....I tricked him into liking school again

 Today is election day, so Nixon had no school. After yesterday's behavior fiasco, I think we both needed a good day together. Today was that day.

    We spent a couple hours at the mall. Our first stop was the restroom....because, pee. Then we wondered around and eventually stopped for food. The service was incredibly slow and apparently 2 servers didn't want our table. I mean, one came to get our drink order, then didn't return with them. Another server came over to get our food order and asked about our drinks...which we'd already ordered. Server A brought over drinks and that was the last we saw her. Server B brought over creamers for my coffee. We waited well over 30 minutes for our food. The entire time, Nixon was great! He quietly played some games on the sheet they gave them, we played some together and he sipped on his milkshake.
   We finally got our food and Nixon was pretty well spent by that point. He ate a little and within 15 minutes of our food arriving, we were done and gone. We took most of the food to go.

    Our next stop was the book store.
    Can I just say I love that my kid enjoys books?! I'm not sure what I'd do without books. And I love that Nixon is catching on to that. (His class has a Pizza Hut reward for reading books. It's 5 books for the month, read to or the kids reading, and they earn a free personal pan pizza. He got the Monday and already we've read 3 books! We're huge book-nerds, all of us!)
   Nixon chose 4 books, one was a puzzle boxed set. He'll earn one book each day for the rest of this week. I love that he wants to earn books.....as rewards!

    On the drive home from the mall, Nixon says he wants to "quit school". Most parents would tell a child that's not allowed.
    I'm not most parents.
    We talked about it. I started by asking him what he didn't like (recess ends, not enough fun stuff, boring work). That wasn't working it was just reminding him of what he didn't like.
    I changed tactics.
    I asked him different questions about what he likes about school. But I disguised it as things he "didn't hate". "Art, computer lab, gym, music" were the top list of things he came up with. I then asked him if he'd miss those things, since he was quitting school and all. He says "Well, maybe I should go back. (new student) is just starting to like class, I can help make her laugh."
    That's my boy!

Socially awkward mom....was not me today!

   I had a job interview this morning. I'm not saying I got the job, because I won't hear about it for at least a week, but I am saying I went in and was totally myself. Starting with being totally directionally challenged at the beginning. I'm the type of person who says "left" but points right, which in my head means I meant right. My finger is always correct while my mouth tends to lie. I'd give you some deep meaning to that, but the truth is I'm just odd and it drives Mac nuts!
   I was told to go "right", but I saw no finger so I was looking for a left. DOH!
   After that, I was at ease, candid and honest. The interview went well, I was interviewed by 2 people one who is a mother herself and also had a 5 year employment gap in her resume. It's comforting to know I'm not alone.

   After the interview, I went home and changed then it was time to pick up Nixon from school. Nixon had another great day at school, making it 2 weeks in a row of all good reports!

    I called Mac and asked if he was okay with me taking Nixon to Chuck E Cheese for a surprise. He was and after Nixon and I stopped home a bit, we were off.
    Nixon was so surprised when we arrived! He was super happy too!

    Shortly after Nixon had tokens in hand, he ran over to this one pirate game that is a shooter game. He loves it! As it turned out there was another kid Nixon's age that loves the game as well. They played together as a team for over half an hour! At one point his mom came over and we started talking. Turns out the kids are a month apart and there was a chance they'd be going to the same elementary school! She's new to the area and didn't know anyone else with a child going to the same school.
    Before they left, we exchanged phone numbers with vague promises for a future play date for the boys.

   For once, just once, I didn't fail at basic human interactions!

   Too bad the rest of the day fell to shit after that awesome high point.....

Hmmm....how to explain an eviction to a 4-year-old because of a scene he witnessed in our neighborhood?

   There are some things I'd like to not have to discuss with Nixon. Things that he shouldn't even have to worry about at his young age, not things that I find uncomfortable to talk about because the reality is there's very little I won't talk about with Nixon when asked.

    Today, Nixon and I had a breakfast date planned. We got up, dressed and were ready to go...I mean, in the car leaving, when I saw something that didn't look right happening in our subdivision. I normally go out of my way to avoid getting involved in matters that don't concern my, unless someone or an animal is being harmed. Today that was not the case, but I got involved none-the-less.
   I saw 3 vehicles, including a truck with a large trailer filled with what looked like trash, taking items from the vehicles and placing on a large and growing pile just about 5 yards from my backyard and less than 3 feet from an immediate neighbors yard. I know our home owners association is a stickler for a neat and tidy appearance of the neighborhood and this was an eye sore to me, I can't imagine what they'd say if any of the board members saw it.
   Even though I had Nixon in the car with me, I stopped. I told Nixon I was only going to be a couple minutes and I went to find out what the frack was going on, because to me it looked like a bunch of random people dumping shit in the subdivision.

