JuJuBee

I Mean, They Look Like Little Maggots Anyway, So Who Would Want to Eat Those?

Yo! We have new carpet in our livingroom and our bedroom! It's so pretty and new and clean and I want to just go and lay on it and maybe lick it even, but I won't. That'd be one step too far and I am not the one-step-too-far type. That'd be my husband. Maybe he'll lick it.

As for the mess? It sucks. I have little itty bitty pieces of carpet fibers all over the house. It's really awesome that I can't vacuum them up because the kids are napping and even more awesome that the baby thinks they are some sort of food, food that I spread all over the house just for him (HOW LUCKY!) and I have to either keep him off of the floor or hold him all day until I can get this mess cleaned up.

Trick or treating tonight, are you excited? I know I am. What are your kids going dressed up as? What about you? My costume has been on all day long, I am going as a zombie who had a kidney stone last night and had to take two pain pills for the pain to subside and now I am really looking HOTT with the no sleeping and the pain pill bloodshot eyes and swollen face. Also my kids are going as Sick, Sicker and Sickest.

Halloween at our house ROCKS.

Girls Are (Still) Complicated

Madeline is trying to put her big-girl underwear on over her jammies....

"Mads! Those are big girl underwear for big girls who go on the potty!"

"YES!"

"Do you want to wear those and go potty today?!"

"YES!"

"OK! You have to take your diaper off so we can-"

"Ohhhhh. No."

No Child Left Behind, Unless We Forget to Mention it

Ok, I KNOW. Two posts in one day, JuJuBee must be smoking some sort of something over there, blah blah yadda yadda. It's just that, something is bothering me. I'm here to see if this is something that would also bother you. I don't necessarily feel like I need to be justified in feeling bothered by this, but it's nice to have some sort of agreement from the webernet masses that I am indeed not crazy, or irrational...or even maybe just being a bitch. Not that I would consider the webernets as a voice of reason or sanity, but YOU, yes YOU are a nice normal person. So...

We've known for awhile now that our LittleJuJu has been having some speech problems. Nothing major. Your typical "R" issues and "F" being confused with "TH" sorts of issues. Not a problem, very common, blah blah. So the school's speech pathologist calls me last week to let me know that LittleJuJu's teacher had come to her expressing some concern about the "r" sound and asked if she could fit him into her schedule one day a week. Ok, cool. I'm glad he will be getting the help he needs. Not sure why I haven't heard from his actual teacher regarding this issue, but whatever. Of course I don't mind, go forth and fix the "R" problem! Hurray!

So then we get a letter (in the mail) from the school's principal explaining that LittleJuJu has been recommended for some extra help from the Academic Intervention Services (AIS)  and enclosed are three different  instances where he will be needing help, two seem to be speech and one math. There are three different levels of assistance available ranging from low-intensity to high-intensity. TWO of the THREE instances mentioned are calling for high intensity help.

Why the fuck are we just now hearing about this? There has been no communication from his teacher, be it in writing or orally that she has had any concerns that his work was less than acceptable. We thought he was pretty damn good at math. We have never seen a test or a worksheet proving otherwise. Hey, I'm not too proud to admit when my children need help. I'm glad that there is a service available to him and hopefully we can nip this in the bud before it gets worse, but why? Why did the teacher not talk to us about it? I feel extremely let down by the school district. We heard over and over about what a great school he was attending. We had a bad feeling about this teacher when we met her at open house last month, and this just...I don't know. I'm so upset about this lack of communication from her.

Am I overreacting? What would you do in this situation?

Girls Are Complicated

"Do you need a hug, Madeline?"

"No. Go away."

"I'd really like to give you a hug...I'll wait here for when you're ready, ok?"

"No. Go cry. Go in Mommy's room and cry. C'mere Kitty! I want to hug you!"

My Halloween Costume

I was reading over at All & Sundry and her post about not feeling particularly expert-like at any one thing really got me thinking. Especially since today will be the first day in over seven years that I will go back out into the work force. Ok, "work force" sounds a bit dramatic. Back out into the grown up world where I will be conversing with grown up-type people and not having to wipe any of their asses or cut up their food. It will be amazing.

I got my Make-up Doctor lab coats in the mail yesterday, and when I slid the coat over my T-shirt in front of Little-JuJu, he giggled and said, "Hey, you look like a doctor!" and for a split second I felt...kind of silly. Here I am, at age almost 30, and I have not really excelled at anything other than a better than average ability to apply make-up. I am putting this lab coat on, wondering what it might be like to put a real white coat on and go out into the world and make people better. Fix boo-boos and save lives. Is this lab coat some sort of mockery?

I try to be positive, I try to see the glass half full, typically I can talk myself out of feeling down. When I really, really look deep down , I see that this job I am taking isn't so much silly. I get teased some about the make-up thing, but the reality is: it makes you feel better. Looking good makes you feel good. If I wake up feeling down on myself, a shower and some make-up can usually do the trick. Even the fact that I will be able to help people improve their skin to the point where they don't even need the stupid make-up to feel better is a good thing. Maybe I can get used to the feeling that I would be fixing people's boo-boos from the outside, they will have to go elsewhere to fix the problems inside, but I might take some credit for a teeny tiny part of it.

Also, Mr. JuJu will be home making dinner, getting kids into jammies, doing homework, washing dishes and playing the bedtime game. So even if I'm not exactly bringing home the bacon, and even if I was, my hours are so few, that the bacon would be more like...turkey bacon, I can be the person who isn't just a mother for a few nights a week. That will do wonders for my soul. Maybe I am a doctor after all.