Brandon's Puppy

Shameless

I forgot to mention the other day that I found a costume I bought a few years ago, with the tags still on it, in our costume bin. I was debating whether to sell this one in auction or not because it's mine, and it bothers me that I never used it. It's a huge pink onesie with a bonnet and a super-size pacifier. All I need are oversized adult diapers to complete the look and I can dress up as a big baby for Halloween. What do you think, do you think I'll tons of treats, or will people just point and laugh as I take the boys from house to house?

A visit with Katie and some other adventures

So I left work early to visit my BFF Angie and her new baby girl. I took the Metrorail northbound and got off at the third to last station. I was told by a coworker, "Oh, yeah, the hospital is right there! It's definitely walking distance!" Yeah, right! I was walking for quite a while before I called the new daddy (we'll call him "L") and told him that I was on my way. He asked where I was, and he said, "Stay right there, I'll come and get you". He was there in about five minutes, and we were at the hospital in no time. So yeah, it was right there...while driving!
Anyway, I disinfected my nasty train germs and held the new baby for the longest time. She is so cute! She weighs 6 lbs, 5 ounces and measures 18 inches.
She has her daddy's hair color, skin color, and his ears. I didn't see many mommy characteristics, but babies change all the time when they are this small. I'm sure she'll resemble mommy soon.
I was there for a little over an hour, but the skies were getting terrible dark (80% chance of rain today), and I still had to go to run a couple of errands before heading home, so L offered to drive me to the station. As we were leaving the hospital parking lot, we realized the station before the one where I got off previously was closer, only three blocks away, so that's where he left me.
I rode the 45 or so minutes home, reading my book most of the way, and by the time I got to my station it was pouring. I got drenched at the gas station, I got poured on at the bank, and I got soaked entering the post office. And just when I thought I could head home, I had to stop at the supermarket to get some things to pack Brandon's lunch for tomorrow. I got home around 7:40pm, rushed making dinner, and just now finished eating. Thankfully hubby fed the boys while I was on my way home, bathed them a short while ago, and put them to bed. But my evening isn't over yet. I still have to take a shower and do the dishes. I'm sooooo ready for bed!

Planning Ahead

I know we're not even in October yet, but I'm mentally getting ready for Christmas. Though our gift-giving will be very, very limited this year, I have decided that we will be baking Christmas cookies from scratch for our loved ones. My former co-worker bakes wonderful sugar cookies in all sorts of holiday shapes every year, with sprinkles and all. I think it will be a fun activity for me and the boys to borrow her recipe and do some baking of our own this year. Mmm....I'm gaining weight just thinking about it!

Highs and Lows

Some good news:

My dear friend Angie had her baby girl this afternoon. She was born via c-section at 2:06pm. I don't have any other details because the phone reception was spotty when they called, but I'll be visiting tomorrow. Expect pictures!

Felipe is walking!

Sadie turned 4 today!

Some bad news:

My good friend WB got fired today. This totally sucks. Getting fired is terrible for anyone, but WB and I have been simultaneously struggling with our finances, and I can imagine what she's feeling like right now. I'm so sorry, my friend. I wish I could make it better. I wish I had won the lotto on Saturday and we'd both be out of the hole, and it wouldn't matter if you'd gotten fired or quit. Please guys, go by and give her some words of encouragement, and if you're in the Orlando area, HIRE HER!!

Halloweenie

This weekend, hubby and I went up to the attic and took down our bin of Halloween costumes. I wanted to see what we have, what I could sell online for extra cash, and if any of Brandon’s old costumes fit Matty. Brandon says he wants to be Thomas, again, so his costume is not a problem. As luck would have it, there are three costumes I’m selling, and Matty fits in Brandon’s Superman costume from a couple of years back. Once the three costumes are sold, I think I’ll use the profits to surprise Brandon and get him a Spiderman costume. After all, it will look so much cuter if both my boys are dressed as superheroes, don’tcha think?
I know this sounds absolutely terrible, but I’m sort of glad we won’t be able to go up to Central Florida for WB and Sherlock’s Anniversary/Halloween party. See, if we go, I’ll be compelled to purchase an anniversary/Halloween gift for them (even if she insists otherwise), along with the unavoidable costs of gas, tolls and food. And, Halloween is on a Friday, so we’d have a rough time getting over there at a decent hour anyway. So WB, I’m sorry we’ll be missing your party this year. Please have a drink or three on my behalf.

