Six Things for a Sunday

1. I took the girls to see Max and Ruby Nutcracker today, which was a Christmas gift from my mom, and it was really great, especially for Maria and Veronica and really, mostly, for Maria.  She is almost six years old and it gets better for us every single day, which proves my point that babies are  TERRIBLE and children are GREAT.  
2. She was on pink every day last week at school.  Pink is the best color on the behavior chart and on Monday she asked to get a treat after school and I said we could get one, but we are only getting one this week so if it's today there are no more treats all week.  She said fine and then on Thursday, when she had been on pink for four days in a row, she wangled another treat out of me on Friday, as long as she made day five and she did.  But five days!  That's pretty good, right?  We have had our rough moments this week and I told her, she has to try to be as good at home as she is at school.  I said Mike and I love her and she treats us terribly and is always good and perfect at school, what gives, I asked her.  She said she doesn't know.  I want her to be good at school but I also want her to be good here.  That might be too much to ask, though.  
3. We were on our way to a cookie decorating party this Saturday and we got rear ended.  We were in a rental because I JUST got rear ended last Tuesday, and there didn't seem to be any damage, but where the accident happened was a busy street, so I had to pull over on a side street to exchange information with him.  Maria popped out of her car seat and inspected the car like Officer Beck or something, she is so funny.  When we got back in the car, she said "this car is pretty tough, I didn't feel anything!".  
4. She wants a Furby for Christmas, ugh.  I still don't think she is old enough so she is not getting one.  She is getting a booster seat for her birthday, we decided.  Don't tell her that's not really a birthday gift, we have to get her a car seat anyway, ha!
5. She gets a good report every single week from school.  Today at church, the principal came over to talk to us and I thought she'd die of the thrill.  
6. She still gets so mad, so fast, and it's frustrating.  Saturday she was lying on the floor when I left for work, crying and yelling that the only time she had fun all day was when she was at her friend Violet's house.  I had painted their nails in the morning, taken her to that party, gotten her in an exciting but not hurtful car accident, so much excitement and she has no appreciation for it so I was mad.  I was super mad when I left for work and later I called her to say that I was sorry I was grumpy before I left for work and she said "yes, why WERE you so grumpy, Mommy?".  Ugh she has no idea.  Tonight when I was at work Mike called me and I was scared because he never calls me at work, but of course it was Maria.  "I figured out how to call you MYSELF!", she said.  She is a hoot.  

Fall Break

Maria had half-days on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and now she's off on Thursday, Friday and Monday for Fall Break, so we went on a little getaway.  Wednesday afternoon, I took Veronica and Maria to beautiful Ft. Wayne, Indiana, so we could see the sights there.  We stayed at a Hampton Inn, and the girls were thrilled because we stayed in a suite and I was thrilled because even a nice suite in Ft. Wayne is pretty inexpensive!  We went to Applebee's for dinner, then to the mall to do a little shopping, then to Culvers for Ice Cream and then back to the hotel for bath and bedtime.

HOWEVER.  Those girls would NOT go to sleep.  Veronica was running around the room like she was high on cocaine or something, saying, MAMA THIS HOTEL IS AMAZING!  AMAZING!  and Maria just ... she did not intend to go to sleep.  I am sick with a cold which is probably bronchitis, or pneumonia or something and I finally just fell into bed and turned off the lights and tv and they went to sleep after a while, past 10:15, which is just insane.  Then they were up about every hour on the hour, coughing, drinking water, asking is it morning, ugh, just ... up, I felt like I didn't sleep at all.

Of COURSE, they were up at 7:00.  They were pounding away at me, they wanted to go to Cracker Barrel.  I told them that since *I* hadn't slept all night, I was going to sleep until 8:00 and then we'd get ready so they kind of left me alone, even though Maria kept opening the door to the hallway, ay yi yi.  We had a nice breakfast at the Cracker Barrel and I bought them a little trinket in that store that they love so well.  Veronica had a giant fit because I wouldn't buy her - I can't even remember, something, so I just left.  That happens a lot anymore, I guess if they want to have a fit they can, but I am not sticking around to see it.  I do it a lot leaving the schoolyard.  I tell Maria we have to go and she drops to the ground and then I just leave and she (so far) always catches up.

We went back to the hotel to check out, then to the Science Center in Ft. Wayne, which was fun, I think they had a good time.  We went to Starbucks to have a coffee (me) and a treat (them) and we waited for the Children's Zoo to open.  It's really closed for the season, but they have a special Halloween trick or treat thing, and we went to that.  It was fun.  It's a teeny zoo, compared to ours in town but it was nice and they got some more candy (which we do not need) and then they were ready to go - it was cold and right when we got in the car it started raining in earnest, so we were glad to get out of there.

We were gone about 24 hours and I wish some things were different.  I wish I weren't sick, that made it difficult.  I wish they would possess the ability to go to bed at a decent hour even if they are not in their room.  I wish they didn't get so mad when their every wish wasn't granted, BUT, there were times when they were really good.  They didn't get so mad that I wouldn't buy them a $20 snake at the zoo today, which I am taking as progress.

Lord, this one sad thing happened.  One of the things at the zoo was you could make a Halloween bracelet for $3, it was basically a piece of black string and you could string 8 beads on it.  EIGHT BEADS!  For $3!  Whatever, we did it, they each made one and I gave the dingbat a $10 bill and she held onto it forever.  She said, after we were finished, waving the $10 bill at me, did you give me this?  I said yes, I did and she said okay.  Then she stared at me and then I realized that she didn't know how much change to give me, so I said well, if it was $3 each, then I got two and that's $6, right?  She said right and ... So I said, that'll be $4 back.  She said do you ever have one of those days? and I said sure but let me tell you something, Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo Carny, I NEVER have a day where I can't figure out that $4 is the change for a $6 charge if someone gives you a $10 bill.  SHEESH.

