Two Different Children

I have two kids. One Boy. One Girl. They are almost complete opposites in everything they do, say, need, want, and feel.

The biggest difference I've noticed, is school.

For Dylan, school has always been easy. He flies through his work, gets straight A's, gets glowing reports from his teachers, excels at tests, etc. You get the picture. Most days he doesn't have homework because he finishes it before class is over because he's already done with the class work. When he does have homework, it takes maybe 10 minutes tops.

Maddie struggles. A lot. She struggles with her homework. She struggles with her school work. She wants SO badly to do well, but she still struggles.

Today the MAP scores came in the mail. I read Maddie's first. They weren't bad. She was basically average for everything. I was impressed, actually. I commended her on a job well done.

Then came Dylan's. Just one glance at them and I knew to just put it away and praise him for it later, but he (and Maddie) wanted to know about it right NOW. Maddie said "I know Dylan's will be better than mine, that's okay." It wasn't okay. He scored high or high average for everything. She was mad. "Why is Dylan so much smarter than me?" I don't even know how to answer that. I tried to tell her it is because he works harder, but she's not an idiot, she knows he doesn't do squat.

I just continue to praise them both for doing as well as they can do and hope that one day she can appreciate all the good she can do, and not all the bad. It sucks though.

Broken Heart

I know it's been a whole week since I blogged, but I have had a lot on my mind. I've debated back and forth whether to bring it to my blog or not, but now that all the important people know, I can do that.

My dad. He has a bad heart valve. He was most likely born with it and it progressed over time to what it is now, which is not good. Over the past few weeks to months he's been having shortness of breath and chest tightness and finally went to the doctor who discovered a murmur he never knew he had. We went to the cardiologist and had an echo where they discovered that his aortic valve is extremely tight. We met with the cardiologist and he's scheduled to have a cath tomorrow and we go from there. He will be having the valve replaced. My dad is hoping to wait until after the 1st of the year. I understand his desire to wait - he needs to come to grips with this in his own way (his own stubborn, pigheaded way) and it also has a lot to do with insurance, and wanting to be around for Christmas with the grandkids in full capacity, not recovering from major heart surgery. I do understand all of his reasons, and I'm keeping my mouth shut as much as it is humanly possible for me (ha), but the daughter in me wants him to have it now. Like right now. It's not a condition that will get better with time, only worse. The cardiologist indicated that waiting until the 1st of the year would be okay, but we won't know 100% until after tomorrow. I'm really glad he's allowing me to be a part of his medical decisions. If you know my dad, you know he's not really the warm, fuzzy type (wonder where I got that from...). He's also very private. So, for the most part I am simply providing him with as much emotional support as possible, while keeping my mouth shut. Who knew that was possible?

Anyway, moving on....Thanksgiving was last week. We were going to go to Tara's but at the last minute we decided to go to Dad's because of the above mentioned reason. I felt the grandkids needed to spend the holiday with him, not just for his sake, but theirs. Ever since hearing about Grandpa's heart problem he worried that they would worry too much, especially Dylan. Spending Thanksgiving with him and seeing that nothing has changed, definitely helped everyone.

Lessons Learned During an 8-Hour Power Outage

1. I need to buy matches. Or a lighter. Or preferably, self-lighting candles. They don't make those yet, do they? Dern.
2. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are not a sufficient dinner.
3. When Domino's says 45 minutes and they come in 30, they deserve a bigger tip. Not that I gave them one, but they deserve one.
4. When the lights go out, my kids go CRAZY.
5. We can play every game in our house in about 2 hours. Even made up ones.
6. Puget Sound Energy are liars. At 4:00 they said "very soon", at 7:00 they said "2 hours", but mean FOUR.
7. My kids sleep in completely dark rooms at night, but when the power's out, they need a flashlight or a lantern in their rooms. Huh?
8. Dylan can't keep his hands off fire. This includes campfires and apparently now candles.
9. When it's dark and you've played all your games and ate all your food, there is nothing else left to do but go to bed. My head hasn't seen a pillow before 9:00 in years. It did last night.
10. It is impossible to NOT try to turn on the lights every time you walk in the bathroom.

Kitchen-can't-live-withouts

My portable cutting boards. Plastic. Easy to clean. Light weight. SANITARY. Me love them long time.

Whoever invented these deserves a wet sloppy kiss from me. Depending on what they look like of course, but I was kind of hoping they looked something like this, because honestly, anyone who comes up with something this brilliant has to look like that, am I right? I love cooking in my crockpot, but I hate washing it. I even considered just tossing out the crockpot every time I use it and buy a new one, but that's not very cost effective, now is it? Thank you Bradley for inventing this. (please don't stomp on my dream).

