Creature Bug

I'm a Rabbit

IT was going to be one of Rabbit's busy days. As soon as he woke up he felt important, as if everything depended upon him. It was just the day for Organizing Something, or for Writing a Notice Signed Rabbit, or for Seeing What Everybody Else Thought About It. It was a perfect morning for hurrying round to Pooh, and saying, "Very well, then, I'll tell Piglet," and then going to Piglet, and saying, "Pooh thinks--but perhaps I'd better see Owl first." It was a Captainish sort of day, when everybody said, "Yes, Rabbit " and "No, Rabbit," and waited until he had told them.

You scored as Rabbit!

ABOUT RABBIT: Rabbit is generally considered Clever by his many friends and relations. He is actually a much better reader and writer than Owl, but he doesn't consider it worth mentioning. Instead, Rabbit's real talent lies in Organizing Plans. He organizes rescue parties, makes schemes to reduce Tigger's bounciness, and goes on missions to find out what Christopher Robin does when he's not at the Hundred Acre Woods. Sometimes, however, his Plans do not always go as Planned.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are smart, practical and you plan ahead. People sometimes think that you don't stress or worry, but this is not the case. You are the kind of person who worries in a practical way. You think a) What are my anxieties about and b)what can be done about them? No useless fretting for you. You don't see the point in sitting around and waiting for things to work out, when you could actually work them out today and save yourself a lot of time and worry. Your friends tend to rely on you, because they know that they can trust you help them work things out.

You sometimes tend to be impatient with people who are less practical in their ways. You don't have much patience for idiots who moan about things but never actually DO anything about them. You have high expectations of everyone, including yourself. When you don't succeed at something, or when something goes wrong despite your best efforts to prevent it, you can get quite hard on yourself. You need to cut yourself some slack and accept that everyone has their faults, even you, and THAT IS OKAY. Let yourself be faulty, every now and then, for the sake of your own sanity.

*****

What Winnie-the-Pooh character are you? Take the test.

*****

I saw this test over at Jen's page, and had to take it, knowing quite well that I would probably end up as Rabbit. I don't have the energy of Tigger, the zen-ness of Pooh, the mellowness of Piglet, or the loftiness of Owl. Worry wart, bossy, impatient, step-up-and-do-it Rabbit is definitely more my style. I think I have more fun than Rabbit does, but he probably gets more done than I do. I bet that's because he eats better than me.

Maybe I need to eat more carrots.

Stamps, Tiny Reads, TVs, and Energetic Cranberries

A few random items...

: stamps :

Postage stamps are going up in price on Monday, so you should do as I did and stock up on those terribly un-pretty Forever Stamps (seriously. would it kill them to put a flower on the Forever Stamps? the Liberty Bell is so not great). If you get them now, they're *only* 41 cents a piece. Starting Monday, they'll cost you 42 cents. Consider this your friendly PSA reminder.

: tiny reads :

I've added a new link feature to my left sidebar. Under the Tiny Reads heading, I've "shared" different blog posts from my Google Reader that have caught my attention, for one reason or another. I'll be updating it daily.

: tv :

We are now the proud owners of two TV converter boxes. In case you haven't heard, if you are one of the few dozen people who doesn't have cable and instead uses an antenna/rabbit ears to get your tv signal, then you'll have to get a converter box so that you can still get free tv after the signal changes to digital next February. We received converter coupons in the mail a few weeks ago--thanks to a reminder from Sophie (who, sadly, is no longer posting)--and each coupon is worth $40 off a converter box. Walmart sells the boxes for $49.95, but the south Commercial store was out when I checked last week. Fred Meyer sells the boxes for $49.98, and so I got ours there. Twenty dollars for the privilege of free tv. Yippee.

As it turns out, we may not even need the converter boxes if we sell our house before next February. Our new house will probably have to have cable, although I am totally willing to have an antenna on our house if it means we'll get free tv.

: cranberries :

And finally, here's a review for a drink I've been trying out this week...

Last week I got a sample of Ocean Spray's Cranergy juice in the mail, courtesy of Mom Central. Being someone who loves cranberry juice, I quickly drank the whole thing. It tastes a lot like...hmm...cranberry juice! With a healthy, green tea kick. Then I went to Winco and got some more. Then I went to Fred Meyer, saw they were having a sale on jugs instead of the more expensive personal-sized, and got even more. This could be trouble.

