celebration of learning

pooka had her 'celebration of learning' at preschool today. they even wore mortarboards. they were so cute. i managed to not cry outright, although my eyes did fill up. it was nice to have cousins and granny and poppa there. the teachers were certain that pooka will have no trouble in kindergarten. mrs w declared pooka has maturity beyond her years.
pooka didn't need this to learn her letters or things like that; in that regard she could probably skip kindergarten. this time was valuable to help her re-socialize after being away from her peers for so long and for the physical activity and it even helped her to start to develop her creative/artistic voice. i only wish we had enrolled her sooner.
after the short ceremony,we had a buffet meal comprised of contributions from the students' families. last night kisu and i cleaned 8 POUNDS of strawberries. they were a big hit and we had probably less than one pound to bring home after the event.

they're everywhere

you know how when you start looking to buy a car, the model you're considering is suddenly everywhere you look? sadly, it's the same with cancer. everywhere i go now, i see people who are dealing with it. it's not just obvious signs, either. the woman wearing a baseball cap over her short hair. wait- it's not just short hair, it's super short and baby fine. the young mother wearing a tank top with a small bulge on her collarbone. not just a bony protrusion, but a medi-port.
these are things i would blissfully not have noticed before 10/17/05. now i see them, and i want to stop those people and tell them, "hey, i know what you're going through. God bless you and your family."
every time i see a yellow LIVESTRONG band, i wonder if the wearer is afflicted, or has a family member afflicted, or if it's just a fashion statement. i proudly wear my band, and occasionally my hat, and hope that people see me and think about supporting cancer research and patient support. whenever people hear about pooka, they share: my son had leukemia, my dad has lung cancer, i had breast cancer. 1 out of every 3 people will have some form of cancer during their life. it's scary, especially if you have more than 2 people in your family.

i have returned

to work. i was very concerned about the state of my desk. when we visited two weeks ago it was a disaster area, but today it was much better. many people welcomed me back and it was soon like i had never left, except for the breaks for expressing milk. i commandeered the sometime-occupied office of a superior, although as a backup i have been officially granted the use of an empty office on the 4th floor. i checked with my guy, though, and he doesn't have a problem with it , and he even said he would make attempts not to be in there during the times i told him i would like to use it. i love this place.
there is still one more pregnant lady here who is thankful that i am kind of 'blazing a trail' through the pumping situation. now she can see how the company handles the logistics of the issue.
no one in my group has had any problems with me doing this in their midst, so it's really nice. i did make some signs for the office door to let them know when i'm in there (although i imagine they can hear the machine, it sounds very loud from inside the same room).
i am not worried about the girls and kisu. he called to tell me how pooka imagined the day: "you go downstairs and study, daddy. i'll take care of the baby upstairs all day." uh, yeah, thanks, but i don't think that's gonna happen.

memorial day

we had a very nice day today. i had a nice lie-in, and then we got up to bathe the bug. then i ran some errands and by the time i came back, granny and poppa were here and the gardening had begun. i helped prep some stuff for the bbq, and then started trimming the front hedges-manually. ugh, those things were monstrous! by the time i finished, it was time to start cooking. we had SO much food. then we walked up to the local ice cream place, with pooka riding her bike. she is doing very well on it now, but it is too small for her. she took a tumble trying to get off the sidewalk where there wasn't a ramp and poppa just stood there and watched. bad poppa. she freaked out, of course, but two seconds later was scolding someone for something. she's such a drama queen.

the garden has a good variety of veggies in it. i hope the critters don't get to them before i do. looks like salad on demand all summer! half of what pooka planted she doesn't even like to eat.

now i am exhausted! i have to go to work tomorrow...

polish and proud

today we went to the st. mary's polish community festival since it finally stopped raining. your typical summer carnival deal, with a polish flavor. lots of merchandise plus pierogies! yum. pooka and i split a platter, since she won't eat kapusta and golubki anyway. i hope the kraut doesn't bother bug.
kisu missed it, unfortunately, but pooka had a blast. there was a ride with a helicopter painted like spiderman; she said she rode that one for daddy.
she won a prize at the duck pond game and then we won something for buggy together. the game where the ball rolls across a grid of colored holes and you place your bet on which color it will land. pooka tossed the ball and it landed on my color. sweet. there were all kinds of non-polish people there, but pooka looked polish today. i forgot to grab her belt and didn't remember until we got home that her pants had an adjustable waistband. she walked around all day looking like a plumber. good job, mom.
bug tolerated all the commotion pretty well, until she got hungry. i fed her a little bit, but then she got too upset to finish eating and it was all down hill from there. she cried herself to sleep on the way home and then woke up ready to really feast. pooka fell asleep half way home, but then perked up when we arrived and wanted to play her recorder. no way, babe, it's 10 o'clock!

two down

pooka lost ANOTHER tooth today. just this morning she was commenting on how wiggly it was, then this afternoon, the 6th bite of hot dog knocked it horizontal. she went downstairs to have kisu pull it out and that was that. i can't believe she's growing up so fast, and she almost never got the chance. 2 lost teeth in one month! the new one is already visible, too.

