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Like His Momma.

While waiting for Matt to get LASIK this afternoon, the kids and I went across the street to Burger King for ice cream. Half way through my shake, George says “Mom, that Burger King on your cup looks like the Wendy’s girl.” Mind you, the last time we went to Wendy’s was over a year ago. George has an innate sense for logos… and this makes his momma very proud.

"Why would they do that?"

This week Francis had her second encounter with stealing at school. A few weeks ago, she told me someone had taken her colored pencils from her locker and today she came home heartbroken at the loss of her two favorite books. She had finished SpookyBuddies and had taken it to school to lend it to a classmate. Careful to put her new bookplate in it with her name, she packed it up and was excited to share her first chapter book. She also took with her, her new book, SantaBuddies. This was something she had asked for many many times and finally received for Christmas. She was on, I think, maybe chapter 6 as of Monday. Anyway, she and her girlfriend, took their books to lunch with them (they are allowed to read at lunch time). After lunch is recess and so the girls set their books together next to Francis’s lunchbox and 15 minutes later when recess was over, sadly… the books had disappeared. She has been heartbroken. She came home and started telling me the story and seemed quite composed until she got to the part about how they came back to their lunch boxes…and then she started crying. “Why would they do that? Why would someone take them if they weren’t theirs?” I just hugged on her and told her it would be okay.

After gaining her composure, we worked on a plan. Francis LOVES plans. She thrives on charts and graphs, etc. So, she decided we should make signs “like when a dog goes missing” and post them up around her school. The signs were made, and went up yesterday. I was so proud of her. She took them to school, went to the office and asked the principal if she could hang them up and then proceeded to put them in the cafeteria, library, office and music room. She said that today she’s going to put one up in the art and science rooms. I can not tell you how both sad and adorable this experience has been to watch.

I would be shocked if the books showed up, and I suppose it is a good life lesson, but bummer… I hate she has to learn it.

January 30, 2012 - 9:59 pm

America - this is adorable and terribly sad 🙁

Ummm…?!

I just found a small Chick-fil-a box of uneaten nuggets (wait for it)… in my purse and to make matters worse, we haven’t been there in over a week. ew. Don’t know if I should self loathe or just laugh.

January 25, 2012 - 5:00 pm

Matt - hey! I was saving those!

Typography FAIL.

So I sent Sam to school the other day with his new lunchbox and about 2 hours later, I got a phone call from the director.

Director: Sally, everything is okay. I’m just wondering which lunchbox belongs to Sam.

Me: Oh, I’m sorry. It’s the blue one. I haven’t put his name on it yet.

Director: Oh, no worries. I’ll just do it. I have a Sharpie right here. Have a great day!

Me: Okay!
-click-

And then I sat there at my desk wondering if it would be too crazy for me to call her back and ask her not to write on his lunchbox. Because you know… that would muck it up. Because, you know… I ‘m a designer and stuff… and I’m funny about stuff like that. About a minute passed and I decided I shouldn’t worry about it. That normal people don’t care about such things. But secretly, when I saw it later that afternoon… I gasped.

That night, I designed a little Thomas tag. Something to redirect my eye and make Sam smile. Ah… that’s better.

January 30, 2012 - 10:02 pm

America - gasp is right…she could have at least put it on the bottom 😉

You Told that Lady Sam was Potty Trained

In a parenting first for me, Francis called me out on a lie I told someone else. This weekend, we went to IKEA. Our plan was to drop the kids, including Sam, off at the playland. I probably could have told you that the First Rule of Småland is that children must be potty trained. Two-and-a-half year old Sam can actually pass for potty trained, except when he has soiled himself. Helping the ruse, if you ever ask him if he just pooped his pants, he always responds with an emphatic, “No!” Our plan was to put him in there with a pull-up on “just in case.”

As we approached, an IKEA employee was putting out a sign that said, “Småland Will Not Accept More Children For 35 minutes.” Viewing an hour of free childcare by complete strangers as worth the wait, I sat with Francis, George, and Sam while Sally started shopping. The kids and I waited, playing twenty questions to pass the time. Francis was stumping me by picking kids in her school that I’d never met. Finally, after about forty five minutes, our time came.

Wait. Have that one stand on the green feet over there. He’s potty trained?

Well, yeah.

He’s not wearing a diaper?

He’s got a pull-up on. You know, just in case.

It’s right here on the sheet you just signed. No diapers OR pull-ups. No exceptions.

OK, sorry Sam. Francis, George: I’ll see you in an hour.

Sam had been watching the fun through the giant window as we waited. He’d pointed out everything he wanted to play with. When he was refused entry, he wailed. It was sad and I felt guilty for leading him on this fool’s errand. I felt guiltier later that night, when Francis said: “you told that lady Sam was potty trained.”

I looked at Francis and said, “that didn’t work out very well, did it?”

Francis laughed, and I hoped — not for the first time — that kids could learn from their dad being a dolt.

January 25, 2012 - 4:45 am

Rachel L - Awesome.