Happy Thanksgiving!

(Artwork by my niece Abby, age 6)

Multi-tasking

Sam didn't let snack-time or a phone call from his cousin Ryan slow down his playground fun. The boy had things to do.

My Noah:

Flashbacks

When I was in second grade, I had a friend named Annie who made me hang up her coat every morning by threatening not to be my friend unless I did. Being the timid little doormat that I was at the time, I obliged her again and again.

Then one day I told my older brother and sister about it and they were pretty mad. My brother spent an hour coaching me on how to say, "That's okay, Annie, I don't need friends like you!" while flipping my hair and turning on my heel. My sister (an intimidating 5th grader at our elementary school) found Annie in the hallway the next day and threatened her to never boss her sister around again. Her little talk was effective and I never had to hang up Annie's coat again - although I missed out on the opportunity to use my well-rehearsed come-back.

Today I was able to channel this experience from 23 years ago into a teaching moment with my boys. I overheard Noah tell Sam to "pick that up or I won't be your friend anymore." Well, that's certainly not going to fly in this house so I sat Noah down and explained in no uncertain terms that we never boss people around and threaten friendship like that. I think it went well. Although he seemed a little bewildered at first when I burst into the room screaming, "Hang up your own damn coat, Annie!"**

Ahh, the circle of life.


**Postscript: Of course I did not actually say this to my child. I am told this point requires clarification.

I love kindergarten. For real.

This is Noah, proudly dragging his potato-turned-turkey down the hallway of his elementary school in the kindergarten's Turkey Day Parade.

The potato-turkey's chariot is a shoebox lid which, much to Noah's complete mortification, was originally pink. This was a very big deal at our house until I assured him that I would be covering the offensive pink shoebox lid with purple paper. To the average person, it may not seem that going from pink to purple would be enough to properly de-girl the shoebox lid. But purple is a highly regarded color in the kindergarten world (being the highest level one can acheive in behavior motivation) and has therefore become gender-neutral.

Noah has started being very aware of gender differences. It's hilarious. One of his best friends at school is a girl from his preschool days that he'll play with sometimes at recess (she is not in the same kindergarten class). When I ask about her he makes very clear to me that she is just a friend. Not a girlfriend. Just a friend, mom. Duly noted.

It cracks me up the things that he picks up at school. I think my favorite so far is the introduction of the phrase "for real" into his jargon. He says it ALL the time and I love it.

N: "Mama, I was on blue today."

A: "Really, baby? That's great!"

N: "For real."

I love kindergarten.

Close Call

So last week I had a physical and my doctor saw a mole on my back with irregular borders and a dark center. Those are the suspicious kind, so she cut it out and had it tested. I had the stitches removed this morning and discussed the results with my doctor. Thankfully, it was not cancerous yet but there were some irregular cells that would have developed into cancer had they not been removed. So this is an official reminder to you all to stay on top of your doctor’s check-ups. I’m pretty happy right now to not have cancer. Hooray!

My mom said I need to ask Santa for some sunscreen. The thing is though, I’m actually really good about wearing sunscreen. I put it on every single time I’m going to be out in the sun and I reapply and all that. But unfortunately, I live in a climate with really intense summers that last for a good portion of the year. Not good for someone with fair skin like me who is, evidently, prone to developing irregular-cells-that-may-become-skin-cancer. Sigh. So I’m adding “to reduce my risk of malignant melanoma” to my list of reasons why I really want to move back to Northern California (no offense, Texans).

Halloween Pictures

Little Sam

Tonight Sam reached his arms up for me to pick him up. Of course I obliged and reached down to get my little man. As I picked him up I let out a small grunt and Sam evidently did not appreciate the implication. He said, "I not heavy, cause I little!"

Sorry, Buddy - I didn't mean to offend.

A Little Saturday Night Humor for You

Have ya'll seen this Jon Stewart spoof on Glenn Beck? HILARIOUS!

