The smoke alarm should try a little harder

I am sooo tired today. Greg was out of town this weekend, so it was just the girls here at home.

In the wee hours of the morning, the fire alarm decided to let me know that it was running low on batteries. It gave a beeeeeeeeeep and then a female electronic voice announced, "Low batteries!" It was as loud as if the fire alarm were going off in an actual fire but not nearly as insistent. I don't even know how many times it reminded me throughout the night. All I know is that I was jolted awake 10 times? 20 times? Every 20 minutes? Every 3 minutes? I have no idea.

If you were a fly on my wall, I think this is what you'd hear all night:

BEEEEP!!!! LOW BATTERIES!!!!
"What the----oh, the alarm---I gotta.... zzzzzzzz"

BEEEP!!!!! LOW BATTERIES!!!!
"Jesus Christ! Will that thing just shut up...zzzzzz"

BEEEEP!!!! LOW BATTERIES!!!!!
"I am just going to get up and change the....zzzzzzz"

BEEEEEP!!!!! LOW BATTERIES!!!!!
"I am seriously going to get up and smash that.......zzzzzzz"


All night long. It was like the night I spent in labor. I was ending up with bad dreams because of it--something about Tom Cruise chasing me through an airport. I'm really scared of Tom Cruise now. Finally at 7:30am I got my butt out of bed and changed the batteries. Ellie, of course, slept through the whole thing.

Now I feel like I didn't sleep a wink all night.

Ellie solves global warming

I was listening to the radio and they were talking about how many more polar bears scientists were seeing swimming in the open water. The woman being interviewed said she was "very concerned." Ellie asked why they were concerned about polar bears and I told her that the ice they normally live on has melted. Ellie said, "Well, can't they just get a plane, pick up the polar bears and fly them to where Santa lives?"

New sleeping quarters

Two nights ago, I got Ellie to bed and I kissed her goodnight and I headed out into the living room. After futzing around the house a bit, I turned on The Daily Show and watched it. After that, I got up and I headed to the bathroom only to find Ellie halfway into the hallway, curled up in our white, plastic laundry basket that she lined with a blanket and a pillow. She was still awake. Our conversation:

"Ellie, what are you doing? Are you going to sleep in the laundry basket?"

"Yeah, I just need another pillow and I'm too tired to get it."

"Are you sure you want to sleep in a basket? It can't be comfortable."

"I want to."

"Alright, but go to sleep. It's very late now."

So I got her a pillow and propped her up more and left her there and 10 minutes later she was asleep. We moved her to the bed soon after she fell asleep.

So now Ellie has gone through phases of sleeping on the floor, in a cardboard box, in a small dog carrier, and in a laundry basket. I think soon we'll find her asleep on the dining room table.

School!

It was the first day of school today. First grade!

Ellie got totally ready last night. I got her a backpack, the few school supplies her teacher requested, and a new outfit to wear to her first day. (She looks like a pink Catholic schoolgirl.) I washed her new clothes last night, Ellie took a bath, and she packed up her supplies and her lunch. Ellie told me to wake her up especially early so she would be at school early. She still had a hard time going to bed, but she was asleep around 8:30pm.

I woke her up at 6:15am. Uuuuuuuuuuuugggggghhhhhhhhh. It was dark. She was barely conscious. I was barely conscious. We veeeerrrryyyyy slowly got up and moving and she got dressed and had cereal and we didn't watch any TV, she just stretched out on the couch and rested. Then we brushed hair and teeth, checked our supplies, kissed Daddy goodbye and skeedaddled.

The traffic going into the school was horrific and that's the way it's going to be every day. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhhhh. Ellie was very excited to be at school, saying "First grade! First grade!" We parked at the far end of the lot and walked over to class.

Of course, we aren't supposed to drop off at the classroom and of course no one told us that. You're supposed to bring the kids to the playground to line up and walk single file into class. Lots of parents were confused, so we had to mill around and tentatively follow each other, make our way through the crowd, etc. Thank goodness we had stopped at the room on sign-up day and met the teacher. If we hadn't done that, we wouldn't even have known what the teacher looked like or how to find her. In all the confusion, Ellie was getting pretty nervous. She was clutching my hand and didn't want me to leave.

The kids lined up, and we saw the mom of a boy who was in Ellie's kindergarten class. She volunteered in kindergarten and loves Ellie, so she was very happy that Ellie was in class with her son. He's a really nice kid, so I'm happy they're in class together, too. There were probably five other kids from Ellie's kindergarten class who are now in the first grade class. I thought it was a welcome relief to see the familiar faces, but Ellie was still quite nervous.

The kids all filed into class, single file, with Ellie clutching my hand. I told her that when we get to the door, she's going to have to let go of my hand. She clearly didn't want to, but when we got there she did. She dropped my hand, looked at me and said, "Bye mommy." I said bye and she filed in. No tears! I'm so proud. Actually, none of the kids in her class cried, and they were all very quiet and sat very nicely at their desks while we parents watched them all get seated. Some parents lingered on for a few minutes, but I left after I saw that Ellie had found her desk and sat down.

I met up with my buddies and we compared notes a bit and it turns out there were a few kids who cried and carried on in their classes. I hope that means Ellie will end up with a calm group of kids this year. We were so lucky last year, with a great teacher and a great group of kids, and I hope our luck continues!

So now I'm feeling a little down that school is starting again and Ellie will be gone all day. But today is my first day at school, too. I'm starting a sewing class today! My last sewing class was fun but it wasn't very structured. I'm hoping this new class will teach me a lot more techniques. I'm off!

Beady eyes and vicious little face

We have been engaged in an ongoing war with animals on our property, and here is the latest soldier from the Axis of Evil:













Can you even tell what it is?? Or does it look like some unidentified beastie from the depths of hell?

Twitter post

I have a fever of 100.5 and I'm cutting up my shoes with an exacto knife. I wonder if that's a good idea.

I like Rats

This is Greg as a guest blog.

We were driving in the car today and Ellie said to me,

"Daddy, can I tell you something weird?"

I said ok, and she stated,

"I think rats' faces are kind of cute!"