Wednesdays it is...
So it seems like life is way to interesting to post on any other day than Wednesdays. At least that is the appearance from the past several postings! So...let's catch ya up!
Happenings with the Youngest - The King Cuteness, of course, is as cute as ever. He has begun the process of following a Mother's favorite commands, like "Put your toys in your toy box" or "Put your cup in your Diaper Bag". It is too cute...he loves to help and is extremely proud of himself when he accomplishes the task that he has been asked to do. Of course, his Mom also gets extremely proud when he does it too and lavishes the appropriate amount of "You are such a big helper" praise.
He is still picking up words at a fast clip, but at 20 months, many of his words are Toddler speak....you know..that language that only Mom's, Dads and Big Brub's understand (ie: "uck..uck" which means in Stewie Griffin Terms (for those of you who are familiar with Family Guy...."Can't you see I am stuck you stupid fool....what kind of parent are you to let me get into this predicament") Others of his words are clear as a bell....like Hockey Stick....okay...can't say "stuck" clearly...but can say Hockey Stick clearly. I guess it is priorities don'tcha know!
Last night he amazed his father and I when he and his Big were doing "numbers" in the back seat of the car...the King said Un, Two, to which the brother said "One Two", and King "I Smart" responded "fee four"...which made Mr. Oz and I look at each other in amazement. As they headed up the numeric scale, I laughed as little Repeater repeated every number up to ten, then responded "No" to the Prince's question of "Can you say Eleven?". Too cute, and too funny!
Happenings with the Oldest - Hockey..what else right? This past weekend Mr. Oz and the Prince headed over to So. Charleston WV to play a couple of games against a team that we crushed the last time we played them. Crushing was again the order of the day. The Prince ratcheted a couple of assists, and 2 minutes in penalties...the penalty being given to him and one of the So. Charleston players in an effort by the Ref to control the game. (It is that age-old homer penalty of "Two minutes for getting punched in the face and not responding"). Ah well...such is the life in hockey.
Arrived with the Prince at the bus stop yesterday morning to find the stop was overrun with 6 local police officers. I thought someone had been robbed or something...little did I know that they were there for the Prince. (Okay..get your heart out of your throat..they were there for his "protection")
I had made a "complaint" (not a very aggressive one...I was pretty lackadaisical about it) on Friday about two boys who were on the Prince's bus who, on Friday, had been tossing plastic bottles at the Prince and several other students, and when asked (in 12-13 year old kid "asking") to stop, told the Prince "Shut Up. You better not go over to Co** house anymore (a friend of the Prince's whom they live next to), or we will shoot you". Actually, the "we will shoot you" phrase wasn't what I was complaining about...it was the bottle-throwing, and harassment etc. But it seems, in today's day and age, the "we will shoot you" is a bigger deal than plastic pop bottles being used as a projectile on a moving school bus. The kids were questioned (all of 'em) on the bus, the "threat" (such that it was) was overheard by multiple children. When informed on Monday that they were "removed from the bus" pending further investigation, their Mom was quick (and from my understanding nasty) to tell the transportation department "My kids will be on that bus tomorrow and you can't stop them or me". Hmm...that seemed to indicate to the school transportation department that the problem could escalate at the bus stop the next morning; hence the notification to the local police department to meet the bus at the stop.
As an aside, I look at the Prince's bus driver this year, who is actually afraid of the children on her bus so fails to report anything, or if forced, makes excuses that "both kids were at fault", and think back to my sister, the bus driver. I oft think "what would Laurie have done" in this case. First off, these two boys were not scheduled ever to be on this bus...Laurie wouldn't have let 'em on in the first place, or if she did, would have booted them at the first sign of trouble. Then, I can see her looking in her overhead mirror, seeing ONE, count 'em ONE pop bottle flying through the air...pulling the bus off the side of the road, and stopping the situation at the word go. I can see her assigning seats very quickly with the crew that rides the Prince's bus, and I can see her, more than once, either pulling over and calling the police to settle the kids down, or pulling over and administering some "bus driver" style justice. How can I see her doing this? I DID see her do similar things...threats on her bus? The only threat-maker on any of her bus trips was her..and it was a threat that the kid was going to be dropped off at the police station if he or she didn't knock it off...
