friendly farm revisited

The kids and I are up in New Hampshire spending time relaxing with my parents. We are having a great time hanging out with Mimi and Papa, visiting with my grandmother and taking in the cool New England weather.

barber shop

Oh, here's a silly story: the other day I decided to cut the kids hair myself rather than pay $60 to go to the stupid kids' salon. It turned out to be well worth the ConAir scissors I bought at tarJ: their haircuts looked pretty good (read not terrible) and I was pleased with my thrifty handiness. But it must have given H the idea that one doesn't need to go to the hair dresser's to have their hair cut. The damn self reliant montessori philosphopy strikes again: H took it upon himself to cut his own hair. Well, weed wack it is more like it. The result: out came the clippers and H and Dad now have matching hair cuts (well except for that large chunk missing from his right forelock).

Rejection

We have been really blessed to have wonderful young women come stay with us and help us with the kids. Au-pairs have been a great childcare option for us and we are always sad when the time of year comes to say good-bye to our au pair. Fortunately, we still have several more months with K but we have recently finished interviewing for our next au pair (generally they only stay for a year at a time). After the latest round of interviewing, we 'matched' with a wonderfully energetic and kind young woman from Colombia. But in the interim, we received a few mismatches-- below is one of my favorites...


Dear Meg!
I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in your family. Your family is too big. I would like to take care of older children, your M is too small. I don't like dogs and I can't live with it. Thanks for your e-mail and I hope that you will find appropriate au-pair. Greetings form Poland.

Instigator

Shortly after putting H and E to bed the other night, I came back upstairs to start some laundry when I overheard:

H: No, E! No, we can't poop on the bed. Momma and Daddy make the rules and they say, 'You need to stay in bed. And no pooping or peeing on the bed.'
E: But why?
H: I don't know why they make the rules. But they do. And they said 'No pooping.' We don't get a star for getting out of bed and we don't get a star for pooping on the bed.

Has one reached a new low when one's heart swells with pride over the fact that after countless episodes of preschool humor, the message 'No pooping on the bed' has gotten through? Well at least to one of them...

Shady Business

E- thinkin' he's mighty cute in momma's sunglasses