Robin Chartier – Page 195

Christmas frenzy

I’m hoping that all the people who read this blog have been just as busy as I have been and haven’t had time to check and see that I haven’t updated in a few days. I don’t know why I thought Christmas vacation would actually feel like a “vacation,” because we haven’t stopped moving since the kids got out of school.

Two days ago we went camping, yesterday we got home, unpacked, cleaned up, ran off to Christmas Eve service and then I spent the night cooking, cooking, cooking. Because today we are having a bunch of people over for dinner, but before that we are going to a Christmas brunch (cooking for that too) and tomorrow morning we are leaving for Dubai for a few days and of course we still have to pack. In fact, I still have to finish laundry from camping to get the clothes clean to pack them, not to mention that the house looks like we camped in our living room so we have to get that picked up before our 11 friends join us to eat today. Josh just walked in the kitchen and asked, “Do we have enough silverware?” So that tells you exactly where we’re at on the preparedness level. Since I just realized we probably don’t have enough plates either, lack of silverware is a minor hiccup. But I do have my beautiful, grown up table cloth, so at least we can sit at the table and look at that.

Gotta run — we’re off to brunch! Merry Christmas!

Hallelujah!

The boys just left for their last day of school before Christmas vacation and I can proudly say that I made it through the entire semester, trimester (whatever it is that they’re doing here) of getting up early and getting them off to school.

Every day I woke them up (OK, Calvin did wake me up once or twice), made sure they were dressed in the appropriate uniform — not an easy task because every other day was a PE uniform day and Carter and Caleb were not on the same schedule — checked to see if take-home folders were back in backpacks and homework was signed, figured out if it was AWANA or library day and finding the appropriate books (or yelling at that particular kid to find said books), organized shoe hunts (every day it seemed like people were missing shoes right as the bus was pulling up), and corralled them all to the kitchen to sit down and eat breakfast.

The part I’m most proud of is I actually sat down and ate breakfast with them each day and read to them from Bible and prayed before they left. I couldn’t have done all this without the help of my “sister wife” Lucy, who got breakfast on the table every day and packed the boys’ lunches, but for this night owl who is a 10am riser at heart, getting up before 7 every day is a BIG FAT DEAL.

So I’m accepting this award for Most Improved Morning Routine with pride and I plan to celebrate by sleeping in for the next two weeks. Merry Christmas to me!

Fa, la, la, la, la!

The other day we went to the elementary school winter concert. I was amazed by how many parents (both moms and dads) were in attendance at 2pm on a workday. I guess when you put such a high value on education that you’re willing to pay big bucks for it, you take advantage of every opportunity to see if your investment is paying off.

The hour long concert featured songs performed by each grade, plus a few group numbers at the beginning and the end.

2nd grade

4th grade

combined choirs

Their singing was better than our camera work, but I’ll blame it on the squirmy baby who was not nearly as fascinated by the concert as we were.

And for those of you who either can’t or don’t want to sit through the videos (I don’t blame you — there’s something about sharing DNA that magically makes these events tolerable) the following photos are for you:

He totally knew I was taking a picture of him even though I was all the way across the gym. Love that smile.

Wearing cousin Mia’s dress — can’t believe she was ever this small!

Singing his little heart out. I loved watching him sing with so much energy that his entire body moved.

Carter was pretty far away from me so all of the photos I took of him had large balding heads in the foreground. This is the best of them.

And if you made it this far, your reward is another nausea-inducing video. No really, you might want to slap one of those seasick patches on before you watch this since the swaying of the kids plus the swaying of the camera is quite a combination. Maybe next time we’ll spring for a tripod. No, we won’t. I’m not going to be that parent. (I’m also not going to be the parent holding an iPad in the air to film it — there were several of those too.)

sick II

The boys are better, but now I have a cold. You know the kind that makes every bone in your face hurt? Yeah, I have one of those. On top of feeling like my head is stuck in the middle of a fog bank I’ve been busy going to Christmas concerts, decorating for a Christmas party at school, finding an appropriate teacher gift . . . all these things that I never had to do or was able to do as a homeschooling mom. When I’m sick they feel more like “have tos,” but most of the school holiday stuff has been fun.

But it’s hard to write when I can hardly think. I’m not only sick, but sleep deprived. I thought Camille outgrew her need for meds, but she was ok for only a week or two before she started screaming at night and at naps again. If you want to know how she’s been acting, just read my blog from this time last year. Deja Vu. I started her on meds again 2 days ago (I think — remember, I’m in a fog) and I’m hoping by the time my parents come visit (2 weeks!) that she’ll be back to her happy sleeping self. Otherwise I may hand her over to them at the airport and then run off into the desert.

But then she does stuff like this and I almost forget that sleep is vital to my survival:

I don’t know why, but she loves to dance on the coffee table. I promise I didn’t teach her that and I’ve already started telling her that this is not a future career option. But for now, when she hears music she runs straight to the table to strut her stuff. Hysterical. Also, probably somewhat dangerous, but that’s what happens by the time 3 and 4 come along. I need to save my parenting energy for the really dangerous stuff like cleaning chemicals and busy streets.

For those of you confused by the music: It’s a parody of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, not the real thing.

Lost in Translation again

Josh had the day off today so we went to the 1 rial store in search of stocking stuffers — everything in the store costs between 25 cents and $2.60. My favorite part of shopping in these kinds of places is seeing the things that are trying to be American, but aren’t quite right.