Our Non-Decision Maker

A general rule of thumb when raising kids is "Give them choices whenever you can".  In our house, that is NOT a rule any longer.  Why?  Because we have a kiddo who is RIDDLED with anxiety about every little choice.  When she goes through transitions, it gets worse, like right now when school is starting.  She thinks through the minute details of every choice, and it's overwhelming to her to think about choosing just one.  Example from this morning:

"Rory, what do you want for breakfast? We have waffles, pancakes, and toast."

"Do we have bagels?"

"No, we finished them yesterday."

"I like waffles but sometimes they don't fill me up... I like pancakes but we only have one left... Maybe I could put peanut butter on them...Or have some fruit with it...Do you know what Dad packed in my lunch?...Mom, I just don't KNOW!!!"

Mommy, realizing the need to simplify ... "OK, I'll make it easier. I'm making you toast.  I'm putting peanut butter on one piece. You let me know what you want on the second piece, butter or peanut butter."

She eats the piece with peanut butter, then spends 5 minutes agonizing over the decision about the other piece of toast.  I can't even remember what she ended up choosing, but it's sad/maddening to see how distraught she gets.  The combination of being bright (can see all the angles and details of every option) and being Jewish (high-anxiety kid) is NOT doing this kid any favors!!! :)

I won't even tell you about the 30 minutes it took for her to choose what to wear! OY!

Crazy Daisies

Rory was a Daisy this year.  Heading into 2nd grade, they crossed over from Daisies to Brownies, and this was Ro's crossing ceremony.  Here's her troop, in all their crazies. (Ro is in the back row with no blue smock on.)

War

We don't watch the news in our house.  Why?  A couple reasons:

1) We don't have cable, so for the four years we've been in this house, we haven't watched live TV.  (Some day I'll do a separate post just about the rare exceptions that involved the Bar Mitzvah TV.)

2) When Ro was two-ish, we realized it was tricky to have the news on because it's not kid-friendly content.

Still, through learning about history and hearing some NPR here and there, Rory has been introduced to the concept of war.  She's been to the History Museum and read some books about the Civil War.  This cause nightmares for days, BTW.  Tonight for some reason she was thinking about war and was filled with questions on a ride on 40/64 home from Mimi and Poppy's house.  Just a taste of her questions is below.  Very smart questions, but infused with the knowledge base of a 7 year old.  Thought I'd share.

• Why does anyone sign up for that? Don't they know they could DIE?
• How do you start a war?
• Is it like Tag, but where everyone is it?
• Does anyone ever shoot someone on their own team by accident?
• How do you know who is on which team?  Do they wear different uniforms like we do when we make teams at school?
• If someone gets hurt, who pays their hospital bills?
• Do you get to go home if you get hurt?
• Plus, lots of questions about what people's jobs are in the military, what Grandpa did, etc.

 These conversations are the ones you aren't ever really prepared for as a parent.

Duet with Grandma

For those of you who have asked me if Rory gets her singing abilities from my side of the family ... proof that the answer is NO.

Footloose

Here is Rory's end of camp performance after Footloose camp.  So happy!

Birthday Summary

I had a great day with Jason and Rory, celebrating my 42nd birthday.  My summary:

We worked together.
We played together.
We ate together.
We laughed together.
We snuggled together.

What else do you need?

We had a yummy pancake breakfast, then Jas & Ro helped me wash the deck (I'm getting ready to paint it).  After that sweaty work, we headed to Maryland Heights Aquaport for an afternoon of awesome water slide fun!!  Then home for an Indian food dinner with Mimi, Poppy and our friends, Scott and Gloria.  Lovely, lovely day!

The Sound(s) of Music

I've created a monster.

I love The Sound of Music for the classic it is.  Julie Andrews is lovely as always. The Captain is breathtaking.  The children are well-rehearsed and the music is divine.  So, of course, I thought it was time to introduce our musical-loving child to it.

A week later, I'm now telling you that if I hear "I am 16 going on 17..." one more time, I'm going to throw something!!  Rory keeps stopping and demonstrating lines from the movie, expressions from the kids faces, and oh, the songs!!  Want an idea of how bad it's gotten??  Her Poppy would do anything for her, but I never imagined this:

Oh, and did I mention that Jason has NEVER seen The Sound of Music????

Scenes From a Virus

Under the Bus

We spent a lovely evening tonight having dinner on the deck.  Jason just got back from a work trip to Atlanta in time for dinner. [Note, his "work" trip also involved tickets to the NCAA Championship Game last night!]  We had pasta, fresh homemade bread, and salad.  The dog laid out there with us.  After dinner Rory stood up from her seat and promptly (and with the grace of her mother) fell on the deck and started SCREAMING.  Daddy tended nicely to her bleeding knee, calmed her, and had her laughing before the band-aid was on.  Then I look at the table where the iPad was sitting and noticed pasta sauce on the iPad.

Me:  "Who did this, may I ask??"

