Whiplash

 

Seriously? Now, I ask you... who is in charge of this!?

Snippets from school

 We celebrated Dr. Seuss all last week which culminated in a party on Friday with One Fish Two Fish snacks and Cat in the Hat fruit kebobs. My coworkers are the best! 

We've finished the Olympics and moved on to March Madness, but with books. Daily we've been reading two books to the kids and they have to vote on their favorite, We have brackets made of painters' tape up on the walls with photocopies of the covers of each book, so once it is full I'll get some photos for here. So far, the Sleep Book won over its competitor, Fox in Socks was in the running, and so was Marvin K Mooney. They won't all be Seuss books, but that's what we kicked it off with. 

We've had two Silly Socks days. One of the 3s came in with these socks, above, which are possibly the cutest socks I've ever seen in my life! It took him a minute to get them to hold hands, but he got it!

You can see my Mary Jane with Wonder Woman sock in the bottom left, but you can't see the cape on the back of it, alas.

 And the Olympics! BOY, did we have fun. I've never enjoyed the Winter Games more than this year. One of my coworkers made these bobsleds, above, and the skis, below, and we also had hockey games with pool noodles, ski jumps off the gym mats with pool noodle ski poles, a slalom course set up of hula hoops that the kids had to hop into from side to side on both feet, and on and on. They had a ball! We had so much gross motor time that we really saw a lot of confidence being built up, especially in kiddos we didn't expect to really get involved! It has been a very long winter of inside recess, so the chance to have something novel to try was a huge hit. 

Our kids even made "torches" from a toilet paper roll and red, orange, and yellow tissue paper, and then with that in one hand and a mini American flag in the other, got to parade through the lunchroom while the big kids chanted, "USA! USA! USA!" and the sound system played the Olympic theme. The 4s and 5s were thrilled. The 3s were dubious. All were adorable.  

The skis look a little worse for wear here, but the kids were absolutely delighted. I personally am sad that the Olympics are over and that we won't get to do it again for years! It was really neat to experience them for the first time throuigh these little kids who had no idea what the fuss was about and to then have them coming in each day asking, "what are the Olympics today?!"

Another random rundown

 So this will be a load of random, I'd planned to blog about the last of the teas from January but at this point I don't remember, so tough beans. Or tea leaves, I guess. They were mostly yummy and I've remembered to drink more tea this year than ever before, so it worked, I guess? Haha.

We are experiencing technical issues over here, as well. Thing One graciously lent me a portable keyboard for this post because my poor laptop, above, was baptized with apple juice and some of the keys are not sticky to the touch but are sticky underneath which results in a lot of frustration, random j's, and so forth. As you can see, the space bar is also missing, which makes things a little more challenging and renders moot most of what I learned in typing class with Mr. Hovis many moons ago. 

So., My phone is chock full of photos of my preK crowd but since I don't know who has permission to see them and who doesn't, I won't be sharing those visually. I need to clean out my phone storage for real, which reminds me of one of my most recent favorite preK quotes:

My nana caught an octopus FOR REAL.

Sounds like a children's book waiting to happen...

Weatherwise, we've gone from snow angels to throwing windows open and walks in the sunshine and the corresponding sinus headaches with the temps and pressure being all over the map. Most people I know are still dealing with a cough of some sort, or sinus congestion, or both. Why March feels the need to go from 20s to 70s and then back to the 40s and wet when we could all use weeks on end of 60s is beyond me, but I'm not in charge.

Arm-wise, I'm still playing phone tag with the big city folks about what they want to do to me next. There's been talk of involving a vascular department but I have zero ideas as to what that would actually entail other than thought bubbles containing, "stent?" "Removing a rib?" "Ballooning something back open?" Yeah, not getting all bent out of shape until we talk to the pros. I am against rib removal, though, for the record... and this is why you don't google things or talk to people who don't work in the spoecific department.

Meanwhile, I am still wearing The Reductor 23ish of 24 hours, including sleeping in it, getting stuck to my wool blanket because of the velcro, trying to put on/take off makeup and brush teeth when I'm not wearing it because it's hard to make my elbow bend to those angles while in the darn thing, and ain't nobody wants to see me do eyeliner left handed. It's been two and a half weeks of my 2-4 weeks, so we are getting there. 

I also graduated from my bag of foam chips to stuff into my bra to a small bag of beads. I find it completely ridiculous that I'm wearing a padded bra sans boobs, but the PT gal says that she does notice my scar tissue softening, so I guess it's working. I'm doing my exercises and my stretches and all the things, though I can't do them as often as recommended due to the limited mobility because of The Reductor. That's okay. I'll get there. Just keep chipping along. 

Thing One just teased me, "laundry basket emoji!" which is our shorthand for "Get your stuff outta the washer (or dryer)!" Must rescue the sheets. Be back in justasec...

Last week, we asked one of our brand new four-year-olds what his take was on the weather. He looked out the window and reported, "it's foggy... and rainy... and gross!" Spot on, my friend.

I texted Thing Three from the dentist and asked if he was doing okay. He replied, "i was kidnapped and im being waterboarded right now

it stings"

I can't even.

Thing Two informed us that the house shook and he wondered what was going on only to discover later that he'd been about 3 miles from the 2.9 earthquake Ohio had last week. I told my mother that it often feels like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs anymore. Otherwise, he says he is doing fine and that he prefers snow covered roads because it helps fill in the potholes. Poor Pepe. I hope he can keep it together through all the spring thaws...

Overall, we are doing okay. Hanging in there like everybody else between high points and valleys. Take good care of you!

Happy birthday, Gramps!

 I dunno how old my Dad’s dad would be today, but I always find it funny that his birthday is the same as the amazing Dr. Seuss! Today our preK crowd will be wearing pajamas and we will be reading one of my all-time favorites, the Sleep Book. It’s Seuss week, so there are lots of Shenanigans planned and I’m sure there will be plenty of spontaneous, kid-originated Shenanigans as well!

I will be wearing my minion pajamas bottoms- yes, the ones from Despicable Me- and I will most likely still be wearing them to my PT appointment right after school. Last week we had a silly sock day so I got to wear my Wonder Woman socks- which have capes on them, by the way- to PT and the woman who works on me approved highly. I’m just here for comic relief.

Since it’s March and we will have St. Patty’s Day to celebrate soon, I bought our yearly Lucky Charms so there’s a happy teenage boy munching away this morning. Congrats, everyone, for making it through February!

Have a great day!