Posts Tagged With: silly

British (preschool) Invasion

Posted on July 7, 2014 by robynbird

My preschool keeps “daycare” hours because it’s a Reggio-inspired school…this means school in the summer…it’s fun though, because each week is themed out like summer camp.
This week is ‘Globetrotters’ and the country we’ve chosen is the UK.

The Anglophile in me is squealing and clapping like a little girl!

This morning discussed why Great Britain has so many names and that the flag is called the Union Jack. We looked at photos of Her Majesty, Big Ben, and of course, the iconic red double decker buses.
I’m teaching them a bit of British slang, (Only age appropriate things like. ‘loo and ‘telly’.) and introducing them to a musical genre called Punk. (Though not enough to have to explain anarchy…)
I’m wearing my Union Jack Chucks all week!

At our ‘Parade of Nations’ on Friday, my friends will be “riding” in the double decker bus they’ll make this week.

Some days I know my co-teacher and I have more fun than our students…this week will be five of those days! Though, one of our little friends, in a fairly decent English accent said: Excuse me sir, could I please use the loo?
(I’m already “chuffed”!)

Categories: education | Tags: anarchy, anglophile, Big Ben, British Invasion, British slang, chuffed, Converse Chuck Taylors, early childhood education, emergent curriculum, English accent, fun, Great Britain, loo, preschool, preschool teacher, punk music, Queen Elizabeth II, reggio, reggio-inspired, silly, summer camp, telly, UK, Union Jack, United Kingdon | 3 Comments

what the praline started

Posted on June 2, 2014 by robynbird

This morning one of the little students in the other two year old class brought me a praline from New Orleans. How kind of her family to think of me, she was very excited to make sure I got it. Precious!

I realized two things when I ate it after lunch…
The first is: it isn’t as yummy as the ones they make on Market Street in Charleston.
The second is: I miss Charleston… which makes me miss my beloved sister in law and her family, and my dearest friend and mentor.

Charleston is a place I dearly love…mostly because of the time I’ve spent there with people I love…

Thank you, little student for the (not delicious) praline and the wonderful memories it stirred up. I’m smiling about all my wonderful Charleston adventures, and a little bit of extra loving the people I love who live there.

Categories: love, me | Tags: adventure, charleston, family, friends, fun, love, memories, playful, praline, pralines, silly | Leave a comment

the sad sandwich?

Posted on April 5, 2014 by robynbird

I’m feeling sad today, and missing my two Things.

I know I made the decision to come be here, and Thing 1 isn’t at ‘home’ anyway, and Thing 2 decided she was no longer interested in having me participate in her daily goings on…but I find myself missing the daily life stuff.
YBW and I were looking at tile for the impending kitchen remodel and stopped on the way back home for subs, when we sat down, I got teary realizing how much I dislike not being around my girls.

Something as simple as ordering subs and having Thing 1 build a big ol’ salad on the teeniest amount of meat and cheese then drowning it in oil and vinegar, and Thing 2 with just ham and cheese with a bit of honey mustard and mayo…these are just silly things that make me love being their mom.
Here’s something nobody ever thinks to tell you, the silly things are the most important.

I love being the ‘mom at this house’ for Thing C and Thing G.
(Thing G used that phrase, we all went to see the Lego Movie when it came out, we all being YBW, the Things, their mom, stepdad, and uncle, and he wanted to sit between “the two girls” that way he would be beside the “mom of each house”.)
But it just isn’t the same as being the mom of my own two Things. For starters, I honestly do not understand boys. They are an enigma to me…not to mention all that testosterone!
I long for girlie contact! Estrogen fueled giggles and television/movie watching, shoe and clothes shopping. My niece, Girlie Thing works for that most times…I’m practically her mom, too…but she’s very tied up with sports and her friends and, well…her own mom that we don’t actually get to do it as often as either of us like.

