With our obsession of all things amphibian and my attempt to begin a foray into “chapter books”, it seemed a perfect time to revisit some old friends—Frog and Toad.
Neko was instantly enchanted. Last night we read two chapters, and took a sneak peek at the next one, where Toad loses a button. This morning she sprung out of bed, demanding to know all about this lost button. I caved, and we read the next chapter in our pajamas.
Tom had a late day and David is in China, so Beth brought the kids over for playtime and dinner. Since mayhem was already running rampant, we decided to throw all caution to the wind and give them all a bath together, too. This resulted in lots of splashing and lots of me yelling, “Neko. Neko! NEKO!” And Shep almost got booted for throwing full cups of water out of the tub.
Okay, so we’ve been taking showers for a while. And it shows. We’ve completely forgotten all bathtub etiquette. But they did have a really great time, the evening flew by, and everyone was sound asleep just a few minutes after their heads hit the pillow.
We’re on the mend around here, but still exhausted. We made it through the day, and that, in itself is an accomplishment. When five o’clock rolled around, Tom gave me the option to leave if I took Ellery, so we went to Target to pick up a $30 pool and a few pool toys. It was the best investment we made last summer, and we’re making it again this year.
Anyway, it was nice to get out of the house and walk up and down the aisles where no one was vying for my attention. And I got to eat a Crispani from Panera which was surprisingly delicious.
Shep spent Saturday throwing up. Cheerful and back to normal on Sunday. Whew! Must have been something he ate or some little bug. What a relief.
Back to normal life on Monday. But Tuesday, at about 12:30am, Neko started throwing up. Tom followed suit in the morning.
Having the kids all day isn’t that big a deal, but the combination of sick/post-sick/infant is deadly. Neko just wants to sit on my lap all day. And Shep, now feeling better, wants to runs around the house at 100 miles an hours, switching activities every three seconds. Did I mention the house in under construction? While I am thrilled that my wall is finally going up, it couldn’t be worse timing. We’ve lost 50% of our play space, and every few seconds our conversation is punctuated by a pneumatic nailer which sounds like a gunshot.
Poor Ellery is somewhere in the middle of it all, just hoping someone might notice her and feed and change her occasionally.
Must get healthy. Soon. And am desperately hoping we haven’t spread the plague to others.
I’m still adjusting to the fact that when Mother’s Day rolls around, it’s not just about remembering to call my mom. I get to celebrate, too. Nutty.
Tom vacated the hotel early to get home and take over the kids from my mom, leaving me to have a leisurely breakfast with friends and do some shopping at my own speed. Is it bad to celebrate Mother’s Day by not being with your kids?
Don’t scorn me yet. I made it home by mid-afternoon, in time to receive my homemade t-shirt and many big hugs and kisses. Neko drew a picture, folded the paper, and wrote “Mom” on it without any help from an adult. Kate said when they learn to write it melts your heart, and I’m finding that she’s right on the money.
Later I demanded we learn how to use the timer on the camera and take a quick family portrait and then the kids practiced their rock star moves where they take a running start and drop to their knees for a sliding finish. (Video to follow, I swear.) Shep demanded that Tom and I try it a few times, but knees over the age of thirty are clearly not meant for such activities.
Tomorrow, back to the mom trenches. Today? A supastar. (With bruises on her knees to prove it.)
I have known my friend Beth since the beginning of freshman year, which, according to my shaky math, is nearly two decades. Almost half my life. In fact, I probably have Beth to blame for some of my shaky math, since we took some mid-level math class that year with Professor Ali Lari-Lavassani. This was the class where we became known as the rowdy ones, which is a dubious title, considering it was a several hundred person lecture. I think he secretly liked us, though, because we were having a great time, and really, who ever whoops it up in Math 110?
Then there’s the hot dog vendor I almost mowed over with my bike, and someone convincing me to skip Econ in lieu of ice cream, never living down sleeping all the way from spring break, and Holy Tampax! and getting ejected from bars in Put-in-Bay and the list goes on.
Beth is one of those people who can walk into a room of strangers and walk out making everyone feel like they just made a new best friend. We were sad to see her run off to California, but when you land a job where you get to see George Clooney on a semi-regular basis, you can hardly blame her for hanging out there that long. But then she came back home. And met Dave. And I can’t imagine any better way for the story to end.
So when it was the morning of their reception and Shep started puking, I couldn’t imagine worse possible timing. Ultimately, it all sorted itself out and we made it to the wedding, with Ellery in tow. We’re so happy to see Beth and Dave get hitched, and seeing all our friends is such a bonus. Now I just need to sort through the 600+ photos I took.
Congratulations B&D.
It was time to let the toad go home. Neko was hesitant, but we let her spend some time holding the toad, and then we let her be the one to let her go. She did it without a tear or a tantrum, and Shep backed off and let them be.
Ellery slept from 8:30pm until 8:00am, only waking twice to eat. Good job, kid. You can keep that up.
On a not-so-positive note, will someone please remind me that Fridays in the month of May are a godawful time to go to any place that a school might even consider taking their kids. Last week, we went to the zoo. Ridiculously crowded. Today we went to the aquarium. And, you know, when I saw the line of 50 kids stretching out beyond the main door, I almost did a 180 and ran. But Neko and Shep have been watching this DVD about aquariums all week and I didn’t have a prayer of not going.
So we went. An intimate trip of us and about 300 kids and not-very-attentive chaparones all crammed into a teeney midwest aquarium. I’m developing a theory that kids between the ages of 8 and 14 have no field of vision below their chests because Neko and Shep almost got plowed about 26 times. And they’ve changed the traffic flow, and somehow we missed the otters, which Neko was pretty ticked about. But somehow, out of the 642 frantic pre-adolescents trying to touch the baby sharks, Neko managed to do it, which made her toally forget the otters and exit in a blissful state.
Later we got pizza and had a picnic by the river in the sunshine, and everyone should have a picnic by the river in the sunshine in a box in their closet for rainy days because I completely forgot all about the crowds and suddenly we were all smiling.