My kids love apples. I love them to eat apples. My kids are not normal. They don't like to eat apples like humans - you know, grab, wash, bite, bite, bite, throw away the core. They like theirs cut up. Actually, they like them peeled too, but I draw the line at that. They're not oranges, people - they're APPLES. With EDIBLE PEELS. This little gadget makes my life easier.

Whoever invented these is a mother. One who was also once a kid (as if there is an alternative). One whose kid hated those crunchy chalk tasting Flinstone vitamins (no offense Fred and Wilma, but they suck). So, this lovely lady (not Carol Brady - I don't think anyway) mixed two wonderful ideas - candy and vitamins - and created something that makes my mornings easier. I now longer have to force vitamins down my kids throat and/or find them hiding in the bathroom garbage later.
What the heck is this gadget? It's for those of us that hate digging food out of our sink. I am not one of those people with a garbage disposal (except the kids). I find it gag-inducing to dig food out of my sink, so I bought these. Food goes in. I take the whole thing out, dump it in the garbage and throw it in the dishwasher. Loveliness.

I was not paid in the promotion of any of these items, but if you would like to I can give you my address. Or not, because more than likely you're a stalker and not a person who pays random people for promotions.

Ketchup and Mashed Potatoes

I've been lazy with the blog posts lately so I thought I'd play with Ketchup (haha). Several (and I mean SEVERAL) people on my Facebook are doing daily thankful lists. Meh. I'm not mushy. I considered it, seriously. For a minute. I love lists, after all, but I don't like lying. Well, most of the time. Now, if you're thinking I'm a heartless communist, who has a heart of blackness, you clearly don't know me, because mostly everything I do and say is with a hint of sarcasm.

By the way, I truly am thankful for the obvious things like family (most of them), friends (pretty much all of them), my job (except Sundays), my kids (especially after 9:00 at night), my husband (he's reading this, right?), and the roof over my head (I don't have anything sarcastic to say about that). I don't feel it's necessary to say "I'm so thankful for my wonderfully well-behaved children" because people would think I traded them in. That's illegal. So far anyway, but we still have two more years of this presidency, anything is possible.

I really am thankful for Dylan. Without him, I might think I'm smart and cool and funny, which clearly I am not. Thanks for keeping it real, Dylan. Without Dylan I also would never know what I would look like as a boy.

I'm thankful for Maddie. Without her, I may never truly enjoy the rare moments of silence. I also may actually sleep 8 hours. Who needs that? It's for the birds and you know how much I love those beasts.

See, I can be sentimental and mushy. Like mashed potatoes laced with cyanide.

By the way, if ketchup tastes so good on french fries, why not mashed potatoes? Think about it.

Meet me at the end of my rope

I'm beyond frustrated with Maddie right now. I'm at the point of losing my flipping mind. I keep having to remind myself that she's 7 years old. She's reverted back to her toddler years. She talks like a baby. She whines like a baby. She throws temper tantrums like a baby. In the morning I have to physically drag her out of bed and put clothes on her because she will.not.move. If she doesn't get her way she stomps her foot and pouts. She clings to me every waking hour that she's not in school. I literally weep tears of joy when I drop her off at the school, and then peel out of the parking lot like the cops are after me. Bedtime is a joyful time. I've given her excuses. She's not feeling well. She's just being jealous because Dylan is getting a lot of attention for his accomplishments in school. No more.

This is me being DONE.

She's going to get a chart. This chart is just a blank piece of paper. Every time her behavior is good, she gets a mark on the good side. Every time her behavior is bad, she gets a mark on the bad side. If, by the end of the week, she has more bad marks than good marks - she gets a privelidge taken away. If, by the end of the week, there are more good marks than bad marks - she gets a treat.

We've actually done this before and it worked AMAZINGLY. So well, that we ended up just forgetting about the chart because they were all good marks after awhile.

Then came this.

If this doesn't work, you can probably visit me every other Tuesday from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the visitors center of the nearest psychiatric ward. If I'm not on self-imposed isolation.

Announcements

Today Dylan came home with a huge announcement. He was named 7th grade Student of the Month. I'm so proud of him. He completely deserves this nomination. Unfortunately, my first thought was "oh crap, what are we going to say to Maddie?" The girl has serious Jan Brady Syndrome. Anything that happens to Dylan that is good, is just worse for her. She can never be happy for him, just sad that nothing good ever happens to her. Never mind that I repeatedly remind her of all the good things that have happened to her. It's not the same.

Fortunately, she came home today with good news. Her class was chosen to have the fire fighters in her class room and an ice cream party for turning in the best fire escape plans. So she was not at all depressed about Dylan's student of the month award. God bless Dylan, because he made a big deal out of Maddie's exciting news, because he didn't want her to feel left out.