Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 64

"Geesh, Mom should have cleaned these glasses!"

Look how dirty those glasses are! What kind of mother let's her child out of the house not being able to see! Oh, well, maybe I should add that it's probably not dirt, they are probably dried tears. Yup. Last night was not an "eat sushi" kind of night (that is how she now refers to our best girl's only evenings!). You might recall that she lost all of her electronic privileges more than a week ago. This was due to a lack of responsibility which resulted in her forgetting homework, etc. The weekend was painful though we did sneak in a move (Back to the future) and she checked her email a few times. So this week was gonna be better, right? Unfortunately for her and I, it has not turned out that way. Monday, she remembered homework but chose not to write it into her responsibility (AKA homework) journal. I let that slide for the day, but insisted no privileges back until she learned how to write down her homework and check it before she left school. Tuesday morning. I wrote two thing in her responsibility journal: 1) Remember to get Vest (she forgot it Friday it Monday) 2) Turn in the t shirt envelope to Ms. Pineda. As I packed her lunch, I wrote a cute note on a sticky note (yes, I do that sometimes) and added the same two reminders to it. I am such a good mom-helper!


Fast forward to Tuesday night. I picked her up at school after band practice and asked her before she left school if she had all of her homework. I suggested she look at the responsibility hournal before we left the school so we could run up to the classroom if she forgot. 
Natalie: We don't have to do that as I already checked.
Me: Why don't I just check the journal real quick?
Natalie: Mon, I didn't write anything down as I only had one math home link to do.
Me: Hmmm... The agreement was that you write things down so you can establish a good habit. I see you have your vest, that's good. Let's go home.
So we got out homework at home and I relayed again the importance of writing the stuff down. Pretty sure she thought that Charlie Brown's teacher was talking! Then I opened the backpack, just to be sure nothing was left. And behold. I. Found. The. Damn. Envelope. Somehow, even with verbal and written reminders, she forgot to give to her teacher! Grrr... Just so you don't judge my next reaction too harshly, please be aware that up to this point I had used calm voice mom to explain that she could not have any electronic privileges back until she wrote in the responsibility journal. That brought some tears, but they seemed more for effect. Judge this: holding the undelivered envelope after I spent an hour being patient sort of sent me into a ... well, let's call it a spin.
Me: Why is this letter in here?
Natalie: I didn't have time to deliver it.
Me: In the whole day today, you didn't have 30 seconds to give to your teacher?
Natalie: Mom, I am really busy, no I didn't have time.
Me: Now I am pissed.
Yes, I used a curse word. And if you have been following my blog you know that cursing is currently causing  Natalie all sorts of conflicting emotions. The impact was immediate and she burst out in real crying. Which is not awesome to have in the background while you are cooking dinner. Needless to say, dinner was quiet. It was also bath night, which added to the wonderfulness of being a parent. Though she did decide to sleep in my bed anyway. She left a note on my side which said: "I feel ASHAMED. I am sorry." That didn't make me feel any better. I was just glad to get her in bed. Guess I should have cleaned those glasses off before I also went to bed. For Karma reasons. Really. Because at 1:23 a.m. Natalie woke me up
Natalie: Mom, I'm thirsty. 
Me: Well, go down and get some water.
Natalie: I can't.
Me: Why?
Natalie: Because I am afraid. Can you please go down and get me some?
So, the reality is that she is still 9. Still afraid of the dark. Still needs her mom to help with some things. Still not quite as responsible as she will be when she grows up. Still my daughter.
I should have cleaned the glasses.

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 63

"Ho-Hum"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 62

This week portraits. I need the extra pictures since the school pictures were not great. We ordered some, but I just never like them! Today she insisted on wearing a hat as she had a teeny scratch on her forehead from this weekend. Tom left for India this morning. Gone for two weeks. Sigh.

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 61

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! It is always weird when the kids get up and go to school on Thanksgiving. Tom arrived safely back from the US last night. So last night was a bit like Christmas for all of us. (I got my Xmas gift early, a new Kindle Fire, but more on that later!) I have mac&Cheese sitting on the counter waiting to go into oven to take to the 3/4 Grade Thanksgiving feast at School today. And we are headed to Bubba's BBQ for Thanksgiving Dinner tonight. Alas, no Filipino band this year pounding out our Thanksgiving favs.

