My daughter goes to preschool through the park district.  Her class meets twice a week from 9:15-11:45 a.m.  There is another preschool program (for slightly older kids) that meets from nine to noon.  These programs run all school year, on the same days.  Easy to predict, right?

The park district also runs programs for Seniors during the day.  Not a problem.

Except today they scheduled the Seniors New Years Party (don’t even get me started on that silliness) to begin at noon.  It’s a free party.  Hooray!  So, over 250 seniors signed up.  They all drive themselves.  The party is scheduled to start at noon, so they all arrive early to get signed in.  Early as in they start arriving at 11 am and fill the entire parking lot, park illegally, fills all the side streets, etc.

Oh, and many of them (not all, but enough that my toddler and I almost got hit walking into the building) drive like IDIOTS!

I had to park 3 blocks away, in January in Chicago, to pick up my daughter from school.

The preschool director was so concerned about the safety of kids today, that she decided to shorten the preschool day and have the parents pick the kids up 15 minutes early.  But the only notice of this was a sign on the classroom door this morning.

Would it be too much to ask that they schedule the adult party to start AFTER preschool lets out?  It takes time to bundle these little kids up and get them out the door, buckled into the cars, and go.  They could have arranged for the Seniors party to start at 1. Which would have given a nice buffer.  But no.

Instead, it is scheduled to start at noon, which gives the 2 year old classroom 15 minutes to get out the door and parking lot before the party officially starts, and the 3-4 year olds no time at all.

Not that it mattered anyway because everyone arrived early for the party and was milling around in all of the hallways leaving no space to actually put the kids coats on, or look at their artwork that they made today, or any of the usual “pick up routine”.

Give me a break!  A little prior planning isn’t too much to ask for!

I can’t wait to talk to the scheduling person for the park district tomorrow.  She is of course busy today with the party.

Grrrr.

Self Rescuing Princess

Happy Birthday to my little girl.  I can’t believe that you only came into our world 3 years ago, and at the same time, I can’t believe you are 3 already.  You were such a teeny tiny thing.  You fit in your Uncle Nate’s hand when you were born.  Now, you are a big girl.

You are sitting next to me resting your head on my arm, which makes it hard to type I must admit, wearing a birthday crown and Mardi Gras bead necklace.

We just finished frosting your birthday cake, and you were so helpful.  Shaking the sprinkles was your second favorite part.  You preferred licking the frosting off your fingers, the spatula, the plate, and out of the container.

You are smart as a whip, and so helpful it sometimes hurts.  You are my miracle and my wonder, forever and always.

I love you.

Miriam's birthday cake

Happy birthday big girl!

Kids helping daddy with his work

Woke up feeling much better this morning.  If I were to ignore the marching band and cannons in my head, and the sniffles, I could even go so far as to say I feel good.  I decided that with this new found “well” feeling, and energy, I’d do something nice for my family.  I pulled out two heavy frying pans, and set to work making French Toast from the leftover Challah, and cooking up some turkey bacon.  We’d use cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving on the french toast, and have a really good, hearty breakfast before we planned our day.

So, there I am in my sushi pajamas cooking away, in a good mood.  My little helper, the dude, pulled a chair over to the counter and climbed up.  He loves to watch me cook, and be helpful.  He’s very good at handing mommy a spoon, or throwing away a paper towel.  I don’t know that I could cook without his help any more.

Well, today his chair was a wee bit off from where he normally puts it.  So, I’m cooking, and everything is fine.  Then he decided to reach out and touch the pan.  Yeah.

He grabbed the edge of the non-stick pan that the french toast was frying in.  Luckily, there was no oil or anything where he grabbed, and it wasn’t the cast-iron pan.  He yelped and pulled his hand away quickly.  I managed to catch the pan by the handle, steady it, and at the same time catch the dude as he fell off his chair.  I ran him to Jason, who was already in the bathroom helping our princess, and he ran A’s hand under cold water while I turned everything off in the kitchen and fetched the first aid kit.

It turns out the dude’s hand is okay.  He has a very minor burn along his index finger and thumb.  No blister or anything.  Within 10 minutes he was back playing and using his hand as if nothing was wrong with it.

I’m not sure I’m going to recover though.

Oh, breakfast turned out to be wonderful by the way.  Just slightly delayed and tasting of fear.

I’m sick, I’ve been battling a cold for several days and now the cold meds seem to have declared war on my digestive system.  My body is not a fun place to be right now.

Little man also seems under the weather.  He was running a fever of 101.0 last night, but woke up fever free.  He’s been throwing up occasionally, but then playing and being active.

Given all of this though, I’ve decided to back off on his potty training for now.  We had a couple of days where it looked really good, but since Thanksgiving, it’s just been an exercise in frustration and tears for both boy and mommy.  Daddy was working hard with him still, but having no success.

So, we put the little man back in a diaper and everything seemed good.

Then I walked by the bathroom after grabbing a fresh box of tissues from the garage, and there was little man with his pants off, and the toilet lid up, trying to take off his diaper and climb up onto the potty at the same time.

If I weren’t so dizzy I would have helped him.  As it was, I hollered for the Daddy person, who came and helped the dude get up there, sit for a minute or so, and earn his M&M.

We’ll try again once the momma is feeling better.

We had the most wonderful Thanksgiving.  Everything was amazing.  People got along.  We discussed a lot of Charlie Sheen.  Oh, and we drank an amazing amount of eggnog.  We survived (with my cold, my survival was in question there for a bit), and wonder of wonders, as of 9:20 Friday morning, all of the dishes are done!  I even have turkey stock cooling already.

So, a rundown.

Soup we had a soup course for the first time this year, mom made a delicious lobster bisque.  I like this tradition!

