birthday wishes

Each classmate in Henry's class made him a picture for his birthday. The teacher stapled all the drawings together into this great little keepsake book. I was flipping through it again recently, admiring the details. It's filled with cute pictures drawn by the hands of 5 and 6 year olds, how can anything get much more precious than that?

It includes pictures like this


and this


and this...


wait, did you notice something in the upper right hand corner?


Oh, that's right - the devil's number, 666.

I'll be sure to keep this as evidence since it is obviously just too adorable; 'Happy Birthday, Henry from Your Friend, future school-bomb-note kid'.

sometimes I suck

Sometimes I suck at being a mom. For all of you that didn't comment on my birthday parties are out of control post, this is one post where you can come in and leave a comment about how 'I told you so!'.

Henry's only invited 9 of his friends to his birthday party, which seems pretty small when I have a distinct memory of inviting every child in my Kindergarten class and guess where I had it at: McDonald's. That's right, my love of McDonald's runs deep and long.

But anyway, Henry invited 9 kids. They sat down at the table decorated with Clone Wars paper plates. I added pretzels and said 'we were going to sing and have cake next'. One little boy looks up and say 'is this all we are eating?'

Love all that kid honesty.

Upon leaving, another friend of Henry's asked Henry for his 'goodie bag'. Henry looked at him blankly and turned to my husband. My husband looked at his friend and said "Sorry to tell you, Bud, we don't have goodie bags, but thank you for coming".

Under his breath he said "tell your Mom to start reading Henry's Mom's blog" (not really).

Got that, the math on that is *2 out of 9* complained about something. 22%, that's a pretty high*sucky mom* percentage.

When we returned home from Henry's party, my husband announced next year he's putting himself in charge of the goodie bags.

So this year, I sucked as a mom, but next year I guess I'll be taking the credit I'll be handing our goodie bags in an attempt to lower my sucky mom percentage (thanks to my husband).

Actually, this might have worked out perfectly.

I'm WW

Even though we can afford more than one bowl of cereal, Wyatt prefers to share his with his Dad.

Every day.

Feed My Starving Children last night, reminded me how thankful I should be to be able to have multiple bowls every day. Together, we packaged enough for 38 children of Haiti to eat for one year.

One bowl, once a day.

Life changing, for us both.

a letter to parents

Dearest Parents of Henry's Kindergarten Classmates,

I'm sorry if I offended any one by not inviting the entire class to Henry's 6th birthday party on Saturday. (In case you haven't already figured it out, I'm not a participation trophy for everyone type of a mom either.) I cannot afford to host a $300 birthday party at Pump It Up, in terms of my wallet or my sanity. If my son did happen to say to your child, 'did you get my card (invitation)?' forgive him, he's only 5 (yes, nearly 6) and forgets who he actually picked to come; if you haven't gotten one already, your son/daughter will not be getting an invitation in the mail. Maybe this can be a lesson in conflict resolution?

If you did get an invitation, an email RSVP would be appreciated. I'm pretty certain most people don't have to sit and wait for the whine of dial-up, so a 1 minute task - if that, is all I'm asking.

I got the 'basic' birthday package, in case you were wondering. Your child will not be fed pizza, bread sticks, soda... they will be getting cake (not ordered from a store), pretzels and juice boxes. I was hoping that the 3-5pm time frame would have indicated that I will not be feeding your child a meal, but perhaps I assumed incorrectly.

One more thing, your child will not be getting a goodie bag for attending Henry's birthday party. It's not that Henry doesn't want to give your child presents, last year he attempted to hand out one (newly opened) present to each of his guests (he's amazingly sweet like that), but it's that I'm sympathizing with you, the parents - do you really want more crap in your house?

Looking forward to seeing you all not getting glared down at the concert in February, otherwise, we'll see you on Saturday for Henry's birthday bash.

Sincerely,
Anti-Supermom

Ghetto Wii

I haven't decided if Henry making an item box like that from the game Mario Kart Wii is because we

1) let him play Wii too much that even his 'real life' playing has become some sort of game where he sits on a riding toy and bashes into the cube while racing down the length of the hallway or

2) that he is deprived of endless hours of Wii and therefore is simulating a game out of a basic 'need' to be gaming or

3)my child is a genius and we've just patented the Mario Kart Wii Fit for Kids (no television required) or

4) Again, my 5 year old is a genius, he just invented 'Ghetto Wii'.

Yes, a proud moment in parenting. Proud indeed.

after thoughts

-I should have told my husband to look in my son's backpack after picking him up on Friday, because what I *might* find in his lunch bag just *might* want to make me vomit come Sunday night.

-I should have remembered to hand the hourly child care peeps the extra pants and underwear that I had in my over-sized handbag because them asking, me telling them 'yes, I had extra underwear and pants' and then proceeding to walk right the door without giving it to them means that Murphy's law will apply and he will have to *borrow* underwear with Club Kid written on the crotch (yes, they expect them back and no, I do not want to think about how many other children might have worn them previously to Wyatt. So FYI, as cheap as I am, you will not find me purchasing previously worn underwear at a garage sale).

-I should have reminded my husband (again) how many leftovers were in the fridge. (See above point, the part about me being cheap).

-I should have politely asked (maybe put in some advanced bedroom points or something before leaving) if my husband would mind doing the laundry, cleaning the toilet... nothing too crazy.

-I should remind myself how cool it is to get away for an entire weekend, but that at the end of it, it's pretty cool to be at home with the kiddos and husband too.

orange with envy

I'm at your beck and call come breakfast; "I need milk, I want orange juice, I need a spoon"... a little bit of silence as you start to eat... then screams "I spilled on my shirt, I need a napkin, I need a new shirt!".

Then my morning is wrapped up in playing with you and the others: building block towers until you get bored and knock them down, sculpting with play-doh until you start throwing it at the wall, feeding you Goldfish until you smash them between the crevices of the kitchen table.

My day is centered around you and what you want; to play, to eat, to read. Happiness for a toddler is a day all about you, of course. But you know what makes you really happy? Your orange socks. You giggle as I put them on, you talk about them to your friends, you show them off to anyone who may listen.


Orange socks may be number one on your list, but I'm sure I'm a close second or third.

date with Elmo - a giveaway

Since it's been forever since I've gone a 'real' date, you bet I got excited when I was offered tickets to see Sesame Street Live: 123 Imagine! at the Target Center, January 13-17. Never mind that it's with my two year old and Elmo; out of the house on a Friday night, heading to the skyline of downtown and tickets in hand to see a show, that my friends, is a date (so stop snickering and rolling your eyes).

Who wants to join me?

I've got 2 tickets to give away. What do you say? A date with Elmo? Or even, a date with me (if you want to attend Friday night's performance)? I'll promise to be on semi good behavior and *not* try to talk to you all night in my best Elmo impersonation.

Maybe just a little Elmo voice? Okay?

Just leave me a comment. I'll pull a winner on Thursday morning.

There are (2) vouchers to the show, you can forgo 'the Anti-Supermom date' if you want (no hurt feelings) and attend any show of your choosing. Disclosure... obviously, I was given (4) tickets to the show, I'm pretty sure you guys could added up that 2+2 thing.

Happee New Year

My son is obviously very pessimistic that the new year is going to be a good one, he decided to color the letters N, E and W peeing on the year 2010.

So, there you have it: Happee New Year from my Kindergartner.

May the new year *not* actually piss on you (or you *not* piss on the new year - it's only January 2nd after all, give it some time).