Punk Ass Bully

Last night, my Sophia snuck off and chopped off a big chunk of her hair.  Initially, I was upset at HER, assuming this was another one of her hair-chopping shenanigans she used to pull a couple years back.  But the more I thought and thought about it, something just didn't feel right. Mother's instinct? I'd like to think so.

But here's the backstory: 

At the beginning of this week, Sophie walked into the house after school with her head down, stomping, "This kid Justin said I have moustache!" Now, my daughter has thick dark hair...which of course, well, yeah there may be a slightly darker color to her upper lip. But at this age when monkey bars and sandboxes should be the only thing on their innocent little minds...appearance should absolutely NOT be a concern!!!

We had a little talk about it, asked her how she felt about the situation, asked her what she wanted us to do to help, and gave her a little advice. She seemed to feel good about our conversation and we let it go. 

The next day, she came home again, a little more upset than before. "Justin was pointing to each girl and saying 'pretty' or 'ugly' and he called me ugly."

Really?!?! There was nothing I wanted to do and hunt this punk down and pommel his face. Instead, we sat down with her again. We talked to her about bullies, but really, I didn't quite know what the proper thing to say was. I never had to deal with this when I was a kid.  I didn't even realize kids could be so mean.

And so yesterday, I spied the state of her hair, and oblivious mom yelled at her for doing it.  Then this morning I asked her again why she did it and she hung her head and muttered, "I was just so mad at him."

This girl is vivacious, and spunky, and just an incredible unique little individual. She's comfortable playing by herself in the playground if nobody wants to play what she wants to play. Her heart is huge and she refuses to say anything unkind to anyone.  And to think one little delinquent can make her feel so insecure and bad that she felt the need to cut her hair off....I am beyond words.  My heart is broken I couldn't protect my precious little girl from this.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes, "Mom, can you make him stop?"

Hell, yeah I can. Phone calls to the school counselor and proper notification to the principal have been made.  This kid WILL be stopped. Even if I have to demand this kid lose his bus privileges.  Even if I have to hunt his home address down so I can corner his parents. 

Have any of you had any type of experience dealing with this? What did you do? Advice, people, is needed!!!

Sophie's Bday Weekend

My Sophie-So turned the big S-E-V-E-N this weekend.  Where does the time go? She certainly doesn't LOOK seven, (she still wears a size 5) but when I count the years from when she was born...well, yeah...it definitely has been seven years. Before I get all sentimental and start bawling via blog post, let me tell you folks about her celebration.

Unfortunately, the fam has not been here long enough to warrant a big enough guest list for the Pinkalicious party she wanted thrown in her honor.  BUT, we found an alternate option to make this princess feel extra special...in true Sophie style.

Instead of tutus and tiaras, we scored discount tickets via the base ticket and tours office to a 4-hr Wildlife Watching Cruise off Seward, AK.

We boarded the Orca Song, a boat seating 150 pax, and headed off into Resurrection Bay.

They provided complimentary Nikon binoculars for our use, but we really didn't need it since we always got close enough to whatever we wanted to see. Five minutes from pushing off the dock, our first encounter was with a big fat cutie patootie of a sea otter, floating on its back and basking in his celebrity status. Sorry no pics...we were still unprepared and settling in when the captain announced Mr. Sea Otter's presence.

The Dall porpoises were my personal favorite. They look like baby orcas There were several pods within the bay and all of them were playful, chasing boats and jumping out of the water.

This time of year signals the annual migration of California gray whales up into Alaskan waters.  We found one. This is a very brief shot of it, you can see it spout air and dive down. We were all too enthralled at the sight, the camera was pulled out a bit late.

This is the same one, we couldn't figure if it was just one or two, but you'll see it spout off water a couple times.

Right past Fox Island, there was a rock completely covered with sea lions! Awesome!

And then, the boat rocked a lot, and Sophia and Dylan's propensity for seasickness made itself known.  LOL.  Kudos to Major Marine Tours for having Dramamine for Kids! Fortunately, none of my kids hurled into the sick bags.  Unfortunately, the medication knocked them out for a full hour.

Back on land, we checked into our hotel (Sea Breeze Inn) literally across the street from the harbor.  We lucked out that a party canxd their reservation at Ray's Waterfront, and so we were seated with a harborview table for Sophie's bday dinner.

A 50 dollar (yes, five-oh) entree for her....she finished all but half a leg of her 1.5 lb order of king crab legs. Baby girl WENT--TO--TOWN with her crab! AND, she had a strawberry sundae aftewards. You all know how small she is...where does it all go???

A walk out on the rock beach at Resurrection campground helped her walk it off.

 

Skipping rocks has become an ultimate Fam Och activity.

The next day, we took a trip down to the Alaska Sealife Center, a local aquarium with loads on great info and hands-on activities for the kids.  We then headed back home, a two-hour beautiful drive through the most gorgeous scenery.

The Mister and I knew we did right when Sophie sighed, "This is the best birthday EVER!"

Transformation Begins

And the jumbo project starts. The boxes are out of the way. And the process of fitting our belongings into this new floorplan begins...

The only viable place we could set our TV was in front of the living room window. Not my ideal spot.  But, we had to consider electric sockets, cable plug, and the position of the vents (which were in the most unlikely places, of course).  Good thing, this room is vaulted so it's not so cave-like.  I am thinking dove gray, yellow, and teal for this room.  I am sick of the white walls already, but I've been wrestling with which color to slap on these wall(s). 

  The Mister says, "Welcome to our home...sponsored by Ikea and Target!"

Still so much work to do. Resources are ridiculously limited here. Shipping rates to AK is insane. Therefore, it is a pretty safe bet this transformation will be snail-like at best in pace. But I did promise a photo. So here it is. I want a bright (is flokati out now?) big comfy area rug in the living room. Our leather armchair is now nestled in front of the right bookcase. I have some prints to have framed and hung on the walls. I want to find some bright geometic pattern fabric to make into a roman shade to cover that window. The list goes on and on...