Here's some pictures of our trip:

Street Angel

When Maria was a baby, she was so grumpy and mean at home but she was really wonderful at the store, or out anywhere.  I used to really like to take her to church, even.  My sister was telling my old friend David when he asked how we were doing that Maria was only good out in public and he said she was a Street Angel and it's true!

Now I feel like she is being a School Angel, and Everywhere Else Angel and she is being kind of rough here at home.  Tonight she was at our neighbor's house and I went to go get her for dinner and my LORD, she was freaking out.  FUH-reaking OUT, crying and crying, it's so embarrassing, she is walking down the road just yelling and crying!  It's awful.  Then tonight, she was whining because - I don't even remember why, but - oh I remember why.  She brought five pieces of paper upstairs to her room and I guess she was planning on coloring every single piece of paper and not only that, but every single piece of paper had to be treated like it was a MASTERPIECE or something, because when poor Felicity wanted to color one of them, she acted like the person who discovered that lady in Spain that messed up the Christ picture or something, sheesh.  So I said okay let's just read our book and forget it, I am reading a Junie B. Jones book to her, and she would NOT stop whining over me reading.  I warned her I wasn't going to read anymore if she kept whining and then she did and then I warned her again and then she whined again and then I jumped up and said GOOD NIGHT NURSE and then she really went nuts, crying and crying.

Look, I said, you can't be so good at school that you get to PINK every day, that your behavior is FABULOUS every day, and then come home and shit all over us!  We are the ones who love you and take care of you!  Okay!, she said!  OKAY!

So we'll see how that all works out.

Here's a cute picture of her at the pumpkin patch where we went last week.  She was well behaved on the trip and it was fun to see her with her friends.  I am very proud of all the work she does in school, writing, and spelling, and reading, she's doing great.  I just wish we could get a handle on this behavior thing, jeez it makes it so unpleasant at such unfortunate times of the day - picking her up from school, bed time, etc.

Three for Thursday

It is extremely challenging for me to keep up with these blogs!  Poor me!  Ha, I am going to try to aim low with just three things about Maria, today.  

• We had a playdate with a new friend of hers this week.  Her name is Violet and she is very nice and thankfully, the mom seems very nice too.  It goes down like this - Maria comes running out of school last week, and yells at me, VIOLET AND ME WANT TO HAVE A PLAYDATE!  CAN WE HAVE A PLAYDATE?  WE WANT TO HAVE A PLAYDATE!  I say, well, I will talk to Violet's mom.  I have no idea who Violet's mom is, but what I am hoping is that she is NOT one of the Mean Moms.  Chances are she could have been, there are a lot of Mean Moms at pickup.  I have been lucky because Maria likes this boy named Leo and his mom is very nice and now Violet is a friend and I like her mom, too.  Anyway, Maria screamed and yelled and had to be removed from the schoolyard on Friday because she wanted to have the playdate IMMEDIATELY, she was completely uninterested in future plans.  She has been having a lot of these breakdowns, always at around 3:30, even on the weekends.  I'm sure she's tired and she spends all day being good and fighting her natural inclination to talk and misbehave, and I understand that she feels safe with me and that's why she can misbehave with me, but LORD.  LORD.  It is getting downright embarrassing, the yelling and screaming every day.  Anyway, I emailed the mom and we went to a park near school this week on Tuesday, it was fun.  Mike is on Furlough (ugh) so he stayed home with Felicity and I just took Maria and Veronica.  
• Maria told Mike last week that she was going to call 911 on him.  Thank God she didn't, she just threatened him.  I asked her why she did it and she said he was making her really mad!  Can you imagine?
• Felicity has been sleeping in her room and even though it's a pain because Felicity wakes up a lot earlier than she used to, I think Maria likes being in charge of two minions instead of just one.  This morning she and Veronica came in my room where I was sleeping and said "I have a crying baby for you, Mommy!  It's Felicity!".  I always think, reporting live from the end of the bed, Maria Beck.  
• Things she has really improved, in just a few weeks of school include writing, reading, being quiet when she is supposed to, being good in church, and climbing the HELL out of those monkey bars.  

Heartbreaker

Oh, Maria.  She broke my heart today.  We went to the zoo and she got her face painted - of course she got a VERY complicated face painting, it was called Butterfly Swirl and it was her whole damned face. She lay there, very still with her head back, while the girl did her painting and then she said to me, 'do you want glitter for a dollar?' and Maria opened her eyes and cut them at me and nodded.  Ha, so I said sure.  It was like FIFTEEN dollars but I swear, it made her so happy and it should last for six months, ha!  It was a LOT of makeup.  Anyway, she said she wanted to not take a bath tonight so the makeup would stay for the party she's going to tomorrow and we said okay.  But this afternoon, she was playing at a friend's house and she came TEARING into the house, crying and crying.  I said what is WRONG? and she said LOOK WHAT I DONE!  LOOOOOK WHHAAAAAT I DOOOOONE!, she showed me her black hands and it was then I realized that she must have forgotten she had that whole face painted and just rubbed the heck out of her face.  I felt so bad, she was really upset.  So I said, don't worry!  Come here and let me clean your hands and then we'll look in the mirror, it's fine.  I think she saw all that black makeup on her face and thought it was all ruined.  But we cleaned her up and I blew her tears away (jeez, the things I do!) and we looked in the mirror and she took a deep breath and she said "okay, Mommy, I think it's okay.  Thanks".  And she ran back out the door.  She is a crazy thing but I love her so much, she breaks my heart at the same time that it is swelling with pride.

