Jambalaya

When I lived in the dorms my freshman year of college, there was one dish in particular that the cafeteria served that I greatly disliked. Their jambalaya was made of rice and whatever leftovers were on hand - everything but the kitchen sink. Hence the title for this entry. I'm serving up a heaping hodge podge put together with all the unrelated events of the last week or two. Hopefully it'll be more satisfying than the dreaded dish from the cancer, uh, I mean Cannon Center.

So we've been praying for some divine intervention - and it appears that we are getting it. C's behavior has been improving both at school and somewhat at home too. The week that she was staying until 1pm, she only had two infractions, one of which I thought was pretty minor (involving the boy wearing a brown and pink shirt). Last week she got to stay all day. She did have one incident where she said a pretty horrible thing, but the teacher said that she was immediately apologetic. This week she's doing full days again and so far so good.

C is really getting to be a good big sister. She wants to make M breakfast. (The other day I walked into the kitchen to find C heaping teaspoons of Ovaltine over her bowl of cereal.) She takes her around to introduce to her friends at school. And she offers to take M to the bathroom when she has to go away from home. She is also more willing to share and give up her turn than she used to be.

C's class took a field trip to the library about a week ago, and C and M stood in line hugging each other until they were ready for us to come in. And then when we were inside for story time, C had M sit on her lap. Eventually M got tired of the coddling and pushed her away, but it was sweet while it lasted.

With Halloween around the corner, and the girls always wanting me to scare them (until I do, and then they get mad), we decided to take them to a family friendly scare fest. Saturday evening we drove out to the boonies to go to the Halloween Trail. There was a small haunted castle, which was mostly just scary because of the strobe lights. C loved it, but M hated it (both times). The lighted trail was enjoyable because it was a dry, cool night - perfect for an evening stroll. There wasn't anything that scared the girls, although there were a few stops that they really enjoyed such as the suspension bridge, maze and a small little outbuilding that had music playing and the girls decided to have an impromptu dance party inside. Although I'm not certain that it was worth the $15 plus gas, it was different and a fun little diversion.

Last week I took the girls to the DMV to get ID cards for them for our upcoming trip. We walked right up to the counter, and I was pleased with how nice the employees were to the girls. I was even more happy with how good the girls were! We ran into a bit of a snafu with getting their pictures taken. Apparently the camera runs a constant feed, but it is rather finicky. The head has to be tilted just right, and the subject has to be perfectly still. Not an easy feat, especially for M. Although not the most flattering picture, C was done on the second take. I couldn't even tell you how many times they did M. I ended up holding her chin still until they reached four (out of the count to five), and my hand was still on the back of her head when they took the picture.

You know, I never thought that I'd get tired of hearing compliments about my kids, but I have to say that at our DMV stop, I'd had enough. The woman doing the photos just would not stop going on about how adorable M was. After a few times, she quickly threw in that both girls were cute, but then she'd rant and rave about M again. It was actually over the top offensive. C doesn't seem as bothered any more by these situations. After her picture was done, she went back to a chair where she was engrossed in "reading" the driver's manual in Spanish, so she probably didn't even hear most of the exchange.

The next day M was playing on a slide at the school playground after C's soccer game when two women that we didn't know stood talking about her hair. As they left they approached her to tell her what beautiful hair she has. I think she probably said thank you, but she quickly turned away to continue playing. I asked her shortly afterwards if she likes when people she doesn't know talks to her about her hair, to which she vehemently replied "No, I hate it!" I wonder sometimes if she might grow to resent all the attention that is heaped upon her by strangers. It'll be interesting to see.