Late

I hate to be late. This may be shocking for those of you in my world because I am usually tardy for nearly everything, but my blood pressure starts racing for the roof every minute past an expected arrival.

But you see this?




It is a classic example of why I rarely make it somewhere on time. I know, I shouldn't have left my lipstick in an obvious place in the car. And part of me was impressed she kept it only to the lip area. But still. This sort of thing happens every_single_day in my house and always just as we're getting ready to leave.

So, apologies to everyone who has to deal with me and my family and our inability to be anywhere on time. I'm sure you understand.

Daddy Tax

Ainsley attended a birthday party a couple weeks ago and is still making her way through the candy bag. Smarties were chosen as tonight's treat and as she started in, John informed her of the "Daddy Tax" (as in: all food is supposed to be shared with Daddy). Not sure if he was kidding, Ainsley glanced up at me to see what I thought. You see, the kids really is nicer than her mother and would have begrudgingly given her dad some of her candy. I nodded "no", because I don't willingly share food with anyone. It makes me nutso that the triplets eat 1/4 of anything I ever have.

John then told Ainsley that when Halloween comes, they get to go through her loot and the program would be "one for Daddy, one for Ainsley". With no pause, Ains replied "I'll just give you what I don't like".

Yup. Raising her right.

Now I Get It

School is cramping my style. I can finally understand why some kids don't like to go back to school, because I'm beginning to not care for it myself. After a summer of total freedom with what we could do, where we could go, and whenever we wanted, our lives are now dictated by school bells. Or whatever they use these days. It just isn't cool.

Of course I get it. I'm a teacher by trade and I still get fired up when the school supplies start appearing in the stores and when I see the cross country kids beginning to get ready for the season (I'm biased). For crying out loud, I LOVED school growing up.

But when the really beautiful fall weather hits here, it's going to take every ounce of self control to not wake up and say to my little girl "You know, you're not going to school today. It's a play day". And then load everyone up for a leisurely day at the botanical gardens or zoo.

Sigh...

See this little bundle of sweetness?


There's a rock in her nose.

Well, there was a rock in her nose at some point. A few at several different times, to be honest. But one got stuck. And by the time we got her home from the playground and I got the tweezers out to extract it, the dang thing had disappeared. So it's either still there and journeyed further up and out of flashlight range, or it has managed to...oh, I don't know. Let's just assume she sneezed it out.

Good grief.

First Day

How did we get to this point? When did this happen? Someone at church warned me, after I'd had a horrible week with the triplets, that I would turn around twice and the kids would be off to college. I knew at the time this was true, but I didn't know the heartache would start so soon.

Ainsley was so ready and so excited for Kindergarten. It isn't her fault I still think of her in this stage:



The dreaded drop-off went as predicted. We walked back to the playground, milled around a bit with the other parents and kids, and then our babies were called to line up with their teachers to go inside. I didn't know we were allowed to go inside to their room, so I kissed her and then started crying. Regaining my composure to follow her class inside wasn't too difficult, but this was where the hard stuff started. You see, once the kids got to their classroom and found a spot to sit for circle time, there was this moment. A moment where, when all these little bitty wee ones were sitting there, cross-legged, so sweet with their huge backpacks and new shoes, all totally unsure of what was going to happen, that I had to fight every instinct to grab my girl and say "Okay, that's enough for this year. We'll see you in first grade!", and take her with me.

I wanted to bring her home and hold her and cuddle her and rock her and never let go.



I'm not sure I want to take her back tomorrow. One day is enough, right?

Why?

Morning conversation with Johnny. Verbatim.

Context: I'm in the bathroom, trying to get contacts in so I can function properly.

Enter: The Boy

Johnny: "Hi Mommy!! Whatcha doin'?". Proceeds to open every_single_drawer and cabinet.

Me: "Shut the drawer please. Shut the drawer please. Close the door, please. Don't dig around in there. That's not for you"

Johnny: "What's this?" (after pulling open the 4th drawer and discovering my obviously rarely-used hairdryer)

Me: "It's a hairdryer. Please don't play with it."

Johnny: "Why?"

Me: "Because it isn't safe for you to play with cords."

Johnny: "Why is it a hay-uh-dwyer?" (the "w" is intentional)

Me: "Because it is used to dry peoples' hair."

Johnny: "Why?"

Me: "Because that's what it does. That's its job."

Johnny: "Why"

Me: "Go find Daddy."

Johnny: Exits room.

Me: Sigh.

I swear that kid talks to hear his head rattle. Most of me hopes he never stops...

Promises Kept

I take the kids to the zoo as often as possible, which usually ends up being at least 1x/month. Problem: there is a train and a carousel and I can't do those things by myself. Even when we're with friends (which we usually are), they're usually needing to practice injury prevention with their own kids and aren't available to help - as much as they'd like. Every time we go I promise, promise, promise that John will come with us sometime and THEN we can do all the "fun stuff".

Finally, finally we had a free morning this past weekend. It was a last-second decision and we impressed ourselves with mobilizing in less than 15 minutes. It's unbelievable how quickly my kids can move when told they're going somewhere fun.

3 Notes:

1. I can't believe we didn't get any other pictures. The kids were beside themselves to FINALLY ride the train and carousel and were so good. So very, very patient and sweet. And so excited to be there with their Dad. He doesn't get to do the fun stuff very often.

2. I forget that people actually come to our town to vacation. I get used to visiting in the fall and winter months, when we practically have the entire place to ourselves and I can let the kids run wild-ish. The place was packed this weekend and, to be honest, I got a little indignant. I mean, this is MY zoo. Who ARE all these people?!?!!

3. Shout-out to War Eagle Family - the kids were dressed in their gear which elicited a friendly "Roll Tide!" from some other visitors. After a laugh from us and a "Please, you have got to be kidding, it's War Eagle all day, people!", and a word of explanation why our 4 children are decked out when the parental units have never stepped foot on Auburn grounds, we had a friendly conversation with the Bama folk who actually like Coach Chizik and what he wants from the team. Someday we'll get to a game...