Even though I am perpetually tired all the time, I stay away from those energy drinks because I'm deathly afraid of them. I am certain I would drink one and drop dead from a heart attack within minutes. As someone who has no caffeine addiction at all, consuming that much caffeine in one sitting would totally screw me up. However, I am acutely aware that some amount of caffeine--preferrably something natural from a tea source--might actually help me feel better. Or at least, feel capable of folding laundry. So, after reading the label for the Cranergy juice, it evidently gets its caffeine naturally from green tea. And it has a whole host of B vitamins, which I think are supposed to give you energy.

Since it's juice-ish (23% juice isn't exactly Juicy Juice), since it has vitamins, and since green tea extract is a natural source of caffeine, then I've been drinking it every day with breakfast. It does have Splenda, although the juice doesn't taste crazy-sweet like some things do that have been sweetened with Splenda. Even Jason, who hates cranberry juice, has said it's not too bad (especially the cranberry-raspberry version), although if he starts drinking it then that means less for me, so...I don't know how I feel about that.

The thing is, I actually feel more energized after drinking it, but maybe it's just a pyschological trick I'm playing on myself. I feel like it should energized me, so then it does. But trick or not, I'm all for it. Probably someone who depends on energy drinks and/or multiple cups of coffee wouldn't notice a difference. Nevertheless, for me it's definitely better than drinking soda, it has cranberries in it, and even though I wouldn't let my girls drink it (no caffeine for them,natural or not, thank you. they have plenty of energy), I'm all for something that helps me stay just a little more focused on something other than dreaming of a nap.

Jason thinks I should exercise more often, but for as much as I do like to exercise, so often I'm too tired to even think about doing it. Anybody have any other suggestions for fighting fatigue? B vitamins? Multi-vitamins? Iron supplements? Less sugar? More sugar?

Please say "eat five dozen marshmallows" because I could totally do that.

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Buying My Own Mother's Day Present

About Mother's Day...

Here's my confession: I bought my own present. And while it was more than what Jason would have spent on me, and I perhaps didn't consult him about it as much as I should have, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

And if you hand me the microphone on Mother's Day and ask me, "What are you going to do now that you're a mom?!"

I'd raise my fist into the air and yell victoriously, "I'm going to Disneyland!"

Okay, maybe I won't actually be going to Disneyland. But I could. Because I'm going to Pasadena, California, to visit my sister and Disneyland is practically right there. I might see if I can't sneak in a short trip just to go on a roller coaster or two. I do love roller coasters.

Technically, I'll be home on Mother's Day because I planned it that way. I do actually want to be around my children on Mother's Day to enjoy the whole Hallmark moment of becoming a mom and having my heart and my life and my hips forever and irrevocably altered. The card, the hugs, the breakfast in bed...yes, please. I want all that. Next Thursday, however, I'll be jumping on a plane and flying south for four days.

Four whole days. Four whole nights. Me and my sister. Hanging out. Having fun.

The last time my sister and I hung out--just the two of us--I was seven months pregnant with Sydney. I flew down to North Ft. Myers, Florida, for a week and it was quite fun and adventurous. Just now, I chuckled to myself when I read my blog excerpt from March 29, 2004:

"Oh little fireant, why did you have to bite my "piggy had none" toe? I realize that perhaps I smashed hundreds of your friends as I trod on your little ant hill, yet there was no reason for you to smite me so harshly. Maybe you felt that my feet had had too much fun in the sand of the beautiful beaches and swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. And true, my feet had quite the time strolling down the fantastic 5th Avenue in Naples. But you may have had some pity for them since they did get a little bit sunburned, and my ankles are swollen too from all the walking. It's bad form to bite the feet of a pregnant lady."

But there are certain limitations to having fun at seven-months-pregnant in Florida. First of all, I went to bed around 9 pm every night. Secondly, my ankles acted like two giant sponges and soaked up all the moisture in the air. Just put me in a room, and I could dehumidify it in two minutes flat. And, of course, the fireants didn't do me any favors either.

This time our visit together will be different. No pregnancy, so I can stay up late, go on roller coasters, and drink a beer if I want. No kids, who I would have to constantly remind my sister to stop harassing ("gentle" is not part of her vocabulary). No fireants, hopefully. Just a whole lot of hanging out, eating food, and having fun doing whatever we'll be doing. What larks, Pip! What larks! (...points to you if you know what book this line is from...)