Take it outside!

So I ran into this recent article about children going to kiddie gyms, and it bothered me a bit. I've taken the boys to Gymboree and My Gym, but I can't picture taking them to a gym with mini treadmills and elliptical machines. The way I figure it, if the parents can take the kids to a gym for 45 minutes, they can spend that time at a park with them, or walking around the neighborhood, or playing ball in the backyard. Both the kids and the parents will benefit from either of these, and they'll spend quality time together. This seems like yet another way to get kids to grow up quicker than they have to. What do you think?

Happy 3rd Birthday, C-man!

Today (what's left of it, anyway) is Christian's 3rd birthday. Go by and wish him a happy one, 'kay?

What-ifs and what-not

We're having a bit of a rough time this month, and hubby can't help but wonder what our lives would be like now if we hadn't bought this house. The main reason why we moved when we did was because parking was (and still is..we've driven by recently) a major issue in our old community. We knew we wanted to have another child, but we weren't pregnant yet, so we still had time. He wonders where we'd be if we had just stuck it out in a 2-bedroom condo, rented two carports from the association, and waited on the house. I reminded him that we bought and sold at the perfect time, and there's no use in wondering what-ifs when we have to deal with the now. Who knows how anxious we'd be with limited space and possibly trying to sell a condo in the current market if we'd stayed there. Things happen for a reason, I reminded him. Truth is, I love this house, I fell in love with it from the moment I saw it. The condo was perfect when it was just three of us, but this house is perfect for us, now. And it's our home, whether the bank owns most of it or not.

The Parent-Teacher Conference and then some

Brandon's teacher and I met at 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon. She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know from her notes home, but she gave me specific examples about his misbehavior. It seems he's the class clown, he wants to be the center of attention. He plays when he should be paying attention to a lesson. He gets distracted easily and doesn't finish assignments. He has tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants. The desks in the room are grouped into teams of four or five, and she had to isolate him and put his desk next to hers so she can keep a better eye on him. On the plus side, the work he does do ranges from good to excellent. He knows all his letters, shapes, colors, and can put things in sequence. His reading has improved since we read every night, and his handwriting is getting better too. The end result was that I asked her to let me know by Friday how he did the rest of the week, after we spoke to him about it that evening.
The following day, he came home with yet another note from her saying that he was on the floor playing and had incomplete work. That night we did homework, I bathed him, gave him dinner, and he was in bed by 7:30pm. Thursday when I picked him up he was in the office, he wasn't behaving with the after-school care group and missed playground time. Again, we got home, did homework, bath, dinner and bedtime. Yesterday another note followed that he was horsing around during lunchtime and didn't have time to finish his lunch, so he threw a tantrum when they returned to the classroom. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I've tried talking to him calmly and explaining what he's doing wrong. We've disallowed TV and playtime in the evenings and told him we're cancelling his birthday trip to Orlando if he continues to behave this way. We were invited to a birthday party today which we're not going to, and I warned him that if he misbehaves this week he'll be missing C-man's party next week as well.
Some people have told me it could be his usual bedtime, or his diet. When he's not punished he's in bed between 8-8:30pm. He has breakfast at school (which I'm assuming is nutritious!), and for lunch we give him a sandwich, a juice box, and two of the following, which varies based on our inventory in the pantry: a small bag of chips, handful of goldfish crackers, applesauce, a banana, a handful of grapes, a pudding cup, or a fruit cup, and for afternoon snack or lunch dessert I'll include four oreo cookies or a bag of fruit snacks. And for dinner he has whatever we're having, which is usually fairly healthy.
I know that it's not that he's not used to school, since he was in a school environment for the last two years. Yes, he's now in a more structured environment, but he is used to following classroom rules and knows he should behave accordingly. I also know that it's not that he doesn't like the teacher because he tells me he likes his teacher a lot, that she's really nice, and he even broke into tears on Thursday and said "I won't see Ms. ______ on Sunday!" He never sees her over the weekend, I'm not sure why he said Sunday (I guess he meant Monday), but he surely couldn't wait until the next day to see her again. He likes school, he tells me (most of the time) what they covered in class and what activities they did, and he's happy when we arrive in the mornings.

