juliloquy

so you see what we're dealing with here

A multiple-choice quiz to give you a small glimpse of life with da Roo.

1. You ask her to go to her room to put on her pajamas. She returns ten minutes later wearing

    a. her pajamas

    b. nothing

    c. the same thing she was wearing previously, plus a birthday hat

    d. princess dress-up clothes

 

2. With whom do the "gooey pahnov goo" hawks roam?

    a. the littlest pets

    b. the watch-out plants

    c. Lovey, the swimming/flying dinosaur

    d. all of the above

 

3. Who/what is seven?

    a. her brother's age

    b. the name of one of her favorite songs

    c. the name of Lovey's pet cat

    d. all of the above

 

4. At school, she has shown true leadership by

    a. getting many of the other kids to "play bird" and "take dirt baths" during recess.

    b. mastering the art of dry transfer and rolling up and restoring the work rug.

    c. starting her own salon and giving actual haircuts to two classmates.

    d. reproducing aminal sounds.

 

5. Words we hope she never learns to pronounce correctly . . . at least for a few more years

    a. calapitter

    b. so'd (so that)

    c. burrtend

    d. all of the above

 

6. When at the kitchen table, Roo might

    a. use chopsticks to imitate a walrus, narwal, unicorn . . .

    b. make a diving board out of turkey bacon for the waffles to use to jump into their "muddle puddle" of syrup.

    c. be too busy talking/playing until an exasperated parent holds the piece of pizza directly in front of her face.

    d. all of the above

 

ANSWERS

1. c. . . . plus a birthday hat (although the others are likely as well)

2. b. the watch-out plants. I'm not exactly sure what these are, but according to da Roo, I don't want to know.

3. d. all of the above. Apparently, Seven [the cat] also has a younger sibling named Four.

4. a. . . . "take dirt baths" during recess. (sorry, classmates' parents!) You also get points for b—her rug-rolling skilz are top notch.

5. d. all of the above. We especially like "so'd" because she "caught" it from her brother, although he no longer says it.

6. d. all of the above. Her chopstick walrus is the absolute cutest.

 

my dinner with Shmooie

Several weeks ago, Shmooie surprised me by saying "sometime I'd like to go somewhere, just you and me. Maybe to grab a bite to eat or something." (He has already mastered the art of romantic-yet-casual date-asking! Ready for college!) We finally got around to our night out last week. When I asked him where he'd like to go, he said, "there's this store? Where you can get food and eat it there or take it home? I think we've only been there once, but there's one near Grandpop and Bubbe's house." I figured out what he was talking about -- a new-to-Frederick regional upscale grocery store. We went there right after school.

  be still my heart

We had a perfectly upper middle class suburban evening.

Guess whose box is whose?
(Hint: the only green thing Shmooie consumed was the "mint chip" milk.)

Shmoo discovered a kids' seating area within which the Disney channel was playing, so it was kind of like dinner theatre. I was glad I always pack something to do in my purse.

22 across: MINOT! I believe this is the first time I've ever seen my hometown as a crossword clue.

After we ate, Shmoo helped with the grocery shopping.

And learned how the sticker-printing scales work while getting some special treats.

 

HPR and Roo had their own fun time at home, baking a double batch of cookies and Roo getting a bath all by herself. So a nice time all around!

I have a draft post about Shmoo's 7th birthday, but in the likelihood that it will never get published, here is a photo of the first annual punkin' chunkin event that was part of the early November festivities.

girl at four

As you can tell, I am not doing the post-every-day-in-November thing this year. But I would like to put up a few posts this month, at least! So I will back up to the end of September to cover the birthday of da Roo.

She is now 4. Four! (Fore!)

She loves her teacher and classmates and "schoolwork." Here she is with her teacher, preparing to do her birthday "walk around the sun":

She has the drama of age 4 down, although she is an overall easygoing kid. Her favorite mode of play is imaginative, with stuffed animals. You hear a lot of high-pitched voices if you come to our house, is what I'm saying. She and Shmoo also hum like happy alpacas throughout the day. Books are ever-popular with her. She has a best friend outside of school, several school friends, and also adores our neighbor, Suzie, who is a first grader. And she has chosen a spouse: Shmoo's best friend's little brother, a kindergartner. (He feels the same way about Roo. They fed ice cream to each other at a party last summer.)

She is good at making silly faces. She is still quite the homebody, but will (and does) talk to anyone. We chuckled at her icebreaking tactics during our summer beach vacation: She had a rotation of about three opening lines (the favorite of which seemed to be "our last cat has run away, and she's never coming back).

Her favorite movie is Fantasia (although she's on a "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" kick). She likes house music. We split a bowl of phở for lunch almost every day (but don't imagine that means she is an adventurous eater). She is still a fashionista. Her favorite combo is shirt, skirt, and leggings.

When Roo was three, I joked about trying to surpress the urge to micromanage her strategy for the game, Memory. It's a different story these days. I pity her opponents.

She and I have always been close. In the past, she has been pretty lukewarm to HPR. This fall, however, the two of them have had lots of together time (without me, because my freelance work has required a lot of my attention the past few months), and that has really helped their relationship. It's so nice to see that blossoming. 

