Organized Chaos

Today was the big "Halloween Parade" at Ava's school - a marvelous time to see what your kid is really like when you're not around....

The morning began rather badly, with Ava freaking out the second I put her costume on, which, seeing as I put it on the wrong way, wasn't easy in itself. On the fly, we grabbed her little ballet slippers and a ballerina dress, with hopes that she'd follow form and want to wear her costume when she realized that she wasn't already wearing it. Wildly indecisive behavior or at least disagreement with whatever we say seems to be the norm at the moment. The wardrobe crisis was followed by the "let's go trick or treat now" crisis, followed by the "I don't want to go" crisis. Eventally, we made it to the school with about 4 outfits in hand.

When I went back to go and see the "parade", Ava was behaving very well, sitting in her place in the story circle and attentively listening to the story being told. Well, at least until she saw me, when she started crying because we were trying to keep her in the circle and quiet. I wondered how all the other kids were so calm when surrounded by their own parents.

Once she was allowed to break free, and crawl all over me, the crying stopped, and she suddenly wanted to have a conversation in the middle of story time. Again, I marvelled that all the other children were quiet, listening to the story, and not trying to get to their parents, or speaking with one another, etc. I figure all the other parents are drugging their kids.

Once it was time to check out the train, Ava managed to slip past me and about 95% of the kids and parents in front of her, so that she was already aboard the train before I managed to get out of the building. (This is only about 10 feet, so it's not like I had a long way to go.)

After the ride, she amused herself in the yard with leaves, sticks, and rolling around in the dirt. (She's a lady.) I did laugh at the obvious differences between the girls and the boys - girls throwing up leaves and twirling under them, boys throwing leaves at each other.

Finally, parade time rolled around, and guess who dashed right out in the front? I see a theme here. I can't imagine where she gets it from.

Ladies of Leisure

Deanna called me Friday night looking for a way out of the house...ok, she said a walk, but we all know that walking is just code for "get me the heck out of here for a couple of minutes." Seeing as I understood the code, I agreed, and we decided to go for a trip into town Saturday morning for Coffee. Ava and Georgia, constant buddies unless there's a toy in contention, enjoyed watching Deanna and I (ok, mostly Deanna) take turns as their own personal pack mules while they enjoyed the sights, and worked dilligently to lose whatever items (hats, etc.) could be lost. As it started to rain whilst we were walking, both girls wound up in a warm bath to end the morning.
In the afternoon, we went to see Andrew (our oldest nephew) play hockey for Lawrence Tech, and then a trip to my mom's for a visit with Gramma Joan and Grampa John. Fun was had by all, but foregoing the afternoon nap guarenteed little miss cranky pants was on the prowl in the evening, working on honing her fake cry. She's now become so expert that she can usually hit that particular note that drives Casey and I crazy within 0.0001 seconds. Thankfully, she's a good sleeper, and was back to her usual happy self by Sunday, when we were blissfully without plans other than the supermarket.

Stone the Rich

Ok, I'm as capitalistic, materialistic and a bunch of other "istics" that speak to wanting to have loads of money to spend in a selfish, narcissistic way as the next person raised in middle class America, but come on people, $38 bottled water?

I was reading about "bling H20" which sells in a "limited edition" glass bottle encrusted with Swarski (Ok, you know I can't spell) crystals. This is a disposeable container, filled with water bottled in Tennessee (really), filtered through some guy named Wilbur's underpants (possibly), and idiots with nothing better to do with their money are paying $38 a bottle for it. We're talking about money to quite literally piss away here, people.

Wouldn't it make more sense to eat $100 bills and take public dumps? Then, one could watch all those losers (the ones who need money for things as inconsequential as a house (single), heat, electricity, or things that one's butler normally deals with) scramble to retrieve said bills from one's own dropping. Of course, that might lead to some actual good for someone, so nix that idea. Harumpf.