Admin post

If you all agree to do the Nablopomo thang, here's our schedule from last year:

Ashley posts Sundays (confirmed)
Epiphany posts Mondays (confirmed)
Ginger posts Tuesdays (confirmed)
Joy posts Wednesdays (confirmed)
Karen posts Thursdays (confirmed)
Lisa posts Fridays
Paige posts Saturdays (confirmed)

Since the weekends are the hardest days, I'd propose that Marianne and Round the Bend (confirmed) help out Ashley and Paige. Frauke pairs up with Ginger for Tuesdays, which leaves Joy, Karen, Lisa and me on our own with four days apiece; and Karen with Turkey Day (confirmed)...

YO, YO, YO Mamas!

Are we doing NaBloPoMo again? If we divide it up like last year, it may work...what say you gals??

Playing NEAR Poop is For Amateurs!

I didn't want to have to share this tidbit with anyone, but once I saw the poop posts going up I figured I had better weigh in. There might be a WA&UE point in here somewhere but I believe respect for decency begins at home and besides, they had to deal with the aftermath.

We allowed this sweet little angel of a child (doesn't she look normal?) and her sister to hang out with their aunt and uncle a few weeks back while we did something grown-up, like run a series of errands that would take 2 full days if we brought them along. It was a beautiful late-summer/early autumn afternoon and Kate & Sarah were running around in my brother and sister-in-law's yard with the neighbor kids. As sometimes happens during these impromptu playdates, Kate ended up full-on nude. She's a bit of an exhibitionist. At some point during all the fun, Kate decided she needed to use the potty. I suppose, for my mind went blank and I stopped listening early into the telling of it, she decided she was having too much fun with all the kids to take the take the time to trek into the house and to the bathroom, so she opted to poop in the yard like the dogs do. I mean, like the dogs doo. It was all too convenient not even having undies to pull down.

I don't know what became of my child's own clothes, which I swear we went to the trouble of putting on her before abandoning her to the wilds of Third Avenue, but Kate came home wearing a dress belonging to one of her buddies whose mother was embarrassed enough for me in my absence to put it on her. I don't know what became of the poop, though I suspect it ended up scooped up in much the same fashion as the dogs'. I do know Kate's Aunt Jo Jo photographed it to submit into evidence or for posterity. For some reason, I can't seem to find the photo anywhere...

To bed without dinner...(Updated)

Brandon babysat the Weekids during the 2.5 hour long recital we attended for Allison this afternoon. He had strict, easy instructions. Feed them lunch (chicken nuggets from the freezer) and put them down for a nap. Then you are off the hook unless they wake up. I discovered later (through my mommy superpowers of deduction) that he instead let them watch a movie and then decided it was too late to feed them lunch because they were already supposed to be in bed. So he put them down unfed. Unfortunately my superpowers were working a bit slow and I didn't deduct this until about 7:00 tonight when we were fixing dinner.

It suddenly became apparent that the reason Clara was a complete basket case was because she was hungry.

So, I did what seemed logical and Brandon was forbidden to eat any dinner tonight so he could see what it felt like to go to bed hungry. So he promptly stomped downstairs and went to bed. At 7:00PM. So then I was a big old grump at dinner alternating between being angry at Brandon and feeling sorry for him. The Man keeps reminding me that no one ever died from missing a meal and The Weekids and Brandon will all be just fine.

Update: Brandon was up much earlier than usual this morning to eat some breakfast. The WME in me just couldn't resist asking him why he was so hungry. Grin. Object lesson declared a success.

Joining Joy in Playing Near Poop

Joy should lose a Worst Mama point for amusing her WeeKids with an actual backhoe at work in their own backyard. If she'd let her kids play in the raw sewage first, she might have taken the month...but no, she's left it open for the rest of us.

Driving the kids to practice this week, I tuned in sharply to their conversation when Ross said something about showing a friend the poop in the woods. "Excuse me, WHAT poop in the woods? Deer poop?"

"No, Mama, poop from people. There's a lot of it by a big pipe."

I try unsuccessfully to process this information gracefully. "Did you tell Daddy you found poop in the woods?"

"He wasn't home. You were home, but I knew you'd think it was gross so I didn't want to gross you out."

"So, instead, you showed another kid?"

"No, I showed all the kids! It was that gross!"

When we got back to the house, Chris traipsed into the woods with the kids. He reappeared a few minutes later, already on the phone with our township. An inspector appeared a few minutes after that and the kids dutifully took him into the woods so he could also see the pipe with poop. Maybe twenty minutes later, a township crew appeared with a collection tanker and the mess was quickly cleaned up. The manhole cover, found beside the open pipe, is going to be welded in place next week. So, after next Tuesday or so, my kids are going to have to go to someone else's yard (hopefully not Joy's!) to see raw sewage up close.