Put a post up on your dumb blog already

Heya. School has started! Shmoo began first grade on August 29th.

His best friend and one other student from last year's class are with him. I got a really cute picture of the three of them, but I don't want to post it w/o the other mom's permission. But here is when Shmoo and Alicia found each other on the first day.

 

Roo began preschool on August 31. She has Shmoo's teacher from last year (mixed-age 3s, 4s, and kindergarten). Whereas Shmoo still goes through 4-5 cycles of kiss/hug/"I love you"s, Roo heads into her classroom with nary a backward glance.

Also in the photo above is our new-to-us car, Steffi. This is what happened to poor Bucky the Saturn this past summer.

Bucky's the one in the front. The four of us were OK (as was the driver of the other car, except for a badly sprained ankle) and we kept a memento of Bucky (photo comes in landscape for some mysterious Typepad reason).

We did a lot of fun stuff over the summer. I'll leave with a cute kid photo from Shenandoah.

Just in time for my birthday.

Got this in a Money Mailer® yesterday. People, you have got to click to embiggen.

A coupon. From a cemetery Memorial Garden.

I just.

So, the coupons have no expiration date! (HPR: "Even though YOU do!")

I have no idea what a "Complimentary Emergency Space" is, but I can imagine - you're heading out the door to attend to your Cemetery Emergency. "Wait!" you think, "I forgot the coupon!"

If anything happens to me, you'll find the coupon on our bulletin board by the fridge. I prefer cremation.

reasoning skills, check

Today, 8:45 a.m.

Roo: May I please have a cupcake?

Me: Not until after lunch.

[pause]

Roo: May I please have lunch?

Goldilocks

I was looking through the library shelves lately, saw this, and had to check it out.

Ruth Sanderson, how did you channel my daughter's image? If Goldie's eyes were olive-green-brown rather than the blue you see here, she would be complete match of da Roo. The book is a cute retelling of the classic story, ending with [spoiler alert!] the three bears and Goldilocks making blueberry muffins together (after G remakes the beds and fixes Baby Bear's chair).

I see that I have also been remiss in parent-bragging. Shmoo's artwork was selected for display in a county-wide student art show at the Delaplaine Arts Education Center. He was one of 6 students chosen from his (K-8) school. Photos are on flickr here. Needless to say, we're very proud.

I'm on Team Hammurabi myself.

Roo's latest favorite video. She likes Gilgamesh best, the little weirdo.

 

Although "be my Trifon" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

HPR and I have decided that in lieu of Valentine's Day, we will celebrate St. Trifon Zarezan's Day (Bulgarian St. Trifon the Pruner.) On this day, Bulgarians begin to prune the vines for the coming year's grape harvest. Festivities also involve wine.

Shmoo had school, but the rest of us were off, so we headed to the only* local winery that was open during the day on Monday, Linganore Winecellars.

Back off, he's all mine.

They were featuring a wine tasting/chocolate pairing (or a complimentary wine tasting), so we split one chocolate sampler. We tasted at least 15 wines and bought a bottle of chardonnay and a bottle of raspberry wine. The takeaway: wine and chocolate are good together. Roo had fallen asleep in the car on the way there, so she was a unimpressed, until the nice wine maven gave her some Hershey's kisses.

The great thing about observing this holiday is its simplicity. Buy a bottle of wine and enjoy it. Or get out and do some yardwork. (HPR has also tapped our red maple.) Nazdrave!

*I think Frederick Cellars was open, too, but we have been there once before and we wanted to visit a winery with actual grape fields.

work-life balance (mostly) obtained!

We have some new routines in 2011. Roo-tines. I have been able to pick up some regular freelance work (yay!), so we have arranged for Roo to go to a nearby daycare three mornings a week. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday HPR drops her off at 8 and I pick her up at noon. The daycare center relies on video a little more than we'd like (during transition times: drop-off, pickup, and between lunch and naptime), but the teachers are great and it's nice for Roo to get some social interaction with her peers.

As it turns out, I don't get much more that 3 hours of work in on each of those days, because I drop off Shmoo at Kindergarten between 8:45 and 9. But the divide/conquer kid dropoffs make for much less stressful mornings for me.

The other new thing in our schedule is an intro to dance class for Roo. They run for 45 minutes on Wednesday afternoons. The setup is genius: The kids go into the studio with the instructors and the parents can view the session on a monitor in the lobby. (No chance for kiddos to cling to their parents in lieu of participating.) Roo loves class. She imitates the teacher with flamboyant and dramatic flourishes. It's hilariously cute. I also love how the hand-me-down leotard she wears (thanks, cousins!) really emphasizes her 3-year-old belly.

HPR's days off during the winter have been Sunday-Monday. It's so nice to be able to have at least one family day per week.

I'm enjoying using the parts of my brain and skills that I worked for so many years to hone. I have had to be a bit creative when the time I've carved out from my schedule doesn't suffice to complete my work, but so far (adding some evening hours and relying on HPR to do solo care at times) it has evened out pretty well.

Win!