Cell Phones for Kids

Ah, the age of technology. Laptops, ipods, cell phones, blackberries, iphones…..anything we need is available at the touch of a finger. Amazing.

Not to be left out of this technological craze, the girls recently made laptops out of old Styrofoam containers so they could get on Facebook and check email. Yikes.

What made me think cell phones would be any different?

They know the lingo. Just text him, mom.

They ham it up for the video or pictures. Not on my phone though. Mine doesn’t do that.

They play with the old phones which have been discarded or broken due to death by texting.

Oh, and a side note for my friends: if a battery is still in a phone, it is still able to call 911. Learned that lesson. Yep.

We are now the proud owners of new cell phones designed just for kids.



As we did errands this weekend, and separated the girls, each yelled to the other…...”take your phone. I’ll text you!”

Funny thing is….when we got home from our separate shopping trips, they talked about texting and calling each other.

Cool thing about these phones is they don’t make noise. Only the user makes noise. And, you call someone by pushing the first letter in their name. Talk about speed dialing!

Downside is….we don’t know if we’re being called. Abby was very indignant when I did not answer my phone recently. Well, gee, I didn’t know it was ringing.

Hmmm…..wonder what technology will bring by the time the little ones are teenagers?

It Takes a Village

A certain six year old who lives in our house has been struggling with the rules at school. Talkative child that she is can’t seem to keep her mouth closed at the appropriate times.

Go figure. I am utterly shocked.

(those of you who know this child in question know I am being very sarcastic!)

Unfortunately, as the days passed, she began to dislike school. We’ve had many tears and meltdowns lately as we tried to work through this issue.

We put our heads together to come up with a plan…..thus enter the village.

Not just this village…



A true village with teacher, parents, siblings, grandparents, and friends.

Little sister tried to reassure by saying she had to move her clip at school to red. She has never moved her clip but wanted her sister to feel better. So sweet!

Big brother told her he used to “pull sticks” in school when he was little. But he never did….well, he might in high school if this system was used!

Big sister called her several mornings on the way to school to chat and wish her a good day.

Teacher and mom worked hard at finding a solution to help this certain child. Lots of ideas tossed around……some implemented.

Lots of virtual hugs from friends around the country…..

And today? Today brought us a package from Grandma. Look!








Aren’t they adorable?? Special reminders for school days.

Last week during school were good days. But after school? We didn’t even make it to the car before she completely melted down. Guess holding it together all day long was all she could handle. Sigh.

But this week? So far, knock on wood, we’ve had good days and good afternoons.

Perhaps in the back of her mind, she is remembering the ultimate prize……..a night at college with Katie.



It does indeed take a village to raise a child.

I am ever so thankful for our village.

The Job of Daughters.....

Whoever knew that the job of a daughter would be so extensive? Beyond the “let’s make dad crazy by dating this guy” or “what can I do to annoy my parents” or “how far can I drive the car and just leave a little bit of gas” kind of mentality, there’s so much more expected.

Daughters are caught in a tough position. Wanting to be independent yet trying to hold onto the family ties as long as possible. Wanting to pull away yet sucked in at the same time.

When I was a teenage/college kid, I would meet my dad at the door to tell him mom had a new haircut, so comment on it. You’d think he’d notice on his own. But, nope. He’s a guy. They notice nothing. Other tidbits would be offered as the proper situations arose. Dads owe their daughters so much……

Birthdays are no different. My recent one came and went with little notice. One half hearted, “let’s tell mommy happy birthday.” That was it.

Yippee.

No cake, no card, no flowers, no nothing. We don’t do gifts so that was fine. But, a little fanfare would be nice. Even just a smidgeon.

After a sad day, I emailed the eldest kid away at school and vented a bit. She vowed to come home this weekend and do a birthday celebration again…..but I hate to ask that of her.

She evidently also called her daddy and told him mom was bummed out. Not sure what else happened during that call.

All I know is, he arrived home from church tonight with a dozen roses in his hand.

Another case of daughter looking out for mom.

All I know is, I love my big girl and miss her when she’s gone. Yes, she drives me crazy and yes, she is partly the reason why my hair is gray.

But I can’t imagine life without her.

How I Spent My Snow Day

Admit it. The title just called to you, right? It made you desperate to know what on earth I did on my snow day to be blog-worthy.

Ha! Sucked you in.

The snow cry arose a few days ago. The threat of possible snow sent our town into a tizzy. Stores were wiped clean of milk, eggs, and bread. After all, you may be snowbound for days. You just never know.

Here's something I’ve never understood… why is it people rush out and buy those particular things? Are they planning on making a huge batch of French toast while stuck in their houses?

Anyhow, we left school/work yesterday armed with our handy dandy phone list that would enable us to call our colleagues with the announcement school was closed. (to clarify: I am a teacher and had a list of people to call in the event of weather).

We waited and waited…

Finally! Flurries, yay!

Ten minutes later, it was done. Boo.

Flurries and sleet did resume later in the evening but….I got tired of waiting for the wonderful phone call and went to bed. While the rest of my friends were still up watching the BCS Championship and burning up the keyboard on Facebook, I was snoozing in my bed.

Evidently, I was snoozing hard. The phone rang at 11:52pm.

Or that’s what my voice mail told me anyhow.

Katie said she came in and told me the phone was ringing too but I have no recollection of that conversation.

Note to the world: anything we discuss between 11pm and 2am will not be retained in my memory.

I woke up around 5:20, turned off the alarm, and waited for the phone to ring. Instead I heard a shrill beep…..

Hmm. As I sat there trying to figure out the noise, Alex walked in and wanted to know why the security system was beeping. He said it started as soon as he opened his door.

Hey wait. Mom, did you put an alarm on my door?

Nope, but good idea!

Turned off the alarm before the siren started going, noticed I had a message, listened to it, told Alex school was canceled, and called my teammates.

Whoo hoo! No school!

Finally dozed back to sleep at 7am just in time for the girls to arrive at my bedside.

Mom, why are you still in bed? Why don’t we have school? You made us pick out our clothes last night. Why did we do that if there’s no school?

And that began my snow day.

After breakfast, the girls begged to go outside. Why, I don’t know. It was twenty degrees and there was only a dusting of snow, but off they went.

Weren’t they cute?




Yep, it lasted for perhaps fifteen minutes. The rest of the day was been spent in the house, with me, in a confined space, after only being back in school two days after an almost three week Christmas break.

Are you getting the picture?

Right at lunch time, I left Alex with the girls and headed out to buy groceries. My parents are headed to town tomorrow and would probably appreciate something to eat other than Cheerios.

So I was out shopping in the freezing cold but……I was getting out of making them lunch. Smart, huh?

A huge shopping trip later, I arrived home demanding the assistance of the kids to help unload the car. Alex showed up in a t-shirt and bare feet. In twenty degree weather. I've never seen the boy unload the car so quickly.



Shopping done. Check. Cleaning? No thank you. I’ll pass.

While avoiding the need to clean the house, I got an attack of domesticity and made yet another batch of Chex mix.



Oh, and let this picture be proof of my domestic ability. I just seldom use it….by choice.

With a fajita dinner planned, temperature outside dropping, still procrastinating about cleaning, what else is there to do?

Oh, I know. Take this



plus this



to finish up my day!

Surely my parents won’t mind if the bathrooms aren’t clean, right?

The Christmas Blur……

Yep, we were off school for two and a half weeks and I only updated twice. Yay me.

Life intervened. Things like sleeping late took precedent.

Oh wait. There was no sleeping late at my house unless you were over the age of 14.

Hmm. Let me clarify. There was no sleeping late unless you were over age 14 and less than 42. Which, if you do the math, leaves me out. Lovely.

But, things like staying in jammies all morning, reading books while snuggled on the couch, playing with toys to our hearts content, and eating dinner later than usual were more important than updating the blog.

side note: I still haven’t even done our Christmas letter. I am shooting for Valentine’s Day/Chinese New Year this year.

Let me take a moment to clarify that I took part in all the above activities except playing with toys. I drew the line at that event.

Christmas came, we saw, we conquered.

Hmm. Thinking back to Christmas Eve.

We went to Mass….and all the kids mostly behaved. Ahem.



My laptop decided get sick for 36 hours and about killed me.



Resorted to the crackberry to survive…gasp.



Stayed up late to build a “bleeping” Barbie house on Christmas Eve. Ugh. It was midnight until all was built and played with by those older than 6.





Christmas brought new kitchen appliances for a girl, a new guitar for a boy, new Barbies and Littlest Pet Shop pieces for short people, and………….marshmallow guns for all!





The New Year was upon us rather quickly. Oh, by the way, we chose to celebrate on Irish time so we could do it at 8pm. Hey, no excuses here. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Yep.

Dave and Katie departed for Pennsylvania shortly after the year began to visit his parents. So, while the cat was away, the mice played. We had Mickey D’s for breakfast, junk food for lunch, pizza for dinner, and stayed in our jammies all day.

Well, only once. But it was fun!

Now we’re back into the school groove again, complete with frigid temperatures and snow in the forecast.

Need I remind you that we live in Georgia?

“Nuf said.