Fall Frenzy
The first month of school is probably the busiest month of the year for me. I have been moving so fast and thinking so many things at once that I have actually been driving and realized, after a mile or two that I forgot to turn to go home. I also have bumped my head seriously multiple times this month and have had several choking on my lunch incidents that have made me happy I am in a profession where most people around me know the heimlich manuever. There is just a lot to get up and running at school and there is a lot of transition at home, and since I am someone who has to think through every even that happens to me that is out of the ordinary, I have been up from about 2-3AM thinking about all the things that happened that day.
That said, Ari and Eli have done incredibly well with so much going on. I can definitely sense that they are going through transition behavior – for example, Eli has become intensely afraid of strangers the past few weeks and Ari has been clingy in the morning before I drop them off. But, I am experienced enough in having kids in daycare that I know this will most likely improve in the coming weeks.
To add to this being such a busy time, Ethan has been extra, extra busy these last few weeks as he has had some rehearsals in the evening and was away for a conference last weekend. And our dishwasher was broken, and our car got new brakes. The car part was pretty easy to fix, but the dishwasher part has taken a few weeks to come in and I have to say that not being able to throw the dishes in the dishwasher has made for a much complicated morning and evening. So much so that last Friday, with Ethan away and my desire to do dishes by hand at an all time low, I decided that Ari and Eli and I needed to go out to dinner. So, throwing my fears of childhood obesity to the wind, I took them to the only place I could imagine taking a 17 month old and a two and a half year old to with one adult and we made our way to the land of the golden arches, freaky clowns and little, fat purple men. Ari and Eli were in heaven. They love McDonalds more than I love a good shoe sale. And, I have to say, the crowd at dinnertime on a Friday night is pretty entertaining in and of itself. While telling all the old people there, that no, Ari and Eli are not twins and listening to the parents give their children such gems of advice like, “I’m glad you’re scared of your teacher, now maybe you’ll listen!” and, “you need to finish those french fries if you want ice cream!” we sat down to enjoy our meal. The first table we sat at we had to move from because the sun was in our eyes and when we finally settled down in our second table and got all of our food out, Ari looked at me and with panic in his eyes said, “I gotta go potty now mommy!”
Well, we happened to be sitting next to the bathroom and I noticed that Eli’s high chair was on wheels, and I did what I consider to be one of the more shameful moments in my parenting career, and I wheeled Eli, while he was in the high chair right into the bathroom with Ari, french fries and all. And he sat there eating happy as can be right next to the paper towels while Ari took care of business.
Glad I carry wipes in my purse!
Hopefully life will slow down a bit as we get the mommy working routine down again. I don’t know if I can justify condoning eating in the bathroom again!
