Maddie loves Superman (and Dinosaurs and Spongebob)

Blogging is kind of addictive. I find that I have tons of things to write about, and could probably post multiple times a day, but then I would look like a freak with nothing better to do with my time...which is probably not that far from the truth. Of course, I could probably do 10 other things right now that would actually be more productive (like sort and file the mountain of mail that's been piling up for weeks now or start preparing dinner), but no~ I'm sitting here typing again...

A couple of things that are on my mind right now: (1) Huggies suck! (2) Is tomboyishness (that can't be a word) innate?

(1) Huggies are horrible. Someone gave us a box of Huggies diapers, and I'm about halfway through the box now, but I'm *this* close to giving the rest of the diapers away cuz I hate them so much. They're Huggies Supreme, so I'm assuming they're supposed to be better than the regular Huggies, but they are super thick / coarse and not soft. Pampers are 1000x better. If you're in the market for diapers, buy Pampers hands-down. Don't buy Huggies EVER!

(2) Maddie is such a tomboy. I don't get it. She is SO not into the whole princess thing. No interest whatsoever. Instead, she *loves* Superman. We've watched Superman Returns (the latest one with Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey) at least 30x. We start the movie on scene 13, where Superman appears out of nowhere to save the burning jet with Lois Lane on board. She even drapes her "gucky" around her shoulders and runs around, calling herself "Super Maddie." One guess on who she's going to be for Halloween... Haha.

Of the Disney movies, her favorites are Monsters Inc., Cars, Toy Story 2, and The Incredibles. Right now though, she is really into Spongebob Square Pants. I have never watched so many episodes of SSP in my life. I'm not sure if she really gets what's going on in the cartoon (cuz it can be kind of crass at times), but regardless, she seems to love it and asks for it over and over again. She especially loves the episodes when Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy defeat Dirty Bubble.

The other day, we were at Target and Rich said she could have a toy. What does she pick? A weird-looking dinosaur figurine. It was so ugly that I encouraged her to choose something else (besides it didn't have a tag and I didn't want to have to deal with that at the register), so she ended up picking a shark instead. Mind you, it's not a cute, cartoon-y looking shark, it's a realistic, scary-looking one with teeth and pointy fins. Later that night, Rich tells me that the dinosaur and the shark were the two things he would've picked also as a kid...and that she picked the two coolest ones, in his opinion. Go figure!

So, how is it that some girls are completely bought into the Disney Princesses and Maddie is not? It's not like Maddie has an older brother whose tastes in toys she wants to mimic. And it's not from lack of exposure to those things more typically gender-female. It just happens to be that Maddie prefers these other things that are gender-male. She honestly has no desire to watch Cinderella or Beauty & the Beast...and she has absolutely no interest in playing dress-up. She likes Little Mermaid okay, but I think it's because she likes the shark scene (and maybe Flounder too, leftover from her Finding Nemo obsession).

Anyway, it's not a bad thing. It could always be worse (i.e., Princesses at nauseum)...and besides, I think it's kind of cute that she has a crush on Superman. The girl's got good taste, BR is pretty hot! Gotta love my little tomboy!

First Day of School - A Success!

So, Maddie's first day of school was a success (for the most part). We bribed her to put on her uniform using a flikflak watch that I had purchased just for the occasion. It worked like a charm.

Upon arriving on campus, she even greeted two of the greeters who were standing at the door with a semi-cheery "g'morning" and a handshake. It wasn't until we approached her classroom that she became gunshy. She was walking backwards to my walking forward. I left her crying, in the capable hands of her teacher, and proceeded to drop off her medical forms to the office down the hall. By the time I passed her door again (less than 5 minutes later), her crying had ceased so I knew she was fine.

At pick-up however, she melted down when she saw me peeking in through the window. As soon as she saw my face, she started bawling. Bad move on my part. Lesson learned: no more peeking into the classroom...at least for the first few weeks.

Now the true question is whether we'll survive days 2 and 3 (tomorrow and Thursday). Hopefully this will only get easier and easier. Unfortunately, I will have Nathan with me from now on, so here's to hoping that Maddie gets used to school pretty quickly.

BTW, I wanted to provide a link to a pretty hilarious youtube video of Miss South Carolina @ the recent Miss Teen USA pageant (in case you haven't seen it already).

My First Post

So, yesterday I joined Facebook and also started this blog. I really doubt anyone is going to read what I have to say, but I feel like it might be cathartic in a way...kind of like writing a diary.

As you can see from the title of this blog, I am officially now a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom). This past Tuesday was the last day of my FMLA, following the birth of Nathan (our 2nd child). Funny how after having Madison back in 2004, I was actually itching to go back to work...but this time, I'm pretty much comfortable with the fact that my salary earning days are over. People keep telling me that I can always go back in a couple of years, once the kids are older...but I always knew that once I stopped working, it was going to be for good. Anyway, I'm okay with that.

In addition to having Nathan, another big change is that Maddie will be starting school on Monday. She'll be an Alpha at P* School. In fact, Rich and I went to a meet-and-greet / wine-and-cheese event with the other Alpha parents last night. It was okay, all the parents were nice enough (there were a lot of doctors there). Maddie, of course, is the only asian child out of the 22 Alphas. Yay, for diversity! The student body at P* School is pretty much homogenous, but we knew that going in. It's fine though, especially at the preschool level. I severely doubt that Maddie will experience any type of racial discrimination. Besides, it's a christian school.

The funny thing though was that Rich and I looked like little kids compared to the other parents. They probably thought we were in our early 20s. And everyone there looked (to us) like they were easily in their 40s (and some looked even older than that). Upon knowing that Rich was a urologist, they probably thought he was some kind of Doogie Howser. Haha.

Well, Monday should be pretty eventful. I'm not sure how I'm going to get Maddie to wear her uniform since she's pretty much been hating it ever since I brought it home. Besides that, she's been wearing Crocs all summer, so convincing her to wear shoes and socks...ummm, that's not going to be fun. I'm pretty much preparing for a Battle Royale Monday morning.

Anyway, I know this is a boring start to what's probably going to be a boring blog, but hopefully if you start reading, you'll keep coming back. TTYL