Milestone

So Maria has started Kindergarten.  She hasn't just done well, she's done incredibly well so far, and maybe I am naive, but I feel like that's half the battle, just getting her there, her liking it and wanting to go.  I have many friends on Facebook whose kids are not having as easy a time as Maria, they don't want to go, they cry every day, etc.  That would be really hard and I feel for them.  But for the first time in my life, I feel like I may be having an easier go of it and for that I am grateful.

She loves her teacher, she is very excited that there is a behavior chart and it has colors and she is DYING to get to the top of it every week.  She told me that there are things you can do to be good and she is going to do them! I asked her what kind of things and she said, you know, like being quiet when the teacher talks, and pushing the chairs in.  I saw her teacher last week on the playground, after school, and she said it seems like Maria was made for kindergarten, she loves it.  She said someone lost their lunchbox that day and Maria was all, "I CAN FIND IT!  I WILL FIND IT!"  Ha!

We see her classmates in church, and last week we went to Target one day after school.  We saw Maria's friend Gracie and although she seemed shy about it, she went over and said hi and the girls had a little hug right there by the carts.  Stuff like that makes me a little weepy thinking about it, not that mah babee is growing up but that she is going to meet so many people in her life!  And she is the kind of girl, so far, who wants to hug her friends and say hi at Target!  It's exciting.  Mostly it is all very exciting, with old Maria.  And LOUD.  Exciting and Loud.

The Final Countdown

Seriously, I do not think I'm going to make it until this child starts kindergarten.  I suppose I have created this monster, but I don't know how.  This morning, I was sleeping when Maria came in at 7:04.  She was yapping away, "It's 7:00!  I know it's after 7:00, but it's so dark, isn't it so dark?  It's so dark but it's after 7:00.  It's after 7:00, I know, but it seems dark".  I lifted my head, just barely, to check my phone and it was 7:04.  I guess it's a little overcast but whatever, it's not like it was really dark.  I was just mad because I thought and hoped she was wrong and it was 5:00 and I could make her go back to bed.  I was up late because we had dinner late and then Anthony was up until 1:00, banging away in his room so anyway, I was tired and grumpy and I am SICK of Maria getting up so early.  She gets up so early and has for so long that I feel like I should be GRATEFUL that she sleeps until 7:04!  What the hell kind of world is this?

Then she started talking to Mike.  Can anyone guess what she wanted to talk about?  Anyone?  I bet you can guess.  She wanted to know where she was going today.  It would be funny if...well it would be funny NEVER or maybe if it were happening to someone else.  But it's not happening to someone else, it's happening to me.  Every day of my stupid life, some jerk store crawls up my ass and starts honking away about what she is doing today, ORDERING me around and I can't take it.  Mike took her downstairs, he knows I am dangerously close to losing my mind and I don't know what kind of help I could be from the loony bin.  So he took her downstairs and she stayed down there for about 40 minutes and then she came up and started up again, where is she going, can she go to Target, where will she be going later, why can't she go to Target, she wants to go somewhere, can she go?  Where?

Yesterday after swimming, we went to play in the play area at the Y.  I didn't break the normal POUNDS of food that I bring for after swimming because we were heading home right after, but that didn't stop them from bugging me for food.  We're HUNGRY!, Maria yelled at me, in front of everyone.  I'm hungry!  What do you have for me?  I said let's go home and we can eat every single thing in the house, the pantry, the cabinets and food drawer, let's do it!  Nooooo!, she yells back!  I WANT SOMETHING FROM THE BENDING MACHINE!  We started to walk out and this woman in front of me held the door, she said what everyone always says to me, some variant of 'you look like you could use some help!', which is humiliating but whatever, she was holding the door.  She said her daughter was eleven and she was horrible too, I said I admit, I'm scared of how this girl is going to be as a teenager.  Keep in mind Maria was YAPPING away this whole time, doing her litany about how was she hungry?  Yes.  Was she going to get food from the bending machine?  No.  Did she have any money?  No.  Did she need money for the bending machine? Yes!, Did she have money for the bending machine?  NO!  Would her mother give her any money?  NO!  On and on and on and on and on and on and ON, Lord, GOD I consider it to be a remarkable accomplishment that I don't just spend all day smacking her mouth.

Here's a picture of us walking out:

Isn't that nice?  You know what is funny about this?  That picture of Maria makes me think of my sister Laura, and the picture of Veronica looks like me.  I think by all accounts, Laura was kind of a grump, but I was happy go lucky.  So I don't really know why I have to raise a grumpy jerkstore but whatever, mine is not to reason why, they are all little blessings and snowflakes, WHATEVER.

Mike took them to the fair this week, just Maria and Veronica, I stayed home with Felicity.  They had a great time, rode ponies, went on rides, played games and won prizes.  Then when they got home, Mike threw the balls that they won over the fence and Maria went insane, crying and screaming.  I had just laid Felicity down for a nap and started coloring my hair, so I ran downstairs to see what was wrong.  She was mad that Mike had thrown the balls over the fence because now she couldn't see what was hers and what was Veronica's!  Screaming!  Actual screaming and crying!  I go out and look and I see two identical pink balls.  She cried for 15 minutes about it.  I told her, Maria, Daddy took off from work, drove you there, paid all this money, pushed you in a stroller around the fair and really?  Really you are going to scream and cry because he threw the ball over the fence?  YES!, she told me.  I do not even know.

We've decided not to have her buy her lunch at school, not regularly anyway.  We might just have her buy it on Mondays but we will see.  I did find out last night that they only get 20 minutes for lunch, isn't that crazy?  Not 30 minutes for lunch?  I mean, we don't spend 20 minutes eating lunch, so I'm sure it will be fine but it doesn't sound like a lot of time.

