Lunch box troubles

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I’m having a hard time not being angry right now. My hormones are raging to top it off. The school mixing up the lunch boxes caused a new problem. The other mother wrote a note and taped it on Kiki’s lunch box, pretty much stating that we need to check the names on the lunch boxes because we’re taking hers. She’s completely oblivious to the fact that not everyone goes inside the kids classrooms to pick up their kids, thus picking up the lunch box themselves, like she clearly does. Kiki moves into a different classroom midday. Her lunch box somehow gets left behind and she takes, because of a teacher as she can’t read, the wrong lunchbox with her. (If she actually EATS the other kids food, I don’t know yet. I HOPE not.) When a teacher hands my child with her lunch box and backpack all ready to go, I assume everything is in order. This will be the third year at this school for my oldest, and I’ve never had a problem, so I always find it safe to assume everything is fine. Clearly, this needs to change.

So this lady leaves a note on a two year olds lunch box. What she doesn’t know is that over the weekend we bought a NEW lunch box so this mix-up won’t happen again. So going to school to reclaim the old lunch box this morning and finding a note instead, irritates me. I didn’t complain in a note. I fixed the problem. If I wrote a note, it would’ve say, “Hey, the name on your lunch box is horribly faded. The teachers can’t see it. Please rewrite it so they know right away it’s the wrong one.” Kiki’s lunchbox is in dark black permanent marker written in large letters. You can’t miss it if you grabbed it accidentally. Unfortunately, the teachers ‘miss’ the faded name because they don’t check the other matching lunch box and assume it’s hers, thus causing a problem.

In summary, it’s ALL OUR FAULTS. The other mothers for not having an obvious, readable name on her lunch box which would potentially end the problem before it started, the teachers for not checking the name on BOTH lunch boxes to ensure they got the right one, and mine for not double-checking the one she is sent home with before I leave the school. I thought the first time was just a fluke. The second time it happened was what told me it was going to be a problem. So I naturally fixed it by getting a different lunch box. Her solution was complaining to me through my two year old toddler. I don’t appreciate it. I really, really want to tell her how inappropriate that is. Furthermore, accusing me of being entirely at fault which she has her own fault irritates me.

Tell me to check the name when her child’s name is barely visible… UGH! She’s a hypocrite. At least now with the new lunch box, I shouldn’t have to deal with her again. Unfortunately, there is another kid in her class with the same lunch box. There is a BUNCH of duplicates. I hope I don’t have trouble with this one. The other two kids don’t have trouble even though there is duplicates. This is my first time dealing with this particular teacher though. The other classes have been wonderful.

New car!

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We had three cars, all Mazdas. We have a 2010 Mazda 3, 2009 Mazda 5, and an older Miata (I’m thinking 1996?). Well, we traded in our 3 and 5. We’re now leasing a Honda Odyssey. Tim says it’s a good idea because we tend to not keep our cars very long. And I honestly think I might want a new one in two or three years, so leasing would be a better option, he says. I’m nervous because I’ve never leased before and don’t really see a benefit, other than a lower monthly payment than we would’ve had.

Anyway, we have a Honda Odyssey. It’s so much larger than our Mazda 5 and has similar gas mileage. We were having trouble with our Mazda 5 and space. Putting groceries in the back was so difficult we tended to put them on the floor throughout just to fit it. Our stroller also couldn’t fit at all! We could fit that stroller in a Scion XA we had years ago, and every car we’ve had, other than the Mazda 5. That should tell you how poor it was for storage space.

Now we have room for another kid or two! ;)

We showed the kids after school. Evie inquired about the whereabouts of the other two cars. She seems to get it. But they gave Kiki the wrong lunchbox again. This is getting to be a huge hassle. They almost did once before, but Tim caught it. I failed to catch it this time. It has her name on it! In dark, permanent black marker! This one has someone else’s name on it, but it is faded. I need to stop assuming they grabbed the right one. I’m going to try to get her a different lunchbox, and hope that fixes the problem.

Labor Day weekend summary

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I’ve had a busy Labor Day weekend. We went to the Hoover Dam, Utah, Area 51, then Yosemite. For anyone with small children, don’t attempt Hoover Dam. You may be able to enjoy yourself with one child, but four children who all don’t want to be there makes a bad time. Then when the parents are all hot with children who are also hot and don’t want to move, it makes getting back to your car very, very stressful.

Nevada was an interesting drive. While heading towards Area 51 in Rachel, Nevada, we had to stop for two labradors, a horse that had a baby on the other side, and a herd of steers with babies. At Rachel, we stopped at the A’le’inn and ate some lunch while they got ready just in case the weekend turned busy. We spotted some geocachers and Tim took pictures of a sign and bought some souvenirs. I obtained a Utah keychain to add to my Flying J state keychain collection, because I’m lame like that.

We got to Yosemite later than we planned. Tim tried to grill some food, but it was undercooked. It’s hard to grill food outside in the dark and get it right. We gave the kids something to eat and we didn’t eat that night. The next morning, we saw some deer right in the campground. There was lots of deer there. We took the kids and dogs for a walk down a trail for an hour, then headed back. There was lots of deer and squirrels. The kids played in a creek and some ponds, kicked some dirt around, and each carried a large stick. Tim held Dade almost the whole time, so his arm almost fell off. When we got back to our RV, there was a box of ice cream sandwiches sitting on the step. We got free ice cream sandwiches! They have three ice cream flavors in them. I’ve never seen those before. We speculate that someone was keeping them cold and ran out of ice, noticed we had kids AND a freezer, so they let us have them.

Then we had a drive home that took way longer than it should’ve, but that’s what we get for driving home on Labor Day. A truck in front of us lost a trash bag filled with trash, and we had no choice but to run over it. Apparently, the bag caught on the jacks and we dragged it a while, until a police officer who was directing traffic noticed it, and a motorcyclist told us.

Home! It’s always nice to be home. I unpacked most the RV before I got hot and took a break. The generator is broken, so it was really hot in there. While I took a break, I did some puzzles with Evie and Auron. Tim came in and told me the neighbor hit our RV. We had been home maybe 3 hours, and the RV was hit! It was just sitting there. Not even crossing the property line! She hit it while turning when she was backing up. Now it’s at the mechanic waiting an estimate. They also sell RV’s, so they’re going to clean it up too. That saves me a lot of time! Of course we have to pay for the cleaning. When it’s all fixed up, we’re going to consign it and hope it sells. We were going to do this anyway, but the neighbor hitting the RV added an obstacle to our plan.

Now we are trying to get back into the groove of being home. I’m way too tired and cranky to be doing much though.

The wrong lunch box

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My in-laws have come and gone without any real problems. For once, my MIL just left me to myself and didn’t make me feel super uncomfortable in my own home. The only problem I really had was them coming over at the kids bedtime on day one, and then them trying to do it again on day three. But that was averted. We were left without dinner until bedtime on day. I’m not completely sure how that even happened. We talked about dinner. We just never did it until after they left.

School has been a little difficult. Kiki doesn’t want to be left there and she gives us a dirty look when we pick her up. Auron, for some reason, doesn’t like preschool this year. He has the same teacher and the same class. Perhaps he would’ve benefited from summer school to keep in the groove. Evie is very excited and being her usual social butterfly personality. She’s showing off her school work and talking about her day way more than she did last year. It helps that her two best friends are still in her class.

Kiki brought home the wrong lunchbox today. I still haven’t figured out what to do with that. The wrong backpack is much easier, but the wrong lunchbox? The kicker is she has her name on her lunchbox and the lunchbox she brought home also has a name on it. How could the teachers send her off with the wrong lunchbox? This one doesn’t even have a thermos! I have no idea how to send her to school tomorrow. I know that the other kids Mom is having the same issue. I get to send her back to school with two lunch boxes. But where to get a temporary second… She even forgot to get her backpack. She’s two in a 3 to 5 year old program. They know they have to watch her! She isn’t responsible yet.

Medals and cat scratches

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Kiki is potty trained with maybe one accident a day. That’s pretty good! I took her out today without even concerning myself with what if she wet herself (although I still had a change of clothes on me).

Today, was Evie’s gymnastics finale! Her 8 week course was ending and they were giving a small performance. She really loves her gymnastics. She was given a medal on a ribbon. Since she likes gymnastics so much, we signed her up for their continuous classes. The time is an hour earlier and she’ll have a different teacher. She’s excited that today isn’t her last day after-all.

We didn’t do anything special yesterday. We sat around at home all lazy-like because we didn’t know when they in-laws was going to show up. Around 5:30 pm, Tim finally gave them a call. He was officially off work then, and we were thinking about dinner. They were 50 miles away. They had just recently left San Francisco and was headed to our house. We decided to eat without them. Around 7:00 pm, they called us back saying they arrived in their hotel, a 15 minute drive away, and ordered a pizza. They intended on visiting after they ate. That means they would arrive around the kids bed time, and they didn’t see a problem with this. One the first night they were here, we ate at McDonalds with them, and left McDonalds exactly at bedtime so we were already late. Tim invited them to see where our house was. They turned a quick visit into a “push the kids on the swing” hour visit. Now they were trying to show up, again, at bed time. One time, I can shrug off. But I refuse to let this be a reoccurring thing. So we didn’t see them yesterday. I had the kids all cute and everything, too! Oh well.

School starts Monday! I’m getting more strict about bed time and routines to make the transition easier. This was surely not helping. It takes Kiki alone 1.5 hours to get to sleep. Auron takes longer, sometimes being still awake at midnight. Dade and Evie go right to sleep most the time. I talked with the pediatrician about Auron, and she said if he passes out late, not to let him nap long. But he rarely naps, and even when he doesn’t, he’s a complete nightmare to get to sleep. He is definitely not sleeping enough. They’re bed time is at 8:00 pm too. I’m hoping the sun setting sooner helps.

The school Open House was fun though. I got to meet Kiki’s teacher, whose name I already forgot. Evie and Auron get the same teachers they had last year. Evie’s best friends, Suhani and JayJay are both still in her class, which makes her happy. Auron turned all bashful again. He had a doctor appointment after the open house and received shots. The boy did not cry! Amazing. Evie would’ve ran out of the building dragging whoever attempted to hold her down with her. She’s done it before!

Also, the evening of the open house, Auron got a bad cat scratch on his lip. I thought we needed to take him in to get it glued shut, but Tim disagreed. The one in his mouth on his lip was the worse. I think he bit it. It was a very deep split. I know when Kiki bit her tongue they tried to stitch it up, which didn’t really work out that well. The pediatrician recommended leaving any cuts in the mouth untouched and to heal on their own. Right now, the inside of his lip is swollen and white, but he isn’t complaining of it hurting. We’re keeping a close eye on it for any redness, hardness, or discharge. He didn’t cry when he was hurt either. He cried when I wanted to clean the one on his upper lip off though! Poor boy had a bad day. He keeps changing his mind of which cat scratched him too.

Getting ready for school and my in-laws

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We dropped off the paperwork and check for school fees at the school. We still have to fax in the kindergarten shot records for Evie and make Auron his yearly appointment. Tomorrow is open house. We’ve been working hard on Kiki’s potty training. That means we’ve been bribing her with chocolate. We’ve never used bribery before, but it has been working for the most part. She’s been having an accident here or there, but since she really wants the candy, she’s been using the potty more times than not. So she’s going to preschool this year.

We’ve been fairly busy this past summer and I’m looking forward to school starting to slow things down some. We’ve painted, got our backyard done, built a play set, and other stuff. Yesterday, Walle, our dog, got his second ever professional haircut. Typically we do it. But it was pretty matted so we let someone else do it. He’ll look all nice for when my in-laws visit. They’ll arrive tonight, although they are staying in a hotel and we won’t see them until tomorrow.

Since my in-laws are coming, I’ve been cleaning. We cleaned the grout in the kitchen, dining room, and living room. It’s not perfect, but it looks way better than it did. I still haven’t figured out how to get the stains out of toilets. Our kids do not flush the toilet unless you remind them, so they stained quickly. I’ve used bleach and tooth brushes. I guess I’m going to have to find something more powerful. I still need to vacuum, again. Our floors get the dirtiest the fastest.

Today is laundry day! I put laundry off until today so I wouldn’t have to worry about laundry while my in-laws are visiting. It takes me a whole day to do laundry. I have 8 or 9 loads to do, depending on the severity. I never do sheets the same day, because I don’t have enough time. I hate laundry. I’d rather scrub the floors.

Oh, and everyone has new underwear and socks! We’re all feeling super special now. On top of that, there’s the new shoes for school, backpacks and lunch boxes that makes the kids feel even more special. When Grandma and Grandpa arrive, they’ll all feel spoiled.

Starting anew, school starting soon, and potty training! Oh my…

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I used to have this blog, but I closed it down a year ago due to family problems. I am now bringing it back since things are much happier around here!

I haven’t quite found a design I like yet, so I am using this one until I do. I might even keep it but change the pictures and colors, I just don’t know yet.

Anyway, I’ll do a brief introduction. I’m Emi, and I’m a stay-at-home mom of four children. They are Evie, 5, Auron, 4, Kiki, 2, and Dade, 1. My husband is Tim. We’ve been married for 7 years and live in California. We have 1 dog and 4 cats. That’s about it! So I’ll do a first post now…

School starts next week where Evie goes into Kindergarten and Auron into his second year of preschool (he was part-time last year). Kiki was supposed to go to preschool this year, but they dropped the 2 year old program. They insist they can put her in the 3 to 5 year old preschool program, but that she needs potty trained. She is not potty trained anymore as she relapsed after an illness and hasn’t picked it back up, so that isn’t going to work out. We were told this before the end of the last school year. We found out Friday that they had her enrolled anyway. So we need to set that straight because they already charged us OR potty train her real quick when her biggest problem is her laziness. We need to drop off the paperwork for Auron and Evie today anyway because we forgot to during the summer. Oops…

How do you potty train a toddler who knows how to use the potty but is being picky? Evie potty trained shortly after turning 2, and Auron right around the time he turned 3. Kiki picked it up on her own shortly after turning 2, all by herself. Now she’ll only use the potty if she’s naked, which isn’t a problem around the house. But she won’t use it if she has pants on. She’ll just stand there and wet herself, tell us she went potty, and wait for us to clean it and goes about her business! I have no idea what she’s thinking. Today, we’re trying a crash course of potty training. She’s already wet herself once, but stopped herself and finished on the potty. Here’s to see if I can daytime potty train her in a week! Wish me luck. I know she can do it.