Slacker Mom

Or, rather Slacker Blogger. I've been so remiss--I haven't posted about our fabulous Halloween party or about our actual Halloween night. Suffice it to say, a great time was had by all. And there are loads of pictures in my Picasa album, which you can link to from the right-hand side of this page.

Funny that Halloween wasn't even a week ago. It seems like so much time has passed. This might be because I crammed eight hours of work into the weekend. Plus Virtus Training. I'm not sure I understand how my parents put up with 13 years of Catholic school (though neither of them was very active in my school so maybe that's how!). I had to spend 2.5 hours at school on Saturday morning doing sexual predator training. And, well, I won't be saying anything you aren't already thinking if I go ahead and point out that it's the PRIESTS who seem to have a problem in this area. In the end, I guess the training was useful, but I could have boiled it down to an hour, I think. Afterward, I tried to have a conversation with Ella about privacy etc. and really felt I was getting somewhere with her until she made some comment about how she isn't allowed to touch things made of glass. Which isn't even true.

On top of this, Ella recently had Red Ribbon Week at school, which teaches drug and alcohol awareness. Came home on Monday completely worried that Dean and I will drink too much wine and get sick. Came home Wednesday and announced that drugs are bad for you, then said "But Mommy.... YOU do drugs." How do you explain to a three-year-old the difference between crack and advil? At this point, I e-mailed her teacher to let her know that Ella was confused. They talked more on Friday, and I think it helped.

I should note that I really do LOVE Ella's teacher. And preschool has been absolutely wonderful for Ella. The Catholic part of the school thing, though....

In other news, Ella and Sadie have a new game they call "working." Which--I don't know. Is that healthy?

And I'm supposed to go to some meeting at school tonight (after working most of the weekend). I totally want to skip it but think I might get "in trouble." Good grief.

Other than that, these kids are growing up quickly. Sadie is illustrating a wit that seems advanced for her age. The other day, I asked her if she loves her momma. She looked at me, smiled, and said "No. Just Daddy." Then she demanded that I cry. Later, she did the same thing to Ella, who did not think it was funny.

Meanwhile, Ella had her second swimming lesson yesterday and actually swam ALONE for a brief period. Surely that's not a normal rate of learning!? She is also definitely doing some pre-reading. She mentioned she had taken a classmate's drawing home accidentally, then told me (from memory) what letters were on it, then correctly deduced to whom it belonged. I thought she'd had some help from Kate or Dean, but neither of them knew what I was talking about. So....?