Looking for Mary Jane

No, not that kind of Mary Jane. To be more specific, I should say we were looking for Mary Janes.

It's May, so that means about seven weeks of school are left. Clare's shoes, unfortunately, weren't in this school year for the long haul.

I'd seen it coming. The scuff marks had turned sections of Clare's black shoes into more of a grey-brown-black mess. The soles were worn. Seams were beginning to loosen and the velcro on the straps had worn pretty thin. I would polish them as best as possible so they'd look a little less embarrassing. Although they'd look okay in the morning after a shine, in the afternoon the same scrappy shoes would come home.

Then last Thursday it happened. Clare tore her shoe off and the velcro tore apart. The piece that's supposed to stick to the shoe wasn't stuck to the shoe anymore—it was stuck to the other side of the velcro.

I thought about stapling the velcro back where it should be, but that would have looked too trashy. I though about whether some gaff tape or duct tape might hold it together somehow. It's the universal remedy isn't it? And it definitely would have added some personality to the shoe. I wasn't sure duct tape was the right tool for the job though. And Clare's Catholic school probably woudn't have appreciated my inventiveness. I did try glue and it held well enough for Clare to wear the shoes on Friday. I obviously didn't use the right glue though, because the velcro tore right off again when she pulled the shoe off Friday afternoon.

So, we spent the weekend looking for Catholic school uniform black Mary Janes. There is an official uniform store about thirty miles away, but they're hours are short on the weekends (except at the beginning of the school year) and they wanted fifty bucks for the shoes. I thought we could do better.

Unfortunately, doing better wasn't easy. Finding black dress shoes when most stores are stocking sandals, sneakers and flip flops was a chore. And's what with the high heels on play shoes for girls who haven't even reached size one yet?!

Yesterday—after ordering a pair online that'll take a few days to get here—we finally found some acceptable shoes in a store and bought those too. (I'd say we found them in the last place we looked, but that's kind of a foolish saying—obviously it was the last place we looked because we stopped looking after we found them.)

So Clare is wearing September-new shoes to school today. And, when the online order comes in, she'll have two pairs unless we can return those. At least she'll already have shoes for next year. We just have to keep her feet from growing over the summer. Any ideas how we can do that?

Friday Talent Round-Up

Her Name is Mud

Based on the looks of Clare’s muddy boots, some of you have wondered (well it was only Zoe’s Dad who wondered in a comment, but I know you were all thinking it) what the rest of Clare looked like after her mudbath. I’d tell you, but I never actually got a chance to see her with the muddy clothes on. Realizing that I might be upset, muddy Clare got undressed in the garage and then snuck into the house in her underwear. She runs around the house like that a lot, so that really wasn’t a clue for me. What was a clue was the trail of mud leading from the kitchen door to a corner of the laundry room where Clare had hid her clothes.

Cute age, isn’t it? She’s clever enough to think of hiding the clothes, but doesn’t quite have the capacity to realize she should have hid them better and wiped up the mud. As soon as she figures out she has to cover her all tracks we’ll be in trouble.

Four Letter Words

In first grade, Clare has spelling tests every week. For the first few months, most of the words were pretty simple and mostly three letters. We’re getting into four and five letter words now though and I’m realizing how messed up a language English is.

I have a love-hate relationship with spelling. As I admitted a few weeks ago, I was a great speller in grade school, won a spelling bee, and went on to the state competition where I lost after a few rounds. I hated the experience so much that the following year I purposefully lost at school so I wouldn’t have to go on. That’s probably when my spelling started going dounhill…or is that downhill? By the time I seriously started studying Spanish in college, my ability to spell in English was lost. In Spanish, almost every consonant and vowel makes a single sound. (Except in the Caribbean where some Spanish speakers drop half the letters but speak so fast you can’t even tell they’re doing it.)

Clare and I study her spelling words every week and, when she’s writing something at home, she’s still asking me how to spell most of the words.

“How do you spell ‘dumb,’” she asked one day.

“Great,” I thought to myself. “I have to explain the silent ‘b.’”

I spelled the word and, as expected, she questioned why the ‘b’ was there. Not being much of an orthographist…or is it orthografist…I told her it just was and to accept it.

“Daddy,” she said then, “I know how to spell ‘from.’ F-R-O-M.”

“That’s great,” I said.

“’From’ and ‘dumb’ rhyme, but they’re not spelled the same,” she noticed. “How do you spell ‘gum?’” she asked next.

“This isn’t headed in a good direction,” I thought, but I spelled ‘gum’ for her.

“How do you spell ‘hum?’” came next.

“This one at least follows the same rule, if there is a rule,” I thought. (I’m always thinking, can you tell?) I spelled ‘hum’ for her.

“I know how to spell ‘come,’” she told me. “C-U-M.”

That’s when I stopped thinking. I corrected the spelling and left it at that.

Who’s the sadist who came up with this language. I need some rum…or is it rumb?

He Can Walk for Miles and Miles and…

Dan at All That Comes With It will be walking seventy-eight miles this summer over a period of six days. He isn’t doing it because he’s athletic like that or because he’s a lunatic (but he may be doing it in spite of being a lunatic). Three years ago, friends of Dan lost their three year old son Joseph when he died suddenly in his sleep of streptococcal pneumonia. Dan’s walk is a tribute to Joseph and his family and an effort to raise funds for the Joseph Salmon Trust which “supports parents who have lost a child by providing financial assistance to those who need it most. This may be to help with funeral costs or to allow the self-employed a break from work while they come to terms with their loss.”

