Carolyn came home with a backpack stuffed with stuff and a shirt covered with her classmates’ handprints. Let summer vacation begin!
Year: 2011
My Mad (but rusty) Bento Skillz
It’s the last week of school, which means “Cook’s Choice” for the whole week on the lunch menu. “Cook’s Choice” (aka whatever’s left in the bottom of the fridge) is not a friendly sounding thing to a somewhat picky eater, so Carolyn has been bringing her lunch all week.
This morning at 8:05 (the bus comes at 8:27) I got out all the sandwich makings and said “Sunbutter and honey, right?” and got a face. I tried again, “Ham?” and got another face. So I said, “All right, what do you want for lunch??” “Can I have a lunch without a sandwich?” “What do you mean, a lunch without a sandwich?” “Like you used to make, with lots of different things but no sandwich, remember?” Errr…it’s 8:09 AM, the bus comes in 18 minutes, and you want me to make a bento?!? After not wanting a bento lunch since last October…? Oh, sure, why not?
Not bad, considering how out-of-practice I am and how very little time I had to stand in front of the fridge and figure out what on earth could go in a bento and form a complete-ish meal!
Of Hyperbole and Imaginary Friends
Carolyn seems to have mastered the art of hyperbole: “Mommy, you’re the best mommy in the whole entire universe!” is a common one. As is “Anna, you’re the best little sister ever!” I’m just waiting until she learns that they can be used negatively, too.
And yesterday in the car I brought up Mimi. Mimi first appeared almost four years ago, and has been a significant part of Carolyn’s world since. We haven’t heard about Mimi in a while, so I just casually asked Carolyn what Mimi was up to these days.
Well. The conversation went like this:
C: “Mommy, Mimi has a boyfriend!”
Me: “Really? A boyfriend? Um…so how old is Mimi now?”
C: “Oh, just a little older than me. 10. Or maybe 11.”
Me: “10…or 11? And she has a boyfriend now?”
C: “Yeah, that’s just a little older than me. Because, 6 is almost 10!”
Honestly, this conversation rattled me more than I’d like to admit. First that 6 really is almost 10 (because the years have flown by fast enough to this point that the next thing I know she really will be 10) and second that 10…or maybe 11…is old enough to have a boyfriend. Not to mention that my 6 year old is even aware of the concept of “boyfriend”.
To borrow a page from Carolyn, that was the most frightening conversation ever!
Sleepy Anna!
Susie had a childcare conflict tonight, so we were watching Nikki for the evening. Anna didn’t nap, and she usually goes to bed around 7:00 on days she doesn’t get a nap in, but we figured she’d be OK for the one late night. Well, around 9:00 she came into the kitchen where I was trying to get a little work done and, with fingers firmly stuck in her mouth and the other hand tugging at her ear asked me to read her a goodnight story. I agreed to put her to bed…in a few minutes. Well, a few minutes later I walked into the living room and she was sound asleep on the couch with Carolyn and Nikki playing quite noisily around her.
I feel simultaneously really proud of her for sleeping when she needed to and very, very guilty that I didn’t read her that goodnight story…
Thursdays Make Me Tired!
Thursdays are exhausting. So far today I’ve gotten two kids up and dressed, made breakfast, put one kid on the school bus, been grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge, put everything away, made lunch and cleaned the kitchen. And in the next hour I have to fold two loads of laundry, vacuum the entire first floor, and load up the car for the evening activities. Then it’s off to pick up Carrie from school, bring her to get her hair cut, find a place to change her into her dancewear, occupy Anna for an hour during dance, and – after all that – go to work.
I think I may have found a good reason to select Monday/Wednesday preschool instead of Tuesday/Thursday for Anna this fall!
Happy New Year!
So.
It’s 2011.
Time sure does fly when you’re busy with life, doesn’t it? I never really meant to abandon posting, but I fell behind, and then fell further behind, and all of sudden it had been months and months since my last post and I had no idea how to catch it all up, when I don’t even have time to keep up with current events.
So I’ve decided that I will begin once again, here and now, and if I have time someday to go back and piece together the highlights (Anna’s 2nd birthday, and Carolyn’s 6th, the first days of first grade, our summer vacation, a new toddler bed…) from pictures and the few things I’ve jotted down from those times, I will. If only because someday I’ll look back and wonder why on earth I didn’t think those things were worth remembering – they certainly are! I’m a little sad that I’ve already lost so many little moments: hilarious things Anna has said as she’s mastering language, quirky ideas that Carolyn has about life, the moments that get lost in the days that fly by too quickly.
It’s a new year, a big year, one that will take Anna to preschool and will see (I predict, based on two very slightly wiggly bottom front teeth) Carolyn’s first lost tooth. So here’s my clean slate and my fresh start so that those moments, big and small, will not be lost to time.
Happy 2011!