It’s not about a ‘date’ though it’s about the every day. Those weird phone calls that start out with, “Mommy, can you swing by Publix or Bi Lo on your way home?” And end with a list of the most ridiculous things from sushi (They assure me the premade at Publix is pretty decent in a pinch, I don’t eat sushi.) to grape juice and chocolate Pop Tarts. Or random Saturday morning quickies in our pajamas to Waffle House because Thing 2 and I were lazy and didn’t feel like making breakfast. Or just being with one or both of them, because it’s natural and we’re a part of each other, conversing without having to speak, a look or gesture or trademark silly face that means so much. Or a lifetime of memories that mean nothing to anyone but us. Or a house full of girls doing hair and make-up in both bathrooms…or all the kids hanging out on the sofa with sodas and pizza because even though we didn’t live on the lake like most of their friends, it was the ‘coolest’ place to hang out. (6 teenagers and a hammer, anyone?)

I am where I belong. Of this I have no doubt. And most days I’m happily engaged in this new life I’m building. But there are those times, like now, when I long for my ‘other’ life…the one where I’m the mom of my own Things and not having to share somebody else’s Things.

Clearly I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself today. Perhaps it will pass quickly because honestly, I don’t think I have the patience to be sad about Jersey Mike’s sandwiches much longer.

Categories: me, on being a mom | Tags: chick flicks, daughters, feelings, fun, giggles, girls, happy, home, jersey mike's, kitchen remodel, lego movie, loss, love, motherhood, parenting, relationships, sad, shoe shopping, silly, tile, waffle house | 5 Comments

OBX 8.13.10 7:22 am EDT

Posted on February 2, 2014 by robynbird

I decided to share with you an old journal entry that I especially love.

It’s funny to me what solitude looks like.
I’ve left five people sleeping to come sit on the beach with my journal on the off chance I’ll find some peace.
Now I’m not the only human on the beach this morning, but there are precious few and they all seem to be walking idly by as I sit in my duck jammie pants in my low canvas chair.

I’ve become completely distracted with two little sandpipers running so quickly on their little bird feet in that timeless dance with the tide, pick pick picking at the tiny air bubbles to find a bit of sand crab breakfast. The first bird found a pretty big crab and carried it up the beach just past where the tide could reach immediately set it down and began to poke and pick at it, when she seemed to have gotten her fill she left the shell and skibbled off to see what else she could find.
I’m watching several of these quick little birds pecking the bubbly wet sand probing with their long slender beaks extracting shell after shell filled with their yummy crab breakfast, but all these birds are eating the entire thing, only that one little bird left the shell. I find myself wondering if that’s why she is so much smaller than the others I see this morning.

A little further up the beach a school of fish seems to have washed up and become beached the cool morning sunlight reflecting hundreds of silver flashes as they flip and flop gasping for water to breathe.
The waves that so cruelly deposited them on the sand come back just enough to tease them, to let them breathe for just a moment before moving back into the sea. Some of these little fish have been able to make their way back into the ocean but the ones left on the sand gasp and flounder once more.
I’m equally horrified and amazed by this scene, part of me needs to get up run down there and just start chucking fish into the sea, another part of me knows it will solve itself one way or another as it has done since the dawn of time. A young woman stopped and began to throw the fish back into the water…until the seagulls came…and then she covered her head and ran a bit up the beach before she looked back and slowed her escape.
The seagulls are overjoyed at the open buffet. They swoop down to grab a snack and move away a bit before enjoying the spoils, this goes on for quite some time and then as quickly as the scavengers came…they are gone.
There is no more silver flashing in the sun, and I am reminded of John Cleese and Michael Palin…those are “ex-fish”.