The Mom did not make good on her threat, and did not have the kids at the stop yesterday morning....although one of the officers did follow the bus all the way to the school to ensure that the children didn't enter the bus at another location. The prince told me last night that their school security officer seemed to be near him all day long, and he couldn't figure out why, until the end of the day when he put two and two together and came up with Five (math concept.....the second two was an especially large value of two.....geek joke for my West Coast Sis). For all of my complaints about the prince's school system, I did compliment them on a quick and strong response to a perceived threat....I appreciated their help!
Happenings with Mr. Oz - Mr. Oz has had some happenings this week as well. He wanted to test the job market out there, so sent out his resume to two companies. Both companies came back (fairly quickly!) with a request for interview, and one company..shortly thereafter, came back with a great offer! While the working hours at his current company were its best feature (6:45-3:15 p), there were also sources of frustration for him and his engineering crew... so when this offer came in, and it was "tasty", he decided to jump on it! So...effective two weeks from yesterday, Mr. Oz will be changing jobs! Yea for him! The new company that he is going to is work-life friendly, and gets him "right in line" with some of his strong engineering background (ie: Specialty Machinery design, conveyance design, etc.). He is very excited about the change, but also has the "first day of school, what if they don't like me" jitters. (Aside to my big brubah....he was also nervous about giving notice...as he had never given notice before....projects and therefore jobs always ended....you know the drill!)
Happenings with Mrs. Oz - Nothing too exciting. Hey..I have a new favorite cleaning appliance..does that count? My wonderful M-I-L gave me a Dirt Devil vac-n-mop for Xmas. It is a cordless vac, with an electronic swiffer-style mop head. This thing is COOOOOOOOL. I did my kitchen floor in 6 minutes from getting the pieces of gunk up that I would normally sweep...to mopping. The vac is pretty strong and can suck into the corners really well (getting those random pieces of whatever that seem to always reside in the corner)...and the mop is quick as a wink. I was impressed! I have soooo much lino in my house (kitchen, entry, game room, two and half baths) that this thing is truly a timesaver! To coin a phrase from Mickey Ds, "I'm Luvin It".
So..that is the Wednesday update....maybe I will get one off on Thursday and surprise y'all! (And maybe there will even be pictures, or a weather update!)
Happenings with the Youngest - The King Cuteness, of course, is as cute as ever. He has begun the process of following a Mother's favorite commands, like "Put your toys in your toy box" or "Put your cup in your Diaper Bag". It is too cute...he loves to help and is extremely proud of himself when he accomplishes the task that he has been asked to do. Of course, his Mom also gets extremely proud when he does it too and lavishes the appropriate amount of "You are such a big helper" praise.
He is still picking up words at a fast clip, but at 20 months, many of his words are Toddler speak....you know..that language that only Mom's, Dads and Big Brub's understand (ie: "uck..uck" which means in Stewie Griffin Terms (for those of you who are familiar with Family Guy...."Can't you see I am stuck you stupid fool....what kind of parent are you to let me get into this predicament") Others of his words are clear as a bell....like Hockey Stick....okay...can't say "stuck" clearly...but can say Hockey Stick clearly. I guess it is priorities don'tcha know!
Last night he amazed his father and I when he and his Big were doing "numbers" in the back seat of the car...the King said Un, Two, to which the brother said "One Two", and King "I Smart" responded "fee four"...which made Mr. Oz and I look at each other in amazement. As they headed up the numeric scale, I laughed as little Repeater repeated every number up to ten, then responded "No" to the Prince's question of "Can you say Eleven?". Too cute, and too funny!
Happenings with the Oldest - Hockey..what else right? This past weekend Mr. Oz and the Prince headed over to So. Charleston WV to play a couple of games against a team that we crushed the last time we played them. Crushing was again the order of the day. The Prince ratcheted a couple of assists, and 2 minutes in penalties...the penalty being given to him and one of the So. Charleston players in an effort by the Ref to control the game. (It is that age-old homer penalty of "Two minutes for getting punched in the face and not responding"). Ah well...such is the life in hockey.
