Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Her poor teachers

They weren't told anything about MJ skipping 4th and going directly into 5th. How do I know? Because this morning, her teachers came to our door to introduce themselves and when I went outside to privately ask about what they already knew, the answer was: They knew zilch! They didn't know she needs a 504 (behavior) plan, that she was being boosted up a grade, that she just moved here, nothing. But the fact that they came by, and will be doing so for her entire grade (there's only 30 students total. Can you believe that???) is very wonderful.
Her teacher meet and greet is tomorrow afternoon, and we'll be able to talk more at our leisure. I'm gonna have MJ wear a dress, since she hasn't worn one since she's come. She's worn skirts, but they're really skorts, so I don't think it counts.
After her teach came by, we all had to rush out the door, and even still, we were a little late getting Hubby to work. I then dropped the little one off at her club, picked up $5 worth of breakfast kolaches, and went to Min's place to chat for a few hours. She'd prepared muffins and little breakfast danishes, so it was quite a bread-ful breakfast.
We chatted (most of it revolved around MJ, unsurprisingly) and played games together before I left. At one point, she admitted she was confused, because she thought we were adopting MJ right away, and wondered what MJ's last name would be. She was like 'So you're taking care of her simply out of the goodness of your heart?' and I was like '....Well, yeah.' For some reason that was really impressive, where adopting her was not/was expected. I don't profess to understand others, simply observe them.
When I left, my stomach felt quite queasy (and honestly, I don't like using her bathroom because they don't have hand soap in there), so I decided to stop at home before going to pick up MJ (and hubby later). While I was home, I decided to change my shoes because I had planned to explore a mall with the little one while Hubby was tutoring, and cut up melon for tomorrow's breakfast (because our evenings are always hectic).
Then I went and picked her up, and had 20 minutes to kill before Hubby got off work, so MJ and I wandered around (walking) before we decided to sit at a table in the shade near his job. While we were sitting there, an employee at Thundercloud Subs (we eat there often, and it's right next to Hubby's job) came out to take trash out, and said hello. We answered, and she said 'You know, I saw you two and your husband? this morning. I see you guys pretty often. You make such a cute little family unit.' I just smiled and thanked her, and looked at MJ, but didn't comment on it one way or the other. MJ likewise looked at me funny for a minute, but chose not to say anything. Then we played her personal version of Apples to Apples until we'd had enough of waiting for Hubby and went to wait at the door to his job for him.
On the way, my phone started ringing, and it was my sister. She wanted to thank MJ for the Thank You card she recieved (that I made MJ write). While they were talking, Hubby startled me, and scolded me for standing in front of the door and not expecting someone to come walking out of it. *Shrug* I asked what everyone wanted for lunch, and got various unhelpful answers. So I decided to go ahead and drive to Hubby's tutoring appointment location and we'd eat somewhere nearby.
They had Japanese/Chinese Hibachi, but when we got there, they'd closed between 2:30 and 4:30, and it was 3, so we were out of luck. So we walked across the street to a little cafe, that closed at 3, so we were twice out of luck. Finally I decided we'd get pizza, like MJ wanted, and we went to Pizza Hut, hoping for the buffet. Aaaaaand again, we were out of luck, but we still ate there and simply ordered a random sampling of things that sounded good.
Our food took a while, so we all played Apples to Apples together, and then while we ate, I gathered up the Green cards and used them to start conversations about 'What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear ______' and the answers were amusing. At one point we were just going around answering the answer of the person before us. I think that's a fun game, and I hope we can play it again soon.
After that, it was a mad rush to get Hubby to his job on time, but we managed. While he was working hard to make that money, MJ and I went around picking books to read. We found quite a few, honestly, and neither of us were willing to wait to be able to read them. So when, two hours later, we found out our library card didn't work because this library was out of the jurisdiction, we were....not happy.
Actually, not happy turned quite quickly to uncompromising 'But we want it! Please?!' which turned to spending $20 for a membership there that lasts six months, and can be switched to a free membership in a few weeks/whenever we get the paperwork done. On the plus side, both of us have been reading.
Then I asked if we could go to the mall (because I'd been planning to show it to MJ all day), and since Hubby was driving, he was the decider. He said (kinda meanly, but he's had a bad day) that I'd spent too much money already today, but if I wanted to go, and was okay with simply window-shopping, then fine, we could go. Considering I need to buy some new underwear and some body wash (MJ+Runa=Non-lasting body wash) that wasn't really something I could agree to, so I just set the GPS for home and read my book.
When we got home, we read while we waited for Nana to get on skype to talk to MJ (I'd called and arranged that earlier today). The books totally distracted me from realizing today is chore day for MJ, so she escaped her chores via neglect (ours) and will do them tomorrow instead. We had a nice, kinda stilted conversation with Nana, then I talked with Nana by myself for a bit while MJ went to play Uno with Hubby.
After that, we all went swimming, where MJ was extremely possessive and wouldn't let me stay near Hubby, but also wouldn't stay between the two of us either. She's getting a little worrisomely possessive of me, but I hope with time that'll ease and she'll get more attached to Hubby as well.
When we got out of the pool, MJ said she was hungry (I was too) so after giving her her medicine and scooting her into the shower, I made her a piece of peanut butter toast and sent her off to bed where I massaged her shoulders and neck (as per our promise. If she takes her shower in ten minutes or less, I'll rub her back/whatever for her for a few minutes) before tucking her in and telling her goodnight.
Overall, besides a little tension between the Hubby (whose day did not go as expected) and myself (who does not like bearing brunts of things she didn't cause), my day was pretty nice.

I heard this song on the radio Monday, and really wanted to dance to it, so we had an inpromptu dance that day. I think it's catchy and cute. Heh. The video is even cuter than I'd thought it would be.


2 comments:

college kid said...

For the record, I said nothing about "you" spending too much money. I said "we". As in, as a family unit, I thought we should limit how much we are spending. I didn't even get your text about getting underwear and stuff at the mall until we were already most of the way home. And honestly, if you knew we needed to spend the money on things like that, then we shouldn't have spent the money on books that should essentially be free. I wasn't in a great mood and I could have communicated it better, but honestly I just wanted to go home. I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of taking Mia shopping just to fight with her about what she could or could not get at the mall. I wanted to go home and relax after a somewhat stressful and tiring day. The original plan was for you to go shopping with Mia while I tutored, and I think things probably would have worked out better if that was what happened.

april said...

"her version of apples to apples" sounds fun and endearing! gotta love the imagination of kids to make fun stuff up!