So, my gift to myself for Mother's Day is a weekend where Jules gets to stay with Jason's parents, and Sydney gets to have her own weekend with her daddy, and I get to hang out with my sister. Sounds like the perfect gift...for the whole family.

Which, as it turns out, sounds very much like the kind of gift a mother would give.

Speaking of gifts...this post was inspired by Johnson and Johnson and their new charitable giving site Johnson's Baby Cause. Thanks to Parent Bloggers Network for hosting the blog event.

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

To See the Game

I still have the rest of the story to tell about the girls and their nighttime miseries (or rather, maybe it's my nighttime miseries? and they're not that miserable? either way...), but when I sat down to write about it I got all grumpy and fussy and decided I didn't want to write about it right then.

So.

It'll wait.

Until then--and maybe the girls will miraculously fix their sleeping issues while I avoid writing about it--I'm writing about something else.

Did I mention that Sydney got bifocals? The ones that I had been thinking maybe she didn't need? The ones that cost $200 because we already got her a new pair last summer and so our vision insurance (which I am thankful we have in the first place) didn't cover a new pair?

Ah, well, she did. In fact, you've already seen her with them.

If you look closely, you can see the bifocal line on the lens. And actually, these are the first pair she got. The pair that were supposed to be purple, but whoever decided to label these glasses "purple" clearly wasn't familiar with a toddler's perception of purple. These weren't purple; they were indigo. And indigo to a 3 year-old looks like black. So she hated them and refused to wear them, and is only wearing them in this picture because I bribed her with candy.

Then we took them back and got red ones. Which Syd still isn't fond of, but only because they're bifocals and make the world all funky looking.

"There are steps all over! I walk to the step, but it moves!" and she stumbles around for a few minutes until she gets her bearings and then forgets she has them on until she sees her other non-bifocal pair and demands to wear those instead.

We've set up a deal with Syd about wearing her bifocals: she has to wear them when she's reading, and she has to wear them when we're playing games. I wish she'd wear them when we're eating (because that's a close-range activity so her left eye crosses inward), but no deal.

The upside is that she's at least wearing them sometimes; the downside is that I have no excuse to not play games with her.

We play Memory with her Dora cards, and I regularly lose because I have about five million things I have to remember, let alone remember where the card is with Dora wearing a backpack.

We play some other nifty games that she received as gifts.

And lately, we've been playing Rapelli, from the Discovery Store.

All the parts are constructed with bamboo, so it's eco-friendly. (Bamboo is cool! Jason and I were even thinking of getting bamboo flooring in the new house except I don't think it comes in wide planks, which we want.) It's constructed well enough that if Jules happens to grab a piece we don't have to worry about her breaking it (although, the parts are small enough that little babies shouldn't be playing with it). When Parent Bloggers Network was looking for reviewers, I immediately thought of Sydney and working with her close-vision skills. This seemed like a great game to have her practice getting small parts into small holes, and it seemed engaging enough that she would consider it worth playing even if she had to wear her bifocals.

Well, folks. We have a winner.

Sydney plays this game almost every day, and she'll even play around with it even when we're not playing the game with her. The object of the game is to pull the little bamboo caterpillars out of the "tree." You go about doing that by rolling the dice and seeing how many links you can pull the caterpillar out (or, conversely, have to push the caterpillar back in, an aspect of the game we don't follow). The official rules are a bit vague on some of the details of playing the game, but that didn't bother us since we just make up our own rules to fit what we're doing and Sydney's age. For instance, I think maybe you're supposed to collect a certain color to win? And perhaps can use strategy to keep others from getting their caterpillars out? Obviously, though, we're not working on strategy. We're just trying to get as many of those little caterpillars out as we can.

Playing it the way we do, there is no strategy at all involved. It's all just random luck based on the dice. But that's okay because then when Sydney wins we don't have to feel badly that we were just crushed in a caterpillar game by a 3-year-old.

It's also a great game to help Sydney work on vision exercises. She has to look at small parts, manipulate smallish pieces, and coordinate all those things together. She never feels like it's a chore to play the game (and since the game only take about 15-minutes to play, it doesn't feel like a chore to us either), and right now that's key to getting her transitioned into wearing her bifocals more often.

And really, even though I rarely enjoy playing dice games (is it me, or do dice games take forever to play?!), I think this one is a great fit for Sydney and what we're working on, and that makes it worth it for me.

