Real Life

We had a really busy weekend! Wm decided he wanted an increase in his allowance, so there has been an increase in his chores. It is glorious. While I went out to the Chocolate Cafe with a friend, Wm swept the whole house! Wheeeee! He also made scones for his own breakfasts yesterday. He didn't want to pat them out (he was like, "my hands will get dirty!") and he was nervous putting them in the oven. So I did those things. But he's closing in on being a solo scone chef! On Sunday, we went to see Hidden Figures. It was really good! Wm highly recommends it. He also recommends getting the pretzel bites. He and Steve took that business DOWN.

I got an email this morning asking for pictures of the kids at school/school events for the elementary graduation ceremony. Then, we have a meeting at the school tonight about the overnight camp the kids go to in May. It's crazy!! Wm will be gone on his birthday. :( He doesn't care - in fact, he seems excited. But I am majorly bummed that Wm is going to be away from me on his birthday! I am trying to see if I can get the teachers to make sure the kids sing him happy birthday and do a little something for him at camp.

And I also spent my weekend compulsively reading the news and wondering if this is real life. Steve and I already have passports, but I am getting one for Wm stat. I think we need to be ready to get out of here quickly. It's been barely a week. Barely a WEEK. And the constitution is already being violated. Trump is not a Democrat. Trump is not a Republican. He is a fascist. And he is putting us all in danger. The sooner we all figure this out (on both "sides of the aisle") and get him out there, the better!!! (Also, there is no campaign of appeasement in my neck of the woods. I'm not "giving him a chance" or "trying to understand the other side." If you support Trump, or his policies, you are an evil person and I will tell you so to your face. So stay far, far away from me unless you want some shit to get real.)

Concert

We've just been trying to survive winter over here.  Steve got The Cold, so he's been down for the count. Wm remains healthy! He avoided it completely! We went to Wm's violin concert yesterday evening. We could see NOTHING. They had the choir on stage and the instruments in front of it - which means we could so absolutely no one playing an instrument. But, I took a video of the music!



The choir was also awesome. They were adorable. One girl in front was INTO it. She was living her best life. I also loved that they were accompanied by the band The Grateful Dads. Here is a small taste!



And, Mimi gave us the best hand-me-down gift ever. The entire family loves it. Mimi claims it is a "mushroom" cork. But...we all know what it is really is. Thank you, Mimi for livening up our wine shelf with your wiener cork (Wm especially loves it, since he finds it HIGH-larious)!

Girls Rule

This morning, Wm pointed out the interesting gender dynamic at play in his middle school carpool. I noticed before the start of the school year, but Wm just figured it out today! Before the start of the school year, me and the 2 other moms with middle school math kiddos went out to dinner and mapped out a carpool arrangement. We quickly realized that while we were doing all the planning and organizing, it was all the dads who actually do the driving. The trend has continued through the school year. When someone is sick, needs to swap a day, is running late, etc, all the moms group text about it and sort everything out. Then we fill in the dads and they carry out our orders.

Me: Oh, Mom#1 just texted me. She says Kid#1 is going to be late today and not to wait for him.
Steve: OK.
Wm: How come all the moms plan everything, but none of them actually drive? Only dads drive.
Me: That's because women are the bosses who plan and facilitate. The menz are like our workers who just do what we say. Life lesson, Wm. Life lesson.
Wm: [skeptical] Hmm.

Chalkboard

Wm and I are home for MLK Day today. Which is good because I am feeling better, but it was nice not to have to drag myself to work today and sleep in! Wm cashed in a Christmas ticket for Unlimited Screens, so he's pleased as punch with the day.

And, also, I am officially old...
Me: I really like your new glasses! I bet you can see better too since your eyes have changed.
Wm: Yeah, definitely!
Me: Can you see the chalkboard better?
Wm: CHALKBOARD!! HAHAHAHA!
Me: What?
Wm: Oh yes, I can see the chalkboard at the schoolhouse. HAHAHA!
Me: Rude.
(Wm's school was completely renovated 5 years ago and there isn't a chalkboard on site. Wm has only ever had SmartBoards in his classrooms. If he ends up at that STEM school, that won't change!)

Tedx

Wm is the proud owner of cool new glasses! Here he is being a hard core nerd:

Wm came home from school super excited because he was one of only a handful of kids invited to be audience members at the Columbus TEDx event! He will miss an entire day of school in March to go and will get a free tshirt. I guess the audience is "participatory," so he's really excited!! 

