavoc – Page 76 – Wrekehavoc.com

Author: wrekehavoc

pre-pre-teen angst

Posted on November 14, 2006 by wrekehavoc

its official. i have finally found someone even more neurotic than i am.

my daughter.

can’t blame my little chick, though; she has reason to be, to be sure. she is talking to me tonight about what if’s. there’s a boy who she has to sit with at school each day who has a serious problem — every time she speaks (and not necessarily to him, mind you), he imagines she has said something bad and malevolent. the first time this happened, he thought she was saying a slur on his ethnicity. and he slapped her.

he a c t u a l l y slapped her.

and the substitute teacher in charge told him not to slap her but also maligned my daughter for saying something not-so-nice about his ethnicity.

i went to the principal on this one.

they questioned everyone involved. and although they are pretty sure she didn’t say anything bad about his ethnicity, no one actually completely gives her a clean slate. which pisses me off. my beloved child is many, many things. but she does not have a bigoted bone in her body, something i would like to continue for as long as possible.

so meanwhile, back to this boy. they were playing a math game today at her table. and she had the temerity to be excited about something, and, mocking her mom, exclaimed, “yee ha!” this boy thought she said the word “fat” which he believes to be a bad word. “mama,” she asked, “i didn’t say it, but is fat a bad word?”

“no dear. though it isn’t nice to call someone fat.”

“well, i didn’t. but he thinks i said it and now he wants to go to the teacher.”

man. i have had enough of this boy. i think i will have to go in and have the teacher change someone’s seat. it always pisses me off, though, that the person who is causing the trouble is never the one who gets his seat changed. my daughter loves everyone else at her table–she has become friendly with everyone, and they work together well, which is important considering this is spanish immersion and they all have to work together — the native english speakers and the native spanish speakers. so why should she have to change tables?

every day is like christmas

Posted on November 13, 2006 by wrekehavoc

i have this strange sensation every day as of late that when i wake in the morning, it’s christmas. it’s a strange feeling, especially since i am a red sea pedestrian. and it isn’t like i expect presents waiting for me. but i’m excited to wake every day for some weird reason.

with my luck lately, it probably means i’m bipolar.

dreary day

Posted on November 12, 2006 by wrekehavoc

it rained. and it rained. and it rained. there are only so many ways to amuse children when it is raining outside unless you are a supermom. which i am not. we did, however, go to an indoor pool for about a half hour. it was fun until jools started to shiver. he has 0 percent body fat, so sooner or later, he freezes in the pool.

i would have to say that was pretty much today’s high point. carry on, people. nothing to see here today.

today's absurdity

Posted on November 11, 2006 by wrekehavoc

noticed in a bathroom today: a Glade Aromatherapy spray called sensual rose.

i don’t know about you, but when i am in a bathroom, and i see a spray, i am all about eliminating anything that might afflict my senses. period.

it's all about perspective

Posted on November 10, 2006 by wrekehavoc

today, i met a friend of my mother’s who grew up in germany during world war II. unfortunately, because of the sea of children present, i couldn’t ask her more about her life. but she told a story which i found fascinating.

she and her family had been living in their cellar for two weeks when germany surrendered to the allies. she must have been about 8 or 9 years old at the time. they hung a white sheet out so that the troops would know that they had surrendered. when she and her sibling came out of the house, they met american troops for the first time.

she watched these young men, who were chewing and chewing but never putting additional food in their mouths. she was completely puzzled; are they like cows, she wondered, chewing on cud? but no. she finally learned – they were chewing on bubble gum. she had never seen or heard of bubble gum before.

my mother chimed in at this point. “ah,” she said. “bubble gum was scarce then. i remember lining up the first day that they had bubble gum at the candy store near my home in brooklyn. i ran out of school and waited my entire lunch hour for a piece of bubble gum, so long that i missed my lunch at home and my mother, worried out of her mind, was about to call the police about me.”

she added, laughing, “so, the GIs had all the gum, huh ;-)”

living my child's life

Posted on November 9, 2006 by wrekehavoc

sometimes i wonder how involved i should be in my kids’ lives. my son is now reporting that no one wants to play with him. he chases friends at school; he hugs them. but apparently, this approach is not working for him. how do you get through to other three year old boys? i guess by just asking them to play with you and see how it goes. one child has challenges of his own and constantly tells my son he is “stupid.” these are the sorts of things that break your heart. while he is three, i continue to try to talk him through all of this. but how much does he understand? how much does he hurt? it’s all so hard to gauge.

phew

Posted on November 8, 2006 by wrekehavoc

long story short: i went for my repeat mammogram today. it was an ultrasound, requested by the original technician after i indicated i noticed some minor changes in my breast. (the changes were so minor that i didn’t even remember much about the conversation.) they didn’t see anything; all is well.

i did, however, give the doctor an earful about letting people know why they are called back and not leaving them in a swirl of suspense. if someone would have only told me why i was coming back, i would not have lost years of my life in worry. he was extremely apologetic and will talk to folks about this.

one less thing to worry about, in any case.

it's official. i'm a jewish mother.

