The Queen's Rambles

>I got a really strange e-mail from Erik’s teacher on Wednesday. It said he refused to talk to anyone and he was just staring into space. He refused to go to the nurse and said he wasn’t sick. She wanted me to talk about it with him when he got home.

I can only assume that the district doesn’t allow teachers to say “hey, come get your kid” without a visit to the nurse. I e-mailed back since calling a teacher during the school day is not really possible and she said she had been checking her e-mail waiting to hear from me. She never told me to come get him, but I was worried enough that I went and got him and I am pretty sure that is the outcome she desired. As soon as I felt him I knew he had a fever.

Wednesday was ok because he was obviously sick and just laid around. Thursday? What a freakin’ nightmare. I couldn’t send him back to school since I had no idea if he was well or not at 8 am. By 9 am I knew he should have been off to that fine institute of learning.

He was well.

Quite well.

It made for a long, long day with no nap for Elsa since six year olds just don’t have the same “don’t wake the baby” sense that tired moms have.

Our district has a lot of convoluted rules. That’s the whole thing with the homework: district rules. The teacher has made it pretty clear that she hates assigning the work, but the district states that all students must do homework four nights a week. It even has guidelines of time spent, rules for weekends and vacations and other criteria. It’s pretty insane.

Our school implements it better than some schools I’ve heard about in the district. The kindergarten teachers put together a list of about 20 items in different subject areas and the kids are supposed to choose 16 of them to actually do. The kids have a notebook to use for some items (write as many numbers as you can), but many of the items are just things we check off (like read a story together and have the child tell who the characters are). It truly is not that bad, except I have a child who freaks out about it and makes it so much harder than it has to be.

>I was just asked if I would be willing to apply for a Big Sister position for MOMS Club! I can’t believe it! This is a person who supervises/helps several chapters in her area. I sort of want to do it just because it is a position of some power (in the SAHM world) and it would look good on a future resume. But it would take a lot of time and it would mean dealing with a lot of different personalities. I’ll have to give it some serious thought.

I just can’t believe I was asked! Such an honor. Or maybe it is kind of like being president of the chapter–sounds like an honor, but it is only for suckers.

>I have been buying Elsa a bunch of clothes and I fear she is going to need even more clothes later in the summer. How is it her new 3T shirts are almost too small already? Is she just going to skip 3T and go straight to 4T? Guess I better get my butt to Gymboree and Crazy 8s. Their sizes run bigger.

>I bought Erik some spring clothes in size 7. SEVEN! That’s the end of the line of the little boy clothes, and I’m not even sure if they will fit him. They look pretty small. What happened to my babies?

>I started watching “Downton Abbey” since everyone is raving about it. Now I see what the fuss is about! I have only watched one episode, but I can tell I’m really going to like it. I went online to find out about airdates for season two and am kicking myself for not starting it sooner. The season 2 episodes are only available online until March 6. There is no way on this earth I’ll be able to watch 14 hours of television in the next three days so I guess I’ll have to just enjoy season 1 and wait for season 2.

I did learn that season 2 of Sherlock Holmes will be playing in the US in May, so that made me happy. I should mark it on my calendar so I actually remember to record it.

>I almost bought a dress today, but then I turned around and looked at it from the backside. Not pretty. It was so pretty from the front, though! I don’t need a dress, nor want a dress but this dress was so beautiful that it almost didn’t matter. I know everyone makes fun of Dress Barn because of the name, but they really do know how to dress a plus sized lady. Except? I don’t need to wear dressy clothes anywhere. I wish they had more casual clothes.

My mom is coming in March, so I thought maybe I could wear a dress while going out on dates with Mike. I think the dress might have been cheaper than a night of paid babysitting around these parts.

>I have avoided Girl Scout cookies for years, but our sweet little neighbor girl was selling them and I couldn’t say no. What do they put in the Thin Mints to make them so deliciously addictive? I might have to break into their home and see if they have a surplus supply in their basement. Or put out a call for more Thin Mints on Facebook. This is exactly what I do not need if I am ever going to drop any of this weight.

>I have been going crazy with the Certifikid deals (Do you have that or is it just local? It’s like Groupon.) We are going cabin camping. What fresh hell is this? At least it is a cheap fresh hell. Erik has been begging to go camping for months years, so it’s finally time. We’ll have real beds, a small fridge and heat so I guess I can’t complain too much.

I also bought a family pack of tickets for a cruise along the Potomac to see the cherry blossoms. I’m really looking forward to that one, as long as Elsa doesn’t decide to jump straight into the river. She loves any form of water. I thought she was going to jump into the Pacific several times on our trip to Vancouver.