    I'll skip the boring part: It turns out it was an eviction, served by the sheriff's department. According to Maryland law, personal property of an eviction notice served may be left on the curb for up to 48 hours. Or something like that. I actually called the county police because while there was a sheriff's car, I saw no sheriff in the area of the trash being piled/dumped. I took Nixon with me for that, because I wasn't comfortable leaving him and walking more than the 5 feet I'd walked to inquire about the dumping. Nixon says, quite loudly, "Hey you guys are making a big mess! You need to clean it up, right now!", as we were walking to find the sheriff.

    The end result of all this? The following conversation with Nixon:
Nixon: Mommy, why were those people making a mess and leaving all that stuff on the ground?
me: Well....it seems the person who owned the house had to get the people living in the house to move out because they were not being good somehow.
Nixon: Like they were talking back?
me: *laughs* No, not like that. They were adult naughty. Something happened and the courts decided that they can't live there anymore.
Nixon: So they can't take their things?
me: No, it looks like they're being petty by making that mess. They seem to act like they're already naughty so their going to be even more naughty.
Nixon: Oh....I don't get it.
me: Okay, let's try this: If you were to hit me, and I sent you to your room for hitting me, would coloring your walls with crayon be a good idea or bad idea?
Nixon: Oh, I don't hit you Mommy. It makes you sad. And it's naughty.
me: I know, and I'm glad you know that. But would coloring on your walls be good?
Nixon: No. That'd be really naughty!
me: Okay, I'm glad you understand that baby. Those people are basically doing a grown up coloring on the walls by leaving that mess.
Nixon: That's not nice. It looks ugly!

    At breakfast, I made sure Nixon understood that we're not going to get forced out of the house. It seemed like something was bothering him and I was pretty sure he thought we might get evicted because he didn't fully understand. I told him that we are good people and we make sure we're paying out bills on-time so we don't have reason to lose our house.
    Once we talked about that, he was much better and we had a wonderful morning together.

There's this boy who STOLE my heart.....

....he calls me Mommy

So, here is it November already. Just 2 short weeks from Nixon's 3rd birthday and I can't keep myself from falling more in love with him. I mean, he took my breath away when I held him for the first time but now with his personality and attitude really shining, he's stunning to me!


Take today: This morning he says to me "Maybe, we'll go for a walk", which is Nixonese for "mom get off your ass and lets get some fresh air". The walk ended up a secret code for "buy me a new matchbox car" too! But I also bought us donuts for breakfast so it all worked out. I asked Nixon if he knew he wanted a car the whole time he was asking me to take him for a walk and he said "of course mommy". I'd have been annoyed, except when he put his car on the counter, the cashier put it in a bag just for Nixon and when she handed it back to him Nixon said to her "arigoto" (without a single prompting word or look from me). I was a proud, proud Mommy! When I called him back from the exit and asked him to stand next to me while I finished paying, and he did without a fight, I said "gracias mi amor" my little linguist looked up at me and said "da nada mommy". Oh, let the melting begin!!


After we walked home, had our (deliciously sinful) breakfast and chilled Nixon comes over to me and says "mommy maybe we go see aminals." I asked "you mean like go to the zoo?" Nixon says "well that's where the aminals are" very matter of factually. SO, off to the zoo we go (thank goddess for season passes!) 


Now, I got smart here. On the way in I laid out the ground rules. If Nixon was good and we walked the whole zoo THEN he could ride the train (that evil bane of my existence fucking ride!) and the merry-go-round before we left to go home. I made sure Nixon repeated the rules to me 5 times before we even saw the train. Amazingly enough, he was okay with it!
So we walked to zoo, saw the animals, fed the giraffes, rode the train and Nixon got to ride the giraffe on the merry-go-round all by himself (I was standing next to him though). We had a lovely time and I couldn't have had a better date with him if I tried! Almost 2 hours at the zoo and not one tantrum. I call that progress!


Lately, before bed I'll tell Nixon he's my favorite. He'll give me a smile, a high five and he'll say "mommy I happy". I hope he says that for many, many, many years to come.