Mother's Day, Quote of the Day, a reading challenge, and problems with a neighbor

Hope you all had a great Mothers Day.

The kids and I bought Lisa a painting entitled 'Winter Trees' for the holiday. I'll probably post a picture of it once it's on the wall. Midmorning we bummed around a strip mall for a bit and then headed over to Olive Garden for lunch, where the kids were so awful at first that I stood up and said I wanted to go home. They quickly turned it around once the first breadstick arrived and were angels from that point forward, but they spent the rest of the afternoon at my Mom's house. That last bit was probably the best gift I gave Lisa the whole day.

Oh, my apologies. The baby was an angel start to finish. I don't want to lump her in with the rest of the troublemakers.

Anyhow, overheard at lunch:

LuLu: I'm a vampire, and I'm gonna suck your blood!

YaYa, w/ full head bob-and-shake: Nuh-uh. I'm a zombie, and I'm already dead so you can't suck my blood.

LuLu: Dad!

Me: It's true, zombies are the living dead. Even if they have blood I doubt you could drink it.  It's not good for you.

YaYa: Ha! Now I'm going to eat you!

 I casually dipped a breadstick. Then:  Well, zombies do eat flesh. But a vampire is pretty close to immortal, so I'm not sure how that would work. Seems like a no-win situation.

LuLu (singsong): Ha Ha! You can't eat me!

* * * *

On Friday the city showed up at my door in response to a neighbor's (and I use the term neighbor loosely) complaint that we are running a day care. It was their second complaint in a year. 

A f'ing day care. Whatever. There are days we can barely handle our four, no one here is looking to add someone else's kids to the mix.

The impetus for the call seems to be what the complaint refers to as 'children of multiple ethnicities' being dropped off at 'all hours of the day and night'. Last things first: my kids are in the house and on the way to bed at 7 pm, and the only time someone here is up past midnight is when the baby's crying.

Back to the first part. Chris' kids are half-black, and apparently that's reason enough for someone to call, and more surprisingly, for the city to respond.

I wrote a long and scathing post about this on my 'test journal' but I've buried it becase, frankly, I need to bury my anger, period. The city inspector blew off the complaint and said he'd pop a note in the records to ignore any future calls on the subject, but I am pissed.

Serenity now. Serenity now.

* * * *

One more thing. At the mall I bought YaYa a book for $1 ("He said it was either that or nothing, so I said fine, I'll take it") and she read it aloud to her siblings all the way to my Mom's. This was a book based on a German folk tale, and it featured some pretty hard words and a whole heck of a lot of text per page. 

 I say this to the world: quit bragging about your kid's reading to me. I hear you, I do, saying X is the best reader in his 1st grade class and he's bound for advanced placement. Here's what I say: must be a weak school system. YaYa's already chewing on a Nancy Drew book before bed. She's six and a half.

Bring it. I dog dare ya. One on one readoff, anytime, anyplace, YaYa vs any other 1st grader out there :)