I would wish you a happy new year, but seeing that it's already February, I'll wish you a happy President's Day instead!
So, what's going on in House Mang?
Emi is doing GREAT in school, thanks to a multi-pronged strategy that includes:
1. Pulling her out of the on-site afterschool program and having her picked up and taken care of by one of my best friends and supernanny extraordinaire until Isaac comes home from school.
2. Tim taking over the morning routine, since he has a lighter touch with Emi than I do at that hour. I'm a cranky drill sargeant ("Move IT move IT!") and he's more reasonable. Plus, he and Emi get to bond and she feels more secure about her world as a whole, and feels less of the need to act out for attention. It's all very awwwwwww.
3. The leaps she made in therapy about identifying and coping with the huge emotions she feels. In fact, she's so much happier now, we went down to seeing the counselor once every two weeks, and next week's session will be a "goodbye-for-now" session!
Emi still gets into tiny bits of trouble at school, but it's for things that seem refreshingly normal: talking to the person behind her in line, forgetting to raise her hand, and one time she didn't come home with a good behavior slip because she made a snoring noise because she thought a story was boring.
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Isaac is slowly turning into a tween. Sometimes, he stiffens when I grab his head to kiss the top when I drop him off at school, or he snaps back at me when he feels unjustly chastised. Other times, he starts stammering and falling over himself when he encounters a pretty girl (usually MUCH older than him, harrumph). He just started up a new season of his basketball league, his class is currently working on a musical, he just finished up reports on the Island Fox (California's only native carnivore, found only on the Channel Islands, didn't ya know) and Marco Polo. For a while, he was devouring the Harry Potter books, but stopped near the beginning of Order of the Phoenix, which I actually think is appropriate for his current stage of emotional maturity. He is currently reading books like the How to Train Your Dragon series, the Warriors series, and Dragon Rider.
The other day, I was getting ready to assemble a digital piano, and as Tim rushed over to help me, Isaac shooed him away, saying "This is woman's work!" Since when was working with heavy pieces of furniture woman's work!?!?!? So, later on, I decided to pick his brain a bit about gender roles. Interpret as you will, because I just crawled up into a ball and rocked myself back and forth:
Me: So...working with assembling furniture is woman's work, eh?
Isaac: Yup! It's because you are careful and Daddy does not read the instructions.
Me: What else is woman's work? How about cooking and washing the dishes?
Isaac: Daddy washes the dishes. And the cooks at Polly's Pies are men.
Me: Hey! I cook at home too! How about earning money?
Isaac: You both earn money. But Daddy earns more money.
Me: Why do you think that is?
Isaac: Because women earn 70 cents for every dollar a man earns for the same job. Which is weird, because I think women do most of the real work, and men stand around and make plans and blueprints and say, "What if we did this? What if we tried that?" and then laugh really loud, which doesn't seem like real work.
Me: Where on earth did you get this impression?
Isaac: At Daddy's office.
Me: I work too, but at home. And I work hard, even though I'm often in my pajamas. Do you think that's real work?
Isaac: Yeah, I know that because you yell at me to leave you alone when I ask you if I can watch TV.
Me: ... Sorry about that.
Isaac: It's okay.
Me: So when you grow up and become a man, you expect to stand around and make plans?
Isaac: No, I'd rather work with all the women.
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As for me, I'm doing well. I still get excited about a lot of shit, currently I am gagging over the current season of "RuPaul's Drag Race." I'm rooting for Detox, Honey Mahogany, and Jinkx Monsoon. I want to marry Ivy Winters because he looks like a young Morrissey and dresses like the 11th Doctor. Which reminds me...I will be attending Gallifrey One this weekend; really looking forward to it, as it will be my first one!
Just caught up with "Game of Thrones" and "Sherlock," and I don't think my nervous system can handle cliffhangers anymore.
My alma mater won the Rose Bowl this year, and we were there to witness it in person! It was so much fun!
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Tim is only slightly mortified by the props given to his singing voice. He's still totally hot.
