Yesterday was a rough day for my big five year old. He stayed home from pre-school to hang out with Mommy, which always seems like a good idea at first, but which often unravels quickly. Keeping my boys home when I have plans to do something fun with them = well, fun for them and for me. Keeping them home when I have nothing fun planned but need them around for something like an appointment of some kind = no fun for anyone.
The morning went OK. My big five year happily played in the office while I worked. He sat at Daddy's desk, (don't touch anything!), contemplated climbing out the window to retrieve his lost baseball, (no, no, no, no, NO!), watched cartoons on TV, (turn that down!), and even managed to put on his own shoes, (no! not the pair with the holes in them!). Then we broke the spell and headed out to the dentist.
A cleft palate and poor nutrition early on in life can lead to unhealthy teeth, so the dentist is not always a fun experience for my guy. Yesterday though, not so bad. After that, though, straight down hill...
On the list of errands to run yesterday was one to the bus garage, to sign my big five year old up for busing for school. But more on that later. Before we could do that we needed to obtain a new birth certificate for my little guy, because I somehow managed to misplace the one I obtained a few months back to sign him up for kindergarten. Why the bus garage and the enrollment office can't speak to each other about this is beyond me. Now the SWCS district has two copies of my son's birth certificate, and he won't even be attending one of their schools....
So we head to Vital Statistics. I drove straight to the address I found online, not realizing it was, in fact, not the same location I went to last time. This time it was the health department. The HUGE health department. The HUGE health department that was having a farmer's market on the front lawn and so there were people and cars everywhere. Everywhere.While it didn' take long to get the birth certificate, thank God, I found myself spewing a constant string of words to my big five year old.
"No we cannot go to the farmer's market today. Because I have to work at some point today. Because Mommy helps to pay the bills. Because Daddy shouldn't have to pay all the bills. Because we need money for things like food. Yes, and toys. Yes, and trucks. No, we can't go to the farmer's market! Didn't I just say that? Because I don't have any money on me. No, I am sure they don't take credit cards. Because I never have any cash on me. Because that is just how Mommy and Daddy work. No, you can't hang your Wendy's kid's meal basketball hoop off the back of that door. Because that is the door to someones office. No, we can't go upstairs. No, I don't think they have toys up there. Yes, I see the pop machine up there. No, we are not getting any pop. Because we don't drink pop. Yes, I know Daddy drinks pop sometimes, we don't. We- you and me! No, we can't go upstairs! That sign says they have drug abuse counseling up there, it does not say they have toys up there. Please don't touch that! No, you can't use the bathroom by yourself. Because this is a big place and we have never been here before. Yes, I will turn around. No, I am not looking, just pee!"
Having finally obtained the birth certificate we headed off to the bus garage. Since I was told to report to the Transportation Department I was expecting an office, not an entire bus garage. You would think that all those buses would have been fun for him, but instead he carried on with his sad lament about how boring it was to hang out with mommy and run errands all day. Not to mention that all these errands were for him. And true to my son's nature, the minute it was our turn at the tiny little window he announced that he had to go to the bathroom. My son- he has peed in bathrooms all over town. "Can you please hold it?" "No! I really have to go!" I look around and see no bathrooms. So now I am thinking that he can't, he just can't pee his pants right now. How will they ever let him on a bus if he has a bathroom accident at the bus garage? A nice bus driver in line behind me points us to the men's room in the large break room. And then my big five year old waits for me to take him into the bathroom. "Go on, I say, pointing to the door." "But Mommy, you said I couldn't use the bathroom by myself in big places where we don't know anybody. We don't know these people. They might not be nice." I look around and see that we are surrounded by bus drives, all listening to our conversation about how "not nice" they might be. I smile at them, trying to speak to them with my eyes. "Oh, the funny things kids say, am I right?", my eyes say. "It's OK, honey, I'll be right out here. Just go on.", my lips to my ever truthful son.
I sit down at a table and begin to fill out the form that had been handed to be through the tiny window. I keep a watchful eye on the men's room door, but still my son managed to sneak out and find the large wall of bus keys. I look up, and there he is, standing in front of a large peg board full of keys, all numbered. And all I can think of is the Curious George book where George climbs up to the departures board at the train station and moves all the numbers around. Or the Curious George book where George tries on all the fire fighter's clothes and then no one can find their right boots when they need to leave for a fire. And I am picturing the first day of school, when all the buses are late and thousands of students are stranded thanks to my big five year old. Just a parking lot full of buses, not one running, while all the drivers swap keys over and over again.
I don't know if my son would have touched those keys or not. But I do know that I moved faster than I had all day to get out from behind that table and pull him back to me. My life is crazy enough, it doesn't need to be a Curious George story too!
Showing posts with label dentist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dentist. Show all posts
Friday, August 3, 2012
Thursday, November 11, 2010
who knew my son would fire me and the police would show up at my house on the same day?
The plan was sleeping in. That was the plan. My brain loves to sleep and rarely wakes me up even a minute earlier than it needs to. Occasionally I have a hard time staying asleep, but the closer it gets to morning the deeper my sleep seems to get so that by the time the alarm is going off I am ready for at least another hour of sleep. Going to bed any earlier doesn't help. It is just a weird sleep thing I have going on. So I love my sleep and try to protect it at all costs. Which is why my husband is no longer allowed to get dressed in our bedroom if I am still asleep.
My husband can nap for 15 minutes and be refreshed and ready to go. On weekdays I swear an entire marching band could parade through our bedroom playing The Stars and Stripes Forever and he would not wake up. On days he can sleep in, however, he is up at the crack of dawn. That is his weird sleep thing.