Anyway.  My head is killing me from the pure torture of being home with Maria when we don't have plans.  It's 10:36 and she has already gone to her room twice this morning, and I'm not counting the time that she tried to carry her table up the stairs.  In closing, I want to say help me, get me out of here, what have I done to deserve this, etc.

Seven Things for Sunday

• We went to a garage sale yesterday, Maria likes them ever since we went to our neighborhood one a few weeks ago.  We got Maria a style-head thing and she was THRILLED.  Before she was thrilled, however, she complained a LOT and I couldn't even look at anything if it wasn't something SHE was interested in.  Anyways, we got some wands and stickers and the style head thing and it was a win.  
• Today she seemed so grown up to me, I mentioned it to Mike and Maria overheard.  She said If I'm a grownup, how come I don't have a purse, any money, a phone, or a Furby?  Ha!  She kills me. 
• She is unbearable about wanting to go places.  While we were at the pool this week, she was getting MAD about when the next time we were coming was.  Who does that?  She has a very hard time feeling her life.  And I do too, but I'm 45!  She's 5!  What the heck?
• Her handwriting is getting good, but it's at a cost.  She wants to know how every word in the language is spelled.  She yells Mommy!  How do you spell playdate?  I say "P" and she snaps "then what?", "L", "THEN WHAT?" and on and on.  Sheesh!
• We found out who her teacher is this year, and it's the teacher I was hoping it would be.  She also has four kids and she lives in our neighborhood.  We go for Kindergarten Roundup on the 14th and her first day is the 15th.  
• Lately, she's been asking me so much if she can go to the neighbor's house, I just let her go.  I figure my neighbor can just tell her you can't come over, and then I won't get in trouble with her.  She is driving me crazy, literally crazy.  
• I love her so much, though, and she is at a pretty good age, really.  She is driving me crazy but also she is good on her own, she is a TEENSY bit of help with Felicity, she's independent and just - I mean, she's getting there.  The other day at the pool I gave her a $5 and sent her for pizza, which costs $3.  I told her the guy should give her two dollars back and she came back a minute later, waving two dollar bills and crowing, "THEY'RE GOING TO CALL MY NAME WHEN IT'S READY!  THEY'RE GOING TO SAY MARIA!".  Cute.  

Maria's Five Year Stats

Okay, Maria is more like FIVE and a HALF, as we say all the time now, but she just went for that five year appointment, so here are her stats.  She's 44.88 inches tall and weighs 46.30 lbs.  She is almost always ten pounds heavier than Veronica lately.  Her blood pressure was 88/56, but I assume it went higher later at the appointment, when I was chasing her around the room and lying down on her so she could get her three stupid vaccinations.  SHEESH.

I was so mad, the appointment took forever, and she kept asking about the shot.  We were left alone in a hot room, where I had to keep the door closed lest Felicity get out, for like FIFTEEN minutes, which felt like forever because I knew they were just getting more and more freaked out about the shots.  Anyway, it was horrible and afterward, Maria limped out of the office and yelled that she couldn't walk!  She needed a cane!  Can you imagine?  A cane.  She is something else.

Pool

I took Maria to swimming lessons today, it was their last meeting in this session.  She's still an EEL, but she's doing well.  She gets really scared at the oddest times, she's hard to predict.  Anyway, I didn't see the last class because I was working with Felicity, who has her own special challenges and doesn't give a HOOT if I ever see Maria or Veronica again, but she did well, Marta said, so that's good.

Then we went to the JCC here in town, I bought a Living Social deal for $50 and ten visits and on each visit two adults and three kids can go, which is amazing.  They have a beautiful water park, it's perfectly designed, lots of zero depth entry to this fun water park thing, 6" of water, 1.5 ft., 3 ft., etc.  It was great and it was so hot today it was great to be near the water.  There are problems with going to the pool with Maria, though.

She is impossible to get to leave anywhere.  IMPOSSIBLE.  She yells and screams and cries and it's really embarrassing and awful.  I mean, it would be one thing if it was just Maria, but it's usually Felicity and sometimes Veronica too and - hoo boy!  I mean, what is there to do?  I know what I'd LIKE to do and that is smack her face, just WHAP right across her face.  I know it would shut her right up, too!  And it might even stop her from doing it in the future.  But I can't.  I mean, I never would but man.  It's tempting.

Once I got her to go, it was fine and of course by then the ding dang baby was SLEEPING like an ANGEL in her stroller so we could have stayed but honestly.  I was over it, and they were too.  Three hours in the broiling sun is enough for anyone.

I told my sister the other day, going to the pool at the Y is like a combination of some of my least favorite things - I am out, in a bathing suit, in the hot hot sun, with a low level panic that something terrible could happen, and there are TEENAGERS telling me what to do.  It was much nicer at the JCC than it was at the Y, though.  There were lifeguards everywhere and they were teenagers but they were just nicer and not such pedants about putting a little baby in a swim diaper on the pool deck.  Sheesh.

Independence Day

I'd like to declare my Independence from these people, but it's too late for that, I suppose.  It's also illegal, I always tell them when they ask if I am going to go to the store without them, or leave them in the car, or run away, or whatever.  Then again, lots of what went on during 1776 was illegal, right?  Because they were under a terrible regime?  Hmmm.  *I* am under a terrible regime!  My life is completely unfair!  OK, then...

When in the course of Joanne's life it becomes necessary for Joanne to dissolve the familial bands which have connected them with one another, ... that is a good start, right?  Fortunately for everyone I have no time to write my own Declaration of Independence, so instead I am just NOT letting Maria stay up late tonight, as we told her she could if she was GOOD, which she has NOT BEEN so the HELL with it.