Categories: me | Tags: beach, birds, breakfast, early morning, fish, monty python, nature, ocean, outer banks, peace, quiet, sand, sea, shore, silly, solitude, stream of consciousness, wellbeing | Leave a comment

a “date” with Thing C

Posted on January 17, 2014 by robynbird

YBW’s Thing C is one of my very favorite human beings! I absolutely adore this young man! He is kind and compassionate with a wicked sharp sense of humor.
We talk of music and movies and books and girls.
We share music, I’m educating him on some seriously old school classic and punk rock and he’s helped me learn to love Dave Grohl.
I’ve seen Fight Club (and loved it) because of him and he’s watched Some Like it Hot (and loved it) because of me. (This is only the tip of the iceberg.)
We share a love of Shakespeare and The Great Gatsby and so much so that this year on his birthday, he decided he wanted to rewatch the new Gatsby movie simply because I had not yet seen it. We’ve read and discussed plays and I’m absolutely dying to take him to the American Shakespeare Center/Blackfriar’s Playhouse when something we’re both interested in is playing.
I ask questions about girls because he doesn’t really seem to talk to either YBW or his mom about them, sometimes it’s good to have a “grown-up” who loves you and keeps you safe that isn’t exactly your parent to say those kinds of things to. I even tried to set him up with a girl who works part time at my school (she’s the same age and goes to the same local university as him), this didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to…though perhaps it did, she wasn’t interested…which means she’s not as awesome as I first suspected. Both my two Things have met this girl and decided she’s stupid because our Thing C is a catch!
Neither one of us really likes Asian food very much but we both love Mexican…we plan silly little “dates” to have Mexican food just because we can.

When I see his car parked in front of our house when I drive up I get so excited! It means good conversation and laughs and perhaps something new to share. I am always met with a hug and a sincere interest in my day.

Thing 2 left today to head back to her daddy…Sundance took her to the train station…I was feeling a bit sad when I came home from school, but when I turned the corner onto our street I saw his car in front of the house and I was instantly smiling!
After big hugs, we talked about a gig he’s playing (He’s a bassist.) and whether or not I was to photograph it for them we also read the most inappropriate comment strand on one of my friend’s fb statuses and laughed at the complete lack of propriety. (Should I be ashamed of myself? I’m not.)

This might seem like a strange post…but Thing C has been visiting his grandparents in the lone star state for the last two weeks and I missed him so there was big love and happiness today!
Since YBW and Thing G have plans for tomorrow we’ve planned a “date” to go get Mexican food and discussed lying on the sofa to watch my favorite movie of all time, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Then perhaps we’ll go over the used bookstore and see what moves us. It’s going to be a great Saturday!

Categories: love, me, on being a mom | Tags: books, fun, happy, home, love, Mexican food, movies, music, parenting, relationships, shakespeare, sharing, silly, unconditional love | Leave a comment

love and Krispy Kreme

Posted on October 25, 2013 by robynbird

Four years ago some slut met my boyfriend at the airport in her skivvies covered by a red trench coat and high heeled shoes.
Oh…wait. That slut was me. (I’m not really a slut, but you wouldn’t know it by how I went to the airport.)
Golly, I was so nervous. (Like, seriously ready to sell my soul for the guarantee I wouldn’t vomit.)
When I saw him come down the walkway I was suddenly calm. Then there was nothing but my big bucktooth grin and his beautiful blue eyes…he walked silently to me and dropped his bag then took my face in his hands and kissed me. It was an absolutely perfect first kiss.
Actually, that kiss is the entire reason I can write this four years later…for had that kiss not been what it was, I don’t know if we would have ever been a couple. (Does that sound…I don’t know…shallow? I don’t mean it to be, I just know that it didn’t matter if he was spectacular in the sack, if he couldn’t kiss…he wasn’t the man for me. But that kiss was lovely and I was mad about him…so here we are!)

YBW and I went to high school together…we knew of the other, but didn’t really have much contact. I had my circle of friends and he had his…but we did have British Lit together senior year.
Fast forward twenty years, we’ve both been married and divorced, both had kids…both showed up for our twentieth reunion.
Sundance and I went as each other’s date…the plan was “see three specific people and have one drink, then go to dinner and a midnight movie”. (Did I mention she and I are idiots? Because we closed the reunion facility at 11 before moving on to a local watering hole…then closed it too. All of this after we stood in the parking lot trying to decide if we should even go inside. Let me just tell you how glad I am we did!)
All I could say to Sundance on the way home and all the next day was, “Damn YBW grew up yummy.”

