Five Things to teach your child

There are so many things, as parents, we want our kids to know before they start school. I’ve stressed over whether or not AH knows her colors, letters, numbers, etc.

But now, being a teacher, I have a new perspective.

So I’ve come up with a list of things I want AH to know before she starts kindergarten.

Top 5 Things to teach your child before starting kindergarten:

5. Boogers are not an afternoon snack. Or breakfast. Or any other time of day snack. For the most part AH doesn’t but I have caught her on occasion taste testing. (Gag.)

4. Wash your hands…don’t wipe them on your clothes. This is obvious in terms of keeping germ spreading to a minimum. But what I didn’t think of, as a parent, is how much gets on kids’ hands while at school. Paint, glue, markers, etc. All can get on clothes and ruin them if hands are wiped instead of washed.

3. Private parts are private. This is self explanatory. However, if your kid is like mine and prefers to hang out in his/her undies all day, you might want to ensure your child knows that home is the only place they can lounge like that.

2. How to tie their own shoes. If I had a quarter for every time I tied shoelaces during day, I might double my salary. This is going to be a challenge for AH. Mainly because most of her shoes don’t even have laces.

And the number one thing to teach your child before they go to kindergarten…
*drum roll*

1. Bathroom Do’s & Don’ts – For instance: Don’t potty anywhere but the toilet (aka don’t write your name on the wall with urine). Do pull your pants up before exiting the bathroom (see number 3). And Do wipe yourself. If you don’t teach your child to take care of this on their own, trust me, they will ask teacher to do it for them. And when the teacher kindly declines, they may even ask to call you to come do it for them. True story.

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Brought to you by the letter F in the AtoZ Challenge.

Eggs are gone…finally

It’s now nearly a week since Easter and I’ve finally put away the plastic eggs(we reuse them) and tossed the rest of the candy (AH doesn’t need it and I can’t taste it anyway). However, she did ask me where it all went. I told her we had to put it all away to get ready for next year. I think she was under the impression that her Easter loot would be a permanent fixture in our home. She wanted to hide the eggs again.

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Brought I you by the letter E in the AtoZ Challenge.

Do you see what I see?

My husband, who makes duck calls, ordered a piece of wood for a customer’s call. When he opened it, I saw this…

Do you see it? On the lower half, there is a strong resemblance to our pug, Dash. Crazy.
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Letter D in the AtoZ Challenge

Cheetos and Coffee

When you’re an adult and you are set to have your tonsils out, you hear all sorts of things about what to expect.

Pain.
A liquid diet.
Minimum two weeks healing time.
Pain.
Lots of sleep.
Scabby throat (Yes, this. Gross!).
Pain.
Swelling.

Oh, did I mention pain?

My recovery was awful. I mean, BAD.
I was in lots of pain (understatement), starving and the pain meds made me nauseous. I can’t think of many things worse than having an incredible urge to puke while you have massive open wounds in your throat.

I expected to be completely miserable (Note: The level of actual pain far surpasses that of the rumored pain you hear about prior to surgery).

What I didn’t expect is to lose my sense of taste.

It’s not like its completely gone, but for the most part, everything tastes really different.
There is a faint lingering taste of metal in my mouth half the time and the majority of food flavors are dulled.

After about a month of this, I did what any normal person would do. I googled it. Because that’s where you go when you want to find the most reliable and accurate medical information (sarcasm). Apparently, this loss of taste is not unusual. There have been cases where people completely and permanently lose their sense of taste (what?!!). For the most part, the consensus of what I read is that it is temporary (whew.).

There are some foods that I can taste fully, like salad, coffee, butter & Cheetos. You know, the major food groups.

Hopefully, by Thanksgiving my taste buds will be back to normal. If not, I’ll be the one bringing my own meal of coffee and Cheetos to the family feast.
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Letter C for the AtoZ Challenge

B is for Baseball Season

Here in the coastal region of Texas, Spring is in full force.

The increasing temperatures.
The seasonal allergies.
The humidity.

But with all that, Spring time brings with it Baseball Season.

The smell of peanuts and popcorn.
The crack of a wooden bat against leather and cork.
The roar of the crowd.

And for the first time in a few years, Spring also means little league baseball. JD used to play, but its been a while, so I was excited when we signed AH up to play tee ball.

It’s adorable seeing all the little ones in their uniforms running around. AH is so tiny that a youth small jersey and a youth extra-extra small pair of pants still swallow her. Not to mention her cap that still hangs in her eyes after tightening the back all the way.

It’s fun to watch her face light up when she hits the ball off the tee. It’s even more fun to watch her (after being told, “Run! Run!”) dart forward, across the pitcher’s mound, and run directly to second base. Who needs first base anyway?

It’s going to be a very entertaining season.

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Happy blogging,
Adrian