We went for a walk before, I and the girls, while Mike took Anthony to the store.  Anthony is having his first day off from Camp and no school and he's having a hard day.  He's whining a lot and crying some and - it's just a hard day, so we are trying everything we can to make it better.  Anyway, Mike took him to the store and we went for a walk.  I took the double stroller for Lazybones Veronica and Felicity and Maria asked to take her scooter.  Maria wanted to walk past her friend Lorelei's street, which we did, but it's so hard - there are no sidewalks and the best part of the road for the scooter is the middle.  Of course, that isn't ideal, so Maria had to walk a lot and lord, lord, lord!  You would think it was the Trail of Tears, she was dragging that scooter along, like she could barely move!  She weighs like 45 pounds, surely it can't be harder to drag that around than me and my fat ass, along with a DOUBLE STROLLER FULL OF PEOPLE!  Anyway.  At one point, she said to me:  BORED!  HOT!  TIRED!  Okay then, I said, let's end our fun walk and go home.  I do not even know what to do with her.

I found out that she is going to wear a uniform to school, at my old school where I worked the Kindergarteners didn't wear a uniform but they do at St. Joan of Arc, which is fine by me.  I bought her two jumpers from a friend of mine, they are super cute.  I think they can wear khakis too, so I should start looking for those, right?  How exciting!  I can't wait, I was THRILLED the other day to set up the payment account for her and Veronica's tuition.

This coming week, they'll start one day a week back at their preschool for camp, Tuesdays and Thursdays we have swimming, and hopefully we can go to the pool a little bit.  It is incredibly challenging for me to take them some place like a pool by myself, but my friend Jill said she'll come with me, and if I could just get Maria to be a more cooperative person, it would be fine.  Tuesday we were at the Y and Maria was across the lot from me, taking something to my friend Marta.  I saw a car was coming so I said, sternly, "Maria!  STOP!".  Do you know what Maria did?  I'm sure you can guess, but that dummy ran DIRECTLY into the line of traffic.  I mean, she is so eager to do the opposite of what I say that she is willing to KILL HERSELF.  I don't know how to deal with that.  I'm so tired of telling her no and saying the same thing over and over I want to run away.

So hopefully we'll send them to bed early tonight and eventually she will get it, she will understand that she can't just do whatever she wants and ignore me.  I hope something starts to take with this girl, because I am at the end of my rope.

Here's a cute picture of her today, to soften the blow of these harsh words:

Five for Friday - Early Edition

Remember Early Edition?  Wasn't the Coach from Friday Night Lights on it?  My friend Brad also did a two part guest spot on it, and those two episodes were the only ones I ever watched.  Anyway.

1. Maria cracked her wrist last week.  She bent the bone in her left wrist, which is not uncommon for little kids, I guess, the combination of hollow but bendable bones are ripe for bending.  My sister mentioned that Pink song about being not broken, but bent and now I think about it all the time.  She fell off a slide at VBS, of course the last day.  I went to get her and she wanted to stay for lunch, so I set her up and went to get the other girls and I looked over and she was pressing her arm into her belly, leaning over and eating like a dog.  That's when I knew something was up, ha!  I took the three girls to the ER, it took 3.5 hours, but they were all pretty good and really, two weeks of a splint is nothing, she is fine and has been since she got the splint, no cast, no worries, it's fine.  She went to ballet the next day!
2. She had such a conniption fit this week I began to wonder if she was crazy.  Then I talked to some preschool moms and they all seemed to think it was normal, but man.  She was in the toy room and I heard a LOUD CRASH.  I went in and she was, like, running across the room, fear and guilt in her eyes.  I asked her what happened and she said NOTHING!  I WAS JUST STANDING THERE AND NOTHING!  I DID NOTHING!  This went on for a while and finally I said, well, the hell with it, I'm not going to talk to you if you're just going to lie.  Then for the next 10 minutes, she laid on the floor, screaming I AM GOING TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH!  I AMMMMMM GGOOOOOOOING TO TELLLLLLLL YOOOOOOOU THE TRUUUUUUUUTH!  I was like, um, okay, but when?  DO TELL!  She calmed down and told me a sad tale of how she grabbed one book but 50 fell down and I said big deal, Maria!  I don't care if something falls, I want to see if you're okay, there is no reason to go on and on like that.  Ay yi yi.  
3. I cut her bangs this week and they look really good, if I do say so myself.  
4. I keep complaining about this but I got her tuition email this week, about how to set up payment. You can pay four different ways - all at once, in two payments, in four payments, or every month.  But get this - there is no incentive to pay it all at once.  WHO would do that?  Why would you give all that money away if you get nothing for it?  Dumb.  
5. She has some neighbors over right now, they went to Vacation Bible School this week but they all learn the same music and they're in there singing.  It's super cute.  

