May Day Part 1: Before School

A little over a year ago I had an unbelievable day. By 10 am I realized that it was the kind of day that needed to be recorded for posterity. (Quite literally, I want to be able to show it to my kids.) So I began taking notes. I’ve always intended to write up a full account from the notes.  During my vacation last week I finally did.  It ended up in three parts. If you want to read about kid stuff

4 am. I awoke blearily certain something needed my attention. My first thought was that 2-month-old Patches had cried. Then I hear the whispers. Patches was more the howling-loudly type, so this definitely was not him. I staggered from my bed to discover five-year-old Link and two-year-old Gleek in the hallway.

Link had a flashlight in hand and had awakened Gleek so they could finish the game which bedtime had interrupted the night before. As I herded them both back to bed, Link tried to assure me that it would be alright if they stayed up while I slept because he would watch Gleek. I in turn tried to convince him that the middle of the night was not the time for flashlight games.

I succeeded in putting the two back to bed, but apparently not in convincing Link. Less than 30 minutes after I crashed back in bed and to sleep I woke again. I opened my eyes to discover Link’s eyes right in my face, his nose barely an inch from my own. It was perhaps fortunate that Howard was out of town on business, otherwise my startled shriek would almost certainly have awakened him. This time my “discussion” with Link on the way back to his bedroom qualified as a “scolding.”

I next became groggily awake to the sound of more whispers. Link had awakened Gleek again. Since the clock claimed the time as 7 am, I decided to give up on sleep an hour early and start my day.

School mornings were almost entirely focused on getting Kiki ready and out the door for school. This had to be carefully managed so that the process stayed happy. I was busily navigating the hazards of breakfast, getting dressed, and tooth brushing one handed because Patches squalled every time he was put down, when I became aware that Link was chasing a naked Gleek all over the house. He’d decided to get her dressed and was trying to get her to hold still long enough for him to put clothes on her. Gleek had happily co-operated with the clothes-off part of this project, but then decided that it was much more fun to run away and giggle while Link chased after with clothes in hand. I provided Link with reinforcements and we got Gleek dressed.

I returned to the Kiki managing routine only peripherally aware that Link and Gleek had put on boots and tromped into the backyard, which at the time had huge expanses of bare dirt ready for sod to be laid; the backyard which had been rained on steadily for the last 24 hours.

Fifteen minutes later Link and Gleek returned to the back door. It was with difficulty that they did so since they each had an inch-thick layer of goopy mud covering their boots. We were getting perilously close to the to-school drop-off drive and so I simply stripped boots from feet and threw the muddy boots into the bathtub “to be cleaned later.” I scrambled and found clean shoes for the bare feet and sent Link and Gleek to the car to get in their seats. Moments later when I followed, herding kiki and toting Patches, I discovered that Link and Gleek had not gone to the car. Instead they were at the far end of the Cul de Sac playing in a knee-deep muddy puddle. Amid protests from all four children, (Patches doesn’t want to be put down, Link and Gleek want to play longer, Kiki wants to know why she doesn’t get to play in the puddle) I strapped everyone firmly into their seats glad in the knowledge that for at least the next 10 minutes I’d know exactly where they were and what they were doing.