History

Yesterday I watched, with great excitement, the inauguration of President Obama. It's one of those moments that you'll know where you were when he was sworn in. I was at work. I started listening to NPR as soon as I got in the car and continued to listen at work. When it got close to the swearing in I pulled up a live feed on the Internet and got to see it live. It was so amazing. It was so nice to see our country come together and be happy for a change. I thought Obama's speech was great. It will be so nice to listen to a good speaker for the next four years. When I picked Rion up from school they had a letter to President Obama posted by the door. The kids asked that he take care of the people that need help and to keep people safe among other things. Rion said he did get to watch the president being sworn in, but he thought it was boring. I told him some day he will be thankful he got to see such a historical event. At home, Torii wasn't so thrilled about the inauguration either. He wanted to play his video game. Even though this was a day to show how far this country has come, it was also a reminder of how much work still needs to be done. Fred reminded me that, unfortunately, there are people that are not happy about our new president. When he said this, I joked, "Just because they're Republicans. Are they sore losers?" He looked at me seriously and said, "No, that's not the reason." It took me a few seconds, but then it clicked. "Ohhh.... right, because he's black." It's so sad that he is right about that.

A very nice day

The kids had a really good time with Auntie Vicki. She said they were all good. I was a little worried about Cordelia since this was her first sleepover, but she did really good. The boys were really wild when they got home, but also really tired. Rion was getting upset over the dumbest things. Once they did get settled into bed it didn't take long before they were asleep. I really enjoyed my time off. I got a lot done on the computer and worked on some new kid's clothing designs. Fred got up about 1:00 today and wanted to do something. We thought about going to a movie, but the ones we wanted to see had already started and I didn't want to go to a later one since I wasn't sure when the kids would be home. We couldn't decide what to do so Fred just told me to get in the car and we'll figure something out. When the kids are around I always think of things I would do if the kids weren't around, but when they aren't around I'm at a lost. We drove around and ended up at the bowling alley. We bowled one game, Fred won. Then we stopped by the antique store and then had a snack at Big Boy. It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed Fred and mine's unplanned afternoon. It was fun.

Home Alone

Vicki called on Saturday and asked if she could have the kids overnight on Sunday since there is no school on Monday. Of course I said yes. I thought she would only have the boys, but then she said she wanted Cordelia too. "If you want..." I told her. "It'll be fun," she said. Ummmm....ok. If I didn't think she was crazy enough she also took them to Space Aliens tonight. She did have AJ and Kayla with and the kids are better with people who happen to not be their parents. Still, I was nervous. She did call me and said everyone was so good at dinner. I wonder how bedtime will go. This is Cordelia's first sleepover so it will be interesting to hear how she did. They won't be home until late tomorrow afternoon so I have lots of free time. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself.

Miss Cordelia

I think all the kids are going through a growth spurt, (I don't think Torii ever stopped eating today), but Cordelia seems to be growing the most. It just seems in this last month she has done so many new things and I'm getting to know her personality a lot better. Two days before the new year she started walking on her own. Which is great because now my back can have a break from helping her walk around all the time. The day she started walking I was so sick. I was laying on the floor, not wanting to move, and suddenly Cordelia got up and started walking. She walked around all day. Maybe she knew I was in no shape to hold her hands while she walked so she just gave up and took off on her own. Now she can get going pretty fast. I can't remember what Torii was doing today, but Cordelia wanted to get away fast. It's so cute to see those little legs go. I've also noticed some words or at least attempts at words. I know she is understanding a lot more that I say. Today she got the batteries out of one of our remotes and I asked her where the missing one was and she pointed right at it. As far as personality, Cordelia has a temper. I hope this is a passing phase. She mostly gets upset when I don't know what she is pointing and grunting at. She has fell on the floor and laid on her tummy and had a few minor tantrums. It is way too early for terrible twos! Cordelia also seems to be independent. She tries to put on her socks and shoes. I don't remember the boys doing that on their own until they were much older. The other day she also laid down on her own when I took a diaper out. I thought that was awesome, but it turned out to be a one time deal. Now we are back to rodeo diaper changes. There were more reasons I thought she might be an independent girl, but can't think of what those were at the moment. And she's just been funny lately. She loves to do Auntie Vicki's bumblebee game. She's usually the one that starts it. She likes to put on adult shoes. She pretends to drink from the cups of her new tea set. And her favorite thing to do is climb into Rion's big Tonka dump trunk and sit in the back. She loves it when we push her around in it too.