Five for Friday - Monday Holiday Edition

1. Maria is all finished with her antibiotics from her recent ear infection.  She made up a song, it goes "I get to take my medicine, my medicine, my medicine.  I get to take my medicine, my medicine!".  I have no complaints about her taking her medicine, obviously.  
2. My friend Roxane gave me a bunch of size five and four clothes that were her daughter Harper's.  The girls get super excited going through these hand-me-downs, it's really cute.  Yesterday, Maria fashioned herself a complete Hello Kitty outfit to wear to church - Hello Kitty shoes, skirt, shirt, underwear and sweater!  She went over the list of clothes several times during Mass, including her trying to show me her underwear.  In church!  She is pretty good in church but she's so, so loud.  She is incapable of whispering.  
3. This will be her last week of preschool, ever.  She just goes Tuesday and Wednesday and then she's finished with regular preschool, forever.  This space for silent thanksgiving.
4. Yesterday they slept until 8:00 and today 7:50.  This is so, so late for Maria, and I really appreciate it.  
5. Maria got a new bike!  It was a complicated endeavor.  Ever since Veronica got her bike for her birthday, Maria has been going crazy.  Veronica has a 14" bike and Maria's is only a 12" and now it seems super small.  It's driving her crazy and she's mentioned it a few times.  So I told her, we could get her a new-to-her bike, but we'd have to trade her old one in.  We took her bike to Once Upon a Child yesterday (which Maria kept calling the Little Child store) and got $25 for it, which is *really* good, but they had no bikes with training wheels except DIEGO, which was unacceptable, as you can imagine.  We went to ANOTHER OUAC, but they had no bike with training wheels.  Maria was getting frustrated and I was too, it was raining and I had left Mike home with everyone else, so we just went to Target and I spent $77 on a Hello Kitty 14" bike.  We left Target and I saw a Goodwill, so I told Maria let's just stop and look and if they have a bike there, we'll get it and return the new one.  We found a great bike, a 16" Huffy that had training wheels and Maria tried it and liked it, so we got it and now I am $15 ahead!  I'll miss that cute little Radio Flyer bike we got her, but she is super cute tooling around on that giant bike, too.  

Five things for Friday

Ha, for a minute I forgot whose blog this was.  But it's Maria's.  Here's five things about my little darling this week.

1. She has an ear infection.  She's so, so crazy.  Yesterday, she went out with my mom in the morning and they went to IHOP for lunch.  Tuesday it was Veronica's birthday and Maria said to her "Veevsy, let's go wherever you want to go for lunch" and Veronica said "okay, how about IHOP?!" and Maria screamed and cried - NOOOOOOO!  CHUCK E CHEEEEEEESE!  Ha!  My mom does NOT want to take her to CEC every damned week of her life, so she told her they can go once a month and THAT went over like a lead balloon.  Anyways.  So they went to IHOP and the library and then came home and Maria mentioned that her 'ear hurt'.  I said what do you mean, your ear hurts?  She said NOTHING!  It's fine!  It doesn't hurt!  So we went to Marta's so she could get ready for tap and ballet.  On the way there, she was bragging about how SHE went more places than VERONICA, RIGHT?  RIGHT, MOMMY?  I swear, she was still trying to get even from the IHOP incident!  Crazy.  So anyways, I told her let's just go home and skip tap and she said no, she was FINE.  I said, well if you need me tell Marta and she'll call me and of course Marta called me like five minutes after I left and said Maria was afraid she was going to through up.  Mike picked her up and when I got home she was warm and pale and I asked which ear hurts and she quick pointed at her left one.  So sure enough, we went to the Urgent Care and saw Dr. Pakistan of my Felicity-baby-days and he said her temp was 100.4 and that she had 'quite a bad' ear infection.  She is a tough guy, right?  She's doing well now, taking her medicine, etc.  
2. I went out to lunch today with some friends and I left the three girls with Mike.  I texted him not long after I got to lunch and he told me two friends came over and then by the time I got home, TWO MORE friends were over, so it was him and our three, and four neighbors, ha!  Maria is what you call a social butterfly.  
3. She's going to a birthday party tomorrow night, a girl from her class is turning five.  I just told her tonight because she makes my life a living hell if I tell her things too soon.  
4. They were up way before 7:00 today, I think it was like 6:00 but I was beat from Felicity getting up at 5:30 so I didn't even know what was going on.  She was up early and had ballet today and ran around all day and she was STILL up late tonight.  Tough guy, as I said.  
5. Even when she's sick, she is still a lot of fun.  I was telling my friends today, I am so excited and even though a big, BIG part of that excitement is that she won't be HERE, mostly I am excited for her.  I know she is going to love it.  I feel like this is what we've been working toward - she's going to go somewhere every day, and she's going to meet a bunch of different people, and she's going to be so tired.  Maybe she'll play a sport.  Ooh I can't wait!  I wish it were August right now.  

Five things for Friday

Here's some things about Maria this week.  I am TRYING to be better about updating, I swear.

• Maria had her end of school year party this week, on Tuesday night.  She had a HIGH OLD time, there was horseback riding, there was a petting zoo, lots of food, face painting, a music playing area, which was a big hit.  Her last party there!  
• Also, a first and last for her was this Muffins with Mom thing at her school.  She talked and talked and talked about it, there were going to be chocolate chip muffins, lemon muffins, or cinnamon, and we could have WHATEVER kind we wanted.  We could have iced tea OR water, whatever we wanted!  We sat at the table, it was beautifully decorated with a picture of her, a placemat that she made, and she served me.  Then they did a little thing, they recited a poem, sang a song, and said HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!  It was v. cute, the pictures are from that day.  
• Both Maria and Veronica have been staying up too late, and getting up too early, which results in big jerkiness around here most every day.  It stinks.  
• Maria is doing well in Intermediate Ballet but I don't know how she's doing in Tap and Ballet class, because every time I go (usually Marta takes her), she spends half the time of the class coming out to tell me (in no particular order) that her feet hurt, her hand hurts, she is hungry, she is thirsty, she is tired, she has a cough and she is not feeling like doing tap.  Marta says she never comes out when I'm not there.  
• I asked Maria what the fifth thing should be and she said that Mommy is going to text Erika to see if I can go over there.  She is like a DOG with a BONE, and she is driving me to an early grave.  What will happen first, I always wonder?  Will she go off to Kindergarten and get out of my hair for longer or will I lose my mind?  Will I be found wandering the streets of my neighborhood, babbling about how Mommy can't go anywhere else that day?  You never know.  