Dan says it all much better than I can. Go take a look at his post, plan to tear up, and support the fund if you can.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Give the kids some extra hugs.

Friday Talent Round-Up

January Thaw

It hit sixty degrees this week in New England. Thanks to the temperature and rain, most of our snow is melted. But that’s not really the kind of thaw I’m talking about. It’s more a thaw in my mood. I wouldn’t offically diagnose it seasonal depression, but this time of year usually brings me down. I’m fine through December because of the excitement of the holidays, but by January I’m ready for winter to end and the clocks to spring ahead again. It’s the cold (it was zero a couple mornings last week…that’s about -18 Celsius for the foreigners). It’s the dark mornings at the bus stop at 7 a.m. and the dark afternoons that begin around 5 p.m., even though the days are getting a bit longer already. It’s the dirty snow, the messy roads, the bare trees, the heavy coats and shoes that carry mud into the house. The extra weight from too many holiday dinners, Christmas cookies, and gingerbread and egg nog lattes probably doesn’t help either. In short, I hate January and February. Anyone else like this?

There are a couple highlights to look forward to though. With Clare now in first grade, we’re not taking a vacation this winter, but spring break is less than three months away. I’ve also found a couple other job prospects. My hopes aren’t up about the really good one I wanted, but I suppose it’s possible. Clare’s Mom’s big birthday is less than two weeks away too. I’m still trying to think of something really good (but not too expensive) to do with her and Clare. Any ideas? But be careful, she reads the blog.

The School Strikes Again

Clare’s school has ticked me off again. She came home with a note last night saying that her class is supposed to wear navy blue today for “Skittles Day.” There was no explanation of what Skittles Day is, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a navy blue Skittle anyway. The problem is that Miss Pink and Purple had nothing navy blue to wear—for a while she wouldn’t even wear jeans because they were a boy color. So, yesterday afternoon we took off to find her something. Ever try finding a girl’s shirt in navy blue? And a long sleeve one that’s in the stores in January but can also be worn in January? There was nothing. I tried to trick her into a getting a plain blue shirt that I found in the boys’ section, but she wouldn’t have it. In the end, we went with a short-sleeve blue polo with a long-sleeve white shirt under it. She looks pretty good in it, but can’t schools give more than eighteen hours notice when kids are supposed to wear something special? Is every school like this or just ours?

Orange You Glad…

Clare’s still taking karate and tonight she earns her orange belt. Orange will be her retirement color though. She’s giving up the gi for a tutu. In a couple weeks she’s starting ballet lessons. With the strictness at the school she’ll be going to, there are sure to be some fun blog posts about that. Stay tuned.

D + 1

According to Chris at Rude Cactus and Allisa at Life’s Little Adventures, yesterday was Official Delurker Day. I’m one day off, but if someone can make up Delurker Day then I can make up Delurker Weekend. What the heck, let’s just call it the start of Delurker Week for anyone who doesn’t get to this post until next week.

C’mon, post a comment. It’s a new year, isn’t it time to try new things? And if you delurk and have a blog I’ll make a promise. Comment on my blog and I’ll comment on yours. Who can pass up a deal like that?

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Friday Talent Round-Up

Dress Down?

I’ve mentioned before that Clare goes to Catholic school. And Catholic school means uniforms. Every few weeks, though, the school gets a dress down day when kids can wear (within limits of course) anything they like.

This year’s first dress down day was this week. But, instead of jeans or (forgive me for even suggesting it) something that she already has, Clare wore a new dress. So Clare’s Mom and I don’t look like complete wimps who spoil our child, I can clarify that we were buying Clare a new dress for fall anyway—Clare later decided that she had to wear it for dress down day. And we did make her wear shoes she already had—but that’s mostly because we didn’t find any we liked in her size last weekend that were appropriate for a first grader. Why all the heels, fur and glitter on shoes that aren’t even a size one yet?

Clare has also informed me that, since she wore this dress to for dress “down” day once, she can’t wear it to school again. Okay, Princess Diana. But the next dress down outfit has to come out of the closet.

It’s a good thing she wears a uniform most of the year.

Talk Like a Pirate Month?

Clare’s Mom and I have learned—through a few blogs and wonderful store marketing—that it’s never too early to buy a Halloween costume. So we took care of that last weekend too.

This year, for the first time since she was two, Clare isn’t going to be a princess. (Probably because she thinks she’s a princess the other 364 days of the year anyway.) This year, we’ll have a young pirate girl around here. She’s even got a black wig because pirates, apparently, don’t have blond hair. I guess none of us here could be pirates…though I could pass as pirate Redbeard…provided it’s not all growing in gray already.

Clare has tried on the costume a few times already. No pictures yet though. You’ll have to keep reading about six more weeks if you want to see those.

Speaking of Halloween

Just in case you need to get rid of any monsters at your house, I’ve got a website for you.

A few months ago, I posted about monsters in our house. They’ve since left for good (I hope), but someone recently found that post and sent me a link for anti-monster spray.

I’m not getting anything for pushing the product, I just thought it was kind of cool. There’s even a cute game at the site…you know, in case you need anything to keep you at the computer for a few extra minutes.

Have a great weekend, everyone.