Yesterday, an unmemorable morning (meaning that it was probably spent drinking coffee and reading the tabloids), I took the children to see Racing Stripes with some friends. I had no idea what it was about, or whether or not it was animated. I loved it. It is a movie about a Zebra who wants to be a race horse. It is not animated. It had me snuffling at the end.
During the movie, at one point Christian asked me to check him for a fever. Nope. I asked him, little squirmy one, if he had to use the bathroom and he responded by nodding and bouncing up, so I led him out of the dark theater, and out into the hallway where he promptly threw up all of his popcorn and Sprite.
I hurried him to the bathroom, got a re-fill of Sprite and told them about the mess, and then returned to him. He did not throw up any more, and skipped all the way back to the theater and has been fine ever since. Hm.
Then, so Walmart for an hour, and the kids cashed their Christmas checks and went a-shopping. I had to veto several items. In the end, I only let Tommy spend $5.00-- on a whoopie cushion and a gumball machine (making you wonder what on earth I vetoed if I allowed him to buy the whoopie cushion). He just came over to sit by me. "You know that little tooter thingy? I have it in my pants." He is trying to make it work so that he can sit down, but it isn't working very well. Oh, there we go. Seven-year-old boys.
After Walmart, home and I had Sam vacuum and I put away groceries, having sent Dereck on an alcohol run (what did we do without cell phones?) because the Peeps were coming over in ten minutes.
Peeps, for those of you who are new, are my little cadre of medical students. We have not seen them very much this year at all (or actually, since June) because the second year has been very rigorous and we have had our schedule and they theirs. Allison got here first, so it was like a reverse surprise party. But they all came, and then we ordered a buffet of Chinese food, and made merry. It was a very pleasant evening, but one pear cider, Chinese food, and half a gin and tonic later, I was verrrry sleepy, so I headed for bed around 11:30 (the medical students having gone at 10:30 so they could get some studying in), after even the light reading of my tabloids couldn't keep me awake any longer.
This morning, les enfants let us sleep in, but I was still having a sleepy day. Took the dog for a nice long walk in the light rain and let her run in a puddly field for a delightful while.
And then it was time to do something I hate so much that I put it out of my head for the 364 days out of the year that I don't have to do it:
But I hate this because a) it's always a fight with some child about how tedious it is (and it is!) and because I don't love giving up my day off to fight with the children about Valentines, and sticking lollipops onto them. But we live in America. This is what we do.
I think this is Sam's last year doing them. Middle schoolers don't do them as a class. And tonight he was filling out paperwork for Middle school registration.
When did I get so old? In seven years, which is the sum total of time Tommy has thus been alive, I will sit at Sam's high school graduation.
I will be 42. Four years later, I will sit at Tommy's.
On second thought, here's to starting your family young!
p.s. I had to change the title and add this note: Christian just read his first "real" book of any length. He started, at 7:45 p.m., Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp, and finished it at 8:30 p.m. It is 91 pages long.
