Family Update

1. My Firm Christmas party today was…interesting. We had a seating chart, rather than picking our own seats. My Merry Band of Fools were thusly separated – each to his/her own table. That SUCKED. The second part that sucked? Being at a table where NO ONE TALKED. Oh sure, the two older gentleman talked a lot about the old days (I sat next to one of the guys whose name is on the letterhead), but for the most part it was a very quiet table. At one point L-Train saw me out of the corner of her eye and I flipped her the bird, which made her laugh. That was the highlight of my meal in general. It was a struggle to converse with the other people at my table (although Letterhead Man WAS quite charming). The rest of the party was interesting – we had some attorneys do “Dancing with the Lawyers” and four couples got up and did ballroom dancing. It was very entertaining. However, in the end the voting was done COMPLETELY wrong and the couple that SHOULD have won didn’t even make the final cut – the entire room was in mild shock when they were cut, since it was obvious by OUR raucous applause that they were the best of the four. Once that portion of the party was done I came back to work because Mr. BIL told me before we left for the party that he had a couple things he wanted to get out if I was willing to come back. So I’m at my desk, he walks in and says, “What are you doing here?” “Waiting for you so we can get _____ and _____ out the door.” “I was kidding – you didn’t have to come back! Go home!” So off I went.

2. Tonight is a surprise birthday party for L-Train. It starts in 6 minutes. Part of me wants to go, the other part wants to save the money I’d spend on liquor and enjoy the start of my four-day weekend with a quiet night at home. I’ll make my final decision once the kids go to bed in a few minutes.

3. I did, however, color my hair on the off-chance I went out tonight. It is a dark vibrant red again. The kids walked in the door and CootieGirl said, “WOW! MAMA! YOUR HAIR IS RED!” and CootieBoy said, “No, Mama, I want it yellow (read: blonde) again.” I told him he’d have to wait a couple months for that color to make a reappearance.

4. Speaking of CootieBoy, I haven’t talked about his potty training in a while, and that’s because the #1 portion of his training was done in a couple days – he now regularly goes #1 as soon as the need arises, with almost no accidents. However, his #2 training has been less than successful, with several pairs of underpants being thrown in the garbage after the thought of cleaning them brought horrified tears to the teacher’s eyes (and mine). We then realized he changed his entire digestive schedule SPECIFICALLY to avoid going potty. Three mornings in a row he’d wake up from a long night’s slumber with a mess in his pull-up. And three nights in a row JUST before we’d begin our nighttime routine (which would have included sitting on the potty), he’d go in his underpants. Tonight, it was obvious he had to go, so I escorted him to the bathroom, where he proceeded to throw a tantrum. I won the battle, and on the potty he sat. For at least 20-25 minutes he refused to cooperate, and finally Denis and I just walked away and left him there. Two minutes later I heard him say, “Daddy! I went poopy in the potty!” I walked in and sure enough – success. He was VERY pleased with himself. And apparently he has a shy bowel which needs absolutely privacy to do it’s thing. So be it – I don’t exactly enjoy sitting there waiting for magic to happen anyway.

5. Denis thinks he fixed our freezer. He tapped around in the innards and something inside “clicked”. So we are currently melting two ice packs to put in there to see if they re-freeze. If they do, we’re back in business.

6. Blondie Boss gave me a nice bath spa set for Christmas. Tonight I used everything and I must say I smell VERY nice and my skin is very smooth. Good stuff. At the party I got a Target giftcard (a happy coincidence considering I had just given away a giftcard here on Cootiehog just before I left for the party!) and Mr. BIL gave me some cash. So in that regard it was a good day.

7. Tomorrow is gymnastics for the kids – the last class of this session. Their next class will be the second week of January, when the new 8-week session begins. I may sign up CootieGirl for dance classes after that. A co-worker of mine owns a dance studio here in Fort Mill and I’m hoping she’ll give me a discount of some kind to make it worth our while.