Fumbling on Friday

:: Chew on This
Chew Toys for Kids. My 5yr old is orally gifted. ‘Orally gifted’ is another way of saying, the kid puts everything in his mouth. We keep waiting for him to outgrow this sucking and chewing phase, though we’ve stop holding our breath.

His habit came to a head earlier this month, when his teacher found a rubber band in his mouth. ‘Danger. Danger. Danger Will Robinson.’ (How sad it is that many readers won’t have a clue about the “Will Robinson” reference. My age is ever apparent. I digress.)

After the rubber band incident, I made it my mission to find a chew toy my 5yr old could use to (safely) satisfy his addiction. And, I found it! Though, when I showed him a picture of the chew toy, he balked. Telling me he didn’t want it. My response? “Too bad, so sad.” I placed an order.

The order arrived. And, this just in …. he loves it! He is looking forward to taking his chew toys to school. We’ve been given the approval by his teacher and the school director. Apparently, the school was growing tired of losing rubber bands.

Curious as to what I purchased? Chewable Jewels, created by a dentist.

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Socks and blankets; fingers, too.
Anything is good, when you like to chew.

Paper and pencils, sleeves and string.
Clearly, chewing is his thing.

From hand to mouth, so it goes.
When it stops, no one knows.

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:: When I’ll get to it becomes I forgot it.
The boys wanted to light the candle in the pumpkin one morning. With the fast pace of week day mornings, I wasn’t sure lighting a candle was the best idea. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I would remember the candle was lit and blow it out before leaving the house. I told myself I’d get to it. Well, while driving the boys to school, I remembered I forgot to blow out the candle in the pumpkin. What I was going to do became what I forgot to do.

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Joe had a field trip for school. I drove him to the location of the field trip, and I was told to pick him up at 12:30. I had a busy day, with work deadlines prior to Joe’s pick up time. I was confident I’d remember to pick up my own child, though I thought about setting the timer as a reminder. Later, the phone rang at 12:45. “Ms. Joe’s Mom? Are you coming to get Joe?”

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Today I am helping Joe’s class with their Halloween Party. The party starts at 10:30. Due to the number of tasks I needed to tackle prior to going to his school, I set a timer to remind me about the party. I suspect the timer will go off soon, as the morning is passing quickly. In fact, a quick glance at my watch and “Crap! It’s 10:45! What happened to the time?! Crap! I forgot to click “OK” on the timer!”

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Trying to remember each item on the list.
Tying little strings around both of your wrists.

And during every task, you remember something new –
Though it was not included on the original ‘to do’.

With each and every side track, the time passes by.
You put your hand to your head and let out a small sigh.

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:: What I Know
This past weekend, I went out of town and spent time with a girlfriend of mine. We had a great time together doing a whole bunch of nothing. Well, included in the whole bunch of nothing was two great games of Scrabble, one in which I kicked her butt and one in which she kicked my butt. (Though her kicking was not nearly as hard as my kicking.)

In addition to enjoying the time together, I learned a few things about myself. First, because I am in a constant state of juggling during my normal day to day life, it takes me at least 12hrs to get to a point where I can start a conversation and follow that conversation to completion. What I mean by that is when I first started chatting with my girlfriend, I started one conversation, quickly turning a corner to another conversation, only to start a third conversation, simultaneously forgetting the original conversation. Fortunately, by Noon on day two, I was able to complete one conversation before moving to another conversation.

Second, I learned I am a walking ‘What not to wear’. This is not news to me. I believe I’ve admitted the fact in the Blogosphere before today. However, this past weekend, I had actually saw one of my ‘What not to wear’ outfits, and I shuddered. Funny thing about full length mirrors – you get to see what you look like. Fear not, with my friend’s blessing, I still went out in public looking perfectly horrid. I fit in quite well with others, though. I mean, we were just going to Wal-Mart. And, no, I have no plans of altering my ‘what not to wear’ style; instead, I’ll avoid full length mirrors. No need to give myself nightmares.

Finally, this weekend I learned that my friend and I both use the word “Really” when sarcastically questioning the judgment (or lack thereof) of someone’s decision making process. My friend and I said ‘really’ frequently. Seriously. Really. We said it all the time. It is an addiction. A really annoying addiction. Here are some examples:

“Really? You don’t think I know about how people say ‘Really‘? Really?”

“Really, Joe? You thought it would be OK to cut Charlie’s hair? Really?”

“Really Lenore?! You’re wearing that out in public? Really?!”

“Really? You think it is cute when your kid passes gas and says ‘I farted’? Really?!”

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What? I’m sarcastic?
You have a problem with that?
Oh Really? Really?!

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Be good to yourself, and be kind to others. No. Really.