fashionista

pooka is such a clothes horse. we went to the store, intending to get nursing bras, which we couldn't find, and ended up buying some pants for pooka. while we were wandering around, she saw a shirt that she liked and it was too cool. she sure does have a fashion sense, except when she wants to wear purple pants with a red shirt and yellow socks...
the next day she wore her new shirt to school and it was a big hit.

stanley cup letdown

every year our house lightheartedly mentions the possibility of being a warzone during the stanley cup finals. if ever the sabres met the red wings, we would have friction. this year it looked like it could have been a reality but alas, the hated senators and the wimpy ducks will be meeting up instead of the number one and number two teams in the league. what a waste.
i told pooka that hockey season is over. we will NOT be watching the finals.

cool, hip mom

ever since i first saw heely's, i have been saying that i want to find them in my size. well, kisu managed to do it and bought me some for mother's day. he said he wants me to feel like a young, hip momma. so, since i'm not actually one, i should feel like one??
anyway, i tried them out on the living room hardwood. it's a lot more difficult than it looks. the hardest part is keeping your toes up off the ground at just the proper angle. and you have to keep your feet just the right distance apart or that angle is impossible to maintain. on my third try i almost busted my butt. but mostly, i would false start and end up pitching forward.
i haven't worn them since that first day, because i don't really have a proper place. they are meant for indoors only, and i don't really go to many places that have a lot of flooring to ride. at least not when i don't have one or two kids in tow. it wouldn't be nice to make pooka run to keep up with me, and it would be really bad to drop the baby if i slipped...

all night long

wow, bug surprised me by sleeping all night last night. i put her down at 9, she was asleep by 930. i tried to wake her up at 11:15, but couldn't, so i pumped and went to bed. the next thing i knew it was 530 am. dude. i felt very refreshed, but guilty. i wasn't sure if it was a forced sleep because she was in the swing, and i wasn't sure that she didn't wake up sooner and i just didn't hear it because the nursery door was closed. ah, motherhood: feel guilty if you do, feel guilty if you don't.

ogres!

we took pooka to see shrek today while poppa watched the bug. pooka was so excited. it was pretty good, but not as good as the second movie. there were some jokes that passed over pooka's head, but when she heard kisu and i laugh, she laughed her obnoxiously loud laugh just to feel involved. she's so goofy.

pooka, pooka, quite contrary

how does your garden grow?
well, not really growing anything yet, but it's ready to be planted. awhile back granny and poppa brought the 4x4's to block out the garden and lots of top soil to fill it. today they brought a rototiller to do the final prep. they pulled out lots of rocks and sod chunks and turned up a ton of worms. our backyard was a feast for the robins this afternoon. there was one bird who took off with 3 worms in her mouth at once! they did transplant the pea plants that had been struggling in the window. it will be interesting to see what we reap from this garden this summer-IF we can keep the critters out of it. a couple weeks back we inadvertantly left the garage door open and something got into our garbage. i know it was bigger than a squirrel because i saw the bite marks in a paper plate. oppossum or raccoon? i've seen rabbits in our backyard, too, but i don't think they raid the trash barrel.

science center

today poppa and i took the girls to the detroit science center. i thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to teach pooka all kinds of things. yeah, right. she was so wound up, she barely stood still for 15 seconds. running from one display to another: what does this button do? what does this lever do? what does this rope do?

by the time i caught up with her and started to explain the experiment, she was off and running to the next one.

her favorite thing was the 'jam room'. they had a drum pad kit and a guitar in a room and they were supposed to be hooked up to synthesizers that could change their sounds, but that part was broken. she wanted to sit in there for an hour and just beat on the drums.

take your time, i'll wait

we finally sat down to go through pooka's vast inventory of toys to make room for new things. pooka was actually a big help and allowed us to throw out 2 bags full of tchotchkes and donate a bag and a half of other toys. at one point, i had asked her to help me lift something and she said, "on the count of three," but i said, "hold on, i'm not ready." she replies, "ok, on the count of 74."
she has quite the sense of humor.

my day with the pump

today i went to an all day crop at church. i left bug and pooka home with kisu and i took all my gear, along with my new best friend: the breast pump.

it actually worked out well. one of the bathrooms has a sitting area, so i was quite comfortable, and it was very nice to be out with other women scrapbooking. i even felt like i had accomplished something at the end of the day, finishing 4 layouts and gathering materials for a 5th.

mother-daughter dinner

tonight was the mother-daughter dinner at church. pooka and i went to this a couple years ago and had a good time. i thought it would be especially important this year with her feeling that i spend too much time with buggy and not enough with her.

dinner was ok, although pooka ate only chicken and bread, as well as the chocolate chip cookie for dessert. the entertainment was the silver strings dulcimer society, which was an unusual choice. being me, i was very grateful for the opportunity to introduce pooka to some music and instruments she was unlikely to encounter any other time. the music was nice and pooka did enjoy it, but it ran waaay too long. when it finally ended, though, it was worth the wait because the musicians let us look at and even play the instruments. of course, pooka was all over that.

i had a woman approach me after dinner and ask about pooka's diagnosis. she shared that her son had leukemia at the age of 24 and was successfully treated. this is quite a blessing considering that it happened in the 70's when treatments were not as succesful as they are today. several people commented on pooka and her hair and boisterous personality. she enchants everyone she meets. what an amazing child.