The verdict is in

Exorcism it is. Scheduled for Sunday at 11:00 a.m.

Actually I figured that a lot of this misbehavior is age related, and I thank the commentors (all 2 of you) for confirming that for me. I know, too, that the boy is testing his new environment and pushing the limits just because he needs to know how far he can go. He does this at home so why would preschool be any different? He is a "pleaser" though, and after much discussion at home, he promised to try really, really hard to do better. And, we have Dora stickers that we put on the calendar to indicate a good report from school. Stickers are the be all and end all. A good week of stickers = something fun to do on the weekend.

Now on to the How Do People See You? quiz. Yes, it's true. That is me to the bone. I have tried to be more spontaneous. Really I have! But then I have to think it through, and that kind of takes the spontaneity out of it. Heh. About the only thing I am spontaneous about is buying shoes. Even then sometimes I am remorseful. Sigh.

As for American Idol this week.....Lisa had to go. I don't have to apologize for that, because there are no Lisa fans out there. Face it - she was in the bottom 3 every week. Most of the performances sucked, but hers was the suckiest. And next week? Yeah, country western week. Pick Pickler's just giddy with the excitement of it all, y'all. Gee, I wonder which Faith Hill song she'll choose?

The evil quiz though? Apparently my score should have been higher than that. I only say that because MFH will toss comments around like, "Oh, Karen gets along with so-and-so really well because they're both mean as snakes."

WTF would he say if he didn't love me?

Mis(ter)behavin'

It appears that the boy is a bully.

You may recall from a few posts down that the boy started a new preschool on March 20, a mere week and a half ago. They send home reports almost daily, and the only mention of misbehavior is that of not listening very well. Not so yesterday. The teacher wanted to talk to mom. Uh oh. That can't be good.

There was a parent complaint of my angel baby spitting in a child's face. I have no idea where this came from. We are not spitters. And, there is some hitting and kicking of sand in the faces of other children. Never the children younger than him - just those the same age or older.

Now, at the old school there were no boys his age. Only girls, and two of them at that. You know how it is with two girls - not much room for a third wheel there. There were older boys, and I must admit watching with a look of horror on my face at the way they played together and treated each other. There were also younger children of both genders, and I think he spent a fair amount of time with this group. There were minor incidents, but not of the spitting and bullying nature. The previous daycare teacher was newly pregnant, and had no additional hired help, and I think the kids spent a fair amount of time without much structure, hence the not listening.

The boy will be 4 in April and is an only child. Could this behavior be age related? Do you think it is learned behavior from the boys at the old school? Do you think it is transitional -> old school to new school and he is jockeying for a position amongst the children?

Should we perform an exorcism?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Anyone????????

So tell me, MFH...

Slow and Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment. They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How Do People See You?

is this how you see me?

Smelly Cat

Do you have a list of topics to blog about and pull from it on the days you really have nothing to say? Well, I do. And today it is the smelly gym guy from last Thursday.

I love to work out. My gym is very busy right now, with the lovely spring snow and cold to the bone wind we've been having. So imagine how thrilled I was when I spotted an eliptical machine open, with the TV screen in front of it that telecasts the Ellen show. I heart her show a lot. She is hysterical. About two minutes into my workout I figured out why that particular machine was available.

The man next to me stunk. I mean reeked. I had to turn my head, that's how bad it was. I could not watch Ellen. My neck still hurts. I know I kept making faces and gagging noises. And I was holding my breath, you know, to avoid smelling him - no easy task, working out and holding your breath. The thing is, he wasn't even sweating that hard. But when he would stretch his arm out forward with the machine, DUDE. Bad smells.

MFH explained to me that he probably needed to wash his clothes. See, that must be the difference between men and women. It would never occur to me to wear smelly, sweat stained, soiled clothes more than once. Wear them, wash them.

MFH also tells me that I am easy to read. Apparently that is true, because right when I was about to pass out, Smelly Cat reduced the time left on his machine from 17 minutes to 5 minutes, and then he left. It was the longest 5 minutes of my life.

When I grow up, I wanna be a YES Man

Oh, you know who he is. He's the guy at work who always has his nose up the boss's ass. He's the patronizing jerk who is always, "Yes, Mr. Boss! I'll get right on it." or "Yes, Mr. Boss. Did you see what a great job I did?"

I've been at my job for almost 15 years. I have no need to blow my own horn. I was hired to do a job, and I guess if I didn't do it well, my boss would be the first to know and I wouldn't be here anymore.

At my workplace, the yes man is the general manager. Ooooh, a title. We all have one, and for the most part, they mean very little. I have to respect that fact that our GM is one of the most knowledgable guys in our industry - just ask him - but he looks like Barney Rubble. Yuck. With very bad breath.

A few months ago, our retail establishment was hit with a credit card scam. The caller used a TTY operator, ordered a large quantity of expensive items, and wanted them shipped overnight to Africa. He used a credit card to pay but wouldn't give the billing address, and emailed his name and the shipping address. It came to several thousand dollars, and H, the administrative asst who answered the call, ran the card. Then she became suspicious. The GM got involved at this point and told her to credit the card back and tell the customer we weren't able to help them. I guess the idea is that they use a stolen card to buy product, then sell the product online and make all this money. At this point, I called the bank that issued this particular card and gave them the information they needed to deal with the stolen credit card and try to find and prosecute the person using the card.

