Top Ten List

Having already fallen behind in keeping up my blog, I decided to summarize the past week with a Top Ten List (a la Letterman) of what happened in the Skinner household over the past week. These are in no particular order and, given that I have given this no forethought, may not even turn out to reach the magic number 10. But here goes:

1) Bear's Birthday: November 18 was Samantha's 4th birthday. You've already seen the pics from her "official" birthday party at the Blacksburg Aquatic Center. On her actual birthday, she had cupcakes at school with her friends. In keeping with the overall theme, they were princess cupcakes. For her birthday dinner, she chose to go to one of her three favorite restaurants: CiCi's pizza. (The other two being Macado's and "the donut shop" (i.e. Carol Lee donuts)). She received yet another ton of gifts.

2) Bear's Check-up: On November 19, Samantha had her 4-year-old check-up. She was 50th percentile height and weight. They checked her hearing and vision and both were fine. I asked about her hearing given her inability to use an "indoor voice" but, apparently, this happens quite frequently. She received 4 shots (immunizations) and a flu-mist vaccine. This was more traumatic than usual given that: a) I had told her she probably wouldn't get very many shots; and b) she is now old enough that she knows what is coming. In any event, she was fairly brave and managed to walk out with 5 bandaids, two stickers, and a massive Dora coloring book, all of which somehow managed to make the whole thing better. I love our pediatrician. He quickly picked up on my hints and told Samantha that dessert was not a constitutional right but should be reserved for special occasions. We've had some trouble with this as Bear has developed her great grandmother Elizabeth's (Mim's) sweet tooth. When Dr. Stapleton said dessert wasn't an everyday thing, Bear ratted out her daddy and mentioned his nightly ice cream consumption.

3) Ned's swim meet: Ned was out of town from Wednesday through early Sunday morning at a swim meet in Knoxville. The H2Okies fared pretty well and finished ahead of Kentucky but behind Tennessee. Ned's absence means that I was single parenting for several days which always presents a new set of challenges.

4) The beginnning of the end: One of Bear's birthday gifts was this new memory game. It is a really nice one with pics of vintage toys and very well made. While Daddy was gone and after Jack was in bed, we decided to play the game. On Wednesday night, I beat her. However, on Thursday night, she beat me handily (28 to 20). And, if you know me at all, you know that I didn't let her win. Apparently shaken up from my defeat the prior evening, I choked and she beat me by an even larger margin the next evening. My humiliation was compounded by the fact that my parents were witnesses to the whole thing. So, either Bear has a really great memory or, at the age of 39, I'm starting to develop severe memory deficits. Please let it be the former.

5) Bad mommy: I let Bear have crunchy tacos from Taco Bell both on Wednesday and Thursday night. I never made it to the grocery store and the prospect of picking up both kids from school and taking them into the grocery store in the miserable cold was so unattractive that I caved and just went through Taco Bell drive-thru 2 nights in a row. This wouldn't be so bad because tacos aren't that unhealthy (all 4 food groups are represented). Unfortunately, Bear wants hers without cheese and "salad" (i.e. lettuce). I did make her eat some fruit and corn as sides. I still suck though. This is like a page out of Ned's play book.

6) Haircuts: Bear and I went to Miss Karrie's for our haircuts. Bear asked Ms. Karrie to cut off "4 inches." I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. Ms. Karrie cut off 1 inch when Mommy spelled out what really needed to happen. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do when Bear learns to spell.

7) Bear's Birthday party with the Cox clan: Bear, Jack, and I spent Friday night with my parents in Bassett. On Saturday, Bear had her final birthday party where she received even more gifts. Her favorite gift was a rolling suitcase given to her by her godfather, Uncle Chris. She thinks she is hot stuff rolling that thing around. The "2 times a week dessert rule" being in place (see #2 above), Bear decided to make the most of it and she ate TWO cupcakes. Her cousin Katie was in town for the party and they had a great time together. I was relieved because my parents actually cooked for us so at least Samantha got a couple of home-cooked meals.

8) Illness: Jack brought a cold home from school and, of course, I caught it. Given that I haven't been able to take cold medicine for like years because I was either pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or breastfeeding, I swore that when I was done with all that I was going to take massive quantities of drugs the next time I got sick. Unfortunately, I was not able to do so because I was single parenting and I'm so paranoid that I won't hear Jack during the night. So I didn't take anything but a couple of Zicam until I stayed at my parents. Mom took care of Jack and I took the mother load of Nyquil; slept for hours. Nyquil is good stuff. Anyway, both Jack and I are on the mend. I need to start taking Vitamin C or something so that I don't get every cold they bring home. Plus, I'm the only one of the 4 of us who hasn't gotten a flu shot. Let's put that on my "things to do" list. If you have any tips regarding what I can do to build up my immune system, let me know. And yes, I constantly wash my hands. They're like sandpaper.

9) Couple's therapy: The couple that gets pedicures together, stays together. I think I paraphrased a little bit there but no truer words were ever spoken. Ned and I used our lunch hour one day last week and got pedicures together followed up by lunch at one of his favorite places, Five Guys. I like it too. We both lamented the fact that we hadn't gotten the pedicures a week earlier since our feet looked so skank at Bear's pool party. Anyway, we're both in good shape now for at least a month. Ned's super skank toe even looks a little better. He still needs to go to a podiatrist for that thing though.

10) College football: There was a time (pre-kids) that I lived for college football. I would follow the message boards, go to all the Hokie games, etc. Things have changed. I completely forgot that Miami was playing Thursday night even though I knew that game had implications for the Hokies playing in the ACC championship. So I didn't watch one second of that game, even though I was home with the kids. Everything fell into place for the Hokies and if they win next week, they are headed to Tampa for the ACC championship. I am a little concerned about this whole Bud Foster/Clemson stuff and I hope VT does what they can to lock him up.

Love,
Allie