The game is available at the Discovery Store for $29.95, and considering the excellent construction of the game, the environmental friendliness of the parts, and the overall engaging aspects for kids, I'd say that's a reasonable price. More reviews of this game can be found here.

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Week 206: The Sleepingless Beast

I had a nightmare last week that we built our house and then there was no place to put my sewing machine. There I was, moving things into the finished house, standing in the hallway, crying, holding my sewing machine that didn't have a place to be.

As if it really needs a place to be. Right now it sits on the floor of our closet.

But right now--as we are waiting for the final draft of the house to arrive in our mailbox any day now--the gravity of the situation struck me: I have to make sure there are places for all the stuff we own because how totally freaked out will I be that we build a house, and then as we're moving in, we realize we forgot to include a spot for the fridge. The fridge! Then it ends up in the garage! And I spend the rest of my life trekking between the the kitchen and the garage holding gallons of milk.

Good thing we have a spot for the fridge.

And good thing I flipped through a Better Homes and Garden magazine in the middle of the night and found this photo (which I plan on replicating in some fashion in the house's laundry room):

Oh, of course! A drawer for my sewing machine! Where it will sit and be happy across from the washer and dryer, except for occasionally wishing that someone in the household sewed more often than she did laundry. But life isn't perfect, especially for sewing machines.

Dreaming of the house has been only the beginning of my sleepless adventures; most of the others involve the two daughters who have conspired against Jason and me to make our nighttime routine miserable. It isn't the sleeping through the night that's troublesome, it's the actually getting to sleep.

And we're not happy about it.

I will, in fact, write more about it...tomorrow. Right now, I have to figure out where we're putting our wooden filing cabinet.

PS: I'm starting a new page of Creature Bug that will chronicle the adventures of building the house, so that it won't usurp all the space for the day-to-day stories that I parade through here. Stay tuned!

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

take note

Sometimes joy is so big
the only thing you can do
is put on your boots,
run outside,
climb to the highest point,
raise your arms to the heavens,
and burst into song.

Joy doesn't wait
for convenient moments
and doesn't care
if you have your pants on
or not.

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Week 205: The weekend the sun came out

Just after I'd complained about how cold it was, the weather decided to warm up for the weekend and it was fabulous. So fabulous. I think I could have sunburned my nose if I hadn't put on SPF 25 (protect your skin! very important!).

Although it would have been tempting to go to the beach for the day, instead we spent the hours of sunshine working on our backyard. If you aren't acquainted with the whole process that is Operation Backyard, then you should catch up at this post, where there are some nifty before and after pictures.

To catch you up just a little bit, here's what the backyard looked like a few months ago:

But then little backyard fairies flew in and transformed it into this:

 

Of course, those fairies had a lot of help from Lowe's, Home Depot, and my hardworking husband. In fact, come to think of it, those fairies didn't actually do anything. Except make sure that Operation Backyard went smoothly and no one was injured, and no boots got stuck in cement, and no one cried. I guess that's worth something.

This weekend our major task was weeding, as well as putting down wood chips and bark dust. In fact, for the first time in my life, I went to the garden store and got a yard of bark dust. Jason coached me through the whole thing, so I ended up looking like I totally knew what I was doing. I went in, asked for a yard of fir bark dust, drove the truck around back, and waited while the bark guy (not to be confused with "barking guy"...yikes!) took his tractor with a front end loader and dumped in two loads of bark. I didn't make a fool of myself by driving off after one tractor dump (that's only 1/2 a yard!), and gave the guy a thumbs-up after he was finished. I was so cool.

Other than all that work, we've been hanging around watching the grass grow. Literally. We're watching it grow.

We had planned on laying sod down and then voila! we'd have a lawn. But then for reasons which I cannot fathom right now, I said, "Let's just plant seed instead. It'll be cheaper."

Learn from me: don't plant seed. You think it's smart. You think you're saving money. But then two months later after snow, hail, sleet, and frost, your poor little patch of lawn looks more like a "la" than an "lawn." I have to give it credit though--it has survived and is working very hard at trying to grow. By the time real summer rolls around I think we might actually be able to walk on it. In hindsight though, I should have agreed with Jason when he said, "Should I go get sod?" Yes, he should have. Yes, I should have kept my big mouth shut about throwing down seed.