Posted on November 7, 2006 by wrekehavoc

had my monthly platelet checkup today. i hit an awesome 212. i am also on a Z-pack, so i wonder whether my platelets go up because something is fighting off the yuck in my system so they don’t have to. conversely, i wonder whether they are so busy fighting the yuck themselves that perhaps they multiply the team to kick the yuck’s proverbial ass. i dunno. whatever it is, i’m glad it’s up.

in other news, there’s a person i know who has been locked out of his apartment by his roommate and cannot get to any of his personal belongings. we’re talking clothing, records, everything. the landlord doesn’t care; the police say talk to the landlord, and in short, he is fucked. i talked with him today, and he hasn’t eaten since a day or two ago. this is a good-hearted guy who is just having a daily nightmare. and the fact that he hasn’t eaten is making me crazy.

i’m going out and buying a Giant Food card for this guy. he has to eat.

regression analysis

Posted on November 6, 2006 by wrekehavoc

note: i just posted this question to my favorite forum, DC Urban Moms. i am so wildly desperate for answers that i’m posting the question in my blog, too. if anyone out there has any suggestions, please write to me and let me know. i’ll thank you, and my washing machine will thank you, too.

ok, that may have given a chuckle to the parents out there who slaved through quantitative techniques in grad school, but the sort of regression analysis i am talking about actually involves a little boy, a toilet, and some r e a l l y messy pants.

my three-year-old son was daytime trained this summer. there was much rejoicing. however, at the end of september, he changed from a daycare situation to a full-day montessori program at an elementary school, a program that requires kids to be potty-trained. they don’t nap, and they have a short lunchtime and short recess that mirrors the schedule of the bigger kids at school. in the past month, he has not only had pee accidents, but he has actually had poop accidents. did i mention they don’t like to change kids there, though they will occasionally… today, we’ve had two poop accidents, and i actually had to go to school to change him for the second time.

i’m not exactly the sharpest tack in the box these days, but i think my son is trying to tell me something.
i’m sure there are others who have been in a similar boat. i am trying to address the underlying question of whether this is just too much of a structured experience for him; but someone out there — please tell me how you got your child-formerly-known-as-a-potty-trained-champ out of regressive behavior? it seems to go beyond the usual potty training tricks – we’ve been through them all the first time, and they’re not working the second go-round.

another issue which makes me think i am becoming the worst mother in the whole world: i am beginning to get really, really irritated with these accidents. it was easier to be kind and understanding when he was learning to train. now, i *know* he is able to control his toileting, but he is choosing not to. it’s hard to smile and say “that’s ok!” to your child as you clean up their 4th/5th/lost count accident of the day when you know they known damn well how to go to the bathroom. but i’m the grownup, and he’s the kid, and i am trying to get over myself.

but it’s so hard.

the holidays are upon us

Posted on November 6, 2006 by wrekehavoc

in this house, we celebrate chanukah. and christmas (in a secular way.) and, in a stroke of brilliance that i refuse to take credit for, it’s also BC’s birthday.

we refer to december as the BIG BIRTHDAY BONANZA MONTH!

now, it’s hard enough as a parent to figure out a birthday present. but to have to figure out birthday presents, chanukah (one for each night, mind you) AND CHRISTMAS is a moment i dread each year. and of course, starting in october, grandparents and others start asking for hints. and i have very little clue. i place catalogs in front of my kids – etoys, land of nod, SHOOT, harry and david if it would only yield some answers.

but of course, both of my kids have shown how acquisitive they are. “i want this, and this, and this, and this, and this…” ad nauseum. i remember when i first became a mom how i wanted to raise people who cared about others and loved the earth and all those good, crunchy qualities i cherish. and they do, of course, possess many of those qualities. but they also want polly pockets, and race cars, and a baby doll high chair, and… well, you get the picture.

it makes me feel like i have somehow failed as a mom.

on the bright side, i guess i have ideas now for gifts. i’d better make room in my house for all the crap that will descend starting in early december.

******

of course, the only thing i want, no one can give me.