In this month's trade magazine for our industry, they did an article on this very transaction to alert others. In the article, Mr. GM literally handled every aspect of the deal. Good thing we have him around.

You know that 30% evil score in the post below? Anybody got a voodoo doll???????

Imagine my surprise!

You Are 30% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

As I was taking this quiz I was thinking, "Man am I ever boring! I'm gonna get a really low evil score." Heh.

I Wanna be Free.....

I LOVE me some open toed shoes! Winter comes early here in the Rockies, and I've been stuffing my feet into pointy toed shoes for, oh, 6 months now. Don't get me wrong - I love pointy toed shoes. But these dogs are tired. TIRED.

Springtime in the Rockies isn't happening as quickly as I'd like. We are still barely reaching 40 degrees in the heat of the day. Not quite warm enough to break out the open toes. Besides, in Montana the weather can change in a minute and I have no desire to be bare toed in the snow.

This brings me to the Weatherpixie on the sidebar. I'm new to the blogging world and I'm very intrigued with this pixie chick. Look at how stylish she is. Yesterday it was 34 degrees and cloudy/snowing, and there she stood in a short sleeved shirt, baring her stomach which deserves to be bare, and wearing open toed shoes. I mean, come on. 34 degrees is freakin' cold, pixie chick. Yeah, you look hot and all, but really.

I just wonder when I transformed from the girl baring my toes and stomach in 34 degree weather, to the lady who wonders how that pixie chick got out of the house without a coat on.

I HEART American Idol...

but I DO NOT heart Kellie Pickler. I do not heart her so much that the boy says "Pick Pickler" with the same snark that I do. MFH is tired of hearing how much I do not heart her. Now, I didn't heart Carrie Underwood either - but at least she could pull off some musical genre other than country. Pickler just can't disguise that twang. How about going on that other show to become a Nashville Star????? That would be right up her alley.

Most seasons I have already picked who I think will win by now. This season, not so. But I will say that Chris sang his own version of I Walk the Line last night, and he rocked. He's not too hard on the eyes, either.

But, he's no Bo. Sigh.

Loogey

Is that even a word?

I just want to know what would make a person suck green goo from the deepest recesses of his brain, lungs, stomach - where ever - and spit it where women in lovely heels might have to walk. WTF???????

Gross.

Too Cool for School

For a lot of reasons, the boy started a new preschool today. He had been at the old one for 2.5 years - basically since we brought him home and I went back to work full time. We've talked about him moving to a new school since early in January. By talked about it, I mean all of us - the boy, MFH, and me. In February we had one chosen and got on a waiting list. Today was the day.

Frankly, I was worried. He has only ever had one caregiver and has spent the majority of his life with this one group of kids. But the boy is full of self-confidence. And since we spend the majority of our social time at the local hockey arena, he is used to being around a lot of people and is constantly meeting new people. In spite of all that, he seems so small, and is still only three years old.

We walked in to school, the boy with his head held high. I was prepared to stay for awhile, thinking he would need some mommy time to adjust to this new situation. We met the new caregiver and one teacher. He was introduced to three of his classmates. Ten minutes later I left, feeling very proud of my son.

And I cried all the way to work.

Number 2

The first year the boy was home from Guatemala he had a lot of ear infections. Omoxycillin didn't work. Zithromax didn't work. We decided to treat the infections ourselves with a wonderful numbing oil for the ears and Tylenol. Get through the first 24-48 hours and his body will heal itself. It worked!

Fast forward two years without even one ear infection. I was called at work to come and get the boy at daycare. He had a 102 degree temperature. We were home for two days fighting a pretty high fever. I figured he had the flu. There was some vomiting and he was just generally lethargic. The third day my mom came to stay with him. I was at work a mere hour when she called. The boy had turned into the devil child. He wouldn't let her near him and was just chanting "my momma, my momma" over and over. Time for Urgent Care. Both ears are infected. Am I a good mom or what? I guess he was on so much Tylenol for his fever that he couldn't feel any pain in his ears. But his fever broke and I quit giving him Tylenol.

Enter Augmentin. For ten days. The only antibiotic that is effective on the boy. But it gives him diarrhea. Poor kid.

And I bet you thought this post was titled Number 2 because it was my second post to this blog. Am I clever, or what???? Come on, people, read me and comment. After all, I already know what I said here and apparently I'm my biggest fan thus far. That sucks.

In the beginning.....

I have been lurking in this blogging world for months now, fascinated by your lives. I have no idea what I am doing - but I just had to join in!!!!

So a little bit about me......I am a 40 something mom to an adorable almost 4 year old boy that we adopted from Guatemala. I work because I like to buy shoes. Oh, and there's that whole health insurance, retirement plan, college plan, food on the table, roof over your head issue as well. MFH spoils me rotten - and he's 8 years younger than me. We've been married 14 years.

We have a hockey player living with us, too. During hockey season these young, fit, handsome beyond belief boys playing Junior A hockey live with families in the community. This is our first year hosting a player and we do it because the boy LOVES hockey. MFH says there is nothing like having a 20 year old man with six pack abs and 5% body fat running around the house in a wife beater to make you very self-conscious of your masculinity. HA! I love it. MFH makes me laugh a lot.

Now that I am started and have broken the ice, we'll see if I actually attract any readers. Cause I would hate for me to be my only reader.