A week in review

Dear Andrew and Abby,

Well, it was another exciting week and weekend in our house. Let's talk about Andrew's excitement first.



That picture is about three days in to the healing process. I was a little too...upset...to think about photographing the evidence of the crime until then. You see, I've had a love-hate relationship with day care in general, but one of the staff members in the school-agers class at our current daycare in particular. I won't mention his real name - let's just call him Barney. Barney is some undetermined, but fairly young (19-ish?) age. As such, he is a lot of fun for Andrew, but also not exactly experienced in the care of children, or exactly the most responsible person I've ever met. Over the summer, he showed Andrew how to jump from the top of the play set (he jumped because all of the 8-year-olds were standing below and egging him on). He was also the instigator of the rough-housing that led to Barney pushing another boy and causing him to land on Andrew's toe full force which caused the toenail to turn black and threaten to fall off. Needless to say, Barney has not been my favorite. This week, Barney and the rest of the boys were playing and Barney shoved a plastic basket into Andrew's face to keep him from getting away. The lip looked awful. The best part of it all? Barney wasn't there as an employee - he no longer works at our day care. He was just there visiting. You know, to see his friends. The eight-year-olds. Okay, that's not fair or nice. Barney is a nice kid. I can call him a kid because I'm old and I'm a mom. He is nice and he plays with the kids and actually interacts with them instead of just ignoring them. All of that is great, and I really do like that there are guys who work at the day care. I just, you know, wish there was a little more maturity to go along with all the fun.

As for Abby, she is growing up faster than I can keep up with. She had her first play date at a friend's house this weekend. She was invited to Abi's house (that's pronounced Abby-Eye, as opposed to Abby-Why), along with seven other play mates. I wasn't sure if I was expected to stay or not, but the other parents were all planning to leave. I told Abby that the other mommies and daddies were going, but that I could stay if she wanted. Her reply? "No, Mommy. Leave." And then she turned back to playing. I was dismissed, just like that. At three, she has already learned that it's not cool to have Mom around when she's with her friends. Oh, are we in trouble come junior high...

A shiner and an angel

Dear Andrew and Abby,

If I told you that one of you came home from school yesterday with a black eye and the other was obsessed with making snow angels in our first really big snow of the year, who would you guess was who? Well, my little pumpkins, surely your mommy has taught you better than to stereotypically fit a boy into the violent bruiser role and a girl into a sensitive nature-lover?!

Abby is the lucky winner of the shiner. Fortunately, there was no fighting involved in obtaining the black eye. Just a loss of balance on a step stool and some building blocks. Still, it's a beauty. And right before I tried to take your Valentine's pictures! Mommy pays the price of procrastination once again! Here's Abby and her eye, 24 hours after the incident:



So that leaves Andrew and his snow angel. We have had a pretty mild winter here in central Indiana. Until last week, we hadn't seen too many days below freezing, and only one brief and small dump of snow. But nonetheless, Andrew has been telling me for a month or two that he needs snow pants so he can make snow angels when it snows. I really didn't intend to buy any this winter since we're so far in to the season, it's been so mild, and it's highly unlikely that a pair of snow pants that fit Andrew this year will still fit him next year. It seemed like a good way to waste some money. However, last weekend when Grandma Dottie was here, we did a little shopping at the Children's Place and found a pair of snow pants for cheap, so I bought them, if only to make Andrew happy. And he was. And then it SNOWED!!! We got six inches of snow today. I knew that Andrew would immediately be heading to those pants so he could finally make his snow angel. In fact, he made several. I managed to get a picture of one (notice the awesome snow pants keeping his legs dry and warm!):


Both of you had a fabulous time playing in all the beautiful snow. And to you, playing is helping Daddy shovel our driveway, a neighbor's driveway, and the sidewalks in front of our house. You two are good, good kids. Here's Abby with her turn at the shovel receiving pointers from Daddy:

I love that you are such unique people with such defined personalities, but you get along so well. I hope that never changes. But we could live without the black eyes.

Love,

Mommy