Jason:  "It's pasta sauce. That was all Rory."

Rory (still on the ground looking at her band-aid):  "Don't throw me under the bus like that in front of everyone!"

Jason was speechless and I just laughed.  I mean, she was quick!  And she used it perfectly!

And of course, like every other time she says something we've never heard her say before ...

Us: "Where did you hear that?"

Rory:  "A book of course!"

Is it too late to un-teach her to read??

SNIPPETS FROM MY LAST DAY

Lunch with my team on the South 40, with not one, but TWO vegan burger choices!

Retelling the story of falling on the ice when I was interviewing at Wash U and finding mocha in my hair still an hour later!

Bequeathing gifts    

Very special earrings

"I'm a hot mess!"

Handing over the candy machine

Tulips when I got home

Wrapping up last things right as it was time to leave

Lots of Facebook love

Giving the team an Eliot bell!

Ringing the F*** out of that bell as I left at 3:00!

Sharing rainbow Sharpies with someone who loves them as much as I do


Hearing that the therapy-chocolate was busted out in my office as soon as aI left

One last cup of coffee from the DUC

An awesome apron

Plans for a massage soon

Knowing I will see them all again soon, as they are too dear to my heart to be away from for too long!

My Little Texter

Rory has just started to send me a text from Jason's phone once in a while.  In December, I was at my work's Holiday Party setting up and sent Jason a text asking when he and Rory would be coming to the party.  Here's what I got back.  Best. Text. Ever.

Last Day of Being Six

Sadly, Rory is spending her last day of being six years old at home with Mommy.  No going to school today because she is feeling sick.  Something in her eyes just doesn't look right, and she's had a sore throat off and on for a few days.  Tomorrow is her birthday so I hope she is going to be better soon.  She's having a few friends over on Saturday night to help her celebrate, so our goal is to be germ-free very, very soon!! We have celebrating to do!

An Open Letter to Rory About Your Gene Pool

This is you sleeping on Christmas Eve. You have severely dry hands, so we decided to put Vaseline on your hands and cover them with socks for bedtime. Oh the memories.... (Picture on of those swirly hazes you see in movies when they do a memory flashback)

I remember laying on the floor as my mom coated my feet with Vaseline before sliding old bags from loaves of Wonder Bread over each foot and then covering THOSE with socks to try to keep my uber-dry feet from cracking during the winter.

Sorry about the gene pool, Ro.

By the way, Daddy says that if you break out in a cold sweat when you walk into gym class and see either the tumbling mats or the climbing rope out, he apologizes, too.

Sounds from a growth spurt

1:30pm: snack at school

3:30pm: snack in car

4:15pm: snack during haircut

5:45pm, in car going home for already-prepared dinner: "Can we stop at Starbucks for a snack? I'm dying of starvation here! Have a heart!!"

Three Wise Men. Or people. Or things.

From Rory, in the car yesterday:

"Mommy, there are three people who know EVERYTHING:

1. Santa
2. God
3. Computers (and ipads and stuff)"

First Bad Haircut

Rory LOVES her short hair!  It's been an intolerably hot summer, and she's been thrilled to not worry about her hair.  She's a low-maintenance kiddo, so it's been great for her in that regard.  When she got it cut, she got 10 inches cut off!  Here are before and afters:

Then, two things happened.  First, Rory lost a tooth.  Second, we went back a week later to get it "reshaped" and a little shorter.  And those two things resulted in this unfortunate resemblance:



I guess everyone has to have a bad haircut sometime.  And, like I, of all people know, it will grow back!!

Roller Skating - Timeless

As an adult, I now understand that every roller skating rink in America is exactly the same.  They were all built when I was a wee child, and not a thing has been updated in them since.  They all have concrete walls, broken-down bathrooms, and ugly carpet that is completely worn down by 35 years of roller skates on them.  They all play the same games on the floor (YMCA, Hokey Pokey, limbo).  And they all have the same 4 choices of snack at the snack bar.  

And yet, my kid, like me years ago, has the BEST time there!  These pictures aren't great because to cover the dingy aging of the place they now have a glow-in-the-dark theme.  We went skating with our friends Rebecca, Vivian and Scarlet this weekend.  All three kids worked hard at improving their skating.  Ro was rewarded by getting to sit on a pillow at home at dinner (and take some Tylenol) after two hard falls straight on her bum.  

Next time we get to see Daddy on skates!!

Best summer pictures

Is there anything that says "summer!" like swimsuits and watermelon??

Father's Day

It wasn't an over-the-top Father's Day celebration this year, but Jason seemed to enjoy it.  He was woken up by Rory calling him on his cell phone (after I snuck the phone right next to him on the bed) requesting his presence in the dining room.  The bedroom door was covered by a Happy Father's Day sign.  In the dining room, Rory and I were waiting with fresh-baked (vegan) blueberry scones, tea and peaches.  And of course, no fancy breakfast is complete without hats:

In the afternoon Jason went out and when he returned, we greeted him with our new t-shirts on, which of course we wore the rest of the day:

Happy Father's Day, Jason!