I asked him on Thursday why he is misbehaving so much, and he said "Because my brain tells me to". His school's counselor also happens to be the co-owner of the school he went to for pre-K (Matty's current school), so I'll be asking him for his opinion and perhaps a conference next week.

I bought rewards stickers about two weeks ago, and hadn't been able to implement the chart, but we started that on Wednesday evening. I told him that if he has a minimum of 30 stars (there's room for 36 on the chart), he'd get a treat at the end of the week. Maybe if he physically sees that we're celebrating his positive achievements he'll try harder. Otherwise, I just don't know what else to do.

Back to normal...sort of.

I had the allergy attack from hell yesterday. It started with some sneezing during my morning commute, and by lunchtime I could hardly keep my eyes open from the swelling in my sinuses. By the time I was driving back home, my head hurt so much I was dizzy. I thought I was going to have to stop on the side of the road. But I made it home okay, and hubby was home early from work, so I changed clothes, took two Benadryl, and laid down. He picked up the boys and took care of them until bedtime so I could rest.
Brandon went to bed early (he's still grounded from his behavior at school, more on that later), but Matty gave us a rough night. He was very cranky, and around 10pm I took him to bed with me. He stayed in bed with us until around 12:30pm when hubby transferred him to the crib, but at 3am he was up again. He slept with us the rest of the "night", and when he woke up around 8am this morning he had a mild fever. We gave him Tylenol, and he seems okay now.
I'm just to glad hubby is off today. Although my allergies are gone, I didn't really rest through the night with a certain little 20-month-old stretching and pushing against me. We're going to run some errands soon, and I expect to nap for a good, long while when we get back home.

unintentional hiatus

Been crazy the last few days, lots of stuff going on at work, and the evenings have been quite chaotic, but I do have a lot to say. I'll try to sneak in a post during the day today, and I'll definitely be playing catch-up tomorrow.

In the meantime, who saw Grey's last night? What did you think? Like Shonda Rhimes said, it's a new beginning. I loved it!

bittersweet

The good news: I'm leaving work early today, around 1pm or so.

The bad news: the reason I'm leaving early is for the conference with Brandon's teacher.

ayayay...

Nothing

A couple of weeks ago at Open House, Brandon's teacher included this lovely poem in the packets she handed out to the parents. I loved it so much I thought I'd share it with all of you.

Nothing

When children come home at the end of the day,
The question they're asked as they scurry to play is,
"What did you do at school today?"
And the answer they give makes you sigh with dismay.
"Nothing, I did nothing today!"
Perhaps nothing means that I played with blocks,
Or counted to ten, or sorted some rocks.
Maybe I painted a picture of red and blue,
Or heard a story of a mouse that flew.
Maybe I watched the fish eat today,
Or went outside on the swings to play.
Maybe today was the first time
That my scissors followed a very straight line.
Maybe I sang a song from beginning to end,
Or played with a special, brand new friend.
When you're in Kindergarten
And your heart has wings,
"Nothing" can mean so many, many things.

A funny story

The other day I was doing a search for an article I read at my aunt's house, and instead of typing southern living, I typed sober living (don't ask, I don't know why). My search resulted in pages of pages of drug treatment centers, and I kept staring at the screen, dumbfounded. I couldn’t figure out how I got there, and thought maybe home decorating is a new therapeutic technique, the latest thing in drug treatments. My eyes were playing tricks on me, and my brain was in on the joke. Thankfully, hubby came by shortly thereafter, pointed out my mistake, and dragged me to bed. Good thing too, I was expecting the men holding the white jacket with all the pretty belts on it to walk in the door at any minute.