And that rhododendron bush in the picture? It was planted up above the retaining wall, but we had to move it. Jason dug it up, transferred it, added some fertilizer, and miracles among miracles it lived! I really want to take that rhody with us when we move because it has yellow flowers, and I hardly ever see yellow rhodies. Do you think the new owner would mind? They certainly won't appreciate a yellow rhododendron as much as I do.

As for the wood chips:

They make the play area nice and safe (no splinters! no icky mouthfuls of dirt!). You may notice that the retaining wall has two different styles going on here: manor stones and cinder blocks. The manor stones we bought back in November; the cinder blocks we already had. It would have looked nicer to have manor stones all the way around, but those babies aren't cheap. So we recycled what stones we had and called it good.

Just to get you oriented, across from the play structure we have the patio.

Here's a view a little farther back that takes it all in:

And then from here, if you turn to the right, you will see what we have yet to do. Brace yourselves.

I think we have some kind of plan for this area, but we haven't been able to sufficiently kill off the weeds yet. We've tried, and only now, after multiple spraying of poisons that are probably responsible for melting the polar icecaps, are we making headway. The bank of ivy, blackberry thickets, grass, and other assorted awful plants is a massive project. Care to volunteer to fix it?

I'll make you lunch. I'll make you dinner. I'll pay you $100, which, by the time you're finished will probably only be worth $72.14 considering inflation, but think how proud you'll feel after a hard day's work. Consider it, will you?

This picture. That's all we have left to finish our backyard. If only I could Photoshop the backyard to perfection. Wouldn't that be nifty? Ah well, we have accomplished a lot.

A lot.

And that is amazing.

Hope Springs in Lilacs

Although tulips are my favorite flower, lilacs are a close second. There is a lilac bush outside Jules' bedroom window, and I can't tell you how many nights I have been in that room, gazing at the moon illuminated shadow of the lilac leaves. On spring mornings, I open wide the window and breathe deeply the smell of lilacs. That bedroom may be the smallest in the house, but the dreams are full of white, moonstruck lilacs. Lovely.

I was afraid the lilacs weren't going to make it this year. The weather hasn't been kind to them, and due to their eastern exposure along the side of the house, they don't get a lot of sunlight. Jeri and I have been trading emails back and forth about our lilacs, keeping our fingers crossed that they will survive. Her flowering purple lilacs are committed to flowering; my flowering white lilacs are waiting. They bloom after purple lilacs anyway, so I'm hopeful they will bloom eventually. See all those little buds? They have to turn into flowers, don't they?

My lilac bush has also given me an opportunity to put some newfound photography knowledge to use. Ree, that sassy Pioneer Woman, has had some nifty tutorials going on at her Photography site. I picked up a thing or two from her "Blue Branch": Step by Step and applied it to this picture of my lilacs. Although I'm still working with Photoshop 7.0 instead of the snazzy Photoshop CS3, it manages for most of what I want to do. Especially in the area of making my photos appear more as I see them in real life, instead of all muddy like my camera makes them appear.

Here's the before and after:

First photo? Not so hopeful. Second photo? Bloom on, little lilacs. You're going to be just fine.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update on Operation Backyard...

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

A Clean Toilet Goes a Long Ways

A book review brought to you by Parent Bloggers Network...

Shortly before Sydney was born, some of my former students threw a baby shower for me. They were all poor college students, and the party was where a few of them were living in a not-quite-fabulous apartment in Corvallis. Despite being college students and despite not having lots of money, I distinctly remember the yummy food, the good conversation, and A CLEAN BATHROOM. Honestly, if I had gone into labor I think I could have delivered in that bathroom, although I will say that the lighting wasn't great and the color of the tile wasn't exactly flattering. But hey, there was a pre-nursing student in the midst, so I would have been okay.

Clearly, these were students not raised by wolves.

Their ability to clean a bathroom and host a party notwithstanding, as young adults they would certainly enjoy reading Were You Raised By Wolves? Clues to the Mysteries of Adulthood, by Christie Mellor. I personally enjoyed reading it, and I am moderately clued in to adulthood. Kinda. At least, I'm responsible for small people, so that has to count for something. AND, AND! I save money, which was an entire chapter in the book.

Humorously written in a tone more like a funny older sister than a distantly polite Emily Post, Were You Raised by Wolves captures many of the elements we sometimes assume young people should know, but don't. Even I learned quite a few nifty tricks. As a sidenote that's not completely random, but is still a little bit, I have to tell you that today I received a Thank You card from one of my students who took my class this semester. Not only is it refreshing to see a young adult writing a thank you card for a class she took (for a grade!), but I was tickled pink because I love getting cards. Makes my day.