Summer Camp

Rory is in summer camp this summer for the first time.  Some weeks she is at camp at the JCC where she gets to swim, do arts & crafts, sports, etc.  Some weeks she is at COCA, doing creative arts like singing and dancing.  This week she was at COCA and her class put together a performance during the first 4 days, then did a performance the last day.  Below is video of the performance.  In my eagerness to applaud at the end of the first number, I hit Stop on my camera, so to continue the show you'll have to click the second video.  I was very impressed with what they did with the kids in just a few days!  Rory loved it so much that she cried off and on for about an hour afterward because the class was over. I'm telling you, these theatrical types are her people!

A Spoonful of COCA, part 1 (2 min)

A Spoonful of COCA, part 2 (7 min)

Maybe baby, I'll have yooo-u

Here's the latest Lustberg... Maybe!  Yes, her name is Maybe.

She's a 2 year old rescue, a spaniel/beagle mix.  We couldn't have found a better dog!  She is incredibly mellow (bordering on sedated), loves to sit on laps and be petted, and hasn't tried to kill Sydney yet.  The two of them just seem to be taking shifts being in the main part of the house.

Rory couldn't be more in love with Maybe!  She's been asking for a dog for about a year and we kept telling her that we had to wait until Sydney died.  Last week I took Syd to the vet for her annual check-up and asked about the prospect of Sydney co-existing with a dog.  The vet seemed optimistic, so we started to do our research.

We found this little doggie online via the St. Louis Senior Dog Rescue Project.  Great organization!  The dogs stay with foster families, so when you get one, you can talk with someone who has seen the dog in a home environment and talk about its personality.

We took Rory to the pet store where the foster families were bringing the dogs for adoption.  We told her we were coming "to pet some dogs that need love".  She had a great time.  And finally, when our Maybe arrived, we took her out for a walk and petted her.  Rory asked if these dogs were for sale and we said we thought they were.  After a while she asked if we could buy this dog and we said "Yes".  She thought we were kidding!  She could NOT have been more excited when she realized we weren't!

Rory says "Come on over and see our new dog!"

Rory's drawing of Maybe.

Such a sweetie!

I have to say, as a parent, this is one of the most rewarding things we've done.  Seeing Rory so happy with this dog, after wanting one for so long, is really gratifying.

Last day of Kindergarten

I'm sure we'll post more pictures later, but here is a quick shot of us having lunch with Rory today at the park for her last day of kindergarten!

Spring Recital

Today was Rory's second piano and voice recital.  She's been taking lessons for a little less than a year, and we were really proud of how she did!  

Enjoy!

Sinking of the Titanic, Homemade

Jason and I recorded this on April 15, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  This is apparently what Jason and I do when Rory isn't around to entertain us.  She was at a playdate, and we had extra pancake batter.  Enjoy!

New Karaoke Machine

Wow.
Thanks Lustberg extended family.

This is Rory and Kendall performing using the new karaoke machine Rory got for her birthday.  I think she figured out what to do with it pretty quickly.

Rory and Kendall

A History of Birthdays

Rory's First Birthday

2nd birthday

 

3rd birthday

Around her 4th birthday, on a class field trip...

 

Around her 5th...

And this morning, on Number Six!

Crafty Weekend

Its that time of our year again... The month of celebrations! Within about 10 days in February, we celebrate Rory's birthday, Jason's birthday, Jason's Dad's birthday, Valentines day, and Jason's grandfather's birthday. WHEW!
In preparation, we have had a weekend of craft projects. I'm prey proud of how they turned out, so I thought I'd share some pictures. included are Rory's envelopes that we made for her birthday invitations, bookmark Valentines for school, and shhhh...Rory's birthday presents!
Sorry that a couple of these are sideways.  I can't get them to turn around right now.

What everyone is getting for gifts

Once again this holiday season, Rory has brainstormed a list of gifts to get people.  Not to ruin the surprise, but here is this year's list, in Rory's exact words:

• Ella - one of our ornaments
• Iska - a new hat
• Mimi & Poppy - the DVD of Aladdin or a cooking pan
• Maira (who cleans our house) - a new broom
• Kendall - me to live with her all the time!
• Kinsey - a Slinky
• Jeff and Theresa - a new couch
• Grandma and Grandpa - soda.  Or me!
• Snow White - an apple (of course, it's not going to be poisoned)
• Sydney (our cat) - a dog to chase her
• Grandma & Papa - some new pillows
• Lynn - a relaxation CD 
• Miss Toybes (her teacher) - a pot holder
• Scott & Gloria (our neighbors) - a new dog

And when I asked Rory what she would want, she said she would like a baby duckling, like in the story The Ugly Duckling, so it would grow up to be beautiful.  I had to explain that I don't think St. Louis laws allow fowl as pets.

Click here to see Rory's gift list from 2009.

Harry Potter World