A Happy Medium?

I've decided to forgo the Mandarin lessons and try to capture Bamboo in QTs more natural state. However, I have decided everything looks a little nicer with a filter so Bamboo's adventures will be at the very least, Instagrammed. 

Second Grade Fashonista

The Lady is 7 now.

I can't believe it.

And all of a sudden she is a big girl and second grade seems very mature to me.

I am pretty sure I was rocking sweatpants in the second grade.

Me--circa second grade

 The Lady wants only to shop at Justice.


If you aren't familiar with the store Justice, just head to your local mall and find the store with the most embellished, sequined, bedazzled clothes that you can find and walk right in. That is Justice.

The thing is that I don't necessarily have a problem with some of their clothes, it is just that I feel like some of these stores are trying to sell a very adult fashion sense to a very non-adult crowd. Also, they like to make you think that you are getting a bargain by marking everything down by 40% every single time you walk in the store, but really at the end of the day you are still walking out of there with a $20 sequined t-shirt that will probably start disintegrating in the wash.

What I also find super annoying is that in addition to selling clothes and some accessories, bags, shoes, hair stuff, they also sell a ton of useless items that are very, very, appealing to the second grade crowd. There are blinged out diaries, candy, stuffed animals, and my personal favorite--the modern day version of Teen Beat magazines that have up to 12 posters of One Direction, R5, 5SOS that the Lady wants to hang on her wall.

Don't know who those bands are? Don't worry, I am pretty sure the Lady couldn't pick out one of their songs either, although Ross from R5 is on the Disney Channel show Austin and Ally and was in Teen Beach Movie, a soundtrack we know all too well at our house.

The Lady. Granted none of these clothes are from Justice, but still, I think you see what I am saying here. Also, please ignore those fuzzy socks on the floor and the sparkly Hello Kitty high-tops the Little Lady is wearing.

It is amazing to see how much the Lady has grown up in the last year, but I am still wanting to pick her clothes out from Baby Gap and the more basic the better. I have to learn to let go a little, without letting her grow up too quickly. A very precarious position nowadays.

Oh, and I just got an email from the store "Brothers" the companion store to Justice geared towards boys. I can guarantee you QT will never be shopping there. However, everything is 50% off!

Bamboozled

So QT came home with the class mascot today. And while I am super excited that it isn't an actual alive pet, we do have to hang out with this little panda all weekend, photograph him doing things alongside us and then print said photographs and write about his panda adventures.

Did I mention we are the first ones to host him? That means I am looking at a blank binder filled with empty pages and left with a choice: do I take a few photos of Bamboo at the park and playing with trucks, a shot of him eating some carrots and call it a day? Or do I go all Pinterest-mom on this project and really set a high standard? 

Since I have nothing to go on, do I burden my fellow moms with an unreasonable amount of adventure? 

There's Bamboo in a paper mâché hot air balloon, there he is at the Chinese-American cultural center learning Mandarin, Ni hao Bamboo! There he is yachting on the Sound. 

Suddenly our low-key weekend doesn't seem so great. At least last weekend we went apple picking, Maybe I can photoshop him in a pic or two. I mean in all honesty, I am not sure Bamboo wants to be photographed with a near nude QT as he plays, pants less with his trucks. Pretty sure he doesn't want to show up in the photo where I am dragging the Lady to religion on Sunday, and am damn sure Bamboo wants no photographic proof of his involvement in any of the Little Lady's adventures, including, but not limited to, her hiding in her closet eating Smarties and applying lipstick. 

We will see what the weekend brings for us and for Bamboo. But let me tell you, I am feeling like making some paper mâché. 

This Stinks

Minnie-Ru smells like poo. That or something is decomposing in the way back.

A leaky cooler is the real culprit but I can't believe spilled water could smell so bad. I was half expecting to find a full glass of curdled milk beneath the seat.

We have been driving around in rainy weather with the windows down. I have been sticking my head out like some sort of dog. The Little Lady held her nose the entire ride to school on Monday. My husband told me he threw up a little bit in his mouth after getting into her on Tuesday after she sat and baked in the sun.

Would a wet vac work? We tried Fabreeze. I had visions of me blindfolding my husband and leading him unsuspectingly into a fresh smelling trunk (stay with me here, this isn't some 50 Shades fan fiction or Criminal Minds episode) where he would think he was in some meadow of windflowers before removing the blindfold and throwing his head back in disbelief while we both laughed and inhaled deeply that sweet, sweet air.  You know what I say to that? Fabreeze you are full of lies!