This was so funny I was afraid I'd wake up my little boys from all my laughing. Enjoy!

Saturday at the Mall

This afternoon the boys and I went to the "mall with the castle play area," at Noah's request. We rode on the double-decker carousel, the boys played their little hearts out at the aforementioned castle play area during which time I sat on the bench and wrote a paper for my Psych class while I watched them (because if you don't have time to study at a library, doing it at a crowded mall play area with dozens of children running around you is the next best thing), we ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, and the boys did the bungee jump/trampoline thing.

Here are the boys on the carousel. Noah wanted to ride on the ostrich after I told him that ostriches are so strong they can kill a lion with one kick. (That's true, by the way; I read it in the elevator at work the other day. As a side note, it cracks me up that elevators have little tvs in them now. Are our attention spans really so short that we can't ride 28 floors in an elevator - or even 100 floors for that matter - without being entertained? I mean, really. On the other hand, the elevator tv did expand my knowledge of ostrich violence which I was then able to impart onto my child. So perhaps I shouldn't knock it.)

Anyway, back to pictures...

Noah riding the ostrich (the one I took of Sam turned out too blurry, which is really saying something since for some reason all of these are a little bit blurry):

Bungee-jump/trampoline thing (Noah had a BLAST doing this; Sam was really excited about it too; he scrambled up onto the trampoline when his turn came but by the time they got him strapped in, he got scared and opted out so lucky Noah got to take his turn and go twice):

Mulch-Face

Today at daycare Sam fell off the see-saw and landed face-first in the mulch. He wasn't hurt but both he and Noah had something to say about it.

Sam: "My face got dirty. Let's go home and brush my teeth and then it will be all clean!" Sam also blamed his stuffed monkey George for the whole thing. Apparently it was George who told him to stand on the see-saw. When we got in the car Sam informed me that I needed to give George a time-out.

Noah: "After Sam fell he came into my classroom and I put a kiss on his hair."

Back to School

In August I started working for an oil company in the financial reporting department. What I do is kind of a mix between accounting and financial analyst type stuff and I like it a whole lot more than auditing, which is what I was doing before. I also really like my co-workers so it’s nice to actually enjoy going to work. Plus, it’s a very family-friendly company. Three of the four people I work with directly (including both of the people I report to) have small kids and are extremely understanding and flexible about all the issues that arise with having kids. However, while I really like it for now, I don’t really see myself wanting to make a life’s career out of it. I wouldn’t say I’m passionate about it and if I’m going to have a career, I’d like it to be in something I love. (I know what you’re thinking: How is it possible for one NOT to feel passionately about the accounting field? It’s so exciting! But, there it is folks).

Anyway, all of this is a long winded way of saying that I have decided to go to nursing school. Eventually, I’d like to be either a nurse practitioner or a certified nurse-midwife. Both require a master’s degree in nursing and of course, first I’ll need the bachelor’s in nursing. With a degree in accounting, I have pretty much no science courses behind me so I also have to do prerequisites. When I first started looking into it I felt a little overwhelmed but it actually isn’t so bad. Here’s the plan:

Several schools in the area have programs for people who have an unrelated bachelor’s degree but want to make a career change into nursing. After you satisfy the prereqs, the program is only 12 months and you come out with a bachelor’s in nursing. It’s a really intense program, but that’s totally worth it to be finished in a year. Between working full-time and being a mommy, I’m only able to take a couple of prereq classes per semester but even at that I should be finished with my prereqs in a year and a half. The program I want to get into goes from May to May so I should be ready to go in May 2011 and be graduated in May 2012. I’m really excited because I think nursing will allow me to have a really great schedule for a single working mom. Plus, I think I’ll love it.

So… I’ve started taking my prereqs at a community college here. This semester I’m taking Anatomy & Physiology and Psychology. As a side note, last night in my Psych class we took tests that assessed our personalities and then determined which careers would be a good fit. According to the results of the test, the career that is the best fit for my personality type is… nursing! So I think I'm on the right track.