Category: Jen

20×2 is a tradition where 20 people are given 2 minutes to present their answer to the same hypothetical question. This year’s question was, “What if…” Kevin decided to do his on “What if Max were in charge?” Hee. Check out the video to the left. I heard someone did hers on “What if the internet didn’t exist?” My initial response: oh the horror! ’80s flashbacks with the hair and the leg warmers. Arrrrggk. I am looking forward to Kevin’s recap. Aren’t you?\
Kevin’s birthday is coming up. What should I get him?\
Auntie M wanted to know why, when, how I am going to Paris. Here’s the explanation: Kevin was asked to speak at a conference there in May. I decided to tag along. My mom even agreed to watch the kids. YAY!\
I have a meeting with Max’s new principal tomorrow. I am really tired of the run around I have been getting from the school, the district office, my dr’s office. Even the phone book and internet haven’t been useful. Grrr.\
In slightly similar news, Anne typed in a two paragraph’s of Max’s favorite reading material, The New Scientist, into a website that can determine its reading level. One paragraph came in at 9.5 (half way through first year of high school) and another came in at 15.3 (part way through third year of college). Cool, huh? Not sure how much Max actually understands since we don’t read the magazine too, but he talks about the articles a lot like he understands them. Max also enjoys reading kiddie books too, like James and the Giant Peach, so he’s fairly well-rounded. He is even starting to get into the world culture books Nana bought him.

Booooooooo to Daylight Savings. The sun isn’t even up yet.

Kevin is off for SXSWi. Every year he claims it’s a work thing and every year I swear it is “Geek Spring Break.” I have planned lots of projects around the house and fun activities to do while he is gone. Instead though, I think I will hit the store for some bonbons and lie around watching the Pussycat Dolls reality show. How many of you watched it? Come on, be honest!\
How many of you are mad at me because you can’t find orange Cadbury cream eggs at your local supermarket? I wasn’t just trying to tease you. Promise. I can’t find them at my regular store either. Poo! We were out running errands on Saturday when we ducked into a store for something quick and that is where I found them. So no orange cream eggs for me.\
Brian is a delayed speaker. He only recently started really talking. Here are some of his unique pronunciations, saved for posterity:\
Airplane= Sissy. I don’t know why. It was one of his first words.\
Thank You= Go. Yes is also Go, even though he can say “yes.” Can only tell meaning by context.\
Triangle= Up and down and around. Cuz that is how you draw them, duh.\
Rocket= Rocky. At least he’s close with this one.\
Maxi= Batty. Kevin likes to joke that he is saying “butt.” Max isn’t amused.\
Muffin= Frossies. Again, I have no idea why.\
Seep= See. Wow, he almost gets this one right too!\
He still says a bunch of words we don’t understand, but he has come along way in the last 3 months. YAY!

Having a side-by-side blog with Kevin is really entertaining and snags me lots of readers. But it is also really embarrassing when Kevin posts about making things better and I’m all, “TV shiny; poop stinky!” But, eh, it’s my life. And with that in mind…\
The orange Cadbury cream eggs are so yummy! You must try them.\
I think dim sum broke Brian’s butt! He’s been pooping nonstop ever since! Ok, well, it may have been the dozen strawberries he munched on in between servings of the dim sum.\
Here is my weekend wrap up:\
Saturday I spent the morning cleaning Max’s room. We even found a favorite stuffed animal, so he is extra happy. I organized his books and comics on the bookshelf and the toys in his toy box. I even found more storage space to utilize- wheeee. I washed the marker off of his walls, but the pen wasn’t coming off so easily. I’ll try Magic Erasure next time I have the urge, but I worry it will take off the paint too. I did manage to get most of the crayon off of his door. It was a tough job though, because the crayon is in the groove of the wood lines. I think a scrubby brush with bristles that can get in there will work. Most the “unsanctioned wall art” was from Brian.\
Saturday afternoon, the kids got to be with Anne while Kevin and I got to have a day date! We went out for a lunch at a new restaurant in Ashburn. The salad that came with my meal was so big, I took my entire entree home, which was dinner for Sunday. Score! Afterwards we got my passport photo taken. I am so excited for Paris! And still scared. After hanging around the house for an hour, trying desperately not to fall asleep, we zipped to the in-laws’ for dinner and to pick up the kids.\
Sunday was a good day, too. I woke up so freaking early with the kids that I was able to sneak in a morning nap. Around 11 am we went into Arlington for a group lunch of dim sum. Our party had 31 people in it, so we had to split into 3 tables. And of course we saw the Washington Monument, because no trek of ours outside of Northern Virginia would be complete without seeing it, even if it is not on the itinerary! The whole trip took us 4 hours, 2 hours for lunch & gabbing and 2 hours for driving. The kids were so well behaved that they both deserve ponies. They tried a bunch of new dishes and Max ate with chopsticks. When they weren’t eating, they just sat silently looking around, talking, or drawing. It was so nice. Brian was even awesome enough to poop before and after the trip, but not while we were out. YAY! Way less of a hassle to change him at home.\
This weekend, I only got one thing done and I feel great about it! The kids had fun with Grandma, I had fun with Kevin, and we all had fun together. Since Kevin is leaving for SXSWi this week, it was a good pre-trip fun time weekend.\
In other news:\
Max is in the faux gifted program at school. What this means is that a teacher takes him and a few other students out of class and has special lessons and activities for them. So far these lessons seem to be about spacial reasoning and placement. Anyway, let me take a minute to complain. We are lucky in that Max is smart, charming, cute, and has pushy parents who asked for more challenging instruction for him. So far Max is in: faux-gifted group; the accelerated reading program, which attempts to let kids read at their own level; the school’s writing group (they made a special exception for Max since it isn’t open to 1st graders); math all-stars (which is open to everyone); and has a very big part in the class play. What was I complaining about? oh yea, school. So, max is being taught all this extra stuff. Which yay for us. But booo to the other kids who are missing out. Here is my complaint: maybe Max isn’t smarter than anyone else, but maybe he is just being taught more?\
Brian has only napped once or twice in the past week. UGH! Make it stop. He is such a monster from 4-5:30 when he doesn’t nap.

