Oct
18
Today’s randomness is brought to you by Kleenex, Advil Cold & Sinus, and general lethargy and peevishness.
- Yeah, but when MY kid does it, it’s CUTE: So, my kid is in swimming lessons. The class is small and the goal is to get them to start swimming independently so parents don’t have to go in with them anymore YAY NO MORE GOING OUT IN PUBLIC IN A BATHING SUIT FOR ME. Generally speaking, the moms and kids are really nice. But one of the kids is an older boy, and he’s FLAILY. He loves swimming, but he flails about and splashes everyone within a 15 foot radius of him. And that is usually ME. I’m getting a little tired of it, to be honest. The kid splashes me more than my own kid, and I’m working directly with her, and she’s jumping in and kicking and stuff. Am I being a bit of a petty speshul snowflayk?? Yes. Yes I am. But I’m giving this kid such a wide berth that I’m halfway across the pool as it is. If I get any farther away I’ll be in the dressing room.
- Can I get fries with that? Or a steak?: We’re jumping on the whole Meatless Mondays bandwagon here at the House of Peevish. Yeah, it’s good for the environment blah blah blah, but really, we’re in it for the (albeit tiny) health benefits. Well, I am anyway. BDH is dubious about the whole endeavour, and Stinkerbelle’s all WHATEVER PEANUT BUTTER IS NOT MEAT. But both BDH and I could stand to lose a few pounds or 50, and he’s a diabetic and I’ve got high-ish blood pressure so, you know, we both need to change our lifestyles to benefit our health. So this is a good first step. I was, in various phases, an ovo-lacto/pesci-/vegetarian for most of my 20s, so I’m not so much caring about cutting out meat. However, I was a BAD vegetarian, sick all the time and eating really badly, so the challenge for me is to find good, tasty, balanced meals for us that won’t put BDH off entirely. And that aren’t just pasta or soup. (And not salad, because I am not a fan.) And then, if this goes well? Maybe two days a week. BUT LET’S NOT GET CRAZY HERE, PEOPLE.
- I can only shout so much: My kid has language delays. Production, receptive, you name it, she’s behind in it — all part and parcel of her oral-motor issues. And for the most part, it’s fine. She’s doing well in school, she’s happy and healthy, and we’re not going to sweat it. EXCEPT. In our day-to-day life, we have to change our ways of communicating. We have to speak slowly, and simply, and deliberately, and allow for lots of processing time. We have to use gestures, and modeling, and repeat, repeat, repeat. But sometimes, on better days, you find yourself speaking like one of those stereotypical “tourists abroad” — if you’re in a foreign country and someone doesn’t understand you, you speak LOUDER AND MORE SLOWLY AND WITH RIDICULOUSLY EXAGGERATED E-NUN-CI-A-TION. On the not-so-good days? You find yourself shouting from the sheer frustration of saying the same thing over again for the 10th or 15th time. And you begin to get angry that YOU’RE NOT LISTENING TO ME, when it’s not that at all; rather, she just can’t process what you are saying in the way that you are saying it. Those? Are not our best parenting days ever. Those are the days when you end up crying in frustration and self-loathing because you have lost patience AGAIN and blamed your kid for something that is NOT HER FAULT.
- Why not “Happy BirthWEEK”?: Today is BDH’s birthday. But, schedules being what they are — BUSY — he picked up his own present, an iSomethingorother, last week sometime. And then we went out for a birthday lunch on Saturday after dance class. Also, I had bought steak to cook a special dinner, which he ended up cooking on Sunday. And today, we’re just having a regular meal, but we have birthday cupcakes and a few other little treats as well. And, because Stinkerbelle loves nothing more than to sing “Happy Birthday” and blow out candles and eat birthday cupcakes, no doubt we’ll do the cupcake thing again tomorrow, too. If we plan well, we could make this birthday last until November.
