The Queen's Rambles

It was Family Academic Night at school last night. Erik kept calling it Epidemic Night and thought it was going to be super fun game time. I didn’t really want to go because I knew he was going to be disappointed and it didn’t end until 8:15, which is after his bed time. But we did go. He was over the moon excited when I said we could go. He was jumping so high I thought he might hit his head on the ceiling.

Of course, Mommy is often right and he was pretty disappointed. He thought it was going to be like Family Game Night, which is when they set out a bunch of game boards and families come and play. Instead, a lot of different teachers were at a lot of different stations teaching academic “games” which barely qualified as games. He was not really polite in his disappointment. If you’ve been reading awhile you’ve probably picked up on the fact that he is not the happiest kid in the world. No one would ever describe his personality as “sunny” or “happy.” He has nothing to be unhappy about, but he’s always been pretty discontent, from the day he was born. It can be very exhausting. And sad for my mommy heart.

There was a good part: his best school bud was there, so I finally got to meet him. He was there with his dad, so we walked all over the place with them after we found them and the boy helped keep Erik in check. I was very pleased to see that the boy is really well behaved and smart. He’s exactly the kind of friend I would want for my child. The boy was actually much better at math than Erik (scary smart!) so by the end Erik was getting a little upset. They had a lot of fun playing a dice game, though. They would roll the dice and add up the numbers.

When they sat down at the dice game, the teacher asked if they were twins. I just laughed it off because Erik is one of the palest kids in the school and his best bud is on the opposite end of the color spectrum. Just from accent alone I am guessing that his dad is African. The two boys were obviously really happy together and enjoying each other’s company, but I don’t think it’s out of line to say that you can tell by looking that they aren’t twins.

So we get up from the table. The teacher hands the dad a packet of information. I hold out my hand for a packet and she says “Oh, each family just needs one.” I look confused. “The boys are twins, aren’t they?” she asks again, very confused looking.

I started laughing so hard that I couldn’t stop. I felt terrible! But I couldn’t stop laughing. Twins! What the hell? We aren’t in a sitcom. I don’t think there is any biologically possible way that the father and I could produce twins from the opposite sides of the color spectrum. If we were a couple, our twins would be a delicious caramel color.

The teacher got really offended and said “It could happen. They get along so well, I just assumed they had to be siblings.”

I suppose they could have easily been step-siblings, but certainly not biological twins. Ha! Besides, what siblings get along so well?

In other news:
>We don’t have a single thing planned this weekend! Freeeeeedom! Next weekend was have two birthday parties on Saturday and a babysitter for Sunday afternoon.

>I turned Elsa’s car seat even though it’s a couple of months early. I haven’t weighed her, but I’m pretty sure she exceeds the rear facing weight limit on our car seat. Plus, her poor legs were just not looking good in the rear facing position. She thinks she’s pretty hot stuff now that she’s facing forward, and it’s hard to convince her to get out of the car.

>Mike and I have been watching Alcatraz together. I am mainly watching it for Hurley. I’m enjoying the show, but it doesn’t totally have me hooked yet. It’s nice to have something to watch together with Mike.

>I made a healthy dessert recipe called cookie dough dip. I was shocked–it really did taste good even though it was made with chickpeas. If anything, it was too sweet. Unfortunately it doesn’t solve my sweets cravings. I have been reading a book on sugar addiction (thank you Beck!). I’m a text book case of a person with sugar sensitivity. I’m very, very lucky I never started drinking or I would absolutely be an alcoholic. The healthy cookie dough dip may taste just like regular cookie dough (or pretty darned close), but it does not give me the same brain reaction as a traditional dessert, leaving me feeling empty and still needing a hit. I am hoping this book’s plan will work for me (I haven’t read the whole book, but it seems to depend a lot on eating protein, whole grains, and a daily potato). I am tired of being addicted to sugar. The book is very revealing and it does make me feel a lot less guilty about having zero will power. For those of us with sugar sensitivity it is not a matter of just saying “Ok, I won’t have sugar today.” It truly is an addiction.

>Elsa needs a real haircut. She has a lot of split ends and her hair is just odd looking. I am not looking forward to how this plays out. I can’t imagine it will go well.

>Time for lasagna.