July, 18, 2006

I try to follow the motto, the worse my day goes, the better the story it will make. So I hope this is a good, funny story, and not a whiney, boring story. And in honor of Stanely the Raccoon, the subtitle of this entry is:

Wendy's Wrong-side out Day

6:55 I awoke to the sound of Alex alternately calling "Mommy" and scrapping a toy against my door. Darn, I forgot that my dear, wonderful, loving husband had left for work waaaay early so that he could watch the Tour on tv. And for those of you wondering, "what tour?" that would be The Tour de France. Uh, it's a big bike race... Lots of people in Europe care about it... Ok, I don't care about it either. And for those of you wondering why Jeremy didn't watch it at home, that's because we don't have a TV... Well, we have a TV but we don't have reception on it, let alone cable. So where was I? Oh yes, I woke up 5 minutes before Ariel was due and Jeremy was not home.

7:15 Luckily Becky was late so I had a clean face and clothes on when Ariel was dropped off.

7:25 Ariel looked too tired to eat breakfast, so I put her down in the crib hoping that she could get in a nap before I had to take Alex to school.

7:40 Apparently I mis-judged Ariel. She did not want to nap, but I did change a small hard poopy.

7:50 I gave her some cereal and she ate an average amount.

8:00 I scrambled to get Alex ready to take to summer camp. Normally Jeremy would take him, but as I said earlier, Jeremy was not home.

8:25 Finally ready to leave. About 15 minutes ago, I had asked Alex, "Do you want to go to school in your clothes or jammies?" Alex had not responded, and I had not asked again. So we left with him in his jammies. And as soon as he realized that, he freaked out screaming, "They will not want to see me in my jammies. I don't want them to see me in my jammies!" Hopefully this turned out to be a good Love and Logic lesson.

Adam left the house in comando and in a pair of Alex's shorts that he had found, coordinated with his jammie top. He refused to put a diaper on.

8:30 We got to the grocery store so I could drop off Alex's disposible camera. I also let him change into his clothes in the car.

8:40 We stopped back at the house so I could grab my walking shoes that I forgot.

8:55 Three blocks from the school, I got a call. The preschool was closed because the building had no water supple. Uhhhh... bummer. So we turned around and Alex joined Crissy and I on our Super-sized Fabulous Adventure™.

9:05 I arrived at Crissy's house. She would like the record to state that she DID NOT answer the door naked, she was wearing her bra and underwear. But with her tan colored bra, it may have been difficult to tell from the street. I guess we loose all modesty in the delivery room.

9:20 Crissy and I drove to the predetermined trailhead so we could go on our Starbucks pilgramage. But that parking lot was full, so we had to drive down to one 1/4 mile farther away.

9:30 We were finally ready to walk. I carried Ariel and pushed Adam. Crissy pushed Gavin and Alex and Marcus rode his bike.

9:45 We were walking on the path with Marcus riding ahead and I suddenly heard a man yelling. I thought he was shouting at his dog, but he was yelling at Marcus, "There are no bikes allowed on this trail!" Now that was true, but we had forgotten, and plus Marcus isn't really a "bike" yet. The man went on his diatribe, "Your tires will make tracks and the trail will erode." Never mind that Marcus weighs 60lbs and Crissy was pushing an 85lbs stroller, or that the path was bone dry. I graciously apologized and got Marcus moving (I decided that the man was too old and too grumpy to argue with) before Crissy's momma-bear reaction came into full effect. And good for Marcus for not dissolving into a pool of tears, I know I would if a stranger ever spoke to me like that.

9:55 This walk turned out to be longer than we expected. Here's the day, hot and dry:



Coming up this bridge, I got a call from Jeremy. He had a meeting at work at 1:00 to determine his future at the company and given who was invited, it looked like his future was in hours, not days. I promised not to buy a car or new hot tub.

10:00 Gavin and Alex were messing with the stroller visor and Crissy told them to stop. Alex started into one of his, "But we...." and I said, "No buts Alex, Crissy said no." Alex paused, then in a very good Beavus immitation said, "Mommy, you said butt. That's bathroom talk." Crissy could barely keep pushing the stroller with a straight face.

Speaking of kids saying the darndest things, yesterday as I was getting dressed, sweet Adam said, "I have a baby bottom. Mommy, you have a big bottom." Jeremy thought that was hi-lar-i-ous.

10:25 We were almost to Starbucks when we saw a bizarre sight. A souped-up VW drove by, apparently driven by a boy who was 10, no more than 12 years old, with 3 other boys. Crissy and I didn't know what to do. I thought about calling the police, but I didn't have a non-emergency number and it didn't seem like a 911 situation. We ended up doing nothing, but it felt wrong.

10:30 FINALLY get to Starbucks. We each had a drink, and as a special treat we all got donuts. The boys all picked out one with pink and yellow sprinkles. Ariel had a bottle.



Marcus amazed us by figuring out 15% of $300 with only a little guidence. That kid is a mathmatical genius!

10:45 Adam's pants were still dry, but Crissy couldn't get him to go potty.

After the boys terrorized Starbucks (we were the parents with the kids that everyone hates but we were too tired to care)



we...

11:30 Walked to the park.

12:05 Crissy gave Ariel a bottle, then Ariel fell asleep on Crissy:



Ariel then took a nap in the stroller.

12:25 Adam finally had an accident, and I was able to change him AND get a diaper on. 'Cause I didn't have another set of clothes.

1:00 We walked back to CiCi's for the $5 pizza special.

1:30 We had pizza, Ariel had prunes and apples. We'll see if that cures her hard poopy issue.

Crissy wanted to play with my camera and Ariel. She took this:



Crissy seemed oblivious to the mayhem that the other four children were creating, I finally convinced her it was time to put down the camera and leave.

2:20 Started walking back to the car. For most of the morning, Crissy had been trying to convince me how fun it would be for the blog for us to take the bus back. Wouldn't it be comical to load 2 strollers and a bike while handling five kids? As funny as that sounded, I talked her into walking back a shorter way and saving $4.50 in bus fairs for a 2 mile ride.

2:25 I told Crissy we are only good mothers if our kids learned something new everyday. So far, it didn't seem like they had. Then Alex said, "What are those plants" and everyone learned about cattails and marshes. High-five!

2:35 Jeremy called back. His meeting was over. The whole company was laid off. He is on adminstrive leave until Aug 18th, then has a month of severence. This is the first time he's been laid off (though it's common enough in the computer programming industry) and he doesn't have anything else lined up. It wasn't completely unexpected, his job has been iffy all this year. But we were hoping for a better outcome. Poor Jeremy :(

3:00 Adam fell asleep in the stroller. Ariel was asleep in the bjorn.

3:10 Got back to the car. Adam transfered to the car without waking up.

3:20 Stopped at Crissy's house. The boys had push-pops while Ariel had a bottle while we played outside. Adam stayed asleep in the car.

3:50 Finally went home.

4:00 As we pulled into the driveway, Adam woke up and he was not happy. And when Adam wakes up like this, there is nothing I can do. He's crabby and irrational and just has to work it out. This is what the next half hour looked/sounded like (but I was holding him most of the time). Thankfully Ariel sat and played with toys while this was going on:



4:30 Pick up.