Now that I have the living room and dining room redecorated satisfactorily (I should post pictures, huh?), I think it is time to move onto the master bedroom. It’s been 7 and 1/2 years. We still don’t have any pictures or art hanging up there and we are still using temporary curtains. So, yea, it’s time.

I just realized that Kevin probably took Brian’s car seat on purpose so I couldn’t crash his work dinner and make him buy me expensive fish and a fancy dessert!\
He’s going to be near Harris Teeter, which has a nice selection of hard-to-find caffeine free sodas. Think I can get him to stop in? Or did he carpool? Silly carpoolers!\
In other pooo news-

• Brian didn’t take a nap. Which means I didn’t either and now I have a wicked headache. So booo to Brian. He is so going down early tonight. Mwuhahaha! Ahh, my head.
• I had to throw out a whole container of ice cream. I bought French Silk and when I got it home I saw that it contained mocha. But French Silk pie doesn’t have mocha in it! Why did they ruin my ice cream with their nasty coffee? And why did they try to be sneaky about it? Super booo to the ice cream maker!
• No car seat meant no Costco trip. Booo. And no taking the kids out to an early dinner at Friendly’s. Booo.
• Bush is President. Booo to that. Just on principle.\
  ETA- I just realized that the restaurant isn’t where I thought it was, so good thing I didn’t try to crash his dinner!

I didn’t know Kevin was in a funk. Did you?\
Kevin’s recap of this weekend fails to mention me, which is totally fine. But I wasn’t off eating bonbons and watching The OC reruns while Kevin was being ‘Father of the Year’. Oh no. Saturday I spent the time alone cleaning the house and Sunday I spent sledding time taking pictures and then shoveling snow. Just for the record.\
ETA- I just came in from shoveling out Kevin’s car. If he can’t get to work tomorrow, it is not because of lack of effort. The snow plow didn’t come through today, so I shoveled the street in front of our house. I am dead now. Goodnight.

• Kevin is now a Systems Architect. YAY!
• Max got the second lead in the first grade musical. YAY! He is a great white shark who helps a little fish learn that ‘special’ friends (like a seven-legged octopus) are just as great as non-special friends. The teacher forgot to include a whole page of dialog! Max and I caught the error fairly quickly, so no major harm done.
• Brian is speaking up a storm, learning his letters, and loves to draw the clues along with Steve or Joe while watching Blues Clues. YAY! He knows about a third to a half of the alphabet. It’s only been in the last month that he has really shown any interest. He is even starting to draw some of the letters too. So far his favorite seems to be ‘B’.
• I had brunch with some friends yesterday. YAY!
• We have new neighbors finally. YAY! It’s a cute family of three and the wife is expecting baby #2. She is also a stay-at-home mom and the daughter is Brian’s age. So we now have three two year olds in a row in our town home cluster. It should be extra fun in the Spring. The husband was extra chatty when I introduced myself, so he should get along with Kevin well. Plus, they didn’t shovel right away after the snow storm. I love that in neighbors, honestly. That way I am not peer-pressured into shoveling before a reasonable time has passed.

I am done for the day!!! If you need me, call someone else, k? Thanks. Bye.

Max is still sick, but happy in spirit, and I am tired of it! (Him being sick). I haven’t been able to go to Costco, my household routine is in disarray, and Brian and I are tired of staying inside. And I am sure as heck tired of getting up early in the morning, unnecessarily. Booooooo to it all.