*Smacks Forehead*

The party was amazing. Wish I could post pictures but I won't post pics of other people's kids. And of course all my cupcakes are gone - they ate them and they were good. Why the heck do I worry so much?

A Spooktacular Day

Here is Ricky, my little vampire. He's all dressed up for school today. The 8th graders are hosting a carnival for the kindergarteners. This is a school tradition - I remember what a blast it was myself back in the day!

I volunteered to be one of the Room Moms this year - without knowing what that involved. It's okay, you just have to take the reins in the party planning for the whole year. All the teachers wanted us to do was bake decorated cupcakes. I had great aspirations - pouring over websites and I finally decided on 2 choices. Cupcakes with a bat on them or cupcakes with a frankenstein face on them.

Needless to say, I never got to make those kick-ass cupcakes I was dreaming of. We had a bad windstorm here for 2 days and Teddy came down with a fever for 3 days and I didn't feel like dragging him all over every Walmart and Target looking for the equipment I needed so I just made the funfetti cupcakes with a candy corn pumpkin on top of each with Halloween sprinkles all around. Is that lame?

There's a part of me that says that they're just kids and won't care or notice - and then there's a part of me that says that I'm a full-time stay-at-home mom and should strive to be awesome dammit! Anyways, there's nothing I can do about it now. The cupcakes are done - lame or not. I'm sure they're tasty though. In any case, I guess there's always next year!!

Inside the World of Female Friendships

A Small Update on My Latest Mommy Bully

The wind storm actually wasn't that bad and our swing set survived. The news always makes things sound so scary and I'm glad we didn't suffer any damage - we're already maintaining 2 houses - and that's a story for another day.

Meanwhile, the mean mommy who dumped me back in April is due with her 4th baby today. I don't really see her at school - there are so many parents that we manage not to bump in to one another unless we really try. I never wished her good luck with the labor/delivery but think it's okay - she *did* dump me after all and if the tables were turned, she would never do that to me. I am always being nice to everyone - even these bitches. I just want to make life easier for Ricky. I am sick of it - and will only be nice to those who actually deserve it. I say this today, and then tomorrow I will return to the usual sap!!

Mandy was nice one day a few weeks ago and approached me at pick up, asking me if Ricky was okay because her daughter told her that a boy was bullying Ricky. I briefly told her things were okay, and thanks for the concern.

The fact that she got everyone else in our mutual circle to alienate me is a constant reminder that I can never trust her - or any of them again. There's a mom named Susie, who is a good friend of Mandy who has been brainwashed to hate me (no good reason). Our sons were in soccer together this season and I was collecting the money for the coach's gift last week. Because *I* was the one collecting for the gift, they decided to go and get their own present. I mean, they just gave birth to their 4th kid not even a week ago - don't you think it would be easier to throw me $10 for a contribution rather than go shopping on your own with a newborn and 3 other kids?

This is the very same mom who met me at the park for a play date (over the summer) and ignored me for almost 2 hours -while our kids played. Not even a HI. She is the same one who rolls her eyes or giggles to Mandy when I walk by and somehow thinks we are competing socially. I will be talking to a parent at soccer and she will be annoyed - when I walk away, she will get up and talk to the parent that I had just finished talking to.

Are we 12 years old again or what?

I saw a great piece on Good Morning America yesterday about adult female bullying. I posted it below. There were so many relevant pieces that the author touched on that I could relate to with the mommy bullying I've experienced. Especially regarding how my ex-friend Lisa gossiped about me and Ricky to Mandy in order to get social rewards - bonding over gossip - bonding over putting someone else down. I will definitely pick up Twisted Sisterhood and give it a read.

I've moved on a lot with all this mommy bullying crap. Thankfully there are more than double the number of kids in kindergarten now than in preschool so there are tons of parents and new kids to lose myself in. So I don't have to talk to any of them at drop-off and pick-up. I think I've decided to be more careful and not be so easy to make friends with people. It's pretty sad, isn't it?

Hoping to Be Lucky

This is the Rainbow swing set we finally had installed on Friday at the house we're moving to. I know it's late, but things on the house renovation front were late, and since we already paid a deposit on the darn thing back in MAY, we decided to just get it in case the company went under or some other unfortunate thing happened.

Chicago is expecting a horrible storm tomorrow - with gusts and bad stuff comparable to a category 3 hurricane. The articles say that Chicago hasn't had a storm this bad in over 100 years. It doesn't help that they are calling this storm the 'Great Lakes Cyclone." Holy shit!!

My boys played on this twice so far. I am hoping that by blogging about my fear that the storm will blow our swing set away will prevent it from somehow happening. I realize this is silly - there are far more important things to worry about with a storm - getting hit by flying debris, tornadoes, the safety of loved ones, losing electricity, etc. But my kids only played on this twice and I'm scared we'll wake up tomorrow to a phone call from our future neighbors saying it's landed on their garage! Crossing all fingers and toes tonight!!

