January is severely kicking my butt. I visited with a friend yesterday — who also suffers from depression that is worst in January — and it was so good to talk with her and find that we are so similar in our crazy, meaning that I’m not the only one who’s, as she put it, treading water while a big powerful wave pulls me further out to sea. I mean, I knew I wasn’t the only one, but to talk with someone else going through exactly what I’m going to is both rad and sucky.

Anyway, yesterday was one of the worse days, and then I got a phone call from Kaylie that went something like this:

“Mama, someone brought a real gun to school and it exploded and I’m scared. Can you come get me?”

“WHAT? A GUN?”

“Yea, I want to come home.”

“I’m coming to get you right now.”

“Okay … um … I just have to make sure it’s okay with my teacher that I go home.”

“No, you tell your teacher you’re leaving because I’m your mom and I’m the boss of you and you are coming home.”

“Okay.”

Um, yea, so that was fun. Apparently an 11-year-old Grade 5 boy (THE SAME GRADE AS KAYLIE)(just a different class) brought a gun to school and it went off in his backpack in his locker cubby hook thing. (How is that even possible? Is that just the story they’re going with? That it “went off”?) Apparently he didn’t know that it was loaded. The front page of this morning’s paper had a quote from a police officer which said, “Initially our officers thought he may have taken it as something to show friends.” So that means that he didn’t just take it to show his friends, so WHY did he bring it to school? Nobody was hurt and school went on, although kids were given the option of going home if they wanted to. When I got there, there were cops and a news station outside.

I’m glad she has no school tomorrow (previously scheduled day off) because I’m pretty sure I’d keep her home anyway. I’m not letting myself go into the what-ifs of a kid BRINGING A LOADED GUN TO SCHOOL because they are just horrible, like what if he brought it to the playground and pretended to shoot one of his friends in a “game” and actually shot him or her? What if the gun didn’t hit a metal water bottle in the kid’s backpack, but was aimed out at the kids? WHAT IF? I just can’t think about it. Homeschooling starts on Monday. (I’m kidding.)(Kind of.)

Anyway, on to things that don’t involve guns in my kid’s school.

At Canadian Family: 3 Great Baby Gates for Little Ones on the Move

Daily Flickr Photos:
(click for description)

On Instagram:
(click for description)

Filed under: Kaylie, angry mom, anxiety/depression, elsewhere
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I got a call from Liliana’s school on the way to Kaylie’s school this morning (yes, RUSSELL, I pulled over) saying that Liliana’s school was closed today due to a water main break. Liliana was disappointed, I was not. One less time I have to leave the house! Yay! As we sit on the couch — me catching up on blogs, her watching Little Einsteins — she asks me about twenty questions in a row and my head starts to spin and I remember why Monday mornings are usually so peaceful. I love having her home, but sometimes I’m a little more dizzy when she’s around. Also, WHAT THE HECK DID THEY DO TO SESAME STREET? Where’s Snuffleupagus?

***

There was the most incredible sunrise this morning. I will never, ever tire of Saskatchewan sunrises. This morning it looked like the sky was on fire — pink fire. At one point on my morning commute, the tallest city buildings were framed perfectly in the middle of the brightest part of the sunrise, as we viewed it from across a large field. I could sit there all morning and watch, although I’d be freezing cold and I’d probably get some weird looks as I sit there in my lawn chair in the middle of winter.

***

Noah had a super-awesome day yesterday for three very important (to him)(and therefore to the rest of us) reasons: (1) he’s part of fantasy hockey league (that he runs) and he is winning this week by quite a bit, (2) his Penguins won, and (3) his Patriots won and are on their way to the Super Bowl. He didn’t think that all three things could happen in one awesome day, but they did.

That last item is good news and bad news. It’s good news because the Patriots are in the Super Bowl, but it’s bad news because it’s a repeat of the 2008 Super Bowl in which the Patriots played the Giants and lost. And Noah had to watch them lose in front of a dozen of his man friends. He didn’t cry. On the outside. He’s going to his parents’ place to watch the Big Game, and I’m glad that he’ll have his mom around to celebrate with or to console him. (I’m not known for my sports sympathy.)(Although I will be watching the game.)(With ladies and babies.)

