4 Paones

You can tell these two kids had fun yesterday! They were exhausted after being out all day, but they’ve been talking about it ever since. Thanks, Aunt Valorie and Aunt Denise. You’re the best!

I thought about it, but once again, I just couldn’t do it. Black Friday scares me and the thought of braving lines, crowds and deals (that really aren’t that great if you play the line and rush game). I did a little internet shopping from the safety of bed. Some day I will join the masses and get all the good savings, but… not today!

We love you!

What a day! The good news is that after attending my little girl’s open house at school, I found out that besides enjoying her school and trying her best to get all “E’s”, she’s quite a friendly little things and has made friends of most of her classmates. That was nice! The “not so nice” side of things is that I found out I don’t have all the paperwork I needed, so V may end up having to sit out of school for a few days to a week until everything gets sorted out. Ah, well… I was close to tears trying to sort all this out and making multiple trips to V’s doctor, only to find that there is a lot of red tape involved with the paperwork I need. Justin saved the day with his sensible solutions and level headed… “It’s not the end of the world” encouragement. Lesson learned (of do your research). Live and learn — Arg!

With all the news you hear about obesity these days, one of my big concerns with V starting school has been that she will be exposed to a lot of unhealthy eating habits and sugary foods and drinks in particular. While the school breakfast menu does leave something to be desired. (they served pop tarts the first day and apple pie the next) I took a peek at their lunch menu today. I was pleasantly surprised to see to that most plates involved whole wheat products (pizza, hamburger buns, pasta). It turns out our school is one of ten in the area that are participating in a special nutrition program. Anyways, that was good news and it makes me happy that something is being done on the school level to help children eat healthier and be educated about healthy eating. Now… if they started having PE 5 days a week, I would be even happier.

Someone should get the word out in the medical community that doctors need to take their online reviews and presence seriously. And, it would be very helpful and probably good business sense to encourage (happy) patients to post reviews on them rather than having that one unhappy camper slandering your practice and being the sole review on you. When looking for doctors for my kids, I google each one on the list my insurance gives me and I will typically will go with one that has a few good reviews, good info on their education AND a picture. I’ve been amazed at how few of them actually have any helpful information or reviews on them.

And while we’re on doctors… dentists are worse! I got a list of three pediatric dentists and they all 3 have horrible reviews. I have yet to find a dentist that has good reviews.  Either all dentists in Houston are “horrible, money mongers who are to be  avoided until your teeth fall out,” or they need to get to work on some online reputation management. Crazy stuff!

I get home a few days back after being gone for a few weeks and what do you know… my two year has learned to argue! Of course, I should have expected that sooner rather than later being as being Paones, it was just a matter of time before they started to partake of the family tradition of huge debates at every family barbeque or gathering. So I’m putting my kids to bed and my daughter ticked her brother off somehow.  His response?

Him: “I’m going to break your clothes!”

Her: “If you do that, I’m going to lock you out of the room and rip up ALL your clothes!”

Him: If you do that, I’m going to hit you with my bat!”

Her: Then I’ll hit you with the light saber”

Him: “But my light sabre is lost.”

Her: “Then I’ll hit you with the piggy bank”

Him: “Then I will poop on you.”

This is when I realized this was just going to go down hill and corrected them for being mean to each other. Anyways… so much to look forward to.