Random Bits

Our fence at the other house is finally being installed. I was so excited I bought the installation guys lunch today and threw in a dessert. Nothing too fancy, but thought I would do something nice. They work their butts off. In fact, I try to buy lunch for our carpenter and plumber once in a while too. I feel like they do a really good job to begin with, but the perks help, you know?

I just got off the phone with Rainbow to finally install the big giant monster of fun that we ordered back in May!! They will install it a week from today. HOORAY! At least Ricky and Teddy can enjoy whatever we have left of the good weather this year before the cold and snow arrives. We ordered a supersized clubhouse that has a big sandbox underneath, and I won't even bother ordering the sand until the spring. I nearly crapped in my pants when the Rainbow lady told me I need 1,000 pounds of sand for that sucker. I guess I'll just order it from a landscaper and I'm afraid to know how much that's going to cost. They could have installed it a few days after we bought it in May, but we wanted to have the new fence put it in to prevent people from playing on it, getting hurt, and suing us. Very over-the-top concern, but there nonetheless.

I'm really enjoying my mother's retirement. Isn't that a sad thing to say? My mom's always been a big help from day one, but since she's been retired she's been such a big help with the boys. This morning she went shopping with me and then we had lunch out. Right now, Teddy is taking his nap, and my mom is going to Ricky's school to pick him up. I would normally have to wake Teddy up to pick up Ricky, but not today. Then she's going to take him to go get a snack before she drops him off. That is so nice. I just wish my aunt was still around to galavant with us.

We were invited to a Halloween party this year and haven't figured out our costumes yet. We normally host, but since our house is on the market, we decided it wouldn't be such a good idea to trash it. Then we got an invitation from our friends. They used to do it years ago, and then they moved to Hawaii for a few years and they just moved back this year. I have no clue what to be - part of me always wanted to be Snow White. I have the black hair, right? I'm Asian, so I can't be anyone who is blonde. We still need to figure out Ricky's costume too. I'm his Room Mom, so I have to make decorated cupcakes for the party - which the 8th graders do for the kindergarteners. I can't wait. I may wear my costume to his party.

Meanwhile, I got a flyer sent home in Ricky's folder for a get-together at a local bar for all the Kindergarten Moms. No clue who organized it, it just had the information and "no need to RSVP, just show up." I am really starting to think (in my old age) that people tend to like other people more when they don't know them very well. I think that after I got burned from those mommy friends that I really want to keep a distance from the other moms at school in order to preserve the peace for Ricky. We will be social with the other parents, of course, but not overly. I would like to know the other parents of boys in Ricky's class especially, because of all the play dates. But not hang out with them. I have enough friends of my own, and I haven't even seen a majority of them this year!!

Teddy's first speech therapy appointment will be next week. Meanwhile, he continues using his own little ways of communicating when he is happy (claps/smiles), upset (grunts, yells), is hungry (brings me his empty cups), wants to eat or wants a hug (tugs at my leg). He continues to be Linus - dragging his stinky blanket all over the house. It is so sad that he still is at a 12 month speech level (I think - but will ask the therapist) but that is my guess.

Enough for now. Hoping for a great weekend!

Happy to Be Ignored (but heard)

We took Teddy to the hospital today for his hearing test and the results are great: his hearing is within normal ranges = he can hear everything we say and just chooses to ignore us most of the time. HOORAY!!

The doctor and her helper were wonderful. I had to bring all the comfort items since some of the tests had ear buds inserted in his ears. Of course, the stinky blanket (along with their Elmo videos) did the trick. Teddy is like Linus and has a security blanket which he drags all over the house. He gets pissed off when I wash it - and it seems to comfort him more the stinkier it is. Well, I controlled myself and didn't wash it and it was the *most* disgusting thing in the world. Mark and I both apologized up and down for the stinky blanket - but they seemed to understand - what else could they say???

Tomorrow morning Teddy will have an occupational therapy evaluation. This is just to check out his sensory stuff. I mentioned to the therapists last week that Teddy gets really pissed off when I vacuum - to the point of crying at times, so they recommended occupational therapy.

Meanwhile, we had a busy weekend and had an open house this past Sunday. We killed ourselves cleaning the house and getting it ready for TWO people to come through and of course, not be interested at all. Our realtor just called me up and said that someone wants to see our house Saturday afternoon. So for the next 2 days we'll kill ourselves once again. Having a clean house is great and all but sheeeezzzzz... won't someone buy our house??? Pretty please????

I could write more and go on and on, but I'm really freaking tired!