PTA Meetings, Errand Insanity, and A Frog

 1.) 100 year old buttonhole. 

What do you do when you're sewing your infant daughter's Halloween costume and you really don't want to sew a buttonhole using the machine? 

You break out the 97 year old sewing textbook you just happen to have for some reason and follow the instructions for hand sewing it. 

The buttonholes didn't turn out great, but hey...I'm learning. 

The same book also has tutorials for shaping dress collars. If there's ever an occasion to dress in 1920s period costume, I'm set. 

2.) PTA meeting 

I met a public school parenting milestone last night-- I attended a parent meeting! Chris and I loaded up the kids and we headed to the high school cafeteria. 

I don't think it technically counted as a PTA meeting since parents weren't leading or organizing anything (it was mostly just an informational meeting with district staff), but it was fun. 

It got fun when we were approached by a couple high school girls, "Mr. Hess, can we take your kids?" Chris looked up, "No, I like my kids!" Then the facilitator announced, "Our National Honor Society students will be providing free childcare for the meetings"

Yes, please, take them. 

So Little Boy and Little Girl got to go play for an hour with other kids while we listened to people talk about MAP testing, truancy law in Texas, and the Trunk or Treat event they're having at the end of the month. 

Then they pulled out some Lotería cards and played a few rounds, did a name drawing, and I ended up winning a pumpkin. 

Oh, South Texas. Gotta love it. 

I also got to meet my husband's new boss, visit a little with other parents, and just be around other adults for a bit. So...yeah. I unironically had a good time sitting still and not being tugged on for an hour or so (I still had Bitty Baby, but she's a pretty chill kid), getting to do some light chatting with other grown ups, and hearing about community stuff. 

Definitely planning on going again next month. With the childcare, it's darn near as nice as date night. 

3.) Last Moment Sanity Check

Wanna test your sanity? 

Suddenly realize that you have a substantial family obligation coming up and you have to go shopping and get audiobooks at the library before it happens...the next day. Start compiling a list both of what you have to buy and what you already have at the house while holding a baby and having a toddler repeatedly poke said baby and/or stand right in front of you  while blowing out spit bubbles and sucking them back in. Loudly. 

Then grab said toddler and baby, stuff them in your minivan, and set off. First stop is the library, where toddler usually gets to pick out several books for the week. Not today though, you don't have time. This is supposed to be a sting operation. 

Ha. 

Pick out three audiobooks while both holding a baby and calculating the palatability of each possibility both for your children and your auditory sensitive husband.  Repeatedly replace the audiobooks your "helpful" toddler keeps pulling out while juggling the ones you actually plan on getting and the baby. Deal with a fit while heading to the checkout because you won't get the My Little Pony comic book. 

Next, the grocery store. Deal with a fit after going through the checkout line because the in-store complimentary game machine for kids isn't working. 

After that, the dollar store (a couple coloring books can go a long way). Deal with the toddler opening a bottle of glitter glue and putting a glob of it on a wooden car in the craft asile. 

Then, just to round it out, pull over into the Baptist church parking lot to nurse the baby because she's absolutely losing it in the backseat. Buckle her back into the car seat while she screams at you (despite nursing her fill....that kid really has a limit on car seat tolerance) and the toddler repeatedly announces "I'M THIRSTY." 

Then get home and deal with a grumpy baby, a toddler demanding immediate television access, and a bunch of groceries needing prompt placement in the fridge and freezer. 

If you can go through all that without losing your ever-loving mind, you're a sane, strong person and you get extra brownie points.

 And a bottle of wine. 

4.) A Note on Audiobooks

An audiobook for family travel has to be engaging but not scary, be complex enough that the adults can listen to it without losing brain cells but not so complex the kids will tune out, and have a narrator that has a decent grasp of voice acting. 

Luckily, it seems like audiobooks are popular ways for actors, even crazy talented, successful actors, to make some extra money. This is true of both picture books and novels (the day I found a copy of If You Give a Pig a Pancake read by David Hyde-Pierce was a good day), though we stick to novels for car trips. Others are read by the authors and said authors are surprisingly extremely adept storytellers, not just writers. 

Some actors phone it in to the point of misery (we found a copy of Frindle that was read by an actor that basically delivered the whole thing in a very boring  monotone. We didn't even get through the first chapter). Some authors really should just stick to writing (my eldest kiddo enjoys the Magic Treehouse books, and they are well written, but I can't get over Mary Pope Osborne's sickly- sweet kindergarten teacher voice).

 But there's enough good stuff on the library shelf that we keep trying new narrators and books. And I've found Little Boy will try new authors and genres if I introduce them via audiobook. 

5.) A Random Thought 

Anyone else notice that Seinfeld, How I met Your Mother, and Friends all have the exact same basic premise? 

A group of 20- 30 something friends live and work in New York City, hijinks ensue, etc, etc, etc. 

All of them have different writers and focuses, but they're all the same premise. I guess that's because a lot of TV is centered in New York and the writers were choosing to write about what they knew, but ...yeegads.

I guess if it makes money, you don't mess with it. 

6.) Postpartum NFP Really Stinks 

7.) Amphibian Real Estate

For some odd reason a frog has decided to live in our windows between the glass and the hurricane shutters. 

I don't really understand why. They don't seem to be a particularly damp place-- maybe that's just all the shade it could find? 

At any rate, it's been interesting looking out the window and seeing the little guy perched there. I wonder if there's a lot of bugs there for it to eat, or what else could be drawing a creature that usually lives in a puddle to a high and dry pane of glass. 

Mysteries abound. 

See the rest of this week's takes here.