Stuff in my head

-What happened to my son? It seems he is no longer the quiet, reserved little guy I knew. He has turned into the class clown. His teacher has sent me a note almost every day this week about his behavior, and I has a scheduled a conference next week with her. I've held back playtime, dessert, TV, and nothing works. Since he had no homework tonight, we got home, I gave him a bath, gave him dinner, and he was in bed by 7pm. He's been asleep since. I know he may be tired this week since it was a busy week for all of us, but that doesn't explain why he's been acting up since school started. I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions?

-Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty are back next week! YAY! I saw a commercial for Grey's last night...please don't tell Rose is pregnant with Derek's child. They keep dragging the Mer/Der thing, why can't the just let them be happy?!

-I'm going shopping with Tere tomorrow. And by shopping I mean she shops while I watch as there is no money for me to partake in said shopping.

-I want to remodel my master closet. I want to tear down a wall, build another, and turn our L-shaped closet into a walk-in. Oh, this won't be happening for quite some time, perhaps a couple of years, but it will happen because it is a precursor to finally getting laminate floors. After all, I'm not going to put in new flooring and have to rip it out to build a closet. And this means I'll be obsessing about both until we can make it happen. Oh, and that reminds me: the siding work begins next Thursday. Woo-hoo!

I should have stayed home today

First, we only had 6 hours of sleep last night because I forgot that the boys ran out of clean uniforms for school. We were up doing their laundry until almost 1 in the morning.
After rushing out the door, and being just a couple of minutes behind schedule, I get in the car and look at the gas gauge: damn, no gas. So I drove into the first station in my path and put the last $10 cash I had.
I finally drive up to Brandon's school, and I tripped and fell as we're headed towards the front door. I scraped both knees, the top of all my left toes (so much that my nail polish came off from my meeting with the cement), and have a bruise on my left bicep from the post that broke my fall and stopped me from landing flat on my face. I signed Brandon in and wobbled back to my car. At that precise moment I truly contemplated just driving home and going back to bed. Unfortunately, I opted to do the responsible thing and keep heading towards the office.
So I get to the metrorail station, already 15 minutes later than usual, and the elevators are out of service. I had to limp and wobble my way down six flights of stairs to the main level to then take the escalator to the train platform. Yeah, my arm and knees were throbbing by then.
Oh yeah, and my phone dropped every other call I made in the morning. I had to dial hubby three times after my fall, called into the office twice to report my tardiness, and played phone tag with my friend Christie during the drive to the station. I told hubby we should browse online for cheap Nokia unlocked phones. Out of the six phones I've owned, two were Nokias, and they caused me the least amount of problems. But I digress...
So I got to work about 30 minutes late, which is really not that bad considering all the morning mishaps. The day went pretty smoothly actually, and my supervisor even took pity on me and suggested I leave early. I jumped (not very high due to the morning's injuries) at the chance and left around 4:10, but not before receiving a call from Brandon's teacher that not only had he had a minor inicident and bumped his lip against something, he also misbehaved again today, and she'd like to schedule a parent-teacher conference for the coming week. Great.
Thankfully, the rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful, and Brandon and I finished homework, nightly reading, and this week's special project (neglected earlier in the week due to the unexpected circumstances) with minimal stress. And, best of all, tomorrow is Friday!
But before I can celebrate Friday, Thursday needs to be over, which means I'm heading to bed to make it so. Good night!