Meeting at school

On Thursday I had the meeting at school to discuss Rion's speech and fine motor skills. It was a bit much to take in everything, but in the end it was decided to give Rion some help. Although he has some trouble saying some letters, he doesn't really need help with speech. He does need help with his fine motor skills and apparently you can't have help with that unless you're in speech too. They kind of went back and forth on whether to wait with help if needed or go ahead with the help now. I told them I would like it if they helped because I can't get him to practice his handwriting at home and he would be more willing to work with them. So it was decided to help him. He has bad handwriting, can't cut with scissors very well and doesn't color inside the lines. I do feel like this is partly my fault for not preparing him for school. Then again, since he's my oldest, I really had no idea. We weren't expected to know all that when I started school. On the more positive side, Rion is doing really well academically. That played a factor in him getting help. From what I understand, they don't usually worry about speech therapy until kids are in first or second grade because they understand letter sounds and words better. They think he will do good in speech because Rion is doing so well in those areas. The reading teacher said he is in the higher reading group in his class. I am glad he is getting help because I do worry about what others may think of him when they see his coloring or handwriting. I worry that kids make fun of him or others may think he's dumb. I probably shouldn't worry about that because it probably isn't a concern, but I still do. And I know I shouldn't worry about what others think because I know he's smart, but it's hard. It will take some time for him to improve these skills, but I 'm glad he's on the road to get it resolved. I'd rather take care of it now and not have to worry about it later.

A busy day

Today was a busy day, but altogether good. We had a MOPS steering team meeting so I did not work today. I dropped Rion off at school and since we had some time before the meeting we went to Target. I still needed to return two things from Christmas that were duplicate presents. One for Torii and one for Cordelia. So they each picked something new. Torii picked a new movie. I had never heard of it, but he said I'll see it when we watch it. It is some anime TV series. A Pokeman type show. Cordelia (actually Torii and I) picked out a talking tea set. It's really cute. It was that or the anniversary Little People set. It's a bigger version (no possible way of choking on these) of the Little People I played with as a kid. After Target Torii wanted to play on the coin operated cars in the mall.

Then we headed to the MOPS meeting. I missed half of the meeting because Cordelia was not in a good mood. I think she was tired, but it is still unusual for her to be so upset like that. I really wanted to stop and get milk after the meeting, but I took Cordelia home for a nap right away instead.

After laying Cordelia down for a nap and having lunch I went out for milk. After I got home with the milk I left again because Fred let me have some much needed me time. First I went to the Civic Center to get some tickets. Torii and I are going to see Playhouse Disney live. I asked Rion if he wanted to go, but he said he was too big for that. I will probably treat him to a Wizards game sometime. He keeps talking about seeing another basketball game, but he wants to see the Nuggets again. After I got the Disney tickets I told the ticket guy I also needed tickets for the Bob and Tom comedy show. He kind of looked at me funny. I should have told him I had a different date for that show. I guess it was kind of funny to be buying tickets for two completely different shows.

Next I went to a thrift store which I haven't been to in awhile. I go through withdrawals. I wish I would have had more time because they had digger's delight which I love. But I had to get going for a meeting at Rion's school. The meeting was about his speech and fine motor skills, but I'll post more about the meeting later as this post is long enough already. After the meeting I had about an hour to spare before school let out so I did some shopping. I'm glad I had a meal in the crockpot today which at least made supper easy tonight. I continued to be busy tonight, working on a custom onesie order that someone requested. I also had to sort through 25 bids I received for a custom request I made. I was not expecting that many bids. It was a good day in that I got a lot done, but I'm looking forward to the weekend and just relaxing.

Be my "friend"

Recently I read that 30 somethings are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. You can add me into that growth as I signed up for Facebook last year. And most of my friends there are thirty somethings as well. I really didn't know what Facebook was all about until I got started on it and since then I've become addicted. The other day I also read something by a mom whose kids are also on Facebook. The main point of the article was whether parents and their kids should be "friends" on Facebook. This subject came up over Christmas. I told my mom that I wouldn't want to be "friends" with her or my dad. Not that I have anything to hide, it's just I need some space from my parents. It wasn't until I read this article that I thought about my own kids on Facebook. Luckily, they are too young that I don't have to deal with this yet, but when I thought about it I realized I would feel rejected if my kids didn't want to be my "friend." I would be left to wonder what they are doing on Facebook and what could they be hiding there? Additionally, I could have an inside look on their lives if I was their "friend." Although I'm told you can bar certain people from certain information on your Facebook page. I'm old and haven't figured that out yet. I need Rion to get a little older so he can tell me how to do it. So in the future when my kids reject my friends request and I get a little peeved, just remind me that I wouldn't my own parents to be my "friend" either.