Naptime Blog

I am still not sure how I feel about the phone call that I got from the Principal last week.  I mean I am proud of my daughter for sticking up for herself and not allowing anyone to get away with touching her, but I do not like that my child feels that it is okay to hit another child.  Let me backtrack a bit.

When the Principal called at 1 PM last Tuesday, I thought it was the nurse calling to tell me Juliana was not feeling well.  When I heard the Principal’s voice, I thought it might be about the website that I have been managing for the past two years for the school.  Instead, I heard “Juliana hit a little boy in the schoolyard today”.  WHAT?  I would have liked to say “You have the wrong child”, but first of all, the school is small and the Principal knows all the children personally by name, and second, I loathe when parents deny that their child could do no wrong. So I sat there and listened while she told me the story.

I learned that the children were playing during recess, and one of the boys tagged her on the shoulder.  Another boy squeezed her in the breast area.  Although my daughter is too young to have developed anything in that area, I have been adamant about teaching her that she should never allow anyone to touch her in her private areas, and that area was of course a private area.

I am not sure if it was sheer reflex, but turns out my daughter hauled off and punched the little boy in the jaw saying “You are not supposed to touch a girl like that!”  The boy started crying and his lip bled.  They were both called to the principal’s office, he admitted what he did and apologized, the principal told my daughter that she should have called the lunch mother, and told both of them that no one should be touching anyone’s private areas.  The principal called the boy’s mom and then called me, and told me that although she did not tell Juliana outright, she is proud that Juliana knows to never let someone touch her and that she defended herself. 

I, on the other hand, cannot believe my daughter hit another child!  I have never been in a fight and would never have hit anyone else, although there have been times in my life when I WISH I would have!  I would have preferred that she went to the lunch mother as well, and did not condone the hitting.

The one thing I wanted my daughter to clarify to me was “Are you sure he didn’t touch you by accident?”  And Juliana explained to me that the boy not only touched her, he pinched her in that area and twisted!  Not only was she defending herself from a boy touching her where he had no right to touch her, she was also probably embarrassed that he did this, and maybe he even hurt her! 

My husband and I did sit her down that evening to have a talk with her.  I needed to stress that hitting is not something we will allow.  I reminded her that she needs to go to a trusted adult if anyone ever hurts her or does something wrong to her.  I told her that I never want another call from the Principal saying that Juliana hit anyone ever again.
When she went to bed later that night, I told my husband that I was secretly very proud of my daughter for sticking up for herself.  I know that I never had the guts to do that when I was younger, and although I meant what I said about never wanting to hear that my daughter hit another child, I am very happy she has proven that she will not allow anyone to hurt her or touch her inappropriately.  And I hope the little boy learned his lesson as well! 

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (2 months)
www.nevaland.com

My husband and I are cooking Christmas dinner this year.  We are hosting 15 or more family members.  Both my family and my in-laws are of Italian descent, and both families have kept the holiday traditions alive through the years with menus.  I cannot believe how much food is actually served at a holiday in our family!

First, we begin with an antipasto (appetizer) which consists of various cheeses and deli style meats.  These antipasto trays are served with bread and some salads, peppers, olives, sweet breads, stuffed mushrooms, and more.  (Hang on, I am FAR from done!)

Next is the pasta course.  Christmas is generally lasagna, with mini meatballs inside.  We cannot forget the “gravy meat”, which is meatballs and sausage among other meats served in the lasagna sauce.

Then comes the main course, which is either one or two of the following: roast beef, fresh ham, leg of lamb or turkey.  This is accompanied by various vegetables and starches, such as stuffed artichokes, green beans, broccoli, salad, baked potatoes, yams, more bread and other fixings that go along with the meats.  (And the meal continues, thank goodness this is only one day a year!)

Fruit and nuts come next, with various winter fruits and nuts, including my favorite, chestnuts.  I guess we use the excuse that there are all these fresh fruits and veggies in the meal, therefore we are eating “healthy”! 

If anyone still has room left (which most of us FIND room for dessert!), dessert is last, served with different types of coffees and liquors.  Oops, I forgot to mention the red and white wines that are served throughout the meal.  So yes, I guess my family is stuffed and drunk by evening!  Everyone who comes to dinner has either baked cookies, pies, cheesecakes, and/or purchased a variety of these as well as pastries for dessert.  Wow, I am getting a stomach ache just thinking about all this food!  But I believe everyone should experience this kind of meal if just ONCE!  Amazing!

Our supermarket hosts a special each holiday season, just before Thanksgiving, that if you accumulate a certain number of points from shopping in the weeks before Thanksgiving, you can earn a one time use 20% off coupon on a future purchase to be redeemed the week of Thanksgiving.  So my husband and I took advantage and managed to purchase any items for Christmas dinner that we could in advance with the discount coupon. 

Now just imagine how much money it costs to purchase all of these things?  The dry sausage and cheeses alone are a small fortune!  We decided to save wherever we could and buy generic.  Many of the food items above do not come in generic, however, I am proud to say that I saved a fortune on other items needed to prepare dinner!  For instance, instead of buying ‘Reynold’s Wrap’ at $6.99 a roll, I bought the store brand at $3.99!  I bought store brand baggies to wrap up the cheeses in and saved another small fortune!  And because I want to be able to toss after dessert and get some much needed rest, we got the store brand coffee cups and dessert plates as well! 

We will need to spend an afternoon the week of Christmas shopping for more groceries for Christmas dinner.  So while many people shop for gifts, this year I will be adding “groceries” to my Christmas shopping list!

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (2 months)
www.nevaland.com