Slow Down, Gym Shoe!

Not so happy new year?

I'm just having a hard time tonight. New Years is a hard time to be a person who doesn't do well in noisy, crowded places. Diana and Jimmy and everyone went out to dinner and then to the bar to celebrate. But I hate the noise and crowds at the bar... I like it sometimesat the bar but not on holidays...  especially when people start hugging and kissing and stuff at midnight, I would have wanted to crawl under a table and disintegrate. Sarah invited me to a party she's having with her friends, and Ill probably go there later maybe, but it is also very uncomfortable to be the only adult at a party of 14 and 15 year olds!!! It just highlights the fact that I am not able to function at an "adult" level and that I even have trouble with teenage parties because I never even went to parties when I was a teenager! What I'd really like to do is just take some Tylenol (for my aching head) and curl up with my puppies and go to sleep... but I'm kinda between a rock and a hard place here!
I hate being me.

Being lonely hurts.

I've been alone more NEw Years Eves than not, so I don't know what the big deal is...

but I still hate it.  

Nacho Nanny!

Today, on our way to the Open Gym at a local gymnastics center, Little Bear and Rafael and Pufferfish and I stopped at McDonalds for lunch. I told them to go back into the play area while I ordered the food. When I walked back into the play area, I expected to see them playing... but they were all sitting quietly around a table, waiting for me!

I passed out the Happy Meals and poked straws into their little cups of rootbeer. Then Little Bear looked thoughtfully at me and said, "Nicki? What if you were our nanny?"

"Uh... I dunno... why?" I looked around, to see if there were any kids who seemed to be there with nannies. But, these days more than ever, its impossible to tell who belongs to who just by looking at them! "Who has a nanny?" I asked.

"Nobody. I just wondered," said Little Bear. "Because, wouldn't it be weird if you were our nanny?"

"Yeah. Nannies are weird," Rafael chimed in. "I'm glad we have you, instead!"

The conversation came out of left field... especially since, technically, I could be considered (although I will shoot dirty looks at anyone who does consider it) their nanny.

For anyone who hasn't been reading this blog long or just isn't clear on how my psuedo-family fits together, Little Bear and Pufferfish and Monkeyboy are the children of my best friend, and I've helped to raise them since they were infants. Circumstances in our lives caused Diana and I to have a closer, more sister-like bond than most sets of friends, and so I have always considered the kids my nephew and nieces, rather than my "friend's kids". Rafael, on the other hand... I've only known him for about a year. He's the child of Jimmy's sister's best friend, though, which, in our family, makes Rafael as good as family to us. (Rafael often asks hopefully, "Am I sort of related to you guys?" and I tell him, "Yes, you're family," because, he is, as much as I am, isn't he?) When we moved to our new town, we were less than a mile away from where Rafael's family lives, and they needed someone to watch Rafael, so he started coming to our house before and after school.

Anyway. For some reason, I detest it when anyone calls me "the nanny" or "the babysitter." I don't know why. Maybe its presumptiuous or snobby of me, or something. Partly its because I've spent a lot of time being a babysitter, from the time I was about ten to even now (I babysit for other local families in my spare time sometimes) and I know that babysitters and nannies are viewed in a certain way. Even the best, most professional, most well-loved nanny or babysitter is just that... just a stranger hired by the family to care for the children. Other times, nannies and babysitters are seen by the family as just a little below the rest of the family. You might here of a mom or dad saying things like, "Our sitter didn't wash the dishes," or "We use so-and-so, she's a good sitter," or "I gotta go home and pay the sitter." You may even hear the children say things to the sitter such as, "We're going to tell mom and dad to fire you because they are your bosses." Even when I was an actual babysitter (caring for children I knew only because their parents had advertised for a babysitter) I hated being referred to like this. It made me feel invisible or less human. I used to hate it when I'd go to a house and the parents of the children would have some friends over, getting ready to leave with them, and the people would just all continue talking around me as if I hadn't entered the room. Or I'd be introduced briefly as, "Thats just the sitter." I felt so... I dunno... out of the loop!

So I particularly hate it when people think I am Little Bear's and Pufferfish's nanny or sitter. Because they're my family!!!

Its still weird though that Little Bear brought it up so randomly. She may have heard me say something about it somewhere along the line, but I can't think of any time recently! She calls me her auntie and, as far as I know, does not know that she has a different relationship to me than she does to any of her blood-or-marriage-or-stepparent-related aunties! Even when Diana and Jimmy refer to me as "the sitter" to acquaintances, Little Bear still sees me as her auntie.