Turkey I brined the bird overnight, stuffed a compound butter under the skin all over, and shoved an onion and an apple up the birds tush.  Then I baked it at 350F for 3.5 hours.  It was perfect.  Moist, flavorful, delicious.  I was wishing I made a bigger bird it was so good!

Mashed Potatoes Mom found a recipe for make ahead mashed potatoes, and I have to admit I was a bit wary, but they were delicious!  Creamy, soft, not heavy at all.  Very impressive.

Stuffing We had two stuffings, both made by my mom (is she amazing or what?)  Oyster stuffing, with the words biggest oysters ever yum! I didn’t get a chance to try the cornbread stuffing, but it looked and smelled delicious.

Sweet Potatoes Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes, inspired by The Pioneer Woman.  They weren’t pretty, but were mighty tasty.  Those leftovers will be served as tonight’s side dish.

Ratatouille My sister was in charge of veggies this year, and her ratatouille was delicious.  It was also beautiful until I scooped it out of the carefully layered pyrex pan to put it into a serving bowl.  My bad.  Ratatouille may be the perfect thanksgiving veggie.  It’s colorful, satisfying, and way lighter than a casserole.

Carrots Just to add some variety (and even more color to our rainbow table), my brother in law made creamy carrots from the Julie Child school of thought.  I know it’s hard to improve on simple carrots, but the addition of a ton of butter and heavy cream took these carrots from pedestrian to out of this world amazing.  Those left overs are all mine.  I packaged them up first and hid them in the back of my fridge.  My lunch today is just going to be creamy carrots.

Cranberry Sauce I kept it simple and just followed the recipe on the bag, adding a bit of orange juice, a cinnamon stick, and a pinch of aleppo pepper.  So good.  I wish I had some of the rolls left over to spread this on for breakfast!

Rolls Oh, cannot forget these!  My sister made crescent rolls, from scratch.  Sure beats the hell out of anything from Pillsbury!

I feel like I’m missing something from my rundown, because my table was groaning under the weight of all the food.  It was all so good.

Wish you were here!

Well, I’m off to start tonight’s pot roast and get my Challah going.  Shabbat waits for no-one this time of year!

I have so much to be thankful for this year.  I have my amazing husband.  He works so hard to provide for us and take care of us, and yet he’s a child at heart, always ready to play, laugh, and be silly.  He makes me laugh more than I thought anyone ever could.

Of course, my children.  Even when the try my patience, the inspire awe.  The learn and grow and change so much every day.  It’s all I can do to keep up.

My mother.  She’s amazing.  She’s had a nearly impossible year, and yet she still pushes on and through.  She’s my rock these days.  Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed, or I need a shoulder to cry on, or a hand to hold, or even an ear for a funny story, she’s here.  I’m so grateful that I get to see her almost every day.  And for my children getting to grow up with her being such a strong part of their lives.

My father.  His year has been just as bad, but he doesn’t let it show.  Even in the hospital, he made sure he was keeping us all up to date and informed about everything.  I never have to worry about not knowing what is going on, because my dad, he knows!  And even when I disagree with him, he’s usually right.  Just don’t tell him I said that!

My in-laws.  They are great people.  I didn’t really grow up with the best model of “in-law behavior”.  I think I thought constant cold-war status was the norm.  Well, I was wrong.  My husband’s family took me in straight away and have always made me feel welcome.  For this, I am truly thankful.

My sister.  We fight.  We argue.  We don’t wrestle so much any more (sorry guys).  But, we are still each other’s biggest supporters and friends.  At least when we remember that we really do like each other. 

We have a roof over our heads, food in the fridge, and our bank account is in the black.

I have much to be thankful for.  Thank you!

I promise, the potty training updates will end soon.  I just had to share this observation about the difference between boys and girls.

When you potty train a girl and she “gets it”, the puddles are pretty much over.  When you potty train a boy, and he “gets it”, now instead of having to wash a diaper, you have to wash the floor, the wall, the sink, the book you were reading to him, and shower and change your clothes.  Girls aim down.  Boys aim everywhere.

Yeah, you read that right.  Want to go back and read the headline again?  Okay.  Now that we’re all together, have I got a topic for today!

Potty training is going well.  After no success yesterday, this morning the dude woke up dry, and went in the potty several times today.  I think we are over the worst of it.  We also (thanks Mom!) managed to procure some boy undies for the dude, so he isn’t running around in his sister’s panties.  I just wanted undies for him that looked like what he’ll be wearing once he starts going standing up, if you know what I mean.  I didn’t expect there to be so much difference though.  Hang on, you’ll see what I mean.

Here we have a pair of boy undies, and a pair of girl undies.  Both made by the same manufacturer, both sold in the same 7-pack for the same price, both the same size.  I even chose the same color family, so as not to prejudice the comparison.

Now, setting aside the characters and implications (fairy princess vs. aquaman, although I’m really not sure which one would win in a fight), let’s just look at the actual garment.

You can’t tell from the picture except for how the fabric lays, but the boys undies are easily twice as thick as the girls.  The fabric is better quality, and more durable.  The stitching is tighter, and reinforced.  Now, look at the leg holes and waist band.  Do you see the width of those bands on the boys?  Nice, heavy fabric covering strong elastic.  The girls panties on the other hand have a tiny sprinkling of itchy lace surrounding the weak, flimsy, narrow elastic.

Now, the thing to really keep in mind here is that both of these undies are size 2T/3T, meaning they are for toddlers who are basically just beginning potty training.  These are preschoolers folks!  Why are the girls undies flimsy filmy things while the boys are durable and rugged?

This bothers me more than I can say.  My daughter is just as likely to be running, tumbling, and doing active things as my son.  Why isn’t her underwear designed to stand up to the same kind of wear?

Anyone?