Arrived with the Prince at the bus stop yesterday morning to find the stop was overrun with 6 local police officers. I thought someone had been robbed or something...little did I know that they were there for the Prince. (Okay..get your heart out of your throat..they were there for his "protection")
I had made a "complaint" (not a very aggressive one...I was pretty lackadaisical about it) on Friday about two boys who were on the Prince's bus who, on Friday, had been tossing plastic bottles at the Prince and several other students, and when asked (in 12-13 year old kid "asking") to stop, told the Prince "Shut Up. You better not go over to Co** house anymore (a friend of the Prince's whom they live next to), or we will shoot you". Actually, the "we will shoot you" phrase wasn't what I was complaining about...it was the bottle-throwing, and harassment etc. But it seems, in today's day and age, the "we will shoot you" is a bigger deal than plastic pop bottles being used as a projectile on a moving school bus. The kids were questioned (all of 'em) on the bus, the "threat" (such that it was) was overheard by multiple children. When informed on Monday that they were "removed from the bus" pending further investigation, their Mom was quick (and from my understanding nasty) to tell the transportation department "My kids will be on that bus tomorrow and you can't stop them or me". Hmm...that seemed to indicate to the school transportation department that the problem could escalate at the bus stop the next morning; hence the notification to the local police department to meet the bus at the stop.
As an aside, I look at the Prince's bus driver this year, who is actually afraid of the children on her bus so fails to report anything, or if forced, makes excuses that "both kids were at fault", and think back to my sister, the bus driver. I oft think "what would Laurie have done" in this case. First off, these two boys were not scheduled ever to be on this bus...Laurie wouldn't have let 'em on in the first place, or if she did, would have booted them at the first sign of trouble. Then, I can see her looking in her overhead mirror, seeing ONE, count 'em ONE pop bottle flying through the air...pulling the bus off the side of the road, and stopping the situation at the word go. I can see her assigning seats very quickly with the crew that rides the Prince's bus, and I can see her, more than once, either pulling over and calling the police to settle the kids down, or pulling over and administering some "bus driver" style justice. How can I see her doing this? I DID see her do similar things...threats on her bus? The only threat-maker on any of her bus trips was her..and it was a threat that the kid was going to be dropped off at the police station if he or she didn't knock it off...
The Mom did not make good on her threat, and did not have the kids at the stop yesterday morning....although one of the officers did follow the bus all the way to the school to ensure that the children didn't enter the bus at another location. The prince told me last night that their school security officer seemed to be near him all day long, and he couldn't figure out why, until the end of the day when he put two and two together and came up with Five (math concept.....the second two was an especially large value of two.....geek joke for my West Coast Sis). For all of my complaints about the prince's school system, I did compliment them on a quick and strong response to a perceived threat....I appreciated their help!
Happenings with Mr. Oz - Mr. Oz has had some happenings this week as well. He wanted to test the job market out there, so sent out his resume to two companies. Both companies came back (fairly quickly!) with a request for interview, and one company..shortly thereafter, came back with a great offer! While the working hours at his current company were its best feature (6:45-3:15 p), there were also sources of frustration for him and his engineering crew... so when this offer came in, and it was "tasty", he decided to jump on it! So...effective two weeks from yesterday, Mr. Oz will be changing jobs! Yea for him! The new company that he is going to is work-life friendly, and gets him "right in line" with some of his strong engineering background (ie: Specialty Machinery design, conveyance design, etc.). He is very excited about the change, but also has the "first day of school, what if they don't like me" jitters. (Aside to my big brubah....he was also nervous about giving notice...as he had never given notice before....projects and therefore jobs always ended....you know the drill!)
Happenings with Mrs. Oz - Nothing too exciting. Hey..I have a new favorite cleaning appliance..does that count? My wonderful M-I-L gave me a Dirt Devil vac-n-mop for Xmas. It is a cordless vac, with an electronic swiffer-style mop head. This thing is COOOOOOOOL. I did my kitchen floor in 6 minutes from getting the pieces of gunk up that I would normally sweep...to mopping. The vac is pretty strong and can suck into the corners really well (getting those random pieces of whatever that seem to always reside in the corner)...and the mop is quick as a wink. I was impressed! I have soooo much lino in my house (kitchen, entry, game room, two and half baths) that this thing is truly a timesaver! To coin a phrase from Mickey Ds, "I'm Luvin It".
So..that is the Wednesday update....maybe I will get one off on Thursday and surprise y'all! (And maybe there will even be pictures, or a weather update!)
Comments
The school buss driver needs to learn that if the year starts of by you being tough, it gets easier as the year goes on.
Glad the school system jumped through the appropriate hoops. I've noticed that they're kinda more touchy these days than they were when we were in school...