My life, narrated

Решила что давно не писала ничего про Сабрину.  Она у нас уже 3,5 месяца, и в принципе писать особо не о чём, что говорит что мы все очень довольны друг другом.  Никаких проблем что были раньше у нас с ней нет.  Дети кушают адекватно, одеты правильно и по погоде, по дому делают всякие вещи типа убирают свои комнаты, иногда моют посуду, помогают со стиркой, и т.д.  Излишний телевизор не смотрят, ходят по разным паркам и мероприятиям, познакомились с другими детьми (Сабринына подружка-опэр за ними смотрит), очень довольны. 

Сабрина обзавилась кучей друзей и в нерабочее время её дома практически нет, что меня полностью устраивает.  Иногда они всей компанией (в Субботу их было человек 7) приходят к нам и сидят у Сабрины в комнате, болтаю, громко смотрят телек и слушают музыку всю ночь напролёт.  В такие моменты я просто счастлива что между нами 2 этажа и нам их не слышно. 

Вот в принцепе и всё.  Будем надеятся что и дальше у меня будет очень мало постов про Сабрину. 

I told Sabrina last night about my company moving.  I explained to her that I don't have all details yet myself, but that at the very least it will affect her schedule once the move takes place, and that I will not be available to just stop by at home in the middle of the day if I need to.  We both ended up crying a little over this and then trying to calm each other down.

Then this morning,  I found her on the couch in the living room crying again.  She was upset about my job again and being concerned how it will end up affecting girls and that they will not see me as much and I wont be able to do things with them as much.  She ended up with telling me that she will do what she can to help girls to adjust and to help me out on the home front.

Since last conversation we had about keeping common areas clean, especially when it comes to food, things have been good. I have been coming home from work to a mostly clean house (floor in the kitchen/dining was never swept, but decided to let it go). Counters were clean, table was mostly clean, no leftover food or dirty dishes anywhere except for some in the sink, which is ok.

Today, after taking Hannah to the doctor this morning, I stopped at home to get her a sweater before I took her to the school. I left with Hannah at 8am, Tania was left at home with just Becky. They both were finishing their breakfast when I left. Becky was all dressed, backpack packed, teeth brushed, hair brushed, etc. The only thing they had left to do this morning was to wait 45 minutes, get Becky’s boots and jacket on and leave for school.

So why did I come home after doctor’s appointment and find Becky’s and Hannah’s breakfast plates with breadcrumbs and kiwi leftovers on the table, and table covered in sticky stains of dripped kiwi juice.  

I did talk to Tania before that I don’t want anything that may invite bugs left out on the counters or table. I guess we will be talking about it again tonight. And I was really hopping that we were past this as I am getting tired of repeating myself.

As everyone knows, my poor deprived children get to watch one hour of TV a day before bed, at most.  They definitely do not agree with this policy, but have realized that fighting this battle is futile for them, so they just live with this horrible discrimination.

Anyway, Tania, our au pair has been sick since yesterday.  Thankfully she is feeling better today and said that she will be fine watching girls.  So, in order to minimize the contact between girls and still sick Tania, I told them that after school, once they are done with their homework, they can watch TV so that they are not closely playing with Tania.  Girls are ecstatic.  Happy hugs and ‘You are the best mommy ever’ ensures.  Everyone is thrilled.

And now for the evil mommy plan:

Today, Adam will take girls to Becky’s school for book fair around 6pm.  So we asked Tania to give them dinner earlier, around 5-5:30 instead of the usual 6pm so that they can go to the book fair.  By the time they are done at the book fair and will pick me up from work afterwards, it will be their bed time.  They get home from school around 3:30pm; then snack and homework.  The earliest they will get to the TV will be 4:30pm.  They will be lucky to get 1 hour of TV before it’s dinner time and they have to leave.  Insert evil mommy laugh here.

Since the begging of last week, girls have started a secret project under the code name “Piñata” which they are hiding in Tania's room.  Namely, Tania is teaching them to make a piñata out of a balloon, home made glue (flour, water, powdered chalk), and cut up supermarket flyers.  Each layer of this piñata needs a few days to dry, so now they are on level three.  Tania said that it will need many more layers, before they can pop the balloon and actually decorate this piñata. 

Yesterday, the three of them have made homemade play dough.  I came home from work and was greeted by two ecstatic girls holding precious clumps of pink, green and blue play dough.

Today, the whole table was covered in news papers and there were a ton of paint jars, brushes, and 4 more art works to be posted in this LJ soon.  But, in addition, Tania traced and cut out girls’ feet and labeled them with 'L' and 'R' and she is planning to place those cut outs around the house tomorrow to help Hannah learn her left and right. 

When it was bed time and I went into Becky's room, all of her laundry that was done today was neatly folded on her bed in sorted piles but not put away.  I asked Becky why her clothes were not put away.  Turn out that after the laundry was done, Becky refused to help Tania put away her clothes, so clothes were left on her bed.  Faced with the prospect of no place to sleep, Becky quickly put away all of her stuff with a little bit of my help. 

Today Hannah got a serious talking to from me.  Apparently, when they were doing laundry, she slammed the basement door into Tania’s face.  Hannah was faced with the prospect of not being allowed to go on her school trip to the museum if she does not start behaving herself with respect to others and was also made to apologies to Tania.  She eventually apologized to Tania while peeking from behind my back.

In the last couple week Adam and I noticed that girls have been spontaneously using ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ without as many reminders as before.   Last week, Tania told me that she has asked Becky to do something and Becky told her that she will not until Tania uses ‘please’.    All in all, things have been good, although a lot more chaotic than before.