It didn't work. Our neighbor knocked on our door yesterday to tell us that the back of the van was open, we had to nod and smile, thank him for the concern, all the while hoping, praying that leaving it open for a couple of hours would actually do some good. 

I'd like to think that after four days the smell has dissipated or maybe I am just getting used to it, or maybe my nasal cavity has been so badly damaged by the smell that I am considering hanging a pair of smelly jellies from the rear view mirror just to brighten it up a bit. 

Any which way, we are still violated daily by that rank odor. Any suggestions to save us from the stank?

When September Ends

Did everyone make it?

Did you make it through September? The new schedules, the new shoes, the new ways your children have found to prolong getting out of bed, complain about going to school and cause you unwavering anxiety in only the first month of school after a summer of sleeping in and doing pretty much whatever they wanted in the morning?

Did you send them off for the first time? For the third? To a new school? To one you love?

I did.

We are finally getting into some sort of groove at our house. We have double the homework at our house, although the Little Lady's is still pretty much coloring at this point. It has made the evenings go by much quicker. I will admit to nights of wishing my children to bed and clock watching starting at 5:45 when I walk in the door from work, but now, I find myself realizing that after dinner, homework and the occasional bath that it is 7:30 before we have a minute to breathe.Then we have to do reading log.

Oh Rainbow Fairy's how I have missed you and your trite, plot-less adventures.

QT is enjoying school. Did you all see his cute face on the first day? Oh you did? Here is another pic just because. . .

The other night, he crawled into my bed after his sisters were asleep and I was half asleep, put his hands on my face, turned it towards him and said "Let's talk about school, I love the snacks." I love snacks too, QT but it is 9:45 and momma's tired. (I do realize that 9:45 might not seem that late, but I had been a dirty stay out Saturday night and really needed to catch up on some sleep!)

I hope you all are getting through the endless piles of handouts that come home each night, have written your checks for school photos, the $10 wrapping paper for the fundraiser, and the book fair. I hope your kids are liking, loving, managing with all the new that was thrown at them this September and I hope that you, like me, are making the adjustments necessary to send them off every morning ready to start their day. 

First Day of School

I think this says it all.

On Orientation

Today was kindergarten orientation for the Little Lady.

And all of a sudden I have two kids in elementary school.

I think it is safe to say that I operate on a daily basis with a fair share of anxiety. I think it is also fair to say that all the unlike two years ago when I took the same bus route to the same school with the Lady, that some of the anxiety was lessened today.

Yes, the Little Lady is my second, is a different personality than her big sister, and this isn't her first time in "school" or away from home. She started in a 2s program, made her way through pre-school, summer camp, drop off playdates and parties. She warms up a bit sooner to new experiences and people, but she has also been exposed to more situations than her sister ever was at her age.

I know that the amount of concern/anxiety/typical mom craziness I feel about sending my kids out the door is the same as it was for her sister. I am still anxious for her, for those mornings on the bus trying to find a seat, for a classroom full of faces and names she doesn't yet know, for all those hours where she will be part of something much bigger than she ever has. Will they know that even though she is quick to anger that it is fleeting? Will they know that behind a sometimes stubborn stance is a very sweet, incredibly funny, little girl who brings me such joy?

Her teacher seems super nice. She is experienced, she has a guitar, there are yoga poses hanging on a poster on the wall, she screams kindergarten, but will she cherish my little girl? I still have all those questions and we will see how this year plays out, but the thing that is different this time around is me.

I am no longer new mom. I am seasoned mom. I am (dare I say it?) confident mom. When the Lady started school, it was like I started too, I had to find some mom friends, I had to figure out how the school and the bus and the schedules worked. I fretted over packing the right snacks and how many things I should volunteer for. I wanted to do everything I could to make her transition smoother, but at the same time I was having a hard time orienting myself.

It was all so unknown.

And now its not. And that makes a huge difference.

Today, I gave a mom sitting next to me my phone number when she asked if she could call me with any questions. I have no idea what her name is, but her daughter sits at the Little Lady's table. Will she call? Probably not, but I am sure it makes her feel better knowing that there is someone she can if she needs too. I am happy to make things easier, to ease another mom's anxiety, to describe what my experience has been so that they don't have to start off feeling so untethered.

"It is hard giving up your children," the Little Lady's teacher said this morning. Indeed it is.

I will still cry in the car as I follow the bus to school on the first day because it is a new beginning and my babies! My babies! But I know I can handle it. I know they are in an environment where they can thrive, and I know that I have given them what they need in order to do so.

I like being this kind of mom.