Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Procrastination Post

This is obligatory. I'm doing it because I have to. I have a major assignment due in T-6 hours and 12 minutes. You see why I have to blog?

Baby is due in 9 days. There are no indications she will come early. I'm glad for this for more reasons than the discomfort of being 9 months pregnant. This is my first winter baby and I want her to come out as big as a 3 month old---having a baby in an Iowa winter just makes me nervous. Probably working in an ER doesn't help that fear...

Also, school has been kicking my butt up one side and down the other (I'm a big girl, that's a lot of ground to cover) in the last couple of weeks. Going into labor and/or having a newborn before today would really have made things difficult. After today, all I have left is one final. To take on my due date. I'm hoping for a good story on this one.

Today is our first snow. It's not sticking to the streets but powdering the ground. Danyo thinks because the snow is here, we can open "prezzies". Have I mentioned his tendency to "babify" pretty much any word he says? It's really funny and J imitates it regularly. I love it. Recently he has become obsessed with Beyblades (in a normal, 4-year-old obsessed kind of way, nothing like what Bo manages to do with a topic of his choice). On the cartoon, there is a character named "Jenga" and another little character (I've never watched the show, just hear it in the background) calls him "Jengy". Which is exactly what Danyo does with just about every noun he can think of. However, whenever this character says "Jengy" Danyo yells loudly at the TV, "HIS NAME IS JENGA, NOT JENGY!" His yelling is mean and loud, and it makes me laugh every time he does it. He's a hypocrite!

Lately Bo has been making similar complaints about school that he made in Kindergarten. If I could have done Kindergarten over again, I would have pulled him out and "home schooled" or found some other alternative. Full day was WAY too long for him, and he was not being taught anything at all. I didn't know this until after the fact though. His complaints were about being tired, or he was wetting his pants, or he talked about school being "too long". He actually learned to write incorrectly while in Kindergarten. You should see the crazy strokes that boy makes to form an "h" or an "a". It defies logic! Anyway, he's been complaining again, very similar complaints. It's hard for me to determine if he's just ready for a break, or if there are similar problems and I need to get proactive. His teacher works hard to keep him stimulated, but she has at least 4 "high need" kids in her class, that I'm aware of, and I just don't know how one person can do it all in a setting like that.

I don't really know what the answer is, but I don't want his little spirit getting squashed again because I'm not clued in or don't know what I'm doing.

I'm so glad I got to grow up and worry about crap like this. We really should have been warned about adulthood. :)

Danyo just told me I'm awesome, but he's awesomer. His logic worked like this: There's snow outside, time to open presents, mom clearly doesn't make this obvious connection even though I deliberately pointed out the stuff falling onto the ground, I can't call her a bad name because I'm trying to earn a Beyblade, I'm awesomer.

He's been earning 3 X's a day in an effort to earn a new Beyblade. I realized that it's time to get a little more proactive about his short-temper and mean mouth. He's been working really hard. First thing he said to me this morning was, "I'm probably not going to get all my X's today because I'm going to say the word poopy. Poopy!" I let "poopy" run it's course with Bo and Avee. It's not even one of the words Danyo says that I object to. My kids love that word. Avee stretched it out over about 2 years. She still loves that word and hides herself in the bathroom to say it with wild abandon. Weirdo. Anyway, Danyo's trick is brilliant. He absolutely has to say some words---the day cannot pass without him saying them. So, he's socialized himself and says, "Oh man Mom, I almost said butt cheek just now. Good sing I didn't, huh?" He knows what he's doing, he ain't no fool.

If I had a quarter for every time he did that, combined with every time I've caught him going commando, I'd be a rich woman. F'real.

Bo said something last week that has made me chuckle through out the week. He was watching a documentary on Pearl Harbor. He's been interested in military/war/soldiers/etc for some time now. I sat down for a minute to watch it with him and he casually stated: "They should make bumper stickers for the old people that says, 'I dropped the bomb on Pearl Harbor'."

I couldn't stop laughing. Methinks he may have missed a point or two. Of course, I was a good mom and explained why perhaps that might not be the best idea.

Uh-oh, I'm running out of fodder. That means I have to get back to work! So sad...

I doubt very many people read this with any regularity anymore, but if you read this in the next week, give me your two cents on the Bo/School issue and throw in a name guess/suggestion just for fun. We don't have a name picked, but we have lots of ideas. By the way, it is a girl. :)

8 comments:

Andrea said...

I have similar school issues with my dd in grade 1. And I too don't know what to do. So.. if you get any great ideas, I'd love to know. I'm thinking of homeschooling starting in Jan?

I'm bad at names, especially girls. My last one was a boy thankfully or he'd be nameless. I love my girls names, so email me if you want to know those?

Rebecca said...

OK.. school sucks.. its true..it breaks their little spirits and sucks the life out of them.. guess its a nice adjusment to adulthood..but for real..its tough, but lifes about dealing with stuff thats no fun..life lessons.. and my kids and I would not survive homeschooling..so that was not an option..well chat..

as for names..DUH.. REBECCA JR.. :)

Analiese said...

Well you came close with Avery but I think this little girl needs "Analiese".
I will send Tim Tams if this happens....

Bex said...

We regularly take "mental health days" just for the boys to have a day off and not do anything. They love it!

Heffalump said...

I already made some name suggestions on Facebook.
I don't know what to say about school really. I guess it all depends on the individual kid. Are there things he likes about school? Do you think he would thrive at home? My kids have had school issues off and on since they started school. Our oldest two do online school. After 6th grade our oldest asked if he could come home for school. I did some research and we picked an online school. It's still considered public school, but he does his classes online. The next year, our second son decided to come home for school too. I let them make that decision when they are ready to go into middle school. Our problems were mainly bullying, but also just a lack of being taught much at the regular school. I like that they can work ahead and be challenged through the online school we use. I also know that I might not enjoy it as much if I had to do all the teaching and explaining, so I can't say that I would feel successful doing home school with a younger kid. Still, you know your kid, and you know yourself! I think you will make a good decision.

Michelle Garff said...

I basically ignore anything negative that my kids say about school. There is no way I want to be responsible for their education. :) Actually, call me if you want a serious opinion. On the name front, Ella Marie is my choice. It is very personal and now that I don't get a girl I think you should make me feel better about my loss by naming your daughter Ella (or I have lots others if you call me)

Robert and Natalie said...

Natalie Michelle is such a great name for a girl...just saying

Camille said...

I cannot believe you are due in a couple of days. Good luck! I have no name suggestions, sorry. As for Bo and school, I think you should wait until after Christmas break and see if it continues. Maybe he is just getting tired of it and ready for a break and will feel better after that. If it continues, then... uh... I have no idea what you should do. Is he bored because he's not learning up to his level? If so, you could maybe have some workbooks at home that he can work on after school. That way he's actually learning stuff.... with some kind of incentive to do extra work after school. I like what someone else said about just taking a day off school once in a while. Does it have anything to do with things outside school? Is he worried at all about the new baby? I swear that parenting is one long guessing game.