SOCKS & SHOES

I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. This morning started off so promising then it derailed.

I got both kiddos to school on time.  HOLLER!! I did the verbal mommy double-check before we left.  You know the one, when you are upstairs frantically trying to get your underwear on the right way while yelling downstairs to confirm that all items are packed in their bags and SOCKS & SHOES are on their feet.  I had received confirmation from both children that they had all the necessary items in their school bags and their SOCKS and SHOES were indeed on their feet.  So I threw on my clothes, grabbed the baby, a food bar of some type (my diet has been consumed with fiber bars, protein bars, anything in bar form really, ever since school started) and my keys and we headed out the door.  Once at school I parked the car grabbed the kiddos walked my little kindergartner to her class where she had a surprising meltdown but we got threw it.  I checked the time, hauled ass back to the car which was park strategically at the end of a dead-end street so that I can turn back down the same street avoiding crazy traffic (K-8 grade school and all parents drop off their kids, you can image the traffic).  So, I buckle the baby back into her seat, Max, my preschooler, buckles up and we are off. We have ten minutes to get five miles. This may seem feasible but rush hour occurs thanks to the entire school needing to be dropped off before their parents head to work.  The baby cries the entire way there, my inquisitive preschooler has questions just rolling off his tongue, and I am desperately trying not to hit the brake happy elderly individual in front of me. Brake! Accelerate. Mommy why don’t we have two noses? Brake! Mommy why do we have five toes? Accelerate. Mommy all the food in my stomach goes to my brain?  Brake!  Finally, we did it! I unbuckle the baby take Max’s hand walk into school take off his jacket, quickly write his name in his jacket (changing of seasons always catches me off guard- 75 degrees one day and 45 the next, come on! ), and drop him off in his room.

Upon arriving at home after dropping Max off I opened the door to a quiet house and an excited feeling poured over me.  I was finally going to get my moment to catch up on some much needed house work and perhaps even have half a moment to spare just for myself.  So I put on the nap music and put the baby down for a nap.  As I walked back downstairs I felt like a child on Christmas morning.  It was peaceful, (minus the cat and dog squabbling because the dog is forever sniffing the cats butt, but that was small compared to the grand scheme of things).  Ah, I allowed myself to finally exhale.  After two crazy weeks I was finally going to have a little time to myself.   Then, it happened, the phone rang.  My heart sank a little as I answered the phone. I looked on the caller ID and it was my son’s preschool, I answered it.   The program director asked me if I knew why she was calling.  I wanted to say, because you knew I was so close to having a moment to myself and you wanted to congratulate me? But I knew better, so I simply replied a quick, no.  She then informed me that my son was wearing flip-flops, which goes against the rule.  I needed to bring his SOCKS & SHOES so he could participate in the rest of the school day activities.

So I kissed my moment to catch up on chores and a half a moment to myself goodbye. I woke the baby up from her nap; she was now very upset, grabbed his SOCKS & SHOES, and headed back to preschool.  Once there I handed off the shoes and made my apologies.  To which she replied, “What’s going on with his eye?”  What?  His eye has a problem now? Nothing I exclaimed.  He had an eyelash in it earlier but it seemed fine after it was removed I shared.  So I got back in the car and headed down the same route I had already taken three times today, make that three times in the last hour.  Once home I attempted to put the baby back down for a nap, attempted mind you, this was not successful.  I started to get a few things done around the house and then it was time to go pick him up from preschool.  So I grabbed the now extremely upset, cranky, and tired baby and somehow managed to stop her from arching her back just long enough to buckle her in the car seat. As I started down our road I realized I could not go my usual way because they were painting the lines on the road.  Go figure, what are the chances?  So I took a detour, was a few minutes late but I got there, yet again.  I unbuckled the baby and rushed up the stairs into the school to get him from his classroom.  First thing I noticed his eye.  What’s going on with his eye? It was at that moment I realized I had two choices, do I laugh or do I cry?