So after I returned home, I took a risk…I sent him a private message on FB. We dated via FB and email then texting and on the phone for months before we decided to see what it would be like to try it live…he specifically asked me if I wanted to come to him of have him come to me…without thought, I told him I wanted him to come to me. It made me feel safer somehow.
That was October 24, 2009.
He told me he believed he was falling in love with me that first day, and even though I didn’t know exactly how much of what I felt about him, I didn’t panic! I had been through so much unpleasantness and absolutely did not feel loveable, but I took a leap of faith and trusted him…and let myself fall in love with him.

We knew it would be…tricky to date long distance. And there were a couple of times I didn’t think it was worth it…but here’s a good thing about YBW and me…we can talk with real honesty about everything and when I said, “If this is how you need to be in a relationship, I’m not the girl for you and that breaks my heart.” He said, “I love you, I need you in my life. You are my future.” That was the conversation that changed everything.

Interestingly enough, this is the first time (since the trench coat) we’ve actually spent this day together. When he asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate, I said, “Go get donuts!”
“Don’t you want to go someplace nice or a little fancy?”
“Nope, I want to go to Krispy Kreme with you just like our first date.”
So we went back and forth for a few days…I stuck to my guns…but with the first night of the World Series on the TV in the background, he convinced me to find a ‘nicer place’ to spend our anniversary, so I chose a little out of the way place with a killer wine cellar and when I asked him if he wanted to go there, he shrugged and said, “sure, whatever.” (Not in a total dick way, but it was clear where we went didn’t matter to him.) So I turned off the TV and said, “I’m not sure what’s up with you but you’ve been up my ass to pick someplace nice to go when I told you all I wanted to do was get donuts. If you think I have some big expectation or you feel like you’re in some way obligated to make a big production of it, that’s you…not me.”
He said, “I’m sorry.”
That seemed strange to me, I didn’t think he needed to apologize…but I did finally tell him I wanted him to choose what we did as long as we still got to go to Krispy Kreme.
So Thursday I got a text that read, ‘I’ve decided you need lemongrass chicken tonight’ and I was all WOO HOO! So we went to our favorite little dive of a Vietnamese restaurant where he got pho and I had delicious chicken, and then went and had donuts and coffee.
He held my hand as he drove us home and once again told me happy anniversary. I was one big bucktooth grin and replied, “It was exactly what I wanted. Do you see these teeth? I had the best anniversary and I am so happy!”

And I am happy.
Not because he ‘makes me happy’…but because with him I am as real as I’ve ever been, I am the one true me…I have no fear. The me I am in this relationship is safe and true…and so exquisitely happy.
He doesn’t make me happy.
I don’t make him happy.
We’re just blessed enough to love each other and be happy about it.

Four years seems to have blown by in an instant…the other side of that is it seems I’ve loved him since the dawn of time.
I’m so divinely happy…without embarrassment or irony.
Because four years ago I took a chance on a very yummy man who loves the truest me. (He also kinda loves the me who showed up in her skivvies…I’m just saying.)
So, here’s to love…and Krispy Kreme donuts!

Categories: loss | Tags: anniversary, celebrate, donuts, falling in love, first date, first kiss, fun, happy, high school reunion, krispy kreme, love, pho, silly, Vietnamese restaurant | 2 Comments

(love can be both) right-way-round and upside down

Posted on September 26, 2013 by robynbird

I taught a lesson plan earlier this week from a book called ‘Henry and Amy (right-way-round and upside down)’.