I have a cold. It's definitely the worst cold anyone has ever had in the history of time and everyone should pity me intensely. I'm sure those gross college students infected me with it. It could also be because one day is 20 degrees and the next is 60 and that cycle is continuing. My body has rebelled. 

Lastly, I missed the beginning of this conversation, but I was filled in....

Steve: WILLIAM! Did you wipe toothpaste on my clean decorative washcloth?

Wm: NO!

Steve: Who else would have done it? Wm, seriously, do not do that. 

Wm: I didn't!!!!

Steve: I know you did. That is gross. Who does that? 

Wm: Oh my god. I did not!

Me: [walking upstairs] What's all the hubbub?

Steve: SOMEONE wiped toothpaste on my clean washcloth!

Me: Oh, the one you hung on the new towel bar?

Steve: Yes.

Me: Yeah, that was me. 

Steve: WHAT?

Wm: AH HA!!!! I told you!!!

Me: What? It was there, it was clean, and I has toothpaste on my face. Ba-da-bing ba-da-boom, problem solved.

Wm: Pop blamed me!

Steve: I didn't think an ADULT would do something like that!

Me: HAHAHAAH! You're weird.

Wm: HAHAHAHA! 

Steve: I hate you both. It's not that funny.

Me & Wm: HAHAHAHA!

Very Cold

It was VERY COLD this weekend and we were very displeased about it. We mostly hibernated. They put every single Indiana Jones movies on Amazon Prime, so we started in on those. Wm is a big fan and has started humming the theme music constantly. Although, he also spends the entire movie talking out loud to the screen, trying to convince Indie that what he's doing is not a good idea.

Schroeder went to the vet and was deemed very healthy. He got two shots, which he wasn't pleased about. But, he's probably the only cat who purrs so much they can't hear his heartbeat, so they have to turn on the water and threaten him with it to make him stop purring. In retaliation for his visit to the vet, he barfed grossly right outside our bedroom door last night. GOOD MORNING, FROM SCHROEDER.

And we spent way too long at Target, incurring the Wrath of William. But we now have ample towels, a new hand towel rack (welcome, guests!) and various bathroom improvements. The cleaning lady is on vacation, so we had to actually clean our own house. Which was AWFUL. I think she went on vacation just to show us how much we need her and she is going to come back and jack up her rates. We made Wm pitch in (he dusted the entire downstairs and his room, picked up, cleaned his room, vacuumed, and cleaned the dining room table) and he said, "I don't think people really do all this! Is this just some life lesson you're trying to teach me?" I told him that the life lesson is "clean up after yourself, you gross bastard."  To which he replied, "Well, I'm getting a cleaning lady as soon as I move out!"  I just laughed and laughed.

Lastly, we got an email yesterday telling us the date/time of Wm's elementary school graduation. It's real. And I don't like it. I'm not a person who dreads the aging of my child (I have a paper chain counting down until he's 18), but I'm sad he's leaving his school. It's been great - and right on our street!! Here's hoping middle school is just as good!

New Specs

We are all back to school/work and grumpy about it. Alarm clocks, packed lunches, and homework are all back in our lives. We had a great run, though! And it's been a busy week back to the grind! Yesterday, Wm to the eye doctor and go himself some new specs. Well, he picked them out and we ordered them - they won't come in for a week. But here is a sneak preview of the ones he picked out:

The eye doctor was all horrified that his eyes had gotten worse since last year and I'm like, "get used to it - he has 2 blind parents whose eyes got worse every single year." BUT, she told Wm that it's from staring at a screen too much (which I doubt, but I'm not complaining since he took it all seriously and decided he needs frequent screen breaks). She also dilated his pupils, which Wm was NOT a fan of. He sat around in our dark living room repeatedly asking, "how long do those drops last???"

Steve got his annual bonus (WOOT!) which we are going to use some of to spruce up our WC. I also read an article that leads me to believe we are not changing our bath towels out frequently enough. So we are spending our weekend getting ALL the towels and commencing plans for Project Bathroom Improvement. And also Schroeder goes to the vet for his annual check-up and gets a thermometer stuck up his cat butt. Which is definitely deserves after the Christmas tree debacle.