Video - Maria's Original Song

She's Making a Rainbow to Make It Love:

Five Things from Last Friday

Okay, Maria is the last blog I want to update for Five Things for Last Friday, but of course it's Monday.  Also I'd like to put up some video and I will, I promise!  But it's hard because I have to upload it and that takes forever and then I have to link to it, and I usually forget in the middle that I'm doing it.  Also I just looked at the clock and I have to wake up Felicity and go get the girls so this will have to wait, but I swear I will finish before Monday is out!  Sheesh!  It's five measly things!

OK I'm back and I have to leave again in five minutes.

1.  I was looking at Maria's will be Kindergarten class' web page and I'm so excited I can't stand it.  They are studying Jackson Pollack in art class, they are learning about grouping numbers in Math, etc. etc.  I just know she's going to do so well.

2.  She is getting really good on her scooter!  She does tricks and everything!

3.  Next week there is a Muffins with Mom program at her school, it's an end of the year thing, it sounds super cute.  After school today she said, in Her Loud Voice:  MOM!  THERE IS A MUFFINS THING NEXT WEEK AND YOU CAN COME!  AND HAVE A MUFFIN!  Ha!  Okay, then.  Her teacher said I can bring Felicity, ay yi yi, I said okay but you'll be sorry.

4.  We signed a bunch of cards recently, for Mike's mom, my Dad, Maddelena, and she signs everyone's name.  We only have to tell her how to spell Felicity, everyone else, she remembers.  Genius.

5.  Her favorite songs for me to sing right now are The Rainbow Song that Dorothy Sings and The One About the Cat?  Don Cato?  

Nickels

The other day Maria asked me if she had nickels on her face and I was like, nickels?  I was picturing nickels on her face, trying to imagine what in the hell she was talking about.  She asked if I had nickels on my face and she was looking and looking, ostensibly for .. nickels.

Freckles.  I forget what made us figure it out but finally we realized she was asking if she had freckles.  She cracks me up, because even though I've corrected her, she is sticking with nickles!  She's so funny and tough, she will not let a little thing like not knowing a word get in the way of her saying a word.

Kindergarten

We've started to get notes from Maria's school, opportunities to buy backbacks and supplies, etc.  The real getting ready won't start until this summer but I am excited!  I can't believe she'll be in Kindergarten this year.  In just a few months!  She is super smart and she is very social and she can behave herself when she needs to, so I am not worried at all about her.  I am a teensy bit worried about myself, as I tend to be kind of a - well, I don't want to say I'm mean because I don't think I am but I *am* sort of straightforward and some - lots - of people don't like that.  I've been out of the working world for long enough that I'm afraid I'll come off like Nell or something, all grunting and groaning and just saying whatever comes to my mind.

When Maria starts school, she'll be starting eight YEARS of school at this place, with Veronica right behind her and Felicity not too far behind that.  Maybe Anthony will go there some day, even.  We are going to have a long relationship with a lot of these people, so I have to remind myself to be nice and to let small transgressions go, I suppose.  I have a few friends who are there already, as parents, so that is nice, too.

Maria still falls asleep every day, if I let her.  She wakes up too damned early and last week was her first back to preschool after Spring Break, so she was a little off.  She is better than Veronica, though, in that she just pops awake and is fine.  Veronica cries like her heart will break when she wakes up, it's awful!

She has a lot of friends at school, things seem good there.  We have been having some playdates and tomorrow she'll start back to tap class on Thursday nights.  She and Veronica are doing just great at Anthony's school, all is well on the Maria Front.  I never post on her blog anymore, because I guess I mostly like to complain about her, and there's not been anything to complain about, ha!

Ballerina

Maria had her ballet and tap 'recital' this week, it was super cute but man.  She is - I mean, are all five year olds like this? - she is no dancer!  She does moves when she wants but otherwise she talks, runs around, BOSSES everyone else around, ASKS THE TEACHER HOW MUCH LONGER the class will be, tells me Felicity wants to get down, ay yi yi!  Sorry for some of the video quality but I was indeed holding Felicity who did INDEED want to get down.

Here's one link but I am going to have to post more later as it's taken HOURS for this one to upload on You Tube.

Haircut

Maria hasn't had a haircut yet but she wants one.  We looked at pictures of haircut styles online and she has chosen a VERY short haircut.  I don't know if she can pull it off - her hair is pretty fine.  I'm going to try and sway her, we'll see.  I think she'd look super cute with a haircut like she had before, just a short bob with bangs, we'll see.

We had a good weekend, she had her ballet recital on Friday and then we went to meet a friend of mine with her daughter for lunch.  Maria was driving me crazy, CRAZY.  She doesn't let me talk at all, to anyone.  "Mommy!  Mommy!  MOM!  MOMMY!", all the ding dang time, it's infuriating.  It takes forever for us to leave anywhere, I count it down, I give her warnings, all of it and she just refuses to listen to me.  I am working on it, but in the meantime it's annoying.  

So we were walking out, we walked maybe 50 feet and then I wanted to see my friend Christina, who is in with her baby girl twins, her friend Adam, and her cousin who is going to be her nanny.  I was trying to say that if the cousin needed anything ever, she should call me because I live close by, etc., and Maria was all up in my grill needing water.  These people think that I should be able to just SHOOT water and tissues from my fingers, it's DEEPLY BOTHERSOME.  So Pat, my boss and the owner of the restaurant said he would help her and he took her and then I sort of said to the sky, like I'm wont to do, "drink that water, and then fold up the cup and jam it in your ear, Maria" and the nanny said "um, are you the nanny?  Or their mom?".  Ha!  I said that although I'm sure I ACTED like a DISGRUNTLED hourly employee, I was in fact their real mom.  Ha!

