On the way to be dropped off this morning, TLK said, “Mom? What are your plans for my life?” I snickered a bit, thinking, “She doesn’t know she’ll be in charge of her life entirely, eventually.”

My response: “What are MY plans? What are YOUR plans for your life?”

Where she started talking about various things she’d like to do, including owning her own pet shop.

We talked about university and business degrees that would teach her how to manage people and money. (I’m required to mention university, right?)

Very cool 10 minute conversation.

I believe there is a law someplace against being required to finish off last night’s game of Princess Monopoly and running through the house tossing dog toys around.    At 6 a.m.    Six a.m. is supposed to be quiet, right?

So we’ve planted ourselves in the living room.  One of us is watching Aquamarine.   The other is typing this blog entry, coffee in hand.   Quiet.  Shhh.

I’m not just saying that. Her butterfly stroke (not that I can do this stroke anyway) could use a little work (mine could use a lot), but the crawl is perfect.

She swam 3/4 of the way across the pool, tread water for 30 seconds, then returned to the side of the pool.

My eyes were wet.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place.

During a tense, rushed moment ealier in the night, TLK said, “I miss the old mommy”. My husband said, “This IS old mommy” (meaning, I am old… get it??). I asked her what she was talking about. She said, “The fun mommy, like when I was a baby.”

I told her I was not much fun then. And then she looked at me wierdly, like I was nuts or somethin’.

This is as fun as I get, honey. Till the day you get rich and famous and drag your mommy off to a beach in the carribean and slap a margarita into her hands.

At school today, I was there when she LIED to her friend. She said, “My mom says I’m too fat for my size”. OMG. I wonder what other things she tells people I say (that I really don’t!)

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place.

Heather writes:

And here’s the part of the newsletter where I usually fail miserably at trying to rein in the urge to get gushy about the extent to which you change my world every hour, except this month I’m not going to do that because I feel instead that I should apologize, that I owe you that more than anything else. Sometimes I worry that the most vivid memory you are going to have of me from this time is the scowl on my face. Often I am ashamed that I am not the mother I thought I was going to be.

Mothers fail, here and there, just like everyone else. It’s hard for us, because inside we want to love and nurture, and we worry that the few times when we are not the parents we want to be, is going to be what’s remembered the most.

I think part of it is that we haven’t learned to appreciate our own parents enough. I give my parents credit for being able to deal with 3 children and all their eccentricities, our curfew jumping, the occasional car rolling (not me!)..everything. Kids can be a handful, and I think we were a big handful at times. I do give them credit, but there were things about child-rearing I just didn’t get until I had my own.

I just have one child. Sometimes she is the one helping me, instead of the other way around. But every day, I love her no matter what, and sometimes I wonder, “How will she think of me” tomorrow or next year or 30 years from now. It’s the thing that keeps me trying to meet my own expectations. That, and that face that says, “Good God… where did THAT come from?”

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place.

The Little Kid’s birthday was today. She is 6 now.

It is hard to believe that 6 years ago, I was in the labor room, going through induced labor in a ethereal sort of way. I had drugs. I had drugs before the epidural because my anesthesiolgist was eating dinner. Then I had the epidural.

When they said, “You need to push”, that was news to me.

So, at 7:07pm on christmas 13th, there she was, 7 lbs, 7 oz and 21 inches long. Everything about her was divisible by 7. Well, except for the 13th, which is still divisible by 7, but not evenly.

We celebrated today with pizza, cake and lots of presents, and of course, phone calls from the people far away, by the ocean (my parents).

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place.

I’ve priced parties all over the place. Build-a-Bear was right in line with everyone else, only no party favors were necessary. Each kid took home a bear.

After we left Build-a-Bear, it was off to the food court to have cupcakes and juice. We were done 1/2 hour earlier than expected, so it was just a matter of entertaining while we waited for parents to show up. We decided to sing Happy Birthday, open presents and take a few pictures.

My biggest fear was losing a kid, but that didn’t happen. Although, I did count the number of kids throughout the party, just to make sure.

All-in-all, I would recommend Build-A-Bear for any child’s birthday party. They do boy’s bears, too!

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place.

Bank Holiday
Monday is Labor Day. In the US, this is our “late summer bank holiday” (if you speak the Queen’s English, or English in general, that should make sense to ya). Thank Goodness for late summer holidays. A day off is a welcome gift.

Preparing for the Birthday
My mother’s birthday is next Friday. TLK’s birthday party is next Saturday. Her actual birthday is the following Wednesday. My stepdaughter’s birthday is 4 days later. Planning christmas is always fun. To top things off, I should have a new nephew by the end of the month.

Anyway, 4 girls have RSVP’d so far. Do you think it’s rude to query the other 3 on Tuesday? I mean, a headcount is a good thing to have, at least for planning purposes.

(am I boring you yet?)

Roofing
Tuesday is the big roof replacement day. I’ll be interested to see how the new shingles look on the house. I’ve seen them on various other houses in town. The fiberglass (Heritage) shingles we’re using look so much better than the older composite shingles. They’re supposed to reflect light, so not only might our roof be cooler, but you can probably see our house from outer space.

Ok, maybe not.

Comments
Your comments and suggestions are always valuable. You may have noted that all the comments on the blog have disappeared. It’s not because of you… it’s because I am repairing a mistake I made when transitioning to the new Blogger Beta. Besides the comments, everything else should be pretty seemless. I promise not to zap your comments in the future. Well, as long as they’re not rude or, you know… crazy. Not that you would do that, mind you.

Thanks for visiting Lisa’s Place.