Today I got to "sleep in" until around 5:15 when Mia decided it was time to rise and shine. Well, really it was more of "lie prostrate and whine." But the funniest thing happened: I laid there and waited for several minutes for Laura to go in and get her. It was a very rude mental awakening when I realized that nobody was going to stop that baby crying except me. Or God. I did wait a few moments longer to see if God would do it, but He was busy, I think.
So I put Mia down in bed with me and she turned into a whirling dervish. I don't believe I slept much after that; I do distinctly remember her diapered butt resting squarely on my face, and it was far too vivid to be a dream.
Around 7:15 I must have been drowsing because I was startled awake by two nearly simultaneous events: Mia PULLING MY HAIR -- I'm talking full-on caveman style -- and an unnecessarily loud first blast from the Star Wars theme coming from downstairs, where James had already turned on the Wii but had clearly not done a sound check before starting his game.
So this is Tuesday.
I found out at breakfast that Breakfast Diva Emma only eats pancakes and waffles with Nutella on them. What happened to the days of getting Nutella in your Christmas stocking and rationing it for 5 months in tiny dollops? Now my child is apparently entitled to eat chocolate frosting on all her breakfast items.
Today was my first test of getting-kids-ready-to-be-somewhere-important-and-on-time: Summer Recreation classes at the city park. We arrived at the park with all socks and shoes intact, and with 5 minutes to spare. In fact I began to panic because my kids were the first kids to show up for their individual classes, and I wondered if I'd gotten the time wrong altogether. I hadn't though: all those other slacker moms began drifting in after us.
As I looked around the park at the other parents (all moms), I realized how out of place I was. For one thing, I wasn't wearing yoga pants. The moms were all nice to me with their words but I could tell from their looks that they were all a bunch of mother hens and they did not appreciate the rooster coming to visit. Just kidding, everyone was nice.
On the way home, our Swagger Wagon {cough - mini van} had a flat tire sensor come on, so I took it up to the tire place. James immediately climbed inside a large display tire and was inches from rolling right out of the display stand and rolling who-knows-where. Keeping 3 kids entertained at a tire shop was not easy; I daresay even Lauralee couldn't have hacked it. The highlight of this trip was when an employee got a bag of chips stuck in the vending machine. James attempted to reach his skinny little arms up inside the machine to reach them. He couldn't, of course, but at the moment he attempted it something gave way and the chips fell. It scared James to death, and he scurried away without hearing the mechanic thank him, and tell the receptionist about the "cool little kid" who got his chips unstuck.
We had lunch at McDonald's, and it is official: Mia can out-eat both of her two older siblings. McDonald's was crazy today. Emma came over after just a few minutes of playing in the Playland because (this is a direct quote:) "It's too screamy in here." Coming from one who is often the source of the 'screaminess,' this was truly amazing.
We all came home and cooled down in front of the television. I finally made the kids turn it off and James and I played Candyland. His 3rd card was Princess Frostine, which moved him near the end of the board. Oh, man, he was so delighted. He has a hard time accepting defeat. "I'm going to win!" he chanted over and over again. I silently wondered, "at what age should you introduce a child to the idea of Karma?" Sure enough, he pulled the Grandma Nutt card. He didn't freak out. I'll save the Karma speech for another day.
Emma wanted to watch a DVD we had checked out from the library. I told her we needed to do something else. I said, "You've got my undivided attention. If you could do anything with your dad right now, what would it be?" (I really walked into this one.) She held up the DVD and said, "WATCH. THIS. DVD!" I told her we needed to do something other than watch TV. I didn't see her again for awhile.
When she came back, she handed me two scraps of paper that she had just made.
"I want to have a movie theater in our living room and go the movies with you, Dad." Heart = melted. She even stood at the entryway to the living room with a hole punch and punched our tickets. We made popcorn and watched more TV together.
Despite James' prophesy that tonight's dinner would be "gross," it was actually well-received (spaghetti.) I do, however, retract last night's statement that I keep a tidy kitchen.
Bed time was uneventful with this exception: while Emma was going potty, she casually but matter-of-factly stated, "I'm glad I have a big-girl butt now. I was getting really tired of holding on to the sides of the toilet seat. My big-girl butt fits just right. But now my legs fall asleep sometimes." And, sure enough, they did fall asleep, because when she got off the toilet, she fell down, grabbed one of her legs, and rolled around in a spectacle that would have made a European soccer player proud. These are the moments that really make you glad to be a parent.
Good night, log. I've got to get to bed so I can rest before my 7:15 hair-pulling appointment.
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