Mayhem and Magic

Close Call

Yesterday at almost noon Beloved sent me a text to tell me his plane had just arrived.  Hooray!

Here's my response: "Good!  Are you going to work or going home?  I'm planning on going home in a few minutes to let the dog out.  And I forgot my lunch in the rush this morning."

And then I sent it to...  My mother!

My phone just go updated and the screen for texting looks different now.  Apparently I am easily confused.  Thirty seconds later I got a text from my mom saying basically, "Wha-huh?"

Thank goodness I didn't say anything more wink, wink, nudge, nudge-y, 'cause that's kinda what I meant but can you imagine if I had accidentally sent THAT to my mother!  I'm telling you, cyber-flirting is not for me!

Okay Then

1.  A short but carefully crafted message was sent to foster mom via facebook.  She friended me!  Hooray!  She sent a little note back saying that Sparkle is as cute as ever and she would send him an email later that day.  She didn't, but that's okay.  Well, obviously I'd love it if she did, but I'll take what I can get at this point.  She has not completely disappeared from the planet, so that's awesome!  It looks like she mostly plays facebook games with her account, not much personal information there.

2.  Yet another potluck lunch is happening at work next week.  Those who have not signed up got an email today.  Apparently I need to commit to a particular dish ahead of time, which...  argh!  Maybe I can just get some chicken from the deli across the street. 

What do you bring to potlucks?  This has to be a lunch entree or salad, and I have to be able to put it in the fridge at work in the morning.  Microwave is the only reheating option.  Actually a few people have brought things in crockpots in the past, so that might work. 

3.  Pumpkin has a new sister.  She's almost six months old now.  I meant to blog about it, because having siblings in another family is a big deal for adopted kids.  You might recall that the birth of Pumpkin's first sister threw me for a loop a few years ago.  This time...  much less loop. 

It still feels like a big deal though.  I'd like to talk about it more, but it seems a little overwhelming.  I want to be sensitive to privacy issues and adoption triad communication issues...  It's a big subject and I want to say what I'm thinking about it clearly.  But, dude, she's almost six months old.  I'm apparently not going to find the time to write anything that I have to think about too much.  It feels a little like I'm hiding something, though, if I don't talk about this part of open adoption.  So I'm just mention it here, all casually and in passing-- there, did you see it?  

I Love This

Would you like to know how I started my short-term stint into stay-home motherhood?  I sent my kids to school.

It's been lovely.

I took them to school the last two days because I had a lot to get done, lots of errands and appointments that I've been putting off thinking, "Well, I'll do that when I'm off work."  Turned out that there was enough to do that I didn't want to drag the boys around with me. 

And we're paying for school this week whether they go or not, so...  They went.

Oh yeah, that's me: Mother of the Year!

Let me tell you, this is quite a gig.  I would be a GREAT stay-home mom of kids who are in school!

I'm almost packed for our upcoming trip.  The laundry is ALL DONE.  My floors are mostly clean. (Well, they don't crunch when you walk on them, so that counts, right?)  I bathed the dog and clipped his nails.  I chatted with my sister and my mom.  I spent 45 minutes this morning at a coffee place sipping tea and reading a book!  All by myself!  My nails are freshly painted, my hair is newly cut, and my legs are shaved. 

I've accomplished a lot, but I haven't felt rushed or harried. 

I actually made scrambled eggs for the kids for breakfast and we sat at the table and ate and chatted before we left for school.  Not that scrambled eggs are difficult or anything, but on weekday mornings were are a strictly toast-or-cereal family. 

This evening I played checkers with Sparkle and read books with Pumpkin.  Again, it's not that those thing never happen anyway but I didn't feel like doing those things with the kids was keeping me from getting other stuff done.  Does that make sense?

Anyway, tomorrow is their last school day.  Ask me in a month or so how I feel about being a temporary stay-home mom, but for the last two days I've been loving it!!

(Here's Pumpkin playing with his special kitty, Tessie PomPom.)

(Oh, and I forgot to mention that I got the boys these Kamik shoes as their second pair of summer shoes.  I think they'll be an okay choice...  I like sandals rather than closed shoes for breath-ability, and a covered toe because it protects both the shoe and the kid from damage.  Flip-flops are not allowed at their school, not that it matters this summer.)