Thoughts

Thank you all for all your kind words and prayers while we mourn a very special part of our family. I find solace in the fact that my grandmother is no longer suffering, and as I told Brandon, is now an angel in Heaven.
The last two days have been a blur. I think I'm more overwhelmed by how quickly everything happened than by the actual loss of my grandmother. After all, we were expecting it, she lived a very full life, 94 years, and we recognize how lucky we are to have had her with us for this long.
I don't know if this happens to you, but during times of stress/crisis/sadness/life-altering experiences, random things pop into my mind. For example, I was supposed to go to my sister's house yesterday evening to help her grade papers since progress reports go out this week. I tried calling her several times throughout the day to apologize for not being able to meet up with her, even though I knew I'd be seeing her at the wake.
I also thought about how I have to organize boxes of old pictures and put them in albums. I think that was triggered by seeing a few of my childhood pictures in my grandmother's room, and later finding out my cousin found a small envelope in one of her drawers containing my birth announcement, and attached to it with a rubber band, Brandon's and Matty's birth announcements.
And of course, financial stuff is going to pop up too. I'm determined to set up an accurate budget before the end of the year so we can start putting money away next year. The arrangements for my grandmother went so smoothly because things had already been paid for. My dad, his brother, and his sisters had set things up a while ago. So this weekend I'll be researching budgeting software so we can set some financial goals becuase the Excel spreadsheet I created the last few months just ain't cutting it!. Even though both hubby and I are organ donors and want to donate our bodies to research, and don't want funeral services or to be buried or cremated, we do have children that need to be provided for. We want to know that we have something stashed away for the boys, whether we pass while they are still young or not.
So yeah, these thoughts were roaming around my brain, probably a way to distract myself from the sadness surrounding us. I'll be heading back to work tomorrow. My employer provides me with three grievance days, but I've opted not to take them all. I think it will be better for me, for all of us, to get back to our normal routines. After all, doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing, we're carrying my grandmother's memory in our hearts.

Rest in peace, Abuela

I'm trying to think of a way of writing this, rather than just blurting it out. My (paternal) grandmother just died, about an hour ago, and I can't string a sentence together to properly pay tribute to her. Please forgive this post if it lacks coherence and order. I just need to get this down, while it's fresh.
We were expecting it, she'd been very sick for the last few months. She was in the hospital about a month ago. The doctors ran all sorts of tests and everything was negative. They could find nothing that ailed her, except old age. She turned 94 in April, and though she seemed tired and had shortness of breath, she allowed us to throw her a big party, surrounded by her four children, their respective spouses, six grandchildren and their respective spouses, 8 great-grandchildren (with two more on the way), and so many other people that loved and appreciated her.
I saw her last about three weekend ago. She was home, in the comfort of her room, and while she's been suffering from dementia, there were moments of clarity. The boys were with me, and she told me to take them to the kitchen and give them some cookies. Brandon was afraid of the machines in her room, and needed to be coaxed to go in and say hi, but I wanted her to see him and Matty while she was still lucid.
This past Sunday, my dad told me he went by to visit with her on Saturday. She was in and out all day, but before he left she said to him, "saludame a los niños". Say hi to the kids for me.
Two days later, she's gone.

Descanza en paz, abuelita. Te queremos mucho.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

When I heard Tina Fey would be on SNL this weekend to do a Palin impression, I knew it would be good. Did you see it? It was hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing! Amy Poehler was great as Hilary, but Tina's impression was perfection.

Working is hazardous to my health

I'm dreading going into work tomorrow, and it's not the usual Monday Blues. There have been some renovations on my floor during the last few weeks. The week I was on vacation, the carpet along the main hallway was pulled and the old, nasty wallpaper was taken down. The new flooring, a surprisingly nice, neutral beige tile, is almost completely installed, but as was suspected, pulling up that rug was just like opening Pandora's Box. There's mold on the floors and on the walls, the same mold the management office has claimed did not exist, and only after we called everyone from Environmental Health to OSHA did they finally agree to get it treated during the weekend. I have a feeling I'll be fighting off an allergy attack tomorrow, and that this is nowhere near the beginning of the end of our unhealthy work environment. They'll probably put a bandage on the situation again, something like offering all the suites IQAir purifiers, but that won't make me change my mind: the building should be condemned!

It wasn't just America that lost its innocence

A few moments ago, hubby and I were watching "Inside 9/11" on the National Geographic channel while the kids were playing in the playroom. During a commercial, Brandon had come over to ask me a question, and climbed up on my lap for a hug. The program started back up again, and the narrator said "New York City", so that caught his attention. He looked at the screen and saw the clouds of smoke on the two towers and asked me what happened. All I could say was "an accident, baby". And then he said, "but I thought you said buildings were strong" and I said, "they are". He looks back on the screen and sees a firefighter runnining down the street towards the building and says, "look a firefighter. He's going to go help". I rubbed his head and say, "yup, he's going to go fight the fire", and I lose it crying. I tap Eric on the shoulder and signal for him to get them back to the playroom. Now. How are you supposed to explain 9/11 to a 5-year-old?
Hubby changed the channel and I walked away and came to the computer to write this post. Maybe we can divert the topic for a few more months, or maybe even years. I know it's something that needs to be done, but I'm not quite ready for my kid to lose his innocence just yet.