Of course!

Today Maria and Veronica and I went to church and then we went to Le Peep to pick up breakfast.  As we pulled up to the restaurant, Maria started bugging me about getting a booster.  She didn't say booster, exactly, but I figured out what she was saying and I said no, Maria, you are not getting a booster, you already have a car seat.  Ooh she was getting so mad!  I knew why she was thinking it, she spent time with her friend Charlie this weekend and she has a booster seat.  She is six months older than Maria, although I like to keep them in 5-point boosters as long as I can and I had no intention of moving her, which is WHY, I told her, we spent almost 300 damned DOLLARS on her present car seat.  Anyway, she cracks me up.

We went into the LePeep and this GORGEOUS young guy was working there and he gave them each a mint and she said "Thank You" and he said Gracias, say gracias, and now you know Spanish.  He was SUPER cute but she would not engage, even though she totally knows gracias, and hola, and a lot of Spanish words.  But she was TOO MAD about the BOOSTER seat to even talk to this cute boy, ha!

We were walking out and I was blathering on about her car seat and how safe they were, I said don't you think I should keep you as safe as possible?  And she said OF COURSE I DO, MOM!  Ha!  She is five years old!  She was still mad when we got home but we settled on this - we will revisit it in July, when she is five and a half.  So I have until July.

Update

It's so much harder to use pictures since I have my new computer, it's a pain.  Hopefully I'll add a picture later but in the meantime I need to update these blogs!  Time is flying!  Tempis is fugiting!  Or something.  Anyways, this is how things are going for Maria.

Just fine.  She is doing just fine.  She turned five, she had a birthday party, she went with me to the Open House at her new school and inspected the two kindergarten classrooms there, she'll be in one of them.  There are two possible teachers for her next year and I met both of them, they both seem very nice and I have no opinion about which one is her teacher.  She drives me crazy, Maria, but she is my easiest child in this way.  She is so smart and flexible and not shy and I just am not worried about her starting school full time.  I worry it won't come soon enough, ha! Now that we've seen the classroom, she keeps bugging me every day about when will it be 'the fall' and when she'll start.

She had her first sleepover at a friend's house this weekend.  She has a nice friend named Josie at school and they were in the same classroom last year but this year they are in a different one, because Josie is an 'explorer', for which you have to be five by 12/31 and of course Maria wasn't five until 1/11.  They still are great friends and they have been setting it up to get together for a few weeks.  Josie's mom asked me last week if Maria could sleep over and I said HELL YES so she did.  Of course it was fine.  Maria said her 'ear hurt' that morning, which made me a little nervous because Veronica and Felicity both have ear infections but she was fine.  They went swimming at the local Y on Friday night and had a great time.  Maria came home with cupcakes that they made and a temporary tattoo, and she was so tired.  She napped for over an hour yesterday in the chair, she was OUT like a LIGHT.

She drives me crazy about what time it is, every single second of the day should be accounted for, according to Maria.  It's extremely annoying and is really hard for me.  I know that sounds crazy but my God, you can't imagine.  EVERY SECOND, what time it is, she asks?  And if I don't answer right away, she asks again, more urgently and louder.  WHAT TIME IT IS MOMMY?  If I say it's 10 of 12, she says WHAT NUMBERS IS THAT?  Oh, it's crazy.  CRAZY.  But she's super smart, she really is learning to tell time, so what can I do except count the damned seconds when she is bugging someone else about it.

She's doing well in ballet, she is in the Intermediate class now and it's going well.  She has a friend in class whose name is Kestral, but she calls her Gestral.  I say Maria, it's K-K-K-K-Kestral and she says, like my niece Moira always used to, K-K-Gestral!  Ha!

She weighs 45 pounds, we found out last Sunday when we took Veronica to the Be Well Clinic for her ear infection.  She is in mostly size 5 clothes now and her new ballet shoes are size 12.5.  So far, five is going very well for Maria and I love her madly.

Happy Birthday Maria!

So, Maria turned five.  She is a real dreamboat of a five year old, I'll say that.  I mean, she wakes up too early and she is super loud and she yells at me the second I say NO about anything but all of that falls away when I think of what a good girl she is.  She is so funny and charming, and she is tough and cute and she knows how to have a good time.

We had cupcakes for her on Friday night, my sister Laura came up before bedtime and gave Maria her present.  She gave her this excellent headband making kit and both Maria and Veronica went crazy over it.  Saturday we had a party for her at Chuck E. Cheese and she got up and dressed by 7:30. The party was at 12:30, soooo that was a long five hours, as you can imagine.

That place is CRAZY.  I told her that she could have a party here and have as many friends as she wanted or if she had it at CEC, she'd have to just invite a few friends from school, and she wanted it at Chuck E. Cheese.  Since we only intend to have big parties for their 5th, 10th and 15th birthdays, I wanted to do what she wanted.  It was hard to be a good hostess, so much of it is done for you and it's just crazy insane, so crowded and loud.  I feel like I barely saw her.  But it was so cute, Chuck E. Cheese himself gives her a crown, our hostess announced Maria like this, she said, "this is Maria, she' FIVE today and her favorite color is pink!  Give it up for Maria!" and then everyone went crazy banana pants clapping for her, including me.  It was exciting and Maria has NO problem being the center of all that crazy attention.  Veronica needed a little time out from all the noise, but not Maria.  She could have stayed there all day.  She really remembered to say thank you (with some prompting) and to talk to everyone, she is a good girl, I kept thinking all day.  She is the best little five year old I know.