Giving in....

Last week I gave in...

I gave into child pressure; I gave into peer pressure; I gave into the marketers and advertisers.

I bought my child a Rainbow Loom. Okay, technically, my kid bought herself a rainbow loom – she chose to use her allowance now instead of waiting for Santa to bring her one.

For some odd reason, my adult brain feels that I should justified this purchase. My kid does not care, she is just happy – she was starting to get sick of making her bracelets (I did buy her a pack of elastic refills) using pens.

Here are some of my reasons for why the Rainbow Loom is a good investment...

1. It is only twenty bucks. Actually, it is a little less than twenty dollars. Twenty seems to be my magic amount to spend on a toy that may not be played with for more than a month.

2. My kid was going to spend her allowance on a Barbie doll, which I know would probably not be played with for more than a week...
   
   
3. Making bracelets is helping her with her fine motor skills and hand eye coordination
   
   
4. She is learning to follow instructions
   
   
5. Hopefully, she will learn to see the pattern of how these elastics combine (math skills) and make up her own designs (creativity).
   
   
6. It keeps her quiet and busy.
   
   
7. At least she is not watching television while she is being quiet and busy. Granted, she is now staring intently at my iPad trying desperately to follow the instructions from a nine-year-old girl.
   
   
8. It is something she can do by herself. Okay, I admit that this has yet to actually happen, as a lot of the bracelets and charms seem to require parental involvement. Though I quietly admit that looming is sort of fun, I am anticipating the day when I no longer hear “MOMMY!! HELP! I can't do this....”

9. Her bracelet creations are tiny and are easy to put away (hide). Lego castles and other three dimensional “art works” are both hard to store and often cause great deal of distress when it is time to disassemble or disposal.
   
   
10. As a friend told me – stepping on these little elastics is a lot better than stepping on a piece of Lego.

Do you loom? Or, Do you feel like you have to justify your purchases, or can you just go out and buy something because it is fun?

Lockdown drills....

Last week, my daughter came home from school and gave me a lesson on fire safety.

Listening to her talk about escape plans; stopping, dropping and rolling; and the importance of changing batteries on smoke detectors brings back memories of little me nagging my parents about the exact same things.

However, what is dramatically different from my early days in school is that my little daughter not only has fire drills these days; she has lockdown drills.

Yes, lockdown drills.

I remember my heart just about stopped the very first time she told me about the lockdown drill. She was in junior kindergarten at the time. She described to me how she and her little friends must go to a specific corner in her classroom, crouch down very low, and keep very quiet. (I am thankful for her teacher for glossing over why she and her little friends must do this.)

What has the world come to that a four-year-old has to practice hiding quietly in the corner?

This year, one of her instructors mentioned to the kids that someone might enter the school with a gun (I am pretty sure it was a passing comment, not meant to be fixated upon). Unfortunately, my daughter naturally jumps to the worst possible scenario for most things. So of course, she told me all about how bullets go through walls and windows, and that someone might be coming to shoot her.

I hugged her, then we talked about it, and I told her that the chances of this ever happening was extremely, extremely, slim. I told her the school was very safe, and there were lots of people to keep any bad person who wants to enter out.

I never really know what to do in situations like these. I want to have important and sometimes scary discussions with her. I do not want her to bottle her fears. On the other hand, I feel that by talking about it too much will just be a constant reminder of her fears. I asked her regular teacher what to do, and she told me to talk about it IF she brings it up in conversation.

Luckily for me, by the end of the day, my daughter, more or less, erased the lockdown drill from her memory, which is much better than the week long nightmares that resulted from last year's fire drill.

Too bad I cannot erase the lockdown drill from my memory. I just want to pick her up, hold her tight, and possibly just start homeschooling her.

I realize that I cannot and should not shelter or hide my child from all the evils in this world, but I would like her to feel that everything is made out of magic, rainbows, candies, ribbons and happy endings for just a bit longer.

Time and Food

It has been more than a month now since school started; my family's (okay my) routine has somewhat been established; and yet, I sit here and wonder: what it is exactly that I do all day?

I know I am not sitting around eating candy, watching soap operas or reading trashy magazines (okay, I do that sometimes, but definitely not too often), but at the same time, I do not feel like I am actually accomplishing anything.

I tidy and clean, and then the small hurricane comes home from school and the house returns to its normal chaotic state. I thought I would write more, but this is the first time I have written in months. I also thought I would exercise a bit more, but then I would feel guilty if I moved the spider that has made my running shoes her new home.

Seriously, where does the time go? Now that my kid is in school all day, I thought I would have so much more free time. I actually thought that I would be bored, as I am the type of person who cannot sit still for very long (unfortunately my daughter has inherited that trait from me). Yet it still feels like the moment I sit down, I have to get right back up to pick her up from school again.

The only thing I can come up with is my life now revolves around food. I am now forever trying to think of what to make for lunch and dinner; going out to buy the ingredients to make the meals, and then coming home to prep the meals; oh! and let us not forget the actually cooking part. Oh! And then cleaning up after....

I applaud all those women who can work, take care of their families and prepare meals! I do not think I am programed to do this (dealing with food part). I lived on a diet of instant dinners throughout my entire university life! The most cooking I did was boiling water to make Kraft Dinner, instead of using the microwave, and tossing together a bag of pre-package salad. I would have never imagined that food would be taking over my life.

I would appreciate any and all mealtime tips, especially if it means that I can have some free time to go eat my candy and watch some trashy talk shows.

Now, excuse me while I am off to prepare lunch....