The book covers important topics--like being polite--as well as helpful cooking tips and amazing uses for baking soda (which inspired me to scrub my kitchen sink until it sparkled), good manners and good fashion, being a good-houseguest and being a polite individual, and creating your own holiday traditions as well as creating a sound budget. And for those who can't be bothered with important things like reading, Mellor fills her book with clever illustrations:

• how to shake hands: firm, look her in the eyes
• how to make a bed properly: ooh! I knew this one! pattern-side down on the top sheet so you can fold it over and make it look just like a Pottery Barn bed
• how to make Christmas ornaments: Q-TIPS! Cereal Boxes!
• how to sew on a button (while we're talking about using metal instruments, how about this nifty tip: "Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your hem and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress." Cool.)

Since the book was just hanging out in our living room, Rebekah the World's Best Nanny took a look-see through it and promptly declared it hilarious and clever. She is actually one of those college students who will make a remarkably responsible adult (since she's already a remarkably responsible adult), yet she still learned things from the book. We're hoping that her other place of employment (twig downtown) will carry the book for sale.

In the interest of full disclosure (and knowing the world views of many of my readers), I'll mention the fact there is one element of language in the book which is written in the context of "don't say this." I'm not mentioning it because I happen to be someone who belongs to--as the book puts it--a "certain fundamentalist religious sect," but because I'd want you to be comfortable with that fact before buying the book for your soon-to-graduate niece. That's all I have to say about that.

That so many of my former high school students are now finishing up college, plus I teach college students, and my brother is graduating from BSU in a few weeks with a graduate degree in kinesiology means that I should be giving this book to more than half the people I know. That's a lot of books. But since I'm following Ms. Mellor's advice on the importance of saving money so that we can build a house, I'll just buy copies for my brother and my favorite students, and give the rest of those fabulous new adults thoughtful cards and a high-five.

The book concludes with the perfect word of encouragement:

"Be a kind and thoughtful person. Don't forget to drink water and wear a hat in the sun, but don't always come inside when it's raining. Splash in a few puddles and enjoy the showers, so you'll appreciate the sunshine that much more." --Christie Mellor

I may have to borrow that quote for those cards I'll be sending out.

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Going to Work

Yesterday was Take Your Child to Work day, which many of Jason's students used as a great opportunity to ditch school and go see how cool working is (or not).

Instead of ditching school, Sydney actually went to school. For an assortment of reasons, Sydney didn't go to work with me. The main reason was that students were giving final speeches, and while they have developed a plethora of techniques for conquering their shaky nerves, I suspect a child waving at them from the back of the classroom would have just sent them over the top.

So, Sydney went to school with Jason. And, boy oh boy, was she just beside herself with excitement. The night before, she picked out her clothes, helped her daddy pack her lunch, and got her overnight bag all ready since my grandpa was picking her up at school to take her up to the Family Farm for her weekly visit. She went to bed early the night before since she knew that she'd have to wake up early, and she didn't complain about waking up at 6:15 am. Normally, Jason leaves for school very early because it's better for him to get work done before school than to stay after school more than the required time (ie: I beg him to be home by 4:00). However, he made an exception this time and left for school later than he needed to be.

By all accounts Sydney had a fabulous time. She gave hugs to the girls, and avoided giving high-fives to the boys (well done, my child). She drew on the dry-erase board, watched Winnie the Pooh on the iPod, ate donuts in the school office, and ran around the gym during Jason's prep time. As an added bonus, Inkling took her son to work with her too, so Sydney was jazzed about seeing him. Lunchtime rolled around, and my grandpa arrived to pick up Sydney. Jason told me later, "I wish Sydney could have been with me all day. It was so much fun having her around."

There are certain benefits to being almost four, and this year it was finally being old enough to go to work with Daddy. Who knows if this early experience with teaching will actually mean she'll want to be a teacher--gosh, if she follows in our footsteps, she won't figure out her career choice until her college adviser says, "Uh, maybe you should pick a major?"--but I'm glad she had a great experience her first time going to work with Jason. There are valuable lessons in learning what your parents do for a living, but of course, you already knew that, didn't you? Smarty pants.

*****

(c) 2008 Creature Bug. All rights reserved.