Lesson learned

I work the weekend program. This means that I work every weekend, but get every 6th weekend off. The big downside to this is that they force you to use your vacation time on that 6th weekend. This weekend was supposed to be my weekend off, but I signed up to be on call so I could use my vacation when I want, instead of on every 6th weekend. I really shouldn't have done that. First, it's the weekend before Christmas and I really could have used the extra wrapping/baking/cleaning time. Second, I found that working every weekend starts to wear on you after a while. 

Still, I was signed up to go, and go I did last night at 7 pm. I have to admit that I was not in a great mood, but quickly found a bridge and got over it. Still, when my nursing supervisor came to me at 10 pm and told me I was getting canceled for the 11 pm - 7 pm portion of my shift I was pretty excited. Me, "Oh, ok, no problem." Me, on the inside, "YES! Oh thank you so very very much."

I almost started doing the horsey dance right there in the hallway.

 Because I was only in for 4 hours and had 11 patients with 5 weekly skin assessments, I had to stay an extra hour to finish my charting. Still, I was home in bed by 1:30. Now, instead of sleeping all day, I get a bonus day with my family. Score!

Hope you all have a bonus day soon too.

Doing the all the Christmas things

Because I've been working full time, getting ready for Christmas and finishing my first BSN class, I am clearly not updating the blog often. Instead, you get the past 2 weeks at once. Enjoy.

Gummy Bear, riding an invisible pony, I assume. This is one of those pictures that you take, forget what was going on, and then realize it doesn't matter because the story you made up is probably better.

You know how you get your kids to vacuum? Buy a cool new vacuum.

We had grand plans to go stalk and shoot our own Christmas tree this year. Instead, we went to a local nursery and pointed.

The decorating is the fun part though, and the kids had a blast. Bear is our light tryer-outer, both inside and out.

Cheeky Monkey mostly played in the boxes and tried to destroy stuff.

After I rolled out the pizza dough for dinner that night, Bear completely made the rest of the pizza. And it was delicious.

Cheeky Monkey had his holiday program at the preschool. Watching a bunch of 3-year-olds sing holiday songs is just about the cutest thing ever. Also, it explains Monkey's obsession with Hanukkah this year.

We did the Sesame Place Christmas again this year, and again we were not disappointed. They do a really nice job with the decorations and Christmas-themed activities. The prizes for the fishing game were stuffed animals with Santa hats.

And the kids kept them warm in their jackets. Because, you wouldn't want your frog to freeze.

We almost got a good family picture.

And then we amused ourselves while we waited in the 15 minute line to see Santa. It was the only line we waited in all day.

Bear was all about Santa this year. Fin was not so sure, but did eventually climb up on the big man's lap. Requests for this year? Arthur Christmas (a delightful Christmas movie) for the Bear and a clock for Monkey. Done and done little ones.

Pretty much sums it up

I'm not sure why this picture is showing up sideways, but it is too cute not to share. Gummy Bear has been having some adjustment issues with kindergarten. I feel like there are a couple of issues going on. The Bear likes to talk ... and talk and talk and talk. This serves the dual purpose of getting on his teacher's nerves and keeping him from getting his work done. If you have met him once or twice, you also know that he tends to do things without thinking. Like today, he stuck a raisin up his nose at snack time. Why? Who knows. He certainly doesn't. I got a note home, no more raisins. Good times.

What this means is that we've had a lot of conversations with his kindergarten teacher and he has had a lot of "yellow" days. I have to admit that my enthusiasm for her is waning, but we are doing our level best to help him adjust to the new rules of kindergarten. For the past week or two, we have had a lot of discussions with the Bear about asking himself, "Self, is this a good thing to do?" BEFORE he does something.

Today after yet another impulsive decision, I asked him what he needed to do to remind himself to ask his "self" before doing something. "I dunno," he said. Taking a page from my Dad's playbook, I suggested that we write a note for him to carry to help him remember. He was awfully excited about the idea and came up with this masterpiece:

"My mouth is open because my brain is asking myself, 'self,should I do this?'"

He put it in his school folder to help him remember tomorrow at school. Having observed the Bear in many different situations, I feel like his issues are pretty age-appropriate. I think his teacher has a pet peeve that Bear's ... idiosyncracies line up with pretty exactly. He's at the top of his class, academically. It's the social development (sit down, be quiet, don't touch that) that's lagging behind. Sigh. Thankfully, he still seems to be enjoying school. There is a very fine line between addressing the problem and making it the only thing we talk about.

Anyway, I thought the drawing was pretty brilliant. And I think he's pretty brilliant. And I wanted to share the brilliance.