PreK Graduation

Well they didn't go as far as having an actual ceremony to commemorate the end of preschool but they did take pictures. Sunil is now a Kindergartener. Way to go Sunili!

Life's Little Lessons Learned

Well I watched Sheela's face as she learned an important lesson about putting away her belongings yesterday. Yup, she left her "razor" scooter laying in the driveway behind Sid's car. We ran it over a few times and dragged it along under the car before getting it out. Unfortunately it is not a total loss, the foam on the handle is torn and the foot plate canted but it can still be ridden... though it is much harder to balance now. The look on her face as she made the connection between the hideous scrapping noise and her favorite toy was priceless. I think she learned the lesson.

Happy Birthday Sunil!

My baby is five years old today and still such a sweetie. He is at Kids Club tody, hopefully making new friends and going swimming.

Birthday party

Sunil celebrated his birthday today with 13 of his closest friends... more or less. One friend from school, three from soccer, two from the neighborhood and then assorted siblings. We borrowed the Bonzai Waterfall Waterslide to entertain the kids. It tore huge holes in the ground but was a ton of fun. After we ran the kids out the adults took our turns too. I would use it again. We also tie-died t-shirts for each of the kids. They wont get to rinse them out to see how they did until tonight. I hope they come out and that the color doesn't all wash away immediately. Tomorrow for his actual 5th birthday we are going to go to Chuck E. Cheese (just the family) and then do the rest of the gifts.

Grammylyn and GrandpaJohn are here

They arrived Friday about the time I got home from work. We've been staying up way too late but I love the visiting so its worth it. John is taking some major antihistamines to deal with his cat allergy but I think its going pretty well.

Town and Country

Sid found a new car for me on Saturday. I still want the many seats that come with the minivan so I was looking at the Freestars and the Odesseys. Sid did convince me to give the Town and Country a try. It is very nice and not to sound too much like a girl about it but its the prettiest color of blue! The mileage was a little bit higher than I wanted but the price made up for the difference. It doesn't have the built in DVD player that I'm finally convinced that I want but Sid promised to have one installed for me. In the end I chose not to have it installed but I bought a portable model that we can use in either car and store in the house. I wont let the kids use it in town anyway and the Texas heat burns the monitors out pretty fast. So we have a pair of monitors that we can use anywhere. I've been too busy to take a picture but I'll get to it eventually.

Quality Auditor Training

Today I begin my two day Quality Auditor training class.  I have to leave a little bit early and work a little bit later but I think it will be worth it.  I'm going with 14 of my favorite co-workers.  It should be a good experience.

Bye-bye second grade

Today is Sheela's last day as a second grader!  Its been a great year and she has grown up a lot.  I can hardly imagine ever having another teacher that was as good a fit for her as Ms. DeWaters was. 

Birds, birds, birds

Sid and I have begun our second week of morning rides (I'm so proud of us).  Most of the ride happens before the first light of dawn.  The last time I spent much time outside before dawn, I was attempting to walk Sheela to sleep as an infant.  Five minutes with her outside always put her out.  But I rarely got to enjoy those walks, I was typically tired and cranky and focused on not dropping the sleeping little bundle of joy. 

 

Before that it was all the way back to middle school when I would do Brian's paper route.  What I remember most about those charming early mornings were the bull bats circling over head and then diving at me with blood thirsty abandon.  Even after learning what they were and how little they cared about my presence I had to pep myself up to run from one apartment door to the next because the silence before the attack was so unnerving.

 

Since that time I've rarely been out near a metro area, at dusk or dawn, when I haven't heard the bull bats circling though I've never had them diving close enough for me to hear the wind whistling through the "holes" in their wings like I did back then.  This morning I was listening to them and keeping track of where they were at all times like I always do when two of the largest birds I've ever seen glided past in front of me.  They came silently out of nowhere and disappeared through the trees by the pond almost before I could register them.  It was a pair of great blue herons.  That was a great way to start the day.  I hope I get to see more of them and less of the bull bats.

Sunil is shaping up to be a car guy....

Cars are his favorite pastime at home, he loves to start our cars for us in the morning and now he has become addicted to bumper cars. He almost skipped the pizza and cake at Gavin's party in order to keep driving.

Picture of a boxer

Here are Sheela's cuts after her weekend adventure.

The boxer

Poor Sheela, not only does she have to deal with the lice thing, but she chose to help her Dad break down some boards and brush and load it on the trailer for a trip to the dump. The board she broke kicked back and hit her in the face. She has a bruise between her eyebrows, and two cuts on the bridge of her nose. She looks tough, but apparently it hurts to move her eyebrows.

