When I grow up, I want to be a kidder

I don't know if I have ever shared with you Arlington's life ambition. When she grows up, she tells me, she wants to be “a kidder”. She means, a comedian, but all the same. What aspiration! What drive! I want her to go to Harvard, and she wants to be a clown. Well, this is a step up from her first career choice which was: statue. Yep. We passed on one day (a year or so back) and we talked about it, and that sounded like something she wanted to be -she would grow up to be a statue. Why not.

This week was busy, of course. Now that it is December, the holidays are in full speed. But next week is even busier – I have a lot of meetings at work, Mat is out of town for two days, and we plan on catching Santa one day. Plus my cousin Alissa is coming in from NYC to stay with me while Mat is away and we are very excited about seeing her! (click on her name and you can see her blog)

Since I last wrote, not much exciting has happened. Arlington got her “report card” from school and did very, very well. She got mostly one's (on a scale of 1-4: 1 being top number) and a few twos. So she is doing great! They don't give grades, of course, in Kindergarten (and I am unsure exactly how Connecticut's grading system works for all of elementary level) – just things they need to accomplish before first grade. She is already able to do all of those things, so now we focus on reading. She is doing so great with that. Mat's mom got her a series of readers and she has already read them all independently.

Anyway, the babies are doing fine. Both of them have colds right now. Cainan's behavior is back to being “so two”. He is back to foot stomping and dropping himself to the ground when he doesn't want to do something. Yay for that. And Finley is not eating that great, once again. I tell ya – if I could skip over the toddler years, I would! I know, I know, “cherish them while they are little”. Yeah. All the mothers of toddlers understand that is about an impossible task!

We have been talking up Santa with the babies. Finley will say, “sit on Santa's lap. He is nice man. He says ho ho ho”. Then she will laugh. I know, though, when the time comes, she won't sit on his lap. She will even say “no crying when see Santa”. Sure kid. Keep telling yourself that.

Today was basketball for Arlington and then she had a birthday party this afternoon for one of her fellow Kindergarten buddies. She had a great time at both. The party was a power rangers party (little boy) and so she got to wear her pink power ranger costume. We don't even watch the power rangers, but she loves this costume. Something tells me it is because it is pink.

Work this week for me was pretty good! Monday was my hardest day, of course. Then after that, the week got slowly better. I still saw around 30 kids a day, but that isn't bad, actually. My story of the week goes as follows:

Two boys, 2^nd grade walk into my office at lunch time, holding their stomachs:
Johnny 2^nd grader: Mrs. Pletcher, our stomach's hurt
Me: (looking at the clock) lunch just started 10 minutes ago boys, are you done eating already?"
They nod
I take their temperature, have them rest, talk to them about what they ate (Wednesday is breakfast for lunch day – or you can have regular lunch). After much discussion about what they ate, one of the boys finally confesses
Johnny 2^nd grader: Well Billy 2^nd grader dared me to eat 8 sausages!
Me: and you DID it?
He nods
Billy 2^nd grader: Yeah, well Johnny 2^nd grader dared me to put vegetables in my chocolate milk and drink it.
ME: and I take it you did that?
He nods
Me: Well, I don't have any fixes for your silly antics. Let this be a lesson to you both.
I give them a bottle of water and shoo them away.

Sigh.

So what are my chances that Finley is not this crazy? (notice I didn't say Arlington) Yeah, that is what I thought.

Today we made gingerbread cookies. And when I say “we” I mean Mat and the kids. That was his nutso plan. But they turned out really yummy, and Arlington and Finley (with their allergies) can eat these cookies, which makes them very happy. Arlington was able to help roll the dough and do the cut outs. Finley made a bunch of little gingerbread balls and kept slapping them down on top of the cookies on the pan. One got missed, so one of the gingerbread man had a large tumor when he was done cooking. We made them because tomorrow is our day to bring some cookies to our church service. Tomorrow we are going to get our Christmas tree and put that up. So we had a full weekend! We haven't seen Santa yet – that will have to wait until next weekend.

I have a few pictures below. Our original plan was to go to a parade tonight with the kids. But all of us are a little under the weather, so we had to cancel that plan. Bummer. I am telling you this because that would have meant I had more pictures.

By the way- I posted a few days ago about Cainan's adoption story being published on this blog:

No Hands But Ours

so check it out! (click on words above and it will take you there. Just go to section Family Stories and look for us!)


AND, I am going to be getting my blog a new header as soon as I force ask my husband kindly. Hopefully before Christmas!

I will see you all on Tuesday!!