A busy, quiet, still toddler…tada!

1 hour and 45 minutes. That is exactly how long this activity kept my nearly two year old busy, quiet, and still. What did I do during that time? Well for one thing, I enjoyed a hot cup of coffee.

What you will need: two towels, a couple plastic containers, spoons, medicine droppers and cups, measuring cups, etc. food coloring (optional), and water.

I put one towel down on the floor under Finn’s chair and then one on the table. I set him up with two shallow plastic dishes half filled with water, gave him the utensils and watched the magic! After a while I would take one of the dishes and put just one tiny drop of food coloring in. He thought this was great, and it didn’t stain as it was so diluted. He would have played longer, but it was lunch time so who knows the bounds of mama time this activity could earn. Clean up was minimal thanks to the towels being laid down, it did necessitate a change into dry clothes, but other than that it was easy. File this one away for your rainy day activities!

Consistency updated!

I talked to the principal of Elizabeth’s school today. She was quite lovely. We discussed whether it was fair to give these kids a detention for something that they had been doing all school year long, not realizing they were in the wrong. She called Elizabeth down to hear from her what happened on Monday. The principal called me back and said that it sounded like an honest mistake on Elizabeth’s part and that she really didn’t know she was to leave the exit closest to her bus. So? She dropped the detention, as well as the detention for the other kids who were caught up in this. She said not to worry about it and not to go to the teacher who signed the slip, or the assistant principal, but straight to her on Monday and she would sign her detention slip. Score one for Mama Bear.

As an aside, I’m very proud of Elizabeth, during the conversation with the principal I told her that Elizabeth was a good kid and had never had a detention in her life. She asked for her name again so she could pull up Elizabeth’s file. Upon repeating Elizabeth’s name, her principal said, “Wait? Elizabeth? I know her, yes, she IS a good kid! She helped me sort out an incident that happened in the gym this morning.” Apparently there were a bunch of boys on one side of the gym this morning who were tired of waiting for the first bell and decided it would be fun to kick a full can of Pepsi out onto the gym floor and make a mess. The principal was called down and well, you know boys, no one would talk so they all got detentions. Before she left the principal said that if anyone cared to share the real story she would be happy to hear it. Elizabeth saw that our next door neighbor had got caught in the kids who received detention even though he wasn’t a part of it. She went to the principal’s office and told the principal that our neighbor wasn’t part of it, and named the culprit of the can kicking. The principal was really grateful, Elizabeth even got two free slushy tickets for the cafeteria as a thank you. Yep, she is a good kid.

New Midwife Assistant

Today I was having a rough day physically, I just felt “off” and couldn’t really put my finger on it. My very sweet friend and midwife came over to give me and baby a check. Finnigan is her assistant and she’s always so kind in letting him try out all of her fun gadgets, whether it be helping with the dopler, or in this instance trying out the stethoscope. After these pictures he would hand her the little squeeze bulb on the blood pressure cuff and have her pump it up for him. Who knows, maybe this is a sign of things to come.

Hmmm, there's definitely a baby in there Mama.

26 week belly shot

Oh, and by the by, mama and baby are doing fantastic, very good heartbeat from baby, and mama’s blood pressure is excellent.  So whatever it was, was probably not pregnancy related.

Consistency

I just had a very interesting conversation with the Assistant Principal at my daughter’s middle school. She was very polite and very pleasant to talk too, but I really don’t think I got anywhere. Elizabeth came home yesterday with a detention. This child has never had a detention in her life. Needless to say it was a surprise and I wondered what she had done? Even more of a surprise was the fact that it was a 60 minute detention. Now school policy holds that when a child is in trouble they get a warning, second offense they get either a demerit or a 30 minute detention, third offense you get a 60 minute detention. What did Elizabeth do to get slapped with a 60 minute detention? She walked out the school exit she has been using all school year to go get on her bus. There she was met by a teacher who gave her a detention for coming out the wrong exit. There is nothing in the school rule book that says anything at all about which exit is okay to leave by. There are no signs on that door or others denoting where a proper exit is. Oddly enough there are many, many other students who go out this door as well, yesterday they were given detention too.

I found it odd that Elizabeth has been leaving the school by the same exit to get to her bus for most of the school year and suddenly she gets a 60 minute detention. No warning, no nothing. So, naturally I called the school to speak with the principal. She assured me that the kids were told with in the first two weeks not to leave the school this way and to use the main exit/entrance. I brought to her attention the school rule book and the lack of any mention of this and also that Elizabeth had received no prior warning, despite many teachers seeing her and others exit this way. She very nicely said that three quarters of the way through the school year she expected the kids to know this by now and so was just going straight to the 60 minute detention. (Elizabeth was adamant yesterday that she was unaware of anything wrong with her leaving that way). She said she had to be consistent in giving all the kids a detention and would not waver, despite if they had been warned or not. She prided herself on being consistent with the kids.

OK, here is what gets me thinking:  Why do people automatically equate consistency with something good? Especially in a school setting? I can be a consistently bad driver, that doesn’t mean that’s a good thing. I can consistently break into people’s homes and steal their tv’s, again, not so great. And if we really wanna go way out there, I’m sure Hitler prided himself on being consistent. Just because one is consistent in something does not make it right, fair, or just. If we are being so consistent then why now, three quarters of the way through the year, are we deciding to stop the kids from leaving the building this way and doing so with a detention? If you wanted to be consistent then perhaps you should have started handing out detentions during the first month of school rather than letting the kids leave the school like this all school year and then just handing out detentions one day. Is this a model of how consistency works out in the real world? Hardly.

Bottom line is this.

Will Elizabeth be serving her detention? Yes.

Do I think it’s right? No, not really.

Will this be an opportunity to discuss consistency out in the real world? Yes!

Blog Makeover…

No you didn’t make a wrong turn on the intrawebs some where. Yes, this is Fuzzybritches, or rather, was Fuzzybritches. Since the fuzzy little ball of fun has left us,  and so many other things have changed in my life,  it really does seem time for a blog makeover. Not just the look, but the why. I want this to be a sort of online journal of all the crazy, fun, mundane, household things that I do everyday with my family. I want to share some of the ideas I have, I want to be able to look back and remember.

And so I introduce to you, Cold Coffee. Most stay at home moms will understand this title, as you all understand that’s how we get to drink our coffee…and most likely eat our meals, cold. We are busy people, there is no sitting around reading trashy romance novels and eating bon-bons in this house! It’s time to make breakfast, or wash a load of diapers, or someone bonked their head, or it’s only half an hour until Daddy comes home and dinner isn’t even started! This is my life, and I love it!

Well ok, one of us might get caught laying down on the job.