Days That Make Me Want to Homeschool

What a week. So much has happened I don't know where to start. 

Alex's teacher at school, Ms. Paine and I, have been working very hard with Alex on potty training and lo and behold orange gummy bears were the secret. :) That and a special new potty with a cushie seat. Yep no kidding, my kiddo won't do those hard plastic potty chairs. We had to go find special ones that have a ring of foam cushion for his pottying comfort!  About a week ago he went potty on it and it was a once a day thing until yesterday when we ran out of diapers and pull ups at the house. Like a crazy person I decided to go with regular undies instead of running to the store and I couldn't believe it when he went all afternoon and evening with no accidents and going potty. Then this morning he was right back into them and with only a small accident at school I think it's been a bang up start to a future without diapers! :)

That's the good side, the bad part of today started as I walked into school with Alex and the director pulled me aside to ask if I had gotten her email. For a moment I felt like a 9th grader in the Asst Principals office again and thought, oh no what did I do. It wasn't about me though, it was Alex's wonderful, loving teacher who we adore! She and her fiancee are expecting and since Alex attends a Christian private school that's a rule breaker that apparently her talent, devotion and plans to marry (put on hold right now for financial reasons) can't surmount. I'm pretty furious right now at the church and whoever it was in the church that cared more about their rules than they did about our kids. Neither the kids or the parents were given any warning regardless of the fact that the church knew of this for several months. No warning was given to his teacher and therefore no warning or transition was given to the kids. For most kids this might be a minor bleep on their radar but Alex has had 5 teachers since he started there in May, a grandmother that travels and is sometimes here and sometimes not, a father that travels regularly, and lots of far off relatives. I worry that he is not going to understand why some people disappear and never come back, some come and go, and some disappear for a while but show back up randomly.  Add that to the fact that he is having surgery on Monday, which I'm sure with my drama king will be a walk in the park and you begin to get an idea of how grateful I am that tomorrow is Friday!

Ahh yes now you are saying, "Surgery?" As most of you know Alex has been sick for months. Nothing contagious or debilitating but a constant runny nose, congestion, and cough. It's gone on so long that he comes to us and asks for medicine to make him feel better. I'm not sure what age Betty Ford starts treatment at but I refuse to let Alex be the first toddler on their roster! :) After several rounds of antibiotics, home remedies and many torturous sessions with saline solution and  a bulb syringe we finally are moving forward with a permanent solution. :)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone! 

Mom's trying to stay more on top of posting recent pictures and keeping everyone up to date this year, so here goes.

 

I was partying it up New Year's Day! And then last weekend we went out to Nana and Pawpaw's house, and I took along my Diego tricycle and  flying turtle scooter, and I even managed to give the family some tennis lessons. :)

 

I hope this year is great for all my family and friends. Check back soon for some videos. Mom's been a real slacker about posting those lately!

Telecommuting Tightrope

It's review time around my office and that always leads to a few worrisome days. Will my boss and co-workers, who rarely see me, have any grasp of how hard I have worked this year? Will they reflect that on a blind review spreadsheet that will be compiled to figure my raise and possible promotion?  A few stress filled days and then I realized that I was stressing for nothing. Those in power at my office (all males) are procrastinators through and through and while I should have had a nice review and discussion of my salary and future potential, it was, as always, held late. Matter of fact, it still hasn't been officially held, but this year's phone call and in person announcement of my salary increase and a verbal pat on the back is far better than last year's 2 line email. Hmmm, maybe by next year I'll actually be surprised, rather than checking my bank account, seeing the new amount and doing a little math to figure out if my "review" went well.

All in all it was a good year, I have little to work on, and am good to go continuing on as I am. This bodes well for my continued life as a telecommuter, which is great since after 2 years working from home I would probably go crazy back in an office environment.

~Telecommuting Tyrant

MMM, Macation!

So it's the holidays and that means "Macation" as my two year old calls it. For the first 3 months of his life I was on uninterrupted maternity leave (good thing since he was a coliky, insommniac baby and I spent most of my day ensuring that my arms never moved so he would be eternally comfortable), and the next two working no more than 4 hours a day. That all changed when we moved to Austin and I came back to work full time as a telecommuter. I tried for about a week to manage an active 5 month old baby and my job. It didn't take a genius to figure out that as soon as the baby started crying the phone would ring! I'm sure looking back an outsider would have viewed my days like an Abbot and Costello film; a true comedy of errors, but within a week I was interviewing nannies.

That was really the best of both worlds for me. I could work hard, get my job done right and still hear his giggles, see his smiles and have plenty of time with him every day. At 18 months though my little social butterfly was asking where his friends were and I knew that it was time to cut the apron strings and enroll him in a more social environment. A is now a happy, adjusted toddler in a nearby church school and never wants to come home. This week, our Holiday Macation week, will be spent bouncing from one activity to another, trying to entertain him. I'm looking forward to the quality time, believe you me, but when your two year old knows that Sunday means he'll see his friends tomorrow, and he's already asking for them, you begin to wonder how the week will go!

Wish us luck, I have a feeling it might be easier to handle deadlines, presentations and colleagues than one little, cute, angelic, crazy kiddo missing his pint size running buddies. Good thing I wouldn't trade our time for the world!

Twinkle, Twinkle

This time of year you see twinkle lights everywhere. As I sit here typing this up I can see my neighbors lights winking through my front window and if I crane my neck I can almost see the gorgeous LED lights across the street. We decorated last weekend, when it was still warm enough to be outside in tee-shirts, and it brought back memories of decorating for my wedding several years ago. I wanted a fairy tale outdoor wedding in April so in preparation we purchased thousands of lights at after Christmas sales. Not only did we get them for a fraction of the cost, but after the wedding we boxed them back up and our first year of marriage we were all set to decorate the whole street in white twinkly lights. Now we wrap the front porch columns, decorate the house roof line and even wrap the trees. I won't even tell you how many strands I have left over! Believe me it will be many years before I ever need to buy lights again.

If you're planning a wedding in 2009, and want to decorate with lights, hit the after Christmas sales next week and stock up! If you're not planning a wedding, grab a few boxes anyways and turn your deck into the outdoor entertaining hotspot among your friends! 

A Nutty Irishman Saves My Sanity

The rush of the holidays. Finishing up deliverables for the year. Two days until vacation.

These are all things that are occuring simulteanously during the last week of work before Christmas vacation! I work hard all year, and I work from home which means I work sick or not, so I am planning a bang up vacation for Christmas. I'll be out the door (theoretically :)) on Friday at noon and I'll be back sometime after the first of the year. So this week is nuts and today finds me at Kenny's Coffee having a Nutty Irishman, my absolute favorite coffee drink for a pick me up, to get the day jumpstarted. I can't tell you how many times I have been so happy to have a great mom and pop coffee shop with free wifi in my neighborhood. Anytime I need more noise than I have at home to get me to focus, they are ready and waiting with caffinne a plenty. Off to the grind now, but I can't complain too much since Pandora. com is rocking on my computer, the Nutty Irishman is soothing my lack of sleep that I can thank my toddler for, and I'm looking forward to a coworker lunch today! All in all the best of the best that telecommuters can look forward to!