It's Always Something

Our weekend was fabulous. We had lots of great family time, lots of good food and conversation, and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Which is why it was so surprising when I woke Annika up for school on Monday morning and she started to cry, then sob, that her stomach hurt and she didn't want to go.

Long story short, it seems her new first grade teacher is a screamer.

She'd mentioned this in passing in the middle of last week, but in a lighthearted way, and I thought, "Hm, it's odd that she'd mention something like that so flippantly." But I figured maybe the teacher is just ... loud. As long as it didn't seem to bother her, I wouldn't worry about it.

Well, now I'm worrying about it. I kept her home yesterday because she was such a wreck, and we talked about it all day long. I provided her with lots of suggestions -- mostly subversive and antiauthoritarian -- to cope with her feelings about the yelling. She came home today saying she was okay, but that she "had a belly ache all day long." She also said her teacher "screamed" during math and would I please "send a note to tell her to give us the directions BEFORE we do something, not after?"

Dude.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that this pisses me off. The kid is SIX. They've been in school SEVEN DAYS. I should not be hearing about this. It's especially hilarious in light of the school wide "no put downs" policy they're always bragging about, one of the critical bullet points of which is, "stay cool." Only applicable to kids, I guess; adults can do whatever the eff they want, huh?

So now I get to write a note. (That worked wonders for me last year with even less troublesome issues [not.]) I'm very curious to see how the heck a teacher justifies yelling at six year olds several times daily. Or whether she'll just deny it, which -- I'm going to believe my kid. She's sensitive, but she's not the type to sob over fabrications.

Whee. Welcome to another school year.

Saturday

I love Saturdays.

Today was just a bliss fest over here. I give the weather a lot of credit. We rolled out fairly early to walk to the farmer's market where we get our coffee beans, then wandered over to the park for a while, where we ran into a family from the dojo. The kids found and inspected dead crayfish, tried to pry out a live one from its watery dwelling, and saw two groundhogs peeking out from a hiding place under a rock wall. Watching those two little chubby, fuzzy faces, squished together, staring blankly out at us was unexpectedly comical. Well, for me. I'm easily amused.

We spent the rest of the day kicking around, and I made another Turkish meal because I'm obsessed with Turkish cuisine. We had Hünkar Begendi, lamb stew served over a creamy, buttery, cheesy eggplant puree, with a shepherd's salad on the side. The kids, who -- between the two of them -- hate everything, ate a lot of it. Annika ate the stew and asked for seconds, even though it was half lamb, and she claims to hate lamb. Celyn ate everything, and Quinn repeatedly exclaimed over it. So the long prep time was worthwhile. I grew parsley and mint outside the kitchen this year, and have been finding myself going out there at least once a day to pick some for something, and I love being able to do that.

I even managed to make some progress on my friend issues today, and saw the error of my ways. Yeah, really, I do that occasionally.

Ani started to struggle before dinner, and was acting up, and we were cross with her, and she had a really spectacular meltdown when it came time for her bath. Realizing that our attitudes -- well, mainly mine -- probably had a lot to do with it, I went up and held her in her bed for a long time, and talked to her, and the storm passed. She feels things very intensely, and I need to be more careful with her in general, being more sensitive to how she takes things personally.

Although she unwound, I could see that, considering the stress of a new grade and all, she needed more Mommy time. So I brought her down for some melon, then brought her up for a bath. She wanted me to get in, like old times, so I did, and we played water guns. The way she plays water guns is that the three water guns make up a family, and they swim around and talk and get into mischief and get rescued by their daddy watergun or mommy watergun and ... yeah. I just wanted to shoot each other.

After, she was very happy and relaxed, and I read her stories and put her to bed. (Cel got the Daddy bedtime treatment.) She needs a heck of a lot more from me, emotionally, than Cel does, and sometimes it's really a struggle for me. But I'm 35 and she's 6, so I have to be the one who sucks it up and deals.

Now the kids are asleep, I'm done with this entry, and I'm going to get another glass of rockin' cab sauv and go watch a movie with this man here who is going to rub my feet throughout. Yep, things are working out just fine.

So ...

So since the beginning of September, I've been feeling the call to blog again. Who knows how long it will last this time, so I won't break my neck notifying anyone.

And then the last two weeks have been insane. Annika started first grade. Celyn started in the "Frog" classroom over at preschool. Annika's had approximately four and a half days of school so far, Celyn's had one morning, and we've all already been sick once. No one was sick at all the entire summer. Now I'm deliberately sending my kids back into the disease farms. Why I'm doing this, I'm not sure, because honestly, I seem to get LESS done on the days they're in school. Celyn's used to having her sister home all day to entertain her, so she's out of the habit of entertaining herself and is hanging off me like a wet washcloth.

Today has been particularly stellar, as I woke up late, one kid wet the bed, and the other barely made it out the door in time for the bus. I decided to take Celyn to the museum, and we were just driving around the parking lot looking for a spot -- wtf is "Special Needs Parking," btw? -- and the elementary school called to tell me Ani had a fever. Celyn was livid, but managed to fall asleep anyway right before we reached the school. Now Annika is tucked into bed reading dinosaur books with a cup of Tummy Tea, and Celyn is playing at the foot of her bed.

And during these two weeks of child insanity, I've also had friendship insanity and marital insanity. The marital insanity has resolved. The friendship insanity ... not so much. I feel let down and disappointed and angry. It always burns when you discover just how little you actually mean to someone.

And it's That Anniversary. And it's raining.

So I'm going to fall back on blogging, and child caretaking, and baking, and later, ineptly flinging around a bo staff at the dojo and bruising the hell out of myself.

Because I'm worth it.