On duty

I came downstairs this morning just after six and ended up face to face with a certain Resident Middle Schooler with an oatmeal cream pie cookie in each hand, one partially eaten. He gazed at me a minute, maybe the slightest bit sheepishly, then held up the unopened cookie as he asked, "can I take this one in my lunch?" 

Maybe I'm hard hearted, but I looked him in the eye and replied, "It looks like you're already having dessert. I'd have said 'yes' if you weren't already having cookies for breakfast."

Wonder of wonders, he didn't complain, but put the unopened one back and didn't even finish the half eaten one until after he'd finished his cereal. Granted, I didn't check the pockets of his pajama pants so there's a possibility that there are other snacks stuffed away, but overall I was relieved with the amount of drama I didn't have to deal with before I'd even made coffee.

I'm pretty sure that my guardian angel was on duty and HAD had their coffee because I came to a full stop before I poured Damon's Cheerios into my full mug of coffee. Full stop. "Wait. That would be bad." As though my angel had slapped a hand over the top of my mug. 

Bos's angel was undoubtedly on duty this morning. We walk Damon out to the bus on leash, then once the bus is gone and we're turned around facing the house, I take the leash off and he runs a bit before we head in to give him his breakfast. I had him sit, like every time, and I turned his head towards the house and towards me three times. Then I unhooked him and he took off sideways, which was fine, but then stopped as if he was trying to decