Easter Egg Hunt 2010

Here's the video I promised (I know! I'm amazed I got it up here too!). Apologies for the couple of blurry moments. I took the video on my still camera and it sometimes freaks about when trying to focus.

Posted by GoddessKristin on 04/21/10 at 07:42 PM [link] [No Comments - Be the first!]

Spring Has Sprung

In all its mad glory, spring appears to have arrived. This means, in no particular order:

1) As a California teacher with less than a thousand years tenure, I got pink slipped.
2) As a pink slipped teacher, it's in my best interest to have as many teaching credentials as possible.
3) As a teacher who needs more credentials, I had to take a class.

An annoying class. A class in which I don't think I learned much of anything, but damn did I have to write a lot of stupid papers. A class in which I had to do... (cue the ominous music) group work. (Cue horrified scream, gunshot aaaaaand... splat!)

Do I have to tell you that I hate group work? That I find it cumbersome at best, horrifyingly tedious at worst? That every damn time group work is called for I wind up in the ringmaster role, snapping the proverbial whip at people who just don't get it? That this particular version is made even worse because it's an online class and I will never meet these people so the mechanics of the group are even more ridiculous? And that one of my esteemed group members had no idea how to use a messaging forum so we had to TEACH her how to post messages????

And have I told you that I have wanted to soak my head in a vat of acid for the last 6 weeks, which was the entire duration of this class?

No. I don't need to tell you all of that.

But it's where I've been. If, you know, you were wondering.

On the other hand, we have this:

Here is Dessa in her Easter finery, complete with hat, cape and purse. She killed me with that purse. Before we went to Mom's for the day, she sat on the couch in full regalia, looking for all the world like my Nonie before we'd take the old bat shopping. My Nonie would sit bolt upright on the couch, purse in her lap, staring off into the middle distance (she was legally blind, so the staring thing was understandable. The purse thing was a bit odd). I think Dessa is channeling my Nonie a bit here.



Anyway, Dess loved the Easter Egg hunt this year - she was really into it. In fact, she discovered the hidden eggs before we actually intended to begin the hunt, so there I was, wrist deep in olive oil-ing the leg of lamb when in bursts my child clad in innocent white (so don't make me touch you, child! I'm covered in oil!), and she's screeching, "There's eggs Mom! In da livin' room! Let's go see!" (she talks a bit like a Brooklyn gangster these days. I love it).



It was quite fun. I have a video to share as soon as I get a few minutes to upload it (they take ages). I will be writing final papers on Wednesday afternoon and plan to run the upload in the background, so check back for more Easter goodness.

In other news, we are potty training. It's been an... adventure (yeah, yeah, that's the ticket). Dessa is... shall we say... opinionated about things (right, yes. Opinionated. Let's go with that). If you ask her if she needs to use the potty, she yells, "No!" and tends to run and hide. This, shall we say, reluctance is a minor irritation (read: drives me batshit) but not one that we can't overcome. With bribes.

She resisted training for so long that we had to begin the old Bribe Her With A Cookie routine to get her to give the potty a try. And so we began in earnest about 10 days ago. Off came the diapers, on went panties and... she promptly wet them.

OK! I grinned. No problemo! Now you know what that's like! Let's clean you up and clean up the floor and get on new panties and do it all over again!

To her credit, she was alarmed at the first wetting. "Oh! I'm sorry I made a mess Mommy!" she said, confused about the whole endeavor. Aaaaaand then she sat on the floor to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and wet herself again. Didn't tell me that time.

So I cleaned her up again, gave her new panties and it's been pretty good ever since. Oh there have been a few accidents, but she's had quite a few completely dry days (naps and night time don't count. We still sling diapers on her then because... well, duh) and her pride is growing. One incentive is those extremely nifty panties, which have princesses and other Disney characters on them. She gets to pick a pair in the morning and is becoming loathe to wet them.

She, uh... likes them a lot.



The heels come from her Snow White dress up costume. The attitude, I think, comes from me. And the legs? I don't know where she got those legs.
Posted by GoddessKristin on 04/20/10 at 07:31 PM [link] [No Comments - Be the first!]