Last night as we were reviewing our schedules for today it was decided that I would take the little guy to daycare this morning since I had to go that way anyways to pick up my mother and take her to the dentist. Because my husband was not doing the usual daycare drop we could all sleep in a little. So the clock was set for 7am, instead of 6:30. My husband was up and getting dressed for work by 6:15. At which time he woke me up while getting dressed. He then asked if I wanted him to wake up Matthew. It took every ounce of restraint I had to not throw my drool covered pillow at him. No, thank you, I did NOT want our son up even earlier than normal so that he could jump on the bed where I was still trying to sleep. Why were we up this early? "This is the time my body said to get up.", was the response. Your body is WRONG. And my body is TRYING TO SLEEP!
Turns out, we should have just gotten up. By the time I had my son buckled into his car seat he had already spent at least an hour whining about just about everything he could think of, which included firing me from taking him to his playgroup on Saturday. Yes, he actually said "Mommy, you are fired from taking me to china group this weekend." Fine with me, kiddo. Let's see you try to get there on your big wheel...
As we were walking to the car Matthew noticed that the rear tire looked flat. Thank goodness he is so observant. Who knows when I would have noticed. We stop at the UDF right by our house and their air costs 75 cents. Seriously, when did we start paying for air? I didn't have three quarters, so I had to schlep both me and Matthew inside just to be told that they do not give change. I buy gas there, iced tea, newspapers... but they don't give change? We head to the second gas station - there are three stations right next to each other so my plan was to visit each one until I found my prize- a re-inflated tire. The second station had air for $1.00. But at least they were willing to make change so I could use their pricey air.
After extricating myself from my teary eyed three year old, who an hour earlier had fired me from everything but who now was clinging to my leg as though one of us was going off to war, I headed to Mom's assisted living. I got there at 9:15 and we walked into her 10:00 dentist appointment at 10:02. There is something wrong with her knee and my usually quite spry mother was walking like she was 90 years old. By the time I got her and her drive through lunch back home it was nearly 12:30pm. Finally, I can get some work done!
No sooner do I settle down in the local Starbucks do I realize that the wi fi is not working. As I am packing up to find another place to work, the reason for my displacement from my home office calls. Apparently I turned on the alarm at home before we left this morning, which resulted in our house cleaner setting off the alarm when she came in to clean. Did I want to speak with the police, she asks me. Uh, yes? After proving to the local authorities that I was, in fact, Elizabeth Wilkison, they let me get off the phone and my house cleaner on to cleaning.
It is still early, so I am a little worried about what the rest of the day may hold for me. I found working wi fi and got my reports submitted. I have returned my calls and have even been able to get some other work done. But I feel as though this isn't the end....
My husband can nap for 15 minutes and be refreshed and ready to go. On weekdays I swear an entire marching band could parade through our bedroom playing The Stars and Stripes Forever and he would not wake up. On days he can sleep in, however, he is up at the crack of dawn. That is his weird sleep thing.
Last night as we were reviewing our schedules for today it was decided that I would take the little guy to daycare this morning since I had to go that way anyways to pick up my mother and take her to the dentist. Because my husband was not doing the usual daycare drop we could all sleep in a little. So the clock was set for 7am, instead of 6:30. My husband was up and getting dressed for work by 6:15. At which time he woke me up while getting dressed. He then asked if I wanted him to wake up Matthew. It took every ounce of restraint I had to not throw my drool covered pillow at him. No, thank you, I did NOT want our son up even earlier than normal so that he could jump on the bed where I was still trying to sleep. Why were we up this early? "This is the time my body said to get up.", was the response. Your body is WRONG. And my body is TRYING TO SLEEP!
Turns out, we should have just gotten up. By the time I had my son buckled into his car seat he had already spent at least an hour whining about just about everything he could think of, which included firing me from taking him to his playgroup on Saturday. Yes, he actually said "Mommy, you are fired from taking me to china group this weekend." Fine with me, kiddo. Let's see you try to get there on your big wheel...
As we were walking to the car Matthew noticed that the rear tire looked flat. Thank goodness he is so observant. Who knows when I would have noticed. We stop at the UDF right by our house and their air costs 75 cents. Seriously, when did we start paying for air? I didn't have three quarters, so I had to schlep both me and Matthew inside just to be told that they do not give change. I buy gas there, iced tea, newspapers... but they don't give change? We head to the second gas station - there are three stations right next to each other so my plan was to visit each one until I found my prize- a re-inflated tire. The second station had air for $1.00. But at least they were willing to make change so I could use their pricey air.
After extricating myself from my teary eyed three year old, who an hour earlier had fired me from everything but who now was clinging to my leg as though one of us was going off to war, I headed to Mom's assisted living. I got there at 9:15 and we walked into her 10:00 dentist appointment at 10:02. There is something wrong with her knee and my usually quite spry mother was walking like she was 90 years old. By the time I got her and her drive through lunch back home it was nearly 12:30pm. Finally, I can get some work done!
No sooner do I settle down in the local Starbucks do I realize that the wi fi is not working. As I am packing up to find another place to work, the reason for my displacement from my home office calls. Apparently I turned on the alarm at home before we left this morning, which resulted in our house cleaner setting off the alarm when she came in to clean. Did I want to speak with the police, she asks me. Uh, yes? After proving to the local authorities that I was, in fact, Elizabeth Wilkison, they let me get off the phone and my house cleaner on to cleaning.
It is still early, so I am a little worried about what the rest of the day may hold for me. I found working wi fi and got my reports submitted. I have returned my calls and have even been able to get some other work done. But I feel as though this isn't the end....
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