Also, I got some footage of Noah watching yesterday’s game and it is comedy GOLD. (Yes, Eric, I am sending it to you.)

***

I read this post from Ali this morning and I laughed out loud. She wrote about being a blogger with non-blogger friends and it is rad.

***

Miss Liliana has a really hard life. I was talking to my mom the other day and asked Liliana if she’d like to talk to Grannie. “Yea, then I can tell her about my bad life.” Bad things always happen to Liliana, like that time that Kaylie had Silly Putty (Silly Pudding, according to Liliana) and Liliana didn’t, or that time when she had to get dressed AND have breakfast and that was just too many things to do, or that time that Kaylie had the Lego ladder first and that JUST WASN’T FAIR, or when her beautiful artwork has to be removed from her wall, or when Kaylie asked for a foot-long Subway sandwich and Liliana flipped out because she didn’t want a foot sandwich, she wanted a peanut butter sandwich.

And sometimes she just likes to double-check things. “No one ever takes my brains away, right Mama?”

***

I added a 2012 Book List page up top there because one of my 2012 resolutions is to read 52 books, one for each week of the year. At this moment, I’m on Book Four and it’s the fourth week of January, so that’s good, right? I’d love some recommendations, though. I don’t think I read a single book last year and that is just not right. I’m reading the Harry Potter series right now, but what should I read next? What is your favorite book? What book do you think is a must-read?

Now I just need to pay off my library fines and I’m good to go.

Filed under: Liliana, Noah, this post has no point
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Daddy’s teams are playing today.

It’s currently 2-2 in the second period of the Penguins/Capitals game, and the Patriots playoff do-or-die game starts in just under an hour.

Daddy’s a little nervous, but maybe his Little Patriot can help calm his nerves.

(If calming his nerves is even possible.)

Filed under: Noah, Preston
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Liliana: “Mama, today is a sad day. Cienna is moving away.”

Me: “Well that’s too bad. Where is she moving?”

Liliana: “I don’t know. Somewhere. Maybe China.”

Me: “Oh really?”

Liliana: “Do we live in Canada?”

Me: “Yes.”

Kaylie: “Canada is the second-biggest country in the world. Russia is the biggest. And the smallest is … Haiti? Philippines? Hawaii?”

Me: “Hawaii is not a country.”

My kids need some geography lessons. Anyway, here’s what else went on this week:

At Canadian Family: A Smart Solution for Little Teethers: The Teethifier

Daily Photos:
(click for description)

On Instagram:
(click for description)

Filed under: Kaylie, Liliana, elsewhere
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Noah called me into Liliana’s room yesterday and I walked in and saw this:

(There are actually nine people there, but five of them were drawn with a very light-colored marker. You can see them if you tilt your screen.)

“Who drew on the wall, Liliana?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why did you draw on the wall?”

“Because I wanted to be creative! I wanted to make you guys happy!”

Oh, goodness. There were lots of words said. We encouraged her, told her that we loved her artwork, but also told her that drawing on the walls was inappropriate and that her drawing would have to be removed. She was UP. SET. “BUT I WANT MY ROOM TO BE CREATIVE!!!”

Liliana had just brought home some artwork from school, so we got some sticky tack and put that up on her wall, and Noah told her that he was going to bring home a roll of paper from work and that she could color it and we could put it up on her wall. I know that she knows that drawing on the walls is wrong, but I also know that she loves art and crafts and her walls are very empty.

This is one of those rare circumstances where we didn’t dish out a consequence, besides removing the markers from her room and removing her picture from the wall. Thankfully, she drew the picture with washable markers. I’d been letting her color during her afternoon quiet time, as she’d been showing she could handle it — keeping the makers on the paper only — but we’ll keep the markers at the table from now on.

How cool would it be, though, to have walls that she could color on? I may have to look into that.

Filed under: Liliana, parenting is hard
9 Comments »