Its that wonderful time of year.... the lice are back

and of course where do they go first... Straight to Sheela of the long tresses. Luckily, this year we've already whacked off about five inches of length. It has actually been nearly three nears since we did this last time. As I recall the last round was ending just as Sheela was ready for her Indian dance recital and she needed ALL the length she could muster so that when she tied her hair to her girdle she could still move her head.

My treatment mode is pretty well established. The first night is an extremely nasty lice shampoo with a thorough combing. Then wash every fabric covered item in the house with hot water. The next couple of weeks will involve oiling her hair with olive oil and leaving it on for at least two hours and frequently overnight as often as possible. Overnight means I get to wrap her head in saran wrap to protect the sheets and pillows. Washing the oil out is rather an ordeal, but it does leave the hair very soft and manageable. There is also hair brush boiling, frequent vacumming and sheet washing every other day.

Bailey's Berry Patch

As we near Memorial Day weekend it's time to take a look at the opening day festivities at Bailey's Berry Patch (a little slice of Heaven in Texas). Last year, Mom and John took Blake and Sunil on opening day and they stuffed themselves full of blackberries and still brought back plenty for us to share. It was too early for them to be able to get blueberries... but not by much.

I was hoping to go this year and take Sheela along with us, but it looks like they aren't going to be able to open this year at all. They were hit by a MASSIVE hail storm at the end of March and it decimated this year's crops. Every flower and most of the leaves were stripped right off of the plants.

Five straight days

Sid and I completed a week of early morning rides. The weekends don't count, they are for sleeping late and cuddling with the kids. We usually end up just lapping Celebration Park a few times. From our house we can't really get anywhere too interesting, but I guess that its nice just to be up and out.

Waffles......

yet another one of the many "prepared" foods that my children prefer to eat still frozen. Waffles, pancakes, taquitos... I had to draw the line at mini-cornsdogs. Yuck!

The gist....

of today's parent teacher conference was great kid, very smart, though once he starts sucking his thumb he goes straight to lazy.  It's true, once his thumb gets plugged in all other functions stop (except for the hair twirling).  He works fast, he works neatly, he is very thorough right up until the thumb and then he just sits for 45 minutes to an hour and a half doing nothing but sucking and twirling.  If recess didn't roll around he'd probably never snap out of it.  Everyone else gets to go out to play but he has to stay inside until his work is done.  It usually takes less than five minutes for him to finish up.

 

He cut way back on the thumb sucking for awhile.  It increases when he's tired and we've let him stay up way to late too many times lately.  That isn't helping.

 

He has mastered his letter sounds, short and long vowels and most combinations, he mastered the hundred board and all of the relational works (heavy to light, smooth to rough, big to small, dark to light, etc), the continents, the oceans, the states, map concepts, the hundred board, addition and subtraction, grouping, all sorts of great stuff.

Aerobic exercise - a new concept for me

I used my new "youth" bike helmet this morning for the first time. Sid and I went out for a pre-dawn ride. We were out for less than half an hour but it felt good. I did have to work ridiculously hard for such a gentle ride. I hope that we can keep it up, exercising at night has not worked well for us at all.

When we got back Sid woke Sheela up and they went running while I took my shower.

ACS Update - Not yet final

The Relay-for-Life website is not crediting the teams with all of their donations, which is a little frustrating but even more annoying is that the donations that are there are inconsistent. Some checks were there for awhile and then fell off, cash that was donated at the event never showed up, or showed up and then fell back off. I have six donations showing on the marquee at my website, but as of today my report page shows that I have only two donations. I don't know which two its counting, I have credit for $305 which is everyone except the checks. Our team total is still showing as $675, but there should be over $800.

Its all about me....

I got to chose our restaurant Friday night for my birthday dinner. Mario Chiquita is where Sid and I usually go alone, but we haven't been in at least six months and it sounded really good. They have excellent sangria but as it was a family night I passed on the pitcher.

Sunil gave me a new bike helmet. My old one is nearly 15-years old and was plain black and rather drab. The new one, selected personally by my favorite four-year old, is a pretty blue with a green frog with a bright pink tongue. At the end of the tongue it says "ZAP". It is of course a youth size helmet and still too big for my little bitty head. I was disappointed to note that the strap system has not been improved in the last 15 years. The reason no one wears their helmet properly, is that its too damn hard to adjust.

Sheela gave me the novel Angels and Demons. Sid gave me a new flat screen monitor for the computer. The Sharma gave me a dozen red roses and beautiful chocker with matching earrings. I'll try to take a picture of it later. Its rows of tiny diamond chips and rubies.

I received breakfast in bed this morning along with a bouquet of construction paper flowers. Each flower is attached to a chore. Theoretically I can command cheerful assistance with any chore I select at any time.

I have quite a flower collection going right now. In addition to the paper bouquet and the roses I received bouquets from both of the soccer teams.