Gold stars

Cardin has been full of quick wit and comebacks lately. It is, by far, one of my favorite things about her. She is so honest and candid in her questions and feedback. Often times, her interpretation of a slang saying is so literal that it makes you nearly pee yourself trying to explain to her what you actually meant.

Take for example our conversation this past week over her bathroom usage. She announces she has peed and awaits a response and my presence…

Tick….
Tick….
Tick….

In an effort to teach her to be more self sufficient and prepare her for her days in kindergarten and beyond we have been forcing her to be more independent and proactive. Listen lady, this is harder than it seems. Natural instinct takes over to run to your kid when they call, so stopping my own desire to do everything for her has taken a lot of self control. And so, I shout from the other room “would you like a medal or a gold star? Make sure you wash your hands and flush the toilet. ”

Eventually, she prances out of the bathroom, dressed and hands washed; without further adieu.

Later that evening, while I run a bath, Cardin decides its time for another go around of “let’s test mommy”. She gets on the toilet and instead of announcing that she is finished, she looks at me and, in her most serious voice, is all “where is my gold star?”

This is the glory of what I get to hear everyday. I love that she is smart enough to understand and remember my sarcasm.

Musket mayhem

Over the weekend the town we live in celebrated their bicentennial birthday. They hosted a parade and concerts along with a great display of fireworks.

Local businesses and groups were asked to march in the parade. The preschool that Cardin attends held a sign up sheet for attendees and we joined along in the marching fun.

We decked out her wagon with flags and garland. Listen lady, we had the cadalliac of wagons.

Things were going great until we actually started marching. Since there were so many groups marching we lined up in sections and then each section joined the main drag. We had no visibility to the group behind us until we got on the main road. Wherein we saw the fatal blow; the group directly behind us was firing muskets.

Cardin has never been a fan of loud noises; fireworks, thunder, horns…they make her skittish. And by skittish I mean, the kid is typically climbing me like a monkey and sounds like a hysterical banchi being eaten by an alligator.

So you can imagine the blood curdling scream that emanated from her mouth after the first musket round went off. Bawling tears ensued and I ended up carrying her and dragging the souped up wagon a good portion of the parade; belching screams erupting after each musket explosion.

By the end of the parade, tensions had eased a little and she had become moe accustomed to the gunfire. Though she refused to leave the wagon, believing it would ensure her ultimate safety. Maybe the wagon has magic just like bedsheets?

Later in the evening we attended the fireworks spectacle and we were actually able to sit and enjoy the show without Cardin freaking out over the explosions. She even said the fireworks were fun. WHAT??!! Where is my kid??She didn’t cover her ears, cry, or huddle in one of our laps. It seems she needed to walk through a war zone to desensitize herself.

Baby Ironman

We will be entering Rory into a baby ironman contest in August. We have been in training since early January when he started pulling Cardin around on the back of his walker. We’ve had him on a full protein and carb diet since.

The boy is all bull and a future linebacker in the making. This power wheel car weighs a good 15 pounds. Add to that Cardin’s nearly 40 pounds and the kid is pushing almost three times his weight.

httpv://youtu.be/k33xii9RXxA

Learning curve

Summer is in full swing, which means I try and spend the majority of mg time running from one air conditioned location to another. Though Cardin won’t be going on to kindergarten next year we’ve been spending a great deal of time working with her on writing and math skills.

Some of this is due to the stringent New York State core standards I know she will be faced with come her enrollment into kindergarten, but much is due to her own inquisitive nature and desire to learn. When she finished preschool, I picked up a kindergarten workbook for her to do over the summer and she’s blown through it.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, she displays many of the same stubborn traits of her very strong willed mother when it comes to comprehension. Just yesterday we were working on writing her letters and she is insistent that certain letters are formed in a particular way. For example, the letter ‘b’ does not swoop to the right, you draw the circle to the left. I think I tried to explain,in 300 different ways, that this would make the letter ‘d’ instead. Listen lady, clearly I’m lying to you.

Somedays her focus and concentration is like hardened steel and we can do 30 pages in her workbook. Other days we are hard pressed to get through the directions on one page without her nat sized attention span being drawn to a spec of dust.

I’m blown away by how quickly she picks up new challenges and understand directions from the workbook. I often times don’t even need to read the directions for her to understand the concepts on the page. She can already think critically and do simple math in her head. (Not her fingers, so she is like 5 paces ahead of mom).

Her receptive knowledge has always been exceptionally high, even when she was evaluated for speech therapy services. The kid knew everything, she just refused to talk. Now she’s smart and talks back!

Promo Nation

I’ve been fairly absent online lately, but now that things have been “officially” announced, it’s time to explain.

About 6 weeks ago, the VP of  software development for our division approached me and asked if I’d be interested in accepting a new position; a promotion to QA Team Lead on another product within our company. I’ve been with the company 8 years now and I’ve been working towards a team lead position for many years now.

This is a significant career move for me, but comes with a number of new responsibilities and challenges. This position is on a management track so it includes managing a small team of offshore QA engineers. In the coming weeks I’ll also be traveling to Illinois and leaving the kids for the first time. Listen Lady, it’s the biggest supermom conundrum; work life balance.

I’m grateful for the opportunity. Humbled for the trust that the management has seen in me. I officially began the position on June 3, and I’ve begun transitioning to the new role. Right now I’m attempting to juggle both my new postion and old, which is where most of my time has been spent lately.

It’s been a long road to get here, filled with many long nights and early mornings, but well worth the wait. A very special thanks to my hubby, for always having my back and supporting me in this new venture