Another poll, and various events of the day
Will and I took this survey, designed to match you up with your (American) political candidate. Interestingly enough, we both matched most strongly with minor-party candidates, one of whom (I must confess) we had never heard of before - although Obama was a close runner-up. So - here's another political poll, with the same privacy parameters as before:
Poll It's the principle of the thing
[Since I can't edit a poll - does it make a difference if it's a major office (PM, President, etc) or a small office at stake?]
Debate drinking game: have a drink every time McCain accuses Obama of raising taxes. :P
I had nearly five hours to myself today, for the first time in 2.5 weeks. Not that I got to lounge around and relax (ran, errands, cooking, homework, laundry etc) but at least it was blissfully quiet. My free time was a little curtailed by a meeting for Two's Pre-K Counts program coordinator, which was mostly useless, but I had a few minutes to read Newsweek afterwards, before picking up Two. Learned that Two's teachers do not really like the new coordinator that much. I got only 4 hours of solid sleep last night but I did not get a nap, alas. Hope tonight is better.
Oh, we did have a milestone of sorts - Two ate a tunafish sandwich. She has refused tuna salad her whole life (tuna casserole is ok), so on the one day (out of five weeks) she gets tuna at school, I send her in with an alternative sandwich. Today, however, I coaxed her to try ONE BITE of tuna sandwich, on the guise that "maybe school makes them differently than I do". She reluctantly agreed - but when I picked her up, she cheerfully announced she'd eaten BOTH sandwiches.
I wrote a politely inquiring note to MiniPlu's teacher, about the apparent absence of trip notification. She wrote back, apologizing for "any confusion" (which doesn't really address the issue) and saying that soon we would get a "district permission slip" - which I'm assuming will be a blanket permission for all future in-district trips like this for the year. Which, at least, is something - but also feels like too little, too late. Do I write the principal next? The superintendent? Someone else? Let it go? I don't want the teacher to be in trouble - I like her overall, and I understand this is (apparently) a bizarre district policy, not the teacher's. And unless lots of parents complain, I'm feeling very much like "My one small voice won't matter." But still.
MiniPlu had a hard time understanding her math homework today, to the point we were nearly late for PREP while she finished it, so I had Will go over the concepts with her after dinner - him being the more patient one. Initially, it looked like simple addition, but it soon became obvious they were working on a particular concept: doubles equations (ie 2 + 2 or 5 + 5), and then (and here's where MiniPlu struggled), doubles-plus-one: 2 + 3, or 5 + 6, to understand the relationship that when you add one to the question, you also add one to the answer. MiniPlu knows her doubles up to 5 + 5 off the top of her head but she could not make the cognitive leap that when 4 + 4 = 8, 4 + 5 (1 more than 4) = 9 (1 more than 8) and that you should be able to make that connection without having to count anew on fingers. I think she's getting a better grip on it with the additional practice and explanations (Will used candy corn to illustrate, heh). We'll see.
Speaking of PREP - halfway through the lesson, all classes went outside to the Mary shrine/statue by the parking lot, to say the Rosary for world peace. (Parents were invited to join if they chose.) This was the first time MiniPlu has been exposed to the concept of the Rosary, since neither Will nor I are particularly prone to doing it. Her assessment: it was long and pretty boring. :P They were still doing it when Two and I showed up near pick-up time and ended up leaving off the last two decades due to time constraints. What amused me was how the kids, as a whole (age 5-10ish), clearly knew the end of the Hail Mary better than the beginning - halfway through, the kids' voices would suddenly get a lot louder and clearer. Heh.
Now for the minor TMI bit (next 2 paragraphs). As we were getting ready for dinner, MiniPlu thought to mention to me that after gym class she had to use the toilet for poop, and that it was apparently a bit "off" in some fashion. I asked if she'd felt unwell in any way and she said no, but then in the next breath said that she'd told the friend who was with her to tell the teacher than her stomach hurt. Okaaay - so - did you feel unwell or not?? This time she said that yes, her insides had bothered her a little bit, but then it settled and she'd felt perfectly fine since then. I have GOT to find a way to get her to accept the normal burblings of our guts without freaking out over feeling temporarily off. The problem is - I would have been the same at her age. In fact, for my entire youth/young-adult life, I would find stomach/intestinal upset, even minor, to be quite distressing. Ironic that I grew up to have Crohn's disease. :P It's like, if I didn't know better, I'd say MiniPlu inherited it from me. :P Except of course it can't be genetic and, in her own lifetime, I've become a lot calmer about these temporary twinges in myself so I don't see how she'd be picking it up from me, behavior-wise.
We had another go-around like this at bedtime when MiniPlu showed me how, while at school, she thought she had to pass gass when, in actuality, she ended up getting a small bit of poop on her underwear. Ok, these things happen, even if it's embarrassing, let's move on. But she gets all wound up about it, and I don't know how to settle her. (Of course, I would like to figure out WHY she has these niggling minor issues - she hasn't eaten anything unusual lately, so even recording her diet wouldn't help.) Sigh. And, of course, I feel like a hypocrite, given that I can't keep MYSELF from getting wound up over her "my tummy hurts" claims because I can't tell how serious the claim is, and whether it means a gastro bug (EEEK) or just a short-term "I ate something minorly weird". I hate taking her to the toilet at night for fear she's going to say this when I wake her. See? Hypocrite. :P
To end on a bright note: Will will not be going out of town this weekend after all, phew.
