Last Year

So I realized this was the last year of the Pinewood Derby so I actually attended it 0 times during the life of my son.  Mother of the year, I know.

So here is a pic of his car:

He received a special award:

I tried my best at the 2010 Pinewood Derby

Are you envious?

Well he was pretty upset about it because he wanted to win for speed.  They also told him his car was

most colorful

but he said it wasn't true because he only had two colors.

Bridget, however, left him with some sage advice:

"You are not going to get into college by racing a fake car down a track."

Apple Care

Now that most cool people around the blogosphere have one, there has been a lag in dedicatory posts to that great cataclysmic device produced by Apple for people like me.

It has been exactly 365 days since I have been the proud owner of the Iphone.  You might think that it is over the top of me to recall the date of purchase and indeed it would be had I not walked into the Apple store today to find out that my warrantee expiry was yesterday, exactly 354 days from date of purchase.

This is particularly important as I was hoping to get my phone repaired without paying for it--what could possibly happen to such an instrument?  The disappearance of my silver volume button.

The man at the genius bar informed me of the expiration but, no matter, replaced the phone on the spot because they "believe in making the customer happy."  And hey, that's me!

I hand over the phone, he has me press a red button that says "Delete my contents" and whoosh my phone was gonzo and in my hot little hand was a shiny new one.

The story isn't over, though.  Because what do you do with a blank phone?  Well, ladies and gents, you plug it into your itunes and wham, bam, thank you... your phone is restaurada tal como el evangelio.

My email settings, back.

My photos, back.

My screen saver, back.

My apps, all back.

All with the single stroke of a key.

The other companies might think they are catching up, but I am pretty sure that this story is why Apple will be dominating the future.

Genius Bar indeed.

Update on le Gill

For those wondering what is happening with Gill's Perthes Disease update:

Her range of motion is increasing--so translation= she is doing great!

We have been really struggling emotionally with is and then suddenly, the day after the doctor visit in which he showed me in measurements that she was doing better and how I could tell if she was increasing/decreasing, etc. Gillian is back to her normal happy self!  I asked her if she had been afraid of being really sick and if that was causing her grumpiness and she said "yes and also now I have a *chair."

For whatever reason I am thrilled she is doing well now and our family life feels back to normal.

Thanks for everyone who was concerned, things are much better now and hopefully we won't have a relapse in the tantrum department.

*Her kinder teacher had offered to let her sit in a chair on the carpet instead of criss-cross applesauce (I am sad my kids don't know what "Indian style" means because I guess it sounds too insulting?) but the teachers forgot so she asked again last week and now everything is fine.

Visita

"Mommy it's paradise!"

No sweetie, it's just Bakersfield.

Family

I had a meltdown last night because The doctor didn't tell me how to
parent like I was hoping. So my son wrote me this note to cheer me up.

Sprinkled Donuts

I wanted to be super mom.

What better way to be super mom to your kids than to run out and grab them fresh donuts for breakfast from Anna's Bakery?

But super moms are women who know their children and who will look in the face of the baker and say "no, I need three sprinkled donuts, not one."

I am just an average mom, intimidated by the man behind the glass who in his crazy mind thinks that a plain donut is just as good, so I just took the one sprinkled, the one glazed, the one chocolate covered, the one cake, and the old-fashioned glazed with chocolate and the one glazed blueberry (which has to be unpopular) and walked out the door off to charm my children.

Instead I was mean mom due to the scarcity created by the youngest child getting the sprinkled as the first one with her shoes on.  My eldest child pulled the same trick on me Saturday night when I brought home the Habit and his burger didn't have lettuce (I gave up my tasty terikayi burger with swiss and took his lame kids' burger and went into my room proclaiming that I wanted to be alone where my kids couldn't be unappreciative.)  And by the way if I tried to serve up some lettuce in another form, like salad, I would be mean mom too.

In expression of his anger over the sprinkled donut this morning (after shoving a glazed down in one bite) he refused to take his lunch to which Steve said "boy that is smart."  Casey's response?  Well it WOULDN'T be smart because I would THROW UP if I ate it because it is so disgusting.

All because I only got one sprinkled donut.

I keep telling myself that the secret to life is low expectations yet I set myself up over and over again.

So much for super mom.

Emotional Side of a Disease

My poor Gillian is a wreck.

She has always been emotional but these days she is a walking tantrum.  I am trying to determine what is okay and what has to be handled differently around our house.

I know she is in pain but I just can't tell what is going on--she says that both legs hurt now sometimes but she isn't limping anymore.  I need to get some support from the doctoro for both what is going on physically as well as how I can help her cope during my next appointment.

Which is Wednesday.

It might not sound like a big deal, but when your child could be in pain all day, how hard do you come down on her for falling apart at the seams?  When does her tantrum become a behavior problem?

So here is what I have come up with and I would love any other advice on this:

1)  Crying is okay as long as it isn't loud and disturbing the peace in general.  This behavior is preferred in your room but you can do it quietly anywhere.

2)  If you are hurting you need to tell mommy so she can help you or get you medicine if you need it.

3)  Just because you are tired or hurt, that doesn't make it okay to be mean to people.  No yelling "I hate you Bridget" or hitting mommy because you are mad. You still have to be nice.

4) If you do have a tantrum, we are canceling any activities for the afternoon and going straight home (this is tougher to enforce because it messes up the other kids sometimes.)

5) Majority still rules. You don't get two votes because you hurt.  This is the toughest one because usually you are irrational by the time we are voting.  Example:  Do you want to watch Madagascar 2 or Up?  2 vote for Up and you vote for Madagascar.  You still lose, even if you are super grumpy and sick and tired.  Also, 2 votes for the Habit beats your 1 vote for Jack-in-the-Box.  PS The Habit is way better anyway.

6)  When you have your second tantrum within five minutes of the previous one, just go to bed.

So... these seem really simple, but when you have four children and one of them is constantly crying, it is really sad.  Once she went to bed at 4:30 pm and it was the nicest evening we have had in a very long time.  I feel bad saying that but it is true.

I know she has always been emotional but I so rarely get to see her joyful little smile these days, it makes me extremely sad. Any advice is appreciated.  If you saw how sad she was all the time it would tear at your little heartstrings.  Remember how cute her happy face and her crocodile tears for the saddy from this post?  Cry for me, Argentina.