Monday, February 16, 2009

the ups and downs

There is nothing noteworthy to report...life is just being life.
On the up list:
-Aidan and Nadia got a fish tank for Valentine's Day. Aidan chose a shark and named it Swimmy because he darts around and looked curious in the tank at the store, Nadia got a Plecostomus and named her Angel because she is helpful. I don't know what kind of fish we got but Tony's is gray and red so his name is Butch after the Cougar mascot and mine is name Gugenheim for no reason at all.
-Aidan and Nadia made my mom a birthday present. I am so impressed at the thought that went into their decisions, unfortunately I can't share that right now for fear I will spoil the surprise.
-Aidan was super helpful this morning. He talked Nadia through the torture I was administering. In this case, torture was asking her to take her vitamin. He told her to think about strawberry lemonaid. He said it over and over until she said mmmmmmm like she really was visualizing it. He then cleared his breakfast dishes and asked Nadia if she had anything for him to take to the garbage.
-After dropping the kids off at daycamp (so I can work on my stupid, life-draining boards) Aidan ran to the window and waved at me with the biggest smile on his face. That kid can melt my heart!
-We have a new cousin! Lynn and Jake, Tony's cousins had a baby boy named Brody!!!
-I have discovered facebook and reconnected with many friends. It has been wonderful to hear how their lives have progressed!
-I get to see my sister in 3 days!

And now for the down list:
-My dear sister in law is coping with family illness. My thoughts are with her and my brother.
-Nadia has decided to give up being cute. I know this is an intentional decision because she told me so. She said she feels embarrassed when people smile at her in public and it makes her feel awkward. She would like to go to a doctor and have them change her face. She hides her face when people smile at her. 1st-what? Are you not 5? 2nd-where did you get this vocabulary? 3rd-how do you know dr's change faces? So what is a mom to do? I manipulated her by listing the similarities between my features, Tony's and her own and convinced her she wouldn't want to change any of that. I am worried where we will go from here.
-National boards keeping me away from my day with my kids. I refuse to let the weekend be consumed by this process in an effort to keep my time with my family sacred. I am literally counting the days until I am done.

I am glad the up list is bigger than the down. There are so many things I could have listed for both. Life is so full and that in itself is a positive.

2 comments:

PRP said...

You WILL survive national boards and your family will be waiting for you as soon as you're done. No worries!

Hang in there.

Melanie said...

Thank you Karen! I appreciate your words of support, especially since you have been there:)