This is a book about friendship, specifically a friendship of opposites attracting and helping each other see the beauty of right-way-round as well as upside down.
I used this book in my month-long lesson plan revolving around manners, friendship, and being helpful. We’ve been discussing “good manners”, you know, please and thank you and as one of my precious friends points out, I’m sorry. I’m not as big a fan of I’m sorry…but I’m working with what I’ve got.
We’ve also been discussing helpful hands and feet…did you know helpful hands hold doors for friends or helpful feet don’t kick books?
My little friends do! It’s been a fun and interesting process and I think they’re finally starting to really understand because our director held the door for us this afternoon as we went outside to the playground and one friend said, “Look! Miss Brynn has helpful hands!” And then I heard a chorus of “thank you(s)” even from one little dude who was so busy thanking her he walked into the doorjamb.

‘Henry and Amy’ was one of Thing 2’s favorite books when she was a little girl, she and I would read it over and over with hugs and giggles.
Oh how I wanted to call her when I got home to tell her all about it…but I didn’t.
I’m being respectful of her feelings. I’m acting upon her request.
Golly it was hard. I wanted to share that day with her in ways I don’t even yet understand and I honestly believe she would have loved it.

But here’s the thing: it didn’t hurt.
Yes I was sad, but the memories of Thing 2 and ‘Henry and Amy’ were happy. They moved me into my higher brain…where I was safe and happily swimming around in memories of my sweet little girl.

It was a great day!
It was a great lesson plan.
The activity that followed reading the book and our discussion was spectacular, and when we met again to read the book after the project was finished, my little friends were invested in ‘Henry and Amy’ and they’re beginning to understand the value of helpful friends.

And one day…one day…when she’s ready, I will be happy to share the experience of this day with Thing 2.

Categories: education, love, on being a mom | Tags: best friends, books, children's books, daughters, early childhood education, emergent curriculum, friendship, fun, giggles, helping, love, memories, preschool, silly | 2 Comments

6 teenagers and a hammer

Posted on July 26, 2013 by robynbird

I just told a 17 year old girl, “you need to settle down with that hammer, young lady.” and six teenagers burst out laughing.

This is a foam hammer that has been covered in duct tape “so it will hurt more”. The hammer was being used to…well…hammer knees. (Which was actually rather amusing.)

Thing 2 and five of her friends are hanging out, they were playing Risk when I rolled in, now they’ve moved on to a game called Resistance.
I cannot describe the entertainment value! Apparently there is a “game” they play…when someone belches everyone must say a color, the last one to speak must make a “sex noise”…I am HOWLING at what these kids think sex noises sound like!!

They’ve settled into their game and there is less belching and color shouting going on…I’m listening (though not “creeping”) to them talk about the game and it actually sounds quite interesting…I’m going to drink a beer(s) and try to write a paper (which might look a bit more like me watching Sherlock for the fourth time)

This is one of my favorite Friday nights in a long while.

Categories: love, on being a mom | Tags: best friends, friendship, fun, love, parenting, silly, teenagers | 6 Comments

too many books?

Posted on June 2, 2013 by robynbird

I love my books.
I love the way they look all orderly on the shelves.

I love the way they smell, especially the old ones …kind of dusty and slightly mildewy.
I love the way they feel when I hold them in my hand, even if only to dust them.
I love my books because they mean so many different things…love and learning…giggles and tears…
The ones I remember being read to me, the ones I read to Thing 1 and Thing 2 and my precious twin niece and nephew when they were still little bebes.
The ones I stood in line to meet the author and have signed, and old first editions I’ve tracked down thanks to the internet or by sheer happenstance because I love trolling used bookstores.
Vampires (Lestat not the Cullens) and a little redhaired girl on Prince Edward Island…the Pevensie children and Bennett sisters…Elizabeth and Richard’s furious love and zany madcap humor with Michael Palin…seven years with Harry and Ben Bradlee’s good life…Scarlett and Rhett and Esther Greenwood…in the garden at midnight and watching for falling angels…Morgaine of Avalon and Eloise…I’ve lived and learned and loved with these characters…these friends.

I don’t believe I could ever have too many books…until today…sweet merciful crap I have too many boxes of books!

It’s OK though…I still love them!