9/11

Where were you?

I couldn't have said it better.

Never forget.

Random Stuff

Today was my first day back at work after vacation, and the day flew by. A coworker who is currently on maternity leave came by with her baby boy, and she was in the office from around 11am till just after 2pm. It was such a nice treat, he's a cute little chunky monkey, and a few of us had lunch with her and the baby. His presence had us all in great moods. There's nothing sweeter than a baby, after all.

Looks like we are safe from Hurricane Ike, but Cuba is getting pounded. Please say a prayer for all the people on the island, hoping that they can salvage the little that they have.

Brandon's Open House is tomorrow night. I did a smart thing and did both tonight's and tomorrow night's homework with him this evening. All we have left is the daily reading, which he is thriving in, by the way. He gets frustrated when he gets stuck, but he's recognizing and sounding out more and more words each day.

My vaca frita came out fabulous on Friday night, if I do say so myself. See?

I would write more, but I'm going to take advantage that the boys are already in bed and head there myself. Good night!

This, that, and the other thing

Yeah, I know it's been sorta quiet around here. I was really trying to enjoy my last official day of vacation, but I've had a lingering migraine all day. It got so poundy during the mid-morning that I took a nap with hubby rubbing my temples and slept until 1:30pm. I then had a little something for lunch, checked a few things online, and we headed to our favorite membership wholesaler for some staples. We got a few things in preparation for Hurricane Ike, since it seems that we are in the cone of destruction, as I like to call it. I'm just glad that hubby did some lawnwork last week. We need to put away a couple of the boys' toys and put up the shutters when the storm gets closer, and we'll be all set. No worrying about patio furniture covers and dragging things in and out of the house for us. It's times like these that I'm glad we've taken a minimalist approach to decorating the backyard (i.e. no money to do anything out there. LOL).

I'm attempting to make Marta's Vaca Frita, which I'd intended to make since she first posted the recipe (yes, over a year ago) but I got lazy about it. So I decided I would make it while on vacation, and as I am the queen of procrastination, I'm making it tonight. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Also, before I forget, I ask that you contribute a buck or two to my friend WB. See, I told her I'd be running/walking with her as part of Team in Training, but then I bailed on her, like the terrible friend that I am. I figure if I get you all to donate to the cause, she'll forgive me. So please, throw a few bucks her way. Even $5 makes a difference.

That's it for now, have to go finish dinner.

Finally!!

Two Saturdays ago, we had someone come by so we could get yet another quote for the siding for our house. He's the father-in-law of a friend of mine, and I'm so glad we called him: his quote was $125 cheaper than the cheapest quote we previously got. He came by on Monday to pick up a check for half of the amount quoted, and I had absolutely no problem grabbing one of the promotional pens laying about my computer desk and writing him a check.
He starts on the 24th, and says it should only take four or five days to finish the job, including painting. I am so excited to finally be so close to resolving our siding issue! I'll be sure to take before and after pictures for you all.

Bilingual Baby

I know it is rather improper to speak with your mouth full, but I couldn't resist encouraging Matty when he told me what he saw after looking out the window during dinnertime this evening.

Laborous Labor Day

It's been quite a busy day. I got inspired this morning and cleaned the boys' bathroom. Then I cleaned the tile floors and washed and folded two loads of laundry. Around 3pm, hubby picked up our friend's girls as their mom and dad had some stuff to do and asked if we'd watch them for a few hours. They played, watched Jon and Kate +8 reruns with us, then we all went walking to the community park. Now I'm making dinner while blogging and hubby is about to bathe the boys to get them ready for bed. I'm exhausted. Aren't I supposed to be on vacation?!