Spring Break Wrap-Up

Friday 3-21: Took Maddie to have her first Haircut at Kids Kuts. They did an ok job, didn't take credit/debit cards, didn't post this fact clearly, and pissed me off. But at least the girl had straight bangs for Easter. Went grocery shopping. Felt like ass all evening, went to bed at 8:00.

Saturday 3-22: Sick all morning, must be this flu that Bob had, it's been going around all winter, worse than usual. Resolved to get my butt out of bed and went w/ family to a cousin's 4th birthday party. Actually felt better once I ate something, so maybe it wasn't flu (because everybody I know who had it threw everything up). Gave Maddie her Easter present early, because it would just be cruel to give her the drum & instruments Easter morning and then say, "Sorry, you have to leave the coolest toy in the world now and by the way, we'll be gone ALL day."

Sunday 3-23: Easter! Looooong day. Get everybody dressed to the nines and out the door by 7:45, early service with handbells & Maddie in the nursery, did Easter breakfast at Nana & Pop's, went to Grandmom & Grandpop's, went to Aunt Cyndee's for dinner & egg hunt & the ridiculousness that was their 3-step sunken family/dining room. Wood steps onto ceramic tile, a jarring fall for any 1 year-old. No gates. And this was the house that was preferable for the little kids' Easter egg hunt because...? Actually, the swing and trampoline outside was a nice diversion.

Monday 3-24: Took Maddie to her grandparents', Bob and I spent the day cleaning out the back yard. Raked and raked and raked leaves, sticks, rocks, dog poop, you name it. I raked every inch of our back yard. And we have a big back yard. Huge by suburban NJ standards. And I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying this to whine. My back still hurts. Picked Maddie up, had take-out at Bob's parents' house.

Tuesday 3-25: Bought Maddie her first swing set. She falls down a lot, wants to climb up the slide and sit on the rock-climbing thing, but she likes it. Cleaned out the guest room (that's the room where we dump stuff we don't know what to do with), sorted stuff, and Bob talked me into going out for dinner to Don Pablo's - mmm, Tex-Mex, baby! Fabulous fajitas. Maddie loved the place this time, unlike my birthday dinner, where she apparently got indigestion from the decor.

Wednesday 3-26: Ikea junkie! Got a new dining set. See previous post. Love it. Love the rocking toy, "ee-kee-ya" as Maddie calls the rocker, and its place of origin. Plus, it was the first time we bought her a kids' meal. 99-cent mac & cheese w/ drink. Yay Ikea.

Thursday 3-27: Gymboree! Music class was fun. Free trial class. Maddie was into the other kids some, but mostly she just wanted to run around the room dancing or play on the low window-ledge. Then they got out the instruments and she was VERY into that. Talked to the teacher, mentioned that Bob & I are music teachers and she got all bright-eyed and said they needed teachers there for summer. Hmmm...but can I stand other people's kids all summer, too? Put away the snowman collection that was taking over one of the beds in the guest room. Put away the 9-12 month clothes of the girl's. Yes, she's 16 months old. Shut up.

Friday 3-28: More Gymboree - did the gym class, which also involved music. The guy running it is an '06 grad of E-town college, right down the road from our dear old alma mater. Pretty good class. Maddie had fun. It's $216 for 12 sessions of class. Bob and I have to decide if that' really worth the money. I'm leaning towards NO, and hoping to just get her together with some teacher friend's kids once a week or so for playground or mall socialization. Went grocery shopping. Put more stuff away. Cleaned more stuff. Went shopping for Maddie for some spring clothes. You know, long-sleeved, light weight shirts and pants, maybe a jacket or two. Hah. Problem is, it's already July in the stores. There was hardly any short-sleeved things (all sleeveless tanks and whatnot) let alone nice spring-weight clothes. Bought her a pair of capri-length pants, sweats, and a hoodie. I figure she's wearing whatever I've got for her, and if it's cold, boom, hoodie. My poor child. Mamma didn't know to shop for spring in January.

Saturday 3-29: Holy cow, when did it get hard to get out of the house? Forgot to wrap presents for birthday part #2 (for my friend's 2 year-old twins) barely got out of the house by the time the party actually started. Very fun. Lots of kids, tons of toys, Maddie did beautifully, plus they have a giant play room full of toys and a big-fenced in front yard full of my toys, and did I mention the toys? Dang. Plus my gym teacher friend swears he walked into the bathroom to find two older female family members of the hostess kissing - like, KISSING, kissing. So Monday's lunchtime conversation should be titillating. Had Bob's folks over to dinner to dine on our new lovely set, plus Bob makes this fabulous rigatoni dish with red peppers and sun-dried tomato sauce and shrimp.... mmm.

Sunday 3-30: That's today. Today we're getting the house straightened up, getting ready to go back to school - ugh - spending time with the girl, and counting how many school days are left so we can put giant count-downs in our classrooms when we get in tomorrow morning. Actually, the worst part of the school year for me is done. The long haul from Christmas to Easter is always drag-out, gray, boring and troublesome. Observations. PIP reports due. Concert prep. Ick. Of course, now it's crunch time. Yearbook, concert, church, everything. Again, I say ick. And tomorrow, we're back.

Too damn early. In the morning, that is. I know we had 10 days off, and they were a very sweet 10 days. My daughter learned new words every day, we took her places, tried new things, and had a ball. (And none of the places we took her involved the Caribbean, unlike most of my students' spring break activities. Must be nice to be rich.) We enjoyed mornings of sleeping till 8, unhurried breakfasts together, much playtime, walks, and romping the back yard, shopping, ordering out a little more often, and finishing stuff that we'd been meaning to finish. Good stuff.

And now we've just got to get through 81 days, 2, hours and 33 minutes till summer. There are weekends in there. And Memorial Day. We can make it. Right?