Day: July 24, 2008

Today:
Awakened by a phone call reminding me that I’ve committed to taking Kiki and Link to visit their friend a 90 minute drive away.
Scrambled out of bed to make two kids pack for overnight. Also to arrange babysitting for Gleek and Patch since I don’t have enough passenger seats for all the kids in Howard’s VW.
Drove 90 minutes to friend’s house.
Drove 90 minutes back.
Retrieved cranky kids from neighbor.
Plunked cranky kids in front of videos because I know they’re over tired and it was the activity least likely to inspire sibling warfare.
Spent 5 hours packaging magnets for shipping. It is good to get this done. It would have been nicer to get this done last week, but the magnets did not arrive until yesterday. I’m still not done because I already need to place a re-order.
Let the kids run wild with the neighbor kids while a neighbor lit pioneer day fireworks.
Got kids into bed far later than they should have gone. Hopefully they’ll sleep in late tomorrow.

Usually I spend significant energy trying to get the kids to bed on time during the summer. This year I’ve just let it slide. Some nights they’re in bed by 9:30 others by 11:00. Now, after several 11:00 nights in a row, I’m really feeling a need to assert an earlier bedtime. I”m tired of the daytime crankiness. I’m really tired of the cranky-induced defiance. Both Gleek and Patch threw tantrums at my neighbor’s house today. I really need to stabilize life for them before I hand them off to relatives for a week.

This morning I intended to spend the day putting my house into order. There were things to be cleaned. This plan was derailed by 1600 magnets which finally reached completion. I paid for the magnets, brought them home, and then spent the middle of the day packaging them for shipping. Around 4 pm I crashed onto the couch with a book, ready for a short break. This action must have pinged the “mommy availability” sensors that my kids seem to have. Within minutes, Patch came into the room and snuggled into the space between me and the couch. Usually when a child comes to me, that child wants me to do something. This time all Patch wanted was to be close to me. I kissed the top of his head and remembered that I’d meant to give him a bath as part of the cleaning. He certainly needed one. But I was not ready to give up the snuggly moment yet.

I put my book down and tried to think what conversation I could have with my son. I counted days in my head and realized that in just over a week I’ll be handing him off to relatives while I go on a business trip. I’d been picturing that event as a safe two weeks away, but it is almost in my lap. So we talked a little bit about him going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. He was more interested in talking beyond that to when he gets to go on a father/son campout with Link and Howard. So we talked about camping and tents. Then we circled back around to the trip to Grandma’s house.

Then Gleek showed up with a request and the moment was gone. From there we moved on to baths and the rest of the day.