Officially My Summer!

My last day of work was yesterday!  Squeeeeee! 

I can't quite wrap my brain around not going back until September.  Maybe it will sink in more on Monday.

The kids, of course, are driving me completely nuts today.  They're just pestering each other quite a bit and not doing all that great at entertaining themselves.  I'm already thinking I'm going to need a bit of structure to the days, even if it's pretty basic.  You know, some other plan than Tell the Kids to Go Play Something. 

I have a huge list of things I need to get done in the next week, many of which require leaving the house.  Yikes!  Usually I try to avoid running errands with both kids.  Wish me luck... 

Needing Help is Hard

We're going to have a little child care crisis this week.  Beloved will be gone most of the week, and I will be leaving the same day he comes home.  My flight leaves about six hours before his arrives.  So, what to do with the kids during those six hours?

One of Sparkle's teachers does occasional overnight child care in her home.  I don't know how often, exactly.  Apparently it happens often enough that it's worthwhile for her to offer that service for students at the school.  Most of the families have two working-outside-the-home parents, so I'm sure our situation isn't unusual.

Anyway, the current plan is for me to take the boys to school as usual that day.  At the end of the school day she will take them home with her, they will sleep (supposedly) at her house, and Beloved will pick them up in the morning. 

Our kids have never slept anywhere other than Grandma's house without us.  I'm nervous that they will either freak out with anxiety or melt down into horrible behavior at her house.

We do have some friends who live nearby with a son about Pumpkin's age.  Our kids have been to their house and played with their son many, many times.  They would probably be able to help us out.  I could drop the kids off at their house, and they could either sleep there or one of the parents could bring them over to our house to go to bed and then stay with the sleeping kids until Beloved gets home very late at night.

Option 2 seems like a much better choice for the kids.  The only problem is...  I cannot bring myself to ask our friends to help us.

I'm much more comfortable paying someone to watch my kids than asking someone to disrupt their own schedule for our sake.

I even wrote them an email, but couldn't send it.  I know we would absolutely do this kind of thing for a friend if need be, and we would be happy to be able to help them out in any way.  So why am I having so much trouble with this?

I Almost Had To Quit My Job This Morning

This morning Pumpkin woke up a little later than usual.  When it was time for me to leave for work, he was just sitting down at the table with Sparkle and Beloved, and Beloved was coaxing him to eat his breakfast. 

Pumpkin is very often (almost always) super crabby or super whiny before he eats in the morning.  He's so crabby that it's hard to get him to eat because nothing is right-- not enough milk/too much milk, too much peanut butter/not enough peanut butter, do it for me/I want to do it myself...  Once you can get two or three bites down him he turns into a different kid, back to his normal cheerful self.  It's very dramatic. 

I was doing the last-minute rush-around, grabbing my jacket, my keys, my lunch, my phone and my coffee.  Just as I was ready to go out the door I stopped and kissed them all.  Pumpkin was whining something at me but I couldn't understand him, so I said, "You'll need to use words, Pumpkin, because I can't understand you.  What do you need?"  And he turned to me, literally with two tears running down his little cheeks, and pointed to me as I was poised to exit right that moment and said quietly,

"You.  I need you."

.

(insert strangled, desperate sound from both me and Pumpkin here)

.

So I was a little late this morning.

.

As soon as I got to work (which was only about seven minutes after I left the house) I emailed Beloved and asked, "How is Pumpkin?  Is he okay?"  Of course he was fine. 

Very happily, I was able to leave work early today and picked up the boys just after their lunch time at school.  Today we've made cookies, played football, watched Sesame Street, and read books together.  Sparkle made supper for us and he was very proud. 

(It was Six Can Tortilla Soup. I opened the cans of corn, beans, chicken broth, and tomatoes and he poured them all into the crock pot.  He grated cheese and got tortillas and sour cream out of the fridge.  He set the table.  So...  Not that hard, but pretty good for a five year old, right?  I was proud of him, and he was proud of himself, especially when I told him he's going to have to be in charge of supper more often.  Five year olds are happy to do anything when they see it as being "in charge" of something.)

We've had a good day.  I'm glad I didn't quit my job. 

It was pretty close there for a few minutes, though.