Poll It's the principle of the thing
[Since I can't edit a poll - does it make a difference if it's a major office (PM, President, etc) or a small office at stake?]
Debate drinking game: have a drink every time McCain accuses Obama of raising taxes. :P
I had nearly five hours to myself today, for the first time in 2.5 weeks. Not that I got to lounge around and relax (ran, errands, cooking, homework, laundry etc) but at least it was blissfully quiet. My free time was a little curtailed by a meeting for Two's Pre-K Counts program coordinator, which was mostly useless, but I had a few minutes to read Newsweek afterwards, before picking up Two. Learned that Two's teachers do not really like the new coordinator that much. I got only 4 hours of solid sleep last night but I did not get a nap, alas. Hope tonight is better.
Oh, we did have a milestone of sorts - Two ate a tunafish sandwich. She has refused tuna salad her whole life (tuna casserole is ok), so on the one day (out of five weeks) she gets tuna at school, I send her in with an alternative sandwich. Today, however, I coaxed her to try ONE BITE of tuna sandwich, on the guise that "maybe school makes them differently than I do". She reluctantly agreed - but when I picked her up, she cheerfully announced she'd eaten BOTH sandwiches.
I wrote a politely inquiring note to MiniPlu's teacher, about the apparent absence of trip notification. She wrote back, apologizing for "any confusion" (which doesn't really address the issue) and saying that soon we would get a "district permission slip" - which I'm assuming will be a blanket permission for all future in-district trips like this for the year. Which, at least, is something - but also feels like too little, too late. Do I write the principal next? The superintendent? Someone else? Let it go? I don't want the teacher to be in trouble - I like her overall, and I understand this is (apparently) a bizarre district policy, not the teacher's. And unless lots of parents complain, I'm feeling very much like "My one small voice won't matter." But still.
MiniPlu had a hard time understanding her math homework today, to the point we were nearly late for PREP while she finished it, so I had Will go over the concepts with her after dinner - him being the more patient one. Initially, it looked like simple addition, but it soon became obvious they were working on a particular concept: doubles equations (ie 2 + 2 or 5 + 5), and then (and here's where MiniPlu struggled), doubles-plus-one: 2 + 3, or 5 + 6, to understand the relationship that when you add one to the question, you also add one to the answer. MiniPlu knows her doubles up to 5 + 5 off the top of her head but she could not make the cognitive leap that when 4 + 4 = 8, 4 + 5 (1 more than 4) = 9 (1 more than 8) and that you should be able to make that connection without having to count anew on fingers. I think she's getting a better grip on it with the additional practice and explanations (Will used candy corn to illustrate, heh). We'll see.
Speaking of PREP - halfway through the lesson, all classes went outside to the Mary shrine/statue by the parking lot, to say the Rosary for world peace. (Parents were invited to join if they chose.) This was the first time MiniPlu has been exposed to the concept of the Rosary, since neither Will nor I are particularly prone to doing it. Her assessment: it was long and pretty boring. :P They were still doing it when Two and I showed up near pick-up time and ended up leaving off the last two decades due to time constraints. What amused me was how the kids, as a whole (age 5-10ish), clearly knew the end of the Hail Mary better than the beginning - halfway through, the kids' voices would suddenly get a lot louder and clearer. Heh.
Now for the minor TMI bit (next 2 paragraphs). As we were getting ready for dinner, MiniPlu thought to mention to me that after gym class she had to use the toilet for poop, and that it was apparently a bit "off" in some fashion. I asked if she'd felt unwell in any way and she said no, but then in the next breath said that she'd told the friend who was with her to tell the teacher than her stomach hurt. Okaaay - so - did you feel unwell or not?? This time she said that yes, her insides had bothered her a little bit, but then it settled and she'd felt perfectly fine since then. I have GOT to find a way to get her to accept the normal burblings of our guts without freaking out over feeling temporarily off. The problem is - I would have been the same at her age. In fact, for my entire youth/young-adult life, I would find stomach/intestinal upset, even minor, to be quite distressing. Ironic that I grew up to have Crohn's disease. :P It's like, if I didn't know better, I'd say MiniPlu inherited it from me. :P Except of course it can't be genetic and, in her own lifetime, I've become a lot calmer about these temporary twinges in myself so I don't see how she'd be picking it up from me, behavior-wise.
We had another go-around like this at bedtime when MiniPlu showed me how, while at school, she thought she had to pass gass when, in actuality, she ended up getting a small bit of poop on her underwear. Ok, these things happen, even if it's embarrassing, let's move on. But she gets all wound up about it, and I don't know how to settle her. (Of course, I would like to figure out WHY she has these niggling minor issues - she hasn't eaten anything unusual lately, so even recording her diet wouldn't help.) Sigh. And, of course, I feel like a hypocrite, given that I can't keep MYSELF from getting wound up over her "my tummy hurts" claims because I can't tell how serious the claim is, and whether it means a gastro bug (EEEK) or just a short-term "I ate something minorly weird". I hate taking her to the toilet at night for fear she's going to say this when I wake her. See? Hypocrite. :P
To end on a bright note: Will will not be going out of town this weekend after all, phew.