More random listage

• My DVR didn't record American Idol last night.  Instead while we unknowingly watched a DVD (Invasion with Nicole Kidman), it recorded Wife Swap and an episode of The Wire that we'd already seen. I was dying to know how the girls did, but not enough to pay actual money to download the performances on Itunes.  Instead I actually had to WATCH the obnoxious recap crap tonight, of all the evils.  There were no surprises there.  And I must be on a streak with my dude predictions.
• So apparently, even though I'm not on the loan (no income, not as high a credit score as Dave's), I still needed to sign some documents today while the $85-per-hour mobile notary was at Dave's office.  Wish I'd known!  I had a play group planned (the one I'd already had to cancel twice due to illness) and there was just no way I could get there in time to get it all done today.  He's coming to our house tomorrow at 8AM, so this whole refinance thing will finally be behind us.
• Dave called me today freaking out about our credit report, which apparently showed some delinquent items, much to my SHOCK AND AWE.  I'm NEVER late with anything that has to do with our credit, so I was super pissed off and assumed he'd read something wrong.  After many annoying back-and-forth phone calls, we determined the only recent late item on our report was for a car loan we paid off in TEN DAYS.  I'm so mad about it!
  
  • [Quick backstory: We bought Dave's car (or was it mine? I can't remember since they're both the SAME) and initially financed it through the dealership.  Within a few days I found a better interest rate through our credit union and refinanced the auto loan.  After about a week, our credit union sent a check to the dealership to payoff our loan, which the dealership cashed immediately.  Funny then, when two months later I started getting calls that we were late paying the car loan, you know, the one that had ALREADY BEEN PAID IN FULL.  It took almost two more months and Dave having to make a phone call to the owner of the dealership before they actually paid off the loan with the money our credit union had sent them over THREE MONTHS earlier.  I was already pissed about this, but now that I see it's a ding on our credit report?  I'm LIVID.  I'm NEVER late with credit payments.  EVER.]
• We hosted some new friends from Alex's school this afternoon for a play date.  The kids ran around in the backyard and we all played duck-duck-goose.  It was so fun.  I'm going to miss seeing them every day at pick up time! (But of course we'll be scheduling plenty more afternoons, I'm sure).
• That said, Genoa is mean to babies.  I don't understand why!  She grabs their faces even though I've reprimanded her about a million times for it.  I can't leave her alone for two seconds!  Today while the moms were sitting on the grass, she followed our new one-year-old friend behind a tree and he came out crying and with scratches on his face.  I felt terrible!  I keep telling her, "Be nice to babies!  Gentle!" and she pats them sweetly on the head and says, "nice baby" but then the second I turn my head, she grabs them.  It's horrible!
• This raises another topic for me.  I've noticed that while my children have many excellent qualities, empathy has never been one of them.  Some kids get so worried about the feelings of others, you see them get that concerned look on their faces whenever anyone takes a spill or starts crying and you think, awww, how sweet.  No one ever thinks that about my kids!  Alex has his moments and can be very good with other children, but I rarely catch him putting anyone but himself first and sometimes he's downright mean.  It's hard to say that, that I wish both my kids were naturally more compassionate, but I guess it's something we can work on.  Shoot, I'm still working on it myself.
• I don't know why I never thought of this before, but in the interest of getting Alex to expand his culinary tastes, I yanked out some cookbooks and let him look through the pictures.  I told him that we could pick out anything he wanted and I would buy the ingredients and he could help me make it.  The only thing that looked appetizing to him was a recipe for au gratin potatoes, so I'll let you know how it goes.  I think it's time for me to start getting cookbooks out from the library so I can further his interest in the subject.
• I was so busy today that I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer.  Instead we had cheeseburgers with baked potato fans and I made focaccia in my cuisinart.  Too bad it was blah's all around.  The bread was a no-rise recipe that frankly needed time to rise and the baked potato fans turned out dry, in spite of the copious amendments I made to the recipe to allow for additional butter.  They can't all be winners.

Comments

[Rachel]

Genoa is normal... frustratingly normal :O)
Many children her age have the exact reaction including the little boy I nanny for and many of the children in the center where I work. They are gentle when you remind them, but you have to watch them like hawks or they'll rip each others faces off. And as for empathy... they're still a bit young. I do think there are kids who are as you said "naturally more compassionate", but I don't think there's anything wrong with the ones who aren't... you can teach them compassion, and it's Alex's age is definitely a good age to start.

[Stefania/CityMama]

Hey! You can watch the girls for free on idolonfox.com in a couple of days...i watch everything there since we dont have cable anymore. they kind of bury the performances in the left side bar, but just dig and you shall find. you can see all the songs performed, totally free.

I'd love the baked potato fan recipe! Are you going to "Ree" it?

[Tana]

Children bring adventure to our lives in all shapes and sizes! :O) I think it's great your looking at their personalities and evaluating areas you may like them to grow in.
Something I have been trying with my boys is to point out the good things they do and letting them know it makes me happy! It's a small step that I hope encourages growth. Maybe, if you see them being or doing something compassionate point it out and reward them for the behavior.

[Nancy]

I always found that my girls did better with "soft" than "gentle" for some reason. I'd take their hand and stroke my face and say, "Be soft." Then I'd stroke their face and say, "soft".

Could have been my imagination...but I think soft is a word they hear more often - with stuffed animals, a favorite blanket, etc.

But, yeah, they're pretty much normal and they'll come along as you keep at it with them.

[Kate]

I totally get the no empathy thing... Samantha is 9 and just staring to develop a little empathy so don't worry... it will come in a few years.