The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

When I was teaching, I will candidly admit that amongst ourselves, teachers would mutter this phrase after meeting certain parents. Cute little Holly seems a little clueless after explaining the directions to her five times? Ah yes, then this must be her mom, who after 2 notes home, an email, and parent conference, still just doesn't get it. Miss Polly Perfection? Yup, her mom's the room mom and school board president. And yes, I know that it just isn't fair to apply such wide sweeping generalizations...so here's a little payback...today I got a big ol' dose of my own medicine!

Like a lot of things in parenting, Dave and I have found ourselves in unfamiliar territory. Today I had to take Amanda in for the first phase of an assessment for ADD (and before you get your panties all up in a bunch, this is without the hyperactivity! Trying to talk to my parents about this, they kept getting it confused with ADHD and would try and convice us we were delusional).
As I sat in the room with the other parents listening to the doctor describe the symptoms of ADD and ADHD I found myself nodding my head. Yup, sounds like Amanda. Huh, kind of sounds like me too...Hmmm. When the doctor said that these were medical issues and were often genetic and asked if there was a family history, I wondered...

So, I left the assessment and I sat in the waiting room waiting for Amanda's portion of the appointment to be over. As I hunted around in my purse for my car keys, pushing aside wrappers and receipts, unopened and half eaten snacks, pens, multiple chapsticks, mini flashlights, gloves, and a slew of random debris an ADD symptom flashed in front of me: "their backpacks often look as though a bomb went off in them"

Yes, people...THE APPLE DOESN'T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE...and this tree don't lie.

Comic Relief

The last couple of days have been a little stressful and sad. So this evening, when Dave threatened, as usual, to clean up the girls' room for them, I didn't think much of it. He went through the theatrics of going out to the garage to get The Black Trash Bag, as incentive for them to pick up their toys. Alison must have decided to do something about it. A few minutes later I heard banging on the garage door and saw Alison hightailing it out of the kitchen. She had locked Dave out of the house. I'm guessing it would be inappropriate for me to laugh?

The Circle of Life

Yesterday my grandma passed away. She was like a second mother to me and we were always very close. Naturally, I was very, very sad. When I picked Alison up from preschool, I explained to her that Avo Mai (great-grandma) had died and gone to heaven and that mommy was really sad about it. Of course, Alison had a very pragmatic view on the whole situation. She turned to me and said, "EVERYONE dies. One day, you will die and I will be sad... And then, I will die and my kids will be sad." Crap, she hasn't even seen The Lion King movie...since when has she subscribed to the whole circle of life philosophy? My kids constantly amaze me with how inherently smart they are. They must have gotten it from my grandma.