"Loving"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 60

Started the day chasing cats. Natalie now refers to one of the cats (feral) as "ours". As in, "Hey, why is our cat over at the neighbors". Natalie has taken to encouraging the cats to vacate an area before I arrive so that I do not hiss at them. Oh, and look at the clever way in which the gardeners "fixed" one of the big trees that is falling over. They stuck a piece of bamboo on it and now the bamboo takes up a third of the walkway. No one will ever notice that or trip on that. Clever boys.

"Action"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 59

Much better day in this house! She's checking out the pet snail. Yes, pet snail. Who knew that snails pooped that much?

"Inquisitive"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 58

This is the shot of sad girl heading to school. She lost her Wii and computer privileges for a week. How, you ask? I opened her book bag this morning and found two math assignments that were supposed to be completed over the weekend. And found out she forgot to bring her math journal to class three times in the last two weeks (two of the days in a row). I am wondering how she has less sense of responsibility now than when we started school this year? 

"Sad"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 57

Book character week! Today was the character parade. Natalie went as Allie Finkle. I got a chance to to see it. I have a video but will have to see if I can get it uploaded.

"Allie Finkle in da' house!"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 56

Posting late! Very busy these last two days. Thursday was a field trip with the 4th Grade to the MagLev (fast train to airport). Of course I went! But it turned out to be a long, crappy day. Started when I got up. I left the bag with Natalie's and my snack and lunches at the house. Oops. Natalie had begged me to go but refused to sit with me on the bus. Our class left a man behind on the platform (well, he was actually a nine-year old boy and his mom was with him). The rest of the group had snack, Nat and I watched them eat. Natalie's blood sugar dropped (this is my diagnosis) and decided she couldn't go on without food (there was none). She trooped on, leaving a trail of sadness and guilt (mine) behind. When we got back to school, there was to be a picnic lunch, so I boogied home and got her lunch back to her classroom. But she wasn't there. Her friend said she was getting hot lunch in the cafeteria. I headed down and she said she was sorry, but she was totally starving and couldn't wait. So my boogie was for naught. Headed back to the house and got a call from, well, I will leave out the name to protect the innocent. After getting the life sucked out of me (protecting the innocent), I got in the car and headed to an electronics market to buy a monitor for my laptop. (all my Shanghai friends just went, "yeah, that sucks") Whew. When I got back, I decided that I was in control of how the rest of the day went. So, when Natalie got home, I told her we were going out for dinner to either Hooters or a good Sushi place. She picked Sushi. Good Choice. So we ate good sashimi, had a few laughs, and left our bad days in the rain outside the restaurant. Goodbye Thursday.

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 55

"Eyes"

Daily Picture Grade 4 - Day 54

Tom leaves for the US today. He was home for three days! Thought about taking a picture of Natalie with him, but she was running late. So just the shoe today. Oh, those are the fake Converse that we had to scour the Fake Market for. Apparently the factory is no longer shipping her size. Time to move back if fake Converse are no longer available! Side note: Because they are fake, we have so many better options for Converse fabrics. Tried to buy her some real Converse online and have Tom bring back, but the color/fabric she wanted was not available. I guess when you copy them, you can use whatever fabric/print available. 

"Shoe"

Shark Jump? Probably

The complete series of Law & Order was just released on DVD. $699.99 for a full set of Law Order DVD's??? Who in the heck would even CONSIDER paying that much? Maybe anyone living in China with access to cheap DVD's and technically savvy households using Torrents to keep abreast of current entertainment are the only people who think this is crazy. I think it is just another example of the old media consumption model being used without regards to the model which truly represent how the current generations consume media. While it is fabulous that there are some special tidbits only included in the set, does that outweigh the cost of $699.99? And if I did buy them, I would probably want to watch them on a tablet, so I would be left ripping the dvd's for days so that I could upload to my ipad through itunes for viewing. Puhlease... Please let me know if you added this item to your xmas wish list...

'Law & Order': A 104-Disc DVD Set & 10 Top 'Ripped From the Headlines' Eps | TheWrap TV:

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