Kill Me Now

Does anyone know why they're teaching kids in Kindergarten and first grade to count money? Weren't we all on 2+2=4 back then? Do you know how frustrating it is to get the concept of monetary value across to a child who has spent the last 2 years learning to count individual items? The Nut has been able to count by 5s and 10s in her head forever but CANNOT apply that to money. You throw some coins down and tell her to add them and she's lost. I'm trying not to be angry with her because I really think these kids are too young for this but she's SO smart and it's very hard to watch her struggle and not get something that you feel she should grasp easily.

What's worse is that they seem to be flying through it in school whether or not the kids have a good grasp of it or not. I'm worried that she'll get to second grade and they'll build on it thinking the kids got a good foundation in 1st grade and she'll get left behind. I know from experience because I was out for about 2 weeks in 3rd grade when they covered fractions and I STILL have problems with measurements and stuff. Once you get behind it's nearly impossible to catch up because they have to shove so many subjects into the school year so the kids can pass the tests so the school looks good. Never mind that it's the reason we have college students who can barely spell their own name.

Frito is now firmly into the terrible twos. Never mind that she's not actually two yet. But she WILL be...........right before the baby is born. So that'll be good times. And I think she's really ready to potty train because she seems to hate her diapers but I don't know that it's a good idea to get into it now with the baby coming so soon. Because if she doesn't have it down pat within a few weeks it'll have to get put on hold until the baby is at least a few months old and I think interruptions are worse for them than getting a later start.

The Nut was a DREAM to potty train. As soon as she turned 30 months I took a Thursday and Friday off work, put her in panties, gave her a potty chair and made a chart where she could stick colored foil stars every time she went on the potty. She had NO accidents the first day. She went all over the place Friday and I was so confused as I cleaned up after her all day. That Saturday she had no accidents and that was that. The next weekend I remember taking her to the mall with my sister and niece and then to the park afterwards. We'd been at the park for a while when I realized it had been over 5 hours and we hadn't even thought of the bathroom. She hadn't asked and had no accidents either. It was amazing. She night trained just as quickly too.

So either Frito will be just as easy or it'll be a battle of epic proportions. I don't think the odds are good that I'll get 2 kids in a row that easy. Although I said the same thing when The Nut turned out to be such a great sleeper and although the first 6 months were pretty rocky with Frito she turned into a world class sleeper like her sister.

I managed to make a lot of enemies today on Babycenter. Some idiot came up with the idea of having "secret admirers" in honor of Valentine's Day and if you sign up you get to change your screenname to hide who you are and you're assigned someone else who signed up and you follow them around the various boards leaving "love" notes and sappy messages for them. Ugh. Someone started a thread asking opinions and I should have left it alone but I couldn't help it. My first post stated that I would probably kill myself if I had to go back to middle school and it was beyond me how grown women with kids would find the secret admirer thing appealing past middle school and voluntarily involve themselves in it. I was informed that I must be a miserable person who didn't know how to have fun. I then said that the only sort of person I could imagine who would find that game fun probably had a glittery pink Princess keychain and hit the bars every Friday night so I was fine not being grouped in with them. That went over well.

The local news is going to my sister's house tomorrow to do the story on my nephew and it should run in Saturday's paper so if you're local, be sure and check that out. She's about halfway to raising her goal so yay! We have plans to join the walkathon on the 21st but they're really up in the air with me being so close to term and with the work starting on our house any day now. But it would be nice to combine that with a last hurrah trip before the baby comes so I hope everything works out.

I need some ice cream to put out this heartburn from supper. :oP Yes, I know it'll make it worse but that's a risk I'm willing to take.