Losing to a Six Year Old

Trueby and I are battling YET AGAIN over her cleaning up her room. She tends to stuff things in bags, bags in the closet, call it good. So she has this huge pile of books in a drawer in her closet because they are "special" and can't go on the bookshelf, which, incidentally is a lot harder for her to do than just dumping them in a drawer. Frustrated, I say, "What makes these books so special?" She starts flipping through the pile saying, "This one is Kevin Henkes and I love Kevin Henkes. This one is Halloween and it's almost Halloween...etc." She has a reason for every one of them. Then she gets to a Wild West retelling of Cinderella and I can tell it's a struggle, but she comes up with, "This one is a text connection." I jump in, "Dude, what text connection do you have with this book?" She says, "I have to work all the time." I retort, "You AREN'T working! You're just shoving stuff in the closet!" In the world's snarkiest half-under-her breath voice she mutters, "How about a bossy mom?"
I laughed so hard and so long I thought I was going to stroke out. Karma is a bitch.

First Day of First Grade...in room 1

She's official. Big kid in the house, baby. Having been doing things all summer "because I'm a first-grader now," she has taken the cloak for real. The morning started with a visit from the Backpack Fairy. My kid is obsessed, to an alarming degree, with getting mail so when I asked her to put something in the recycle today she absolutely hooted with joy when she found a package on the doorstep addressed to her. She was so excited to tear into it, lovely. It was just some trinkety stuff; a necklace, a pencil, a treat, some stuff like that. And, the bane of primary teachers everywhere...a digital watch. She's been wanting one for a while and was thrilled to get it. Go ahead, ask me how long she kept it. Uh-huh. "Mrs. Stamey said to put it in my backpack." Were you messing with it like we talked about? "No! I just had to set the time. And see if the light worked." Uh-huh.













Anyway, so after the mandatory pictures, we packed her into the car and her dad and I, who had both taken time off to start her on this new adventure with our full support, drove her to school. All excited, we walked to her room, and were promptly booted out by her teacher! She wasn't allowing parents in the room, clean break and all that. Not knowing this, we hadn't said goodbye or anything outside and when poor Trueby realized we'd ditched her her little face just crumpled up. If you have a little kid you know that look, she's gonna cry but wants desperately to be brave and not do it in front of people. Heartbreaking. Later she says, "I wiped my tears on my jacket." That sentence makes my stomach hurt. Of course she's fine. Of course she has buddies in there and was immediately busy. She says she had a great day, loves first grade, and her teacher is "really nice." I know. But that didn't keep me from seeing that face all day long!
Here's the problem. Being a teacher, I am desperately afraid of being "That Mom." You know the one. Anything you do that isn't the way she would do it is wrong. Now, anyone who knows me in the slightest knows without a doubt I am the textbook definition of "That Mom." I accept that. I try crazy hard not to let it leak out on people, but I get that it's me. So when my eye almost explodes that I'm not able to settle my kid in and, knowing how she does not take well to change, help her feel secure and ready, I am able to admit that the teacher knows what she's doing, my kid is fine, everything is fine.....breathe deeply. But I certainly don't like it!

Firestarter

I'm watching a movie and thinking about stuff, obviously, and this occurs me. You know how the discovery of fire has been heralded as this huge move forward in human evolution? It was the first step in lifting us toward this greater state, we started to become the chosen ones yadda yadda yadda. So, in my mind, it went like this: A few different people were able to keep their sticks on fire and everyone was good. But then someone figured out how to start a fire. This person ran hooting and hollering about how awesome she is all the way to her family and started up immediate "fire-starting" classes. Everyone learned it, rainbows burst across the heavenly firmament and humanity was that much far further along.
But what if that's not how it went? What if that first person hid themselves away in a cave somewhere and started charging others for little burning sticks to take home. What if he tried to set himself up as a deity and build a power base for himself and rip off all his fellow budding humans until some other skeez snuck in and spied on him and stole the secret. Then you have competing fire shops, but you're still paying for your dinner roaster. These two cave dwellers hate each other and who knows what kind of bloody battles ensued. What kind of war resulted, how much blood and hate until finally everyone knew how to make fire?
Ok, a little dramatic I know. I'm just feeling really frustrated at what I can't figure out if it's human nature or some human's nature. I may be an idiot,but I've always felt like if reasonable people have a common goal, they can sit down together and freakin work it out. Everyone will HAVE to give a little. It's what I teach my kid, my students, children the world over have this pounded into them. Then adults? We can't seem to get it together.

Me Money!

My kiddo saw a lemonade stand on the side of the road a few days ago and, being obsessed as she is with making money, has been hatching a plan for her own stand ever since. So today she got down to it, squeezing the bejeebus out of lemons, adding the juice to simple syrup and after ice and more water she cranked out some really tasty lemonade. We dragged all sorts of crap down to the curb and set up a sign. Then waited. And waited. We don't live on a particularly busy street, so she decided to get on her bike and go drum up some business. She rounded up some buddies and our super sweet and supportive neighbors kicked in too. All in all she had a great time and best of all she thinks she bumped up a tax bracket. $2.50 baby! This kid's love of cash is just this side of worrisome. All entrepreneur, all the time!

Five Stages of August

1. DENIAL: August doesn't mean anything. There are still four weeks of vacation left, that's forever to go. I'm not freaked out about school starting, I still totally feel like it's break. I'm not freaking out at all.
2. ANGER: How can it be cold and wet during my last month of break?! Why do I have to go to workshops and trainings during my vacation!? Why do I have to go into my room already?! This sucks!!
3. BARGAINING: Ok, I'll just go in for a few hours. Then I'll have fun, it'll still be like a day off. I'll just go to one of the training days, I'll just set up the desks, that's all. I'll spend all of Monday in the park and just go in Tuesday morning.
4. DEPRESSION: i can't believe it's over already. i haven't done anything yet. i'm not ready to go back!
5. ACCEPTANCE: It was cool to see everyone today. I'm excited about trying out those ideas we talked about. I wonder what my kids will be like this year? Hmmm, new school clothes.

Current status: about 70/30 between four and five

I am proud of my president

Ok, not because of that. But come on, that's funny. Anyway. You may have heard about the health care debates (and I use that word very generously) going on recently. Little bit? Ok, so when widely-accepted-as nut cases like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin spout their literally crazy poison, you just go, "Whew. That chick (in both cases) is CRAZY with a side of dangerous. Who are the rubes listening to these people?" But then Obama goes out and says Sen. Charles Grassley is one of the reasons he's still hopeful about negotiations with Republicans and the next day that douchenozzle says, "Yes, you do need to be afraid of them pulling the plug on Grandma." What the hell, dude! He knows with unparalleled truth that is just not true. He knows it is! And tells people, YES, DO BE AFRAID. Come on, really? What kind of pictures must the insurance companies have of this guy? So, and I am incredibly proud of this, Jon Stewart made the same joke I did! After me! We've been talking about Obama's poll numbers, but I seriously feel he may be the first president whose opinion of the public must be dropping. Don't you just see him sitting that little oval room, looking at the picture of himself with a hitler 'stache shaking his head and just going Screw You All.
So then there's all this noise on the left that he should just take his majority and run. Just tell 'em how it's gonna be, boss. They're spouting idiocy, there is no point in trying to have an intelligent conversation with someone using the words "death panel." Come on! I gotta say, I definitely see the attraction there.
But here's the thing...and this just came to me about 3 am while checking out that very viewpoint at Salon.com...I think he really means it. I really think he does. I think he wants bi-partisanship during his watch. Not because it will look good 20 years down the road, but because it really is what is good for our country. I think he feels he can break through to the human beings behind the party facades and those people will eventually go, "You know, it doesn't actually hurt me to do what is good for the people I have been charged with protecting." I believe Obama really thinks it will, in the long (very long) run, be the best thing he could have done for his country. And that may be true. I don't even think I can imagine a congress where issues are debated on merit, and not on what is directly oppositional to your perceived opponent. Utopian I know. But why? Why does that idea sound silly and naive? Shame on all of us that it does. And it makes me really proud of Obama. Health care is needed to heal our sick, but an end to this endless, mindless screaming is needed to heal our country. Which we can then rename Obamatopia.

I saw this on another blog...a nice train to jump on

TODAY
June 23rd/24th, 2009

Outside my window... the moonlight is glinting off my Obama sticker. Is it time to take that off? Maybe after my kid stops crowing "Barack Obama!" whenever she sees him.

I am thinking... that I am going to be complete deadweight at my workshop on teacher leadership tomorrow. How ironic

I am thankful for... summer vacation. More this year than any I can remember. Rough parents this time around.

From the kitchen... a pitcher of iced tea is calling me. But is quite possibly why I'm downloading Van Wilder to watch at almost midnight.

I am wearing...my very favorite summer pjs

I am creating... a real headache for myself when the alarm goes off

I am going... to try my very best to be pleasant to be around tomorrow. Outlook sketchy, but I'm going down trying

I am reading... The Big Picture: Reflections on Science, Humanity and a Quickly Changing Planet (David Suzuki); Everything is Illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer); and a series of case studies for the workshop tomorrow

I am hoping... that my kiddo is happy. No one ever thinks they're permanently scarring their kid, do they?

I am hearing... Green Day...Viva La Gloria Love it!

Around the house... my family is sleeping. While I hate being insomniac, I love my house when my husband, daughter and yes, even the cat, are all sleeping peacefully around me.

One of my favorite things... listening to my kid talk in her sleep. The other night she freakin sang! God I love that kid

A few plans for the rest of the week... two more workshop days, then a planning day with my astronaut. Note the possessive. Excited for movie night and the return of Smit-Mo.