I dunno... was this even worthy of a blog post? It just seemed weird when she said it, out of the blue...

Oh well. I gotta go. I still haven't posted pictures... but maybe tomorrow!!!

More Fun With Dad

Dad: "Nicki, have you ever seen Up Dog?

Me: "What's Up Dog?"

Dad: "Nothin', dog, whats up with you?"

Merry Christmas! (A Day Late And A Dollar Short?)

Hi! Sorry I haven't posted in a while! The extremely slow Internet connection at our house makes it difficult to find time... I have to block in about an hour to work at keeping the Internet alive long enough for me to do anything! Anyway, I am at my mom's now. In my hurry to leave the house yesterday, I didn't grab my camera, and so I can't upload my photos from Christmas yet... but I can at least share some stories!

Its been a week of family parties. On Wednesday night we went to Diana's mom's house, where Diana's grandfather, aunt, uncle, and cousins all gathered also, for dinner. (I brought Rafael, too, so it was a bunch of people!) The weirdest part was being told by Diana's grandfather that, since I am technically not related to him, he could kiss me, and that I have breasts that he could touch if he didn't suspect I'd call the cops! (LOL... he's kind of a creeper... but I've known him forever so I know that he's harmless... but it always makes for awkward holiday moments!)

Thursday was Christmas Eve, obviously, and Rafael stayed home with his grandmother. So I had most of the day to finish my last-minute Christmas shopping! The most interesting gift I bought on Christmas Eve was a five gallon aquarium kit, and two goldfish! This was a present for Little Bear and Pufferfish. (I bought it especially with Pufferfish in mind... every time we go to the pet store, Pufferfish is fascinated by the fish, so I thought she'd love it! But so far it seems like Little Bear is the one most interested in the fish!)

Monkeyboy helped me sneak the aquarium and goldfish upstairs to our room, and he helped me keep the little girls out. And he helped me put together the aquarium! He put the filter together all on his own! This was a big thing for Monkeyboy, who has auditory processing disorder and often has trouble learning in school and following directions at home. I, on the other hand, seem to have everything processing disorder, because I just have all-around trouble learning even when I read... but I learn better by doing things or being shown. The picture and instructions that came with the aquarium thing were useless to me! But Monkeyboy just looked at the picture and quickly put the filter together like a jigsaw puzzle. When we plugged it in, and tried it out, he was so proud of himself! He ran downstairs to get Diana and Jimmy so they could see. We lavished him with praise, of course! He is a very smart kid, and a very bright visual learner. He and Marcus also put together a miniature foozball table earlier in the month, so between that and the aquarium filter, he's had a great boost of confidence!

Thursday evening, I had to go out to my uncle's house for our Christmas celebration. We had another delicious dinner, and played Catchphrase. (I opted out of Twister, though!) I got a very cool sweater from one of my aunts, some $$$ from my grandparents, and cozy socks and an awesome T-shirt from my favorite aunt Betsy!  Then, I had to go back home, where I helped DIana and Jimmy put all the presents under the tree and make all of the Santa magic happen.

Friday morning, Little Bear woke us all up bright and early, because Santa had come! Pufferfish was sort of freaked out by all of the presents, and she just wanted to lay on the couch and watch Dora. But the older kids brought her stocking over to her, and that at least started to pique her interest! It may have been one of our best Christmas mornings ever! Monkeyboy got a BB gun, which he was over the moon about. Little Bear got a DS and a huge teddy bear. Pufferfish got a Fisher Price kitchen and a shopping cart!

we went back to Diana's mom's house for breakfast and our gift exchange! I got even more cool stuff... the newest Post Secret book, a freshwater pearl bracelet, and some socks and pajamas from Diana's mom, a gift cerfiticate to Barnes And Noble from Tom, a hat-scarf-and-glove set from Megan, and a pair of mitten-gloves from Sarah!

(The funny thing about the mittens is that, last weekend, I took Sarah and her friend Kaylie to the mall to do their Christmas shopping. We went into a store called Hot Rags, which is one of my favorite stores and also one of Sarah's favorites! I was looking at those mitten-gloves because I've wanted a pair for a long time, and I showed Sarah and Kaylie how you fold the mitten part over your fingers. Then I stealthily disappeared into the crowd, where I looked at some incense burners. I knew Sarah really loves incense! I picked one out, and went to the register, and ran into Sarah, who was buying a pair of the mitten-gloves! She told me, "I'm buying these for myself because they look so warm!" I told her, "I'm buying this for my brother, who is visiting from California, because he likes incense!" But we were actually buying things for each other!)

After this, I had to hurry to my mom's house, where we were actually doing niothing at all... but my mom wanted me to get there as soon as possible. We had yet another gift exchange, and then played some board games, and had lasagna for dinner.

And tomorrow we are supposedly going over to my aunt's house to exchange more gifts with my other aunt and uncle and cousins, who didn't make it to the Christmas Eve party!

The bummer moments of the holiday at my mom's house include being told I am fat and eat too much, (by mom mom)being told I am lazy, (mom again) being told that I should quit school and just get a job already, (grandparents) and being told to shut up every time I open my mouth. (By my very haughty brother, the one visiting from California, where he apparently lives in a fantasy world where everyone is as cool as him and nobody sucks like me.) But for the most part it has been an awesome Christmas!
I hope you are all having a great time, too!

I will post pictures when I get home next week!

Rafael After School

Rafael: (Laughing hysterically) "Hi! Guess what! I scared my friend twice by going like this" (Screams at top of lungs.) "Did you hear that? Did that scare you? AAAAAH! Butthole! Boogers! Aklldhkdhglddjgdjd;lgj!" (Turns green and head spins around) "And guess what? We had a party at school today and I ate candy canes and chocolate and cupcakes with frosting and frosting and FROSTING FROSTING FROSTING! I think I'm crazy now!"

Naughty Or Nice?

While attempting to amuse Pufferfish last night, I found this little game where you can find out if Santa thinks you're naughty or nice. You enter your name, and then spin a wheel, and it gives you your answer! (Don't worry, I think the answer is always "Nice" or "Very Nice!" Rafael was particularly amused by this. He wanted to make sure I told his mother, because he figured she wouldn't believe that Santa thought he was Very Nice!

I haven't showed the kids this one yet, but a more complicated version of this is Santa's Good List. It has a quiz of specific multiple-choice questions about your behavior, like "What do you do if you don't like what you're having for dinner," and "How often do you help out with chores?" Then, it tells you that it will recommend you to Santa for the Good List, if you promise to improve on a few things. You also get a chance to enter your wishes. then Santa sends you an email, giving you access to hisGood List, where you get to flip through and find your name as the most recent addition!

Just thought I'd share these things, in case you find yourself trying to entertain restless munchins as Christmas gets closer!

My Dad Is A Little Weird...

I've been visiting my parents about two or three weekends a month lately, and its come to my attention that my dad is just a little strange! Observe.

Two weeks ago: My mom is irritated by my dad's outfit. He is wearing a White Sox T-shirt, a White Sox hoodie, a White Sox jacket, a White Sox baseball hat, and even White Sox shoes! I wonder what his favorite team is?

Last week: My mom leaves to go out to a bar with some friends. As soon as she's gone, my dad whips out a new ring he bought on eBay. It is a silver ring in the shape of two naked women, with a small diamond in the middle. "Look how detailed it is!" he says."It even has a little crotch!" He takes out a magnifying glass so that I can see the crotch better.

Laughing, I ask, "What does Mom think about it?"

"She hasn't seen it," he replies. "I only wear it when she's not home!"

This week: My mom leaves to go watch football at the bar with some friends. As soon as she's gone, my dad goes to the closet and pulls out a fur hat with ear flaps. (He wouldn't let me take a picture of it, but it looks similar to this one, except without the chin strap! He explains that he just got it at the flea market this morning. He takes out scissors and starts cutting off pieces of the hat to make it look more the way he wants it. He asks me how it looks, and models it with his leather jacket on as well, asking if it is a fancy look for next time he goes out. He says he is not going to show my mom until the next time they go out, and he will wait until the last minute to grab it!

"What you should do is, wait until you're already outside, and then be like, 'Wait, I forgot my hat!'" I suggest. "Then you can run in and get it, and it will be too late for her to make you go put it back!"

"Yeah, plus in the car it will be kind of dark, so she won't really notice it until we're already driving," my dad adds.

My dad's head is a strange place... inside and out!

PS... He just came home from the library, and came downstairs with huge rings on each of his fingers, saying, "Notice anything different about me?" ROFL!

Tot School's First Week of Christmas!

Hi everyone! Its time for another Tot School update! Truth be told, we've been kind of slacking off on Tot School lately. Diana is home from work until after Christmas, and with both her and Jimmy around the house, Pufferfish hasn't been particularly interested in doing things! But we have managed to squeeze in a few Christmas-y activities.

We were in a Christmas card exchange with families from Pufferfish's playgroup, so we spent one day making lots of Christmas cards! I found gift tags at the Dollar Store, and we glued those onto the cards as decorations!

 

With the rest of the unused gift tags, I made a Christmas-themed Go Fish/Memory game. I glued the tags onto index cards, wrote Merry Christmas on the back of each card, and laminated them with clear contact paper. I taught Pufferfish how to play (somewhat simplified versions of) Go Fish and Memory. She is actually very good at them! For Go Fish, I let her keep her cards laid out in plain sight, so I can help her out a little. She loves it! The other night we played for about an hour, while Diana and Jimmy were taking Little Bear to the doctor! Little Bear later played it with us too.

 

 

The cards are kind of hard to shuffle because they're so thick, so the girls invented a new method of shuffling!

We checked out the book, The Mitten, from the library. I found a printable activity that involved being able to put the animals into a paper mitten as you tell the story. I changed it a little by making a mitten out of fun foam (because, as you know, I use that stuff for everything!) and laced two mitten shapes together. I cut out the animals and laminated them with clear contact paper (yep, another item I use for everything!) Pufferfish and Little Bear divided up the animals between them. As I read the story, they put the animals into the mitten! At the very end, when the bear sneezes, we dumped all of the animals from the mitten, and I threw it in the air and let the girls catch it, the way the boy in the story catches it! Pufferfish was particularly amused by this story because the little boy's name is NIcki (She kept pointing to the boy and saying, "That's you?" and I had to keep trying to explain, no, its a little boy whose name is also Nicki!) and because the grandmother is called Baba, which is Pufferfish's word for bottle. ("Boy has a baba? Where is baba?")

We played a game called the Present Game, which I read about in a magazine somewhere. The idea is to practice choosing and receiving presents graciously. To play the game, you need a gift bag or gift box. (I got a fancy gift box from CVS, because it was only three bucks and I figured I can store stuff in it later!)To play the game, everyone takes turns being the giver and the receiver. The giver has to go "shopping" around the house, and pick out a present for the receiver. He then puts it in the bag or box, and gives it to the receiver. The receiver is supposed to say, "Thank you!" and say something nice about the gift. Little Bear and Rafael played this for a little while, but Pufferfish is the one who enjoys it the most! Plus, it kills a lot of time when you play it with her, if you choose good presents. I try to pick out toys that she hasn't played with for a while, because then she gets interested in the toy and plays with it for a few minutes, and when she starts to get bored I can just get the Present Game going again!

 

I bought a package of Christmas erasers from the Dollar Store, and Pufferfish and I practiced sorting them into different cups of a muffin tin. She was very good at this! She also liked stacking the erasers up like blocks and then knocking them down again!

 

Finally, I had to petsit for my mom last night, so in my hours of boredom and lonesomeness, I made some file folder games for Little Bear and Pufferfish! I've become obsessed with the file folder game concept, because there is so much you can do with them... I am already envisioning how i can take Little Bear's reading theme words from school and turn them into file folder games for her to practice with! In the mean time, I made about six last night. Here are a few...

Little Bear is learning simple addition and subtraction in school. I made this game that involves solving the problem on the butterfly, and finding the flower with the right answer on it. The flowers have velcro on them and can be stuck right onto the butterflies!

Little Bear also mixes up her d's and b's a lot, so I made this Christmas-themed file folder for her. The "ornaments" all start with either a d or a b. Little Bear will have to stick the "d" ornaments on the "d" tree, and the "b" ornaments on the "b" tree!

I also made a few for Pufferfish, but for some reason I can't find the pictures of them! One is acolor matching game where Pufferfish will have to match a colored candy cane to the same color of stocking. Another is a counting game, where she'll have to put the correct number of snowflakes next to a snowman with a number on it's stomach.

So... that does seem like a lot, when I look back on it! I guess I don't feel too bad after all. But, lest you think I am too nice of an auntie, here is an incriminating photo for you...

 

Oh well, nobody's perfect, right?

Commercial Break: Bidazzled

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Bidazzled. All opinions are 100% mine.

I keep seeing ads for this new auction site called Bidazzled.

I finally signed up for it today! Its an auction site, but its not really like eBay. Its different because , first of all, it is not a site where you bid on products that are being sold by other people. You bid on new merchandise, for up to 90% off the regular price. The proceeds go to a lung cancer charity,The Ruch Foundation. 

I'm still trying to figure out how it all works. but so far, here's what I know.

You have to buy your bids in advance. Its about a dollar per bid, but you get bonus bids thrown in. For instance, if you spend $25, you get 29 bids. If you spend $50, you get 60 bids. You then take thos bids, and go bid on the things you want. As far as I can tell, each bid raises the price of the item five cents. So, if there were zero bids, and you bid once, you'd get it up to five cents. If someone else bids after you, they'd get it to ten cents. This goes on for the duration of the auction. When the auction ends, whoever is the final bidder gets to buy the item for the final price. (The amount of bids you spent on the item are subtracted from the price you pay. So, if the final price is five dollars, and you bid four times on it, you'd only have to pay a dollar.

Also, I've heard that if you do win, the Bidazzled people often offer to buy the item back for you for either cash, bonus bids, or a combination of the two.

And if you don't win, you actually get rewarded with bonus bids anyway!

It kinda sounds like fun, doesn't it? The only thing is, I am so poor, I don't really feel like spending twenty-five bucks on bids. But... if you sign up, you get five free bids to start you out! I've already bidded on something using one of my free bids, and aince I'llg et bonus bids if I don't win the item, I figureI'll be addicted to this in no time!

You also get bonus bids for referring your friends... so I'm going to put a referral link in my sidebar, and I hope you'll use it if you want to sign up!

Alright. This actually sounds like fun, doesn't it? Remember, its free to sign up, plus you get five free bonus bids. And I've been told that if you enter this code at your registration... BBP1202A ... you'll get an additional fifteen free bids!

So... go sign up! I hope you win something! Wish me luck, too!

The Cutest Book!

I don't have much time to write, since I just finished a sponsored blog post and then realized that it is already midnight! But I did want to mention, before I forget, this cute book I got in the library yesterday.

You've probably read, or at least heard of, a book called Are You My Mother? In it, a baby bird hatches from his egg and finds himself all alone. He sets out to search for his mother. He asks a kitten, a cow, a dog, a hen, and even a car, a boat, a plane and a steam shovel, if they are his mother. Each tells him (well, I don't remember if the car and boat and plane and steam shovel can talk, but the animals can) that they are not his mother. Finally, the bird makes it back to his nest, where he finds his actual mother, who is, of course, a bird! The baby bird happily says, "You are bird, and you are my mother!"

It is definitely a sweet book, if you don't look too deeply into it. But in this day and age of families where everyone may or may not look like each other, you may like A Mother For Choco even better!  In this story, a twist on Are You My Mother, another baby bird (named Choco) finds herself alone in the world, and goes out to find her mother. Like the first baby bird, Choco goes from animal to animal and asks if each animal is her mother. She finds a giraffe, a penguin, and a grouchy walrus, but each tells her that, since they obviously do not look like her, they cannot be her mother.

Finally, poor little Choco begins to cry, "Mommy! Mommy!" Her sobs are heard by Mrs. Bear, who comes to comfort Choco. She asks Choco what a mother would do to comfort her. When Choco replies that a mother would pick her up, give her a kiss, and sing to her, Mrs. Bear does all of these things for Choco. Then, Mrs. Bear suggests that maybe she can be Choco's mother!

Choco is surprised by this, because Mrs. Bear is definitely not a mother bird. But then Mrs. Bear takes Choco home to meet her other children... who are an alligator, a hippo, and a pig! The story ends with Mrs. Bear giving all of her children a special "bear hug," and with Choco realizing that Mrs. Bear is the perfect mother just the way she is.

I didn't set out to get a book about families. I picked out this book in a hurry, while Pufferfish ran around and terrorized the library (... in a related story, Sarah was with me and I was attempting to help her print out her homework from a computer in the adult section, but we actually got asked to leave the adult section because Pufferfish was not using her indoor voice..._) because it had animals in it, and short sentences, so I figured both Pufferfish and Little Bear would like it. I didn't expect it to be so heartwarming! We are a multicultural family and also a family that includes adopted and non-blood-related members, so the book was perfect for us... and would also be perfect for any family that wants its' children to realize that it is love, not looks, that make a family.

Okay. This is totally not a sponsored post. I really did just find this book in the library yesterday, and I read it to Pufferfish before bed! I'll write more tomorrow... until then, have fun and be careful!