Teachers Really Do Not Get Paid Enough

Yesterday morning while I was in the kitchen at 6:30 for my first cup of coffee, Carley entertained me by singing at the top of her lungs some unrecognizable song and dancing.  Which answers the question that yes, it is possible to think, "Aw, isn't that cute" and be annoyed at the same time.

Then I went to Lindsey's Kindergarten class where I had volunteered to help with something called "centers".  Lindsey's teacher said I would be helping with "crowd control" as she put it.  The centers were suppose to be where the kids are at different stations working on different skills.  The teacher was busy testing the children individually so she could prepare report cards which come out next week.  It really was crowd control, trying to keep them all at their stations focused on their tasks.  At the end of Lindsey's 3 hour class (half day Kindergarten), I was exhausted and had a stress headache.  Teaching is not for the faint of heart.  Teachers are definitely NOT paid enough.  Every day should be a "Thank a Teacher in Your Life" day.

So, How CAN you tell if a toddler is drunk?

This morning I was doing the dishes in the kitchen while Blain was busy working in the backyard trying to replace our rotted, old deck before the snow flies.  The kids were upstairs in our bedroom watching the newest episode of their new favorite show, Dino Dan, when I saw Carley walking downstairs with a little white bottle in her hand.

I immediately recognized the bottle as being ear drops for clearing water clogged ears that we had in one of our master bathroom draws.  I ran up to her and grabbed the bottle which was now empty.  It had been about half full.  I could smell rubbing alcohol on her.  I started to panic and yelled to Blain and he came running in.  He thought he could smell the alcohol on her breath.  Great, time to call Poison Control.  We've had to do that once before when Lindsey ate some Bag Balm (yes, Bag Balm!) when she was about the same age as Carley is now. 

The ear drops were 95% rubbing alcohol with some glycerin as we found out by reading the label of the bottle to Poison Control.  The woman on the phone took all our information then said to watch out for signs of "intoxication" in the next hour.  She said, "You know how an adult looks drunk, so look for those type of behaviors."

So I spent the next hour watching Carley, REALLY watching.  In that hour, she laughed hysterically, cried uncontrollably, shrieked, babbled, demanded, had a fit when she didn't get her way, tried to use the remote like a cell phone, ran around in circles, and in general showed low impulse control and huge swings in emotions.  In other words, she was her usual 22 month old self.

I guess I just never realized that when an adult has too much to drink, they revert back to toddler type behavior.  On a serious note, thank God she apparently didn't really ingest any rubbing alcohol.  Her hands smelled pretty strong from the alcohol but her breath didn't.  I think all she did was probably take a taste of it from her hands.

I'm usually so, so careful to keep our bathroom door closed.  We even have a child proof door knob to keep Carley out of the bathroom.  She apparently noticed the one time I forgot and left the door open
and decided to check it out.  Thank God for Poison Control and thank God nothing more serious happened.

Halloween Time at Disneyland

Last week I went to a training class in Los Angeles.  We decided to take advantage of this and fly the whole family out for a long weekend at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.  We started the weekend Friday night by attending "Mickey Mouse's Halloween Party" and ended Sunday night by watching "The World of Color".  It was exhausting but so much fun.

Look who we ran into while trick-or-treating at Disneyland.

Spooky Cinderella Castle

Mickey the Friendly Ghost

Honorary Bug Girl with her 3-D bug glasses

Carley taking a snooze break while we wait in line 

Taking a much needed sugar break

This had been a Mickey shaped ice cream.  The ears were the first to go but not the last.

Future Cheerleader

Lindsey has been attending a cheerleader clinic this past week put on by our local High School for "future cheerleaders".  They practiced a routine for 3 days after school then performed a cheer with their age group during the half time show at the Friday night football game.  There were 254 girls altogether who had signed up for the cheerleader clinic and the sound of them all SCREAMING a cheer at the same time inside the gym was quite an experience.  Lindsey did great and had a blast.  And the football game and half time performance were fun for the whole family.