I’m cleaning the toaster. Read: I’m holding the toaster over the sink and shaking the hell out of it in hopes that all the burnt, nasty crumbs and bagel bits will fall out. I’m hoping, as I throttle this appliance, that I’m also shaking out the last of this long-ass winter. If I do my Spring cleaning early, will that make it come faster?

If I were to write a job description for a Stay-At-Home Parent position, the results would be very different depending on the season. The list of bullet points for Spring/Summer employment would include trips to the public pool, multiple playgrounds, walks, lazy naps, sweaty heads and red-faced children, ice cream trucks, and, most importantly, interaction with other adults. Sure, it would also include the intense heat, overtired and cranky tantrums, and long days that must be filled without school, but with that comes fresh air and kids who, at the end of the day, have happily exerted themselves doing exactly what they should be doing.
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We were off to a good start this morning. Everyone was up at a decent time. Breakfast was well underway. Both children were half-dressed, and I was into my second cup of coffee. But as I returned from the kitchen carrying said cup, I noticed the blinking light of the answering machine. Surely it had been a call missed last night; there would be no reason for anyone to try and reach us this early. But when I listened, I learned that indeed, there might.

It was my three-year-old son’s pre-school teacher. No school today.
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Warning: Santa Spoiler - If your kids are reading over your shoulder, click away . . . CLICK AWAY NOW (and come back later).

I was finishing up the wrapping of gifts the other night. When I was done I went downstairs to the secret stash area, as in, the basement/office, to assess and organize. I wanted all “Santa Gifts” to be in one area, and all of the gifts from “Mommy and Daddy” to be in another for purposes of ease of distribution come Christmas Eve.
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You’ve made your list, but have you checked it twice? Hopefully you’ve not overlooked a key figure for your gift giving this year: your child’s teacher. If you have any question as to whether or not it is appropriate to give something to him or her, let me tell you right now, it is. It is more than appropriate. Your child’s teacher is someone who you trust to care for your kid for some significant portion of the week. This person is responsible for not only your child’s education but also her safety. Shouldn’t this person be at the forefront of your mind when you are thinking of those who you’d like to thank?
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We were walking through a store the other day, Christmas paraphernalia already assaulting us, and I see this standing in the middle of the aisle. Yes, that would be your basic three-foot-tall, music-playing, voice-responding, ride-on dinosaur. Yeah. What is up with that? I mean, really I could write a whole post on how fascinating it is that when most people are trying to figure out how to do the holidays this year on a tighter budget, that we can still find animatronic Triceratopses in the aisles of our stores. Who buys that for their child? Who’s willing to have that in their house? I daresay I don’t actually need to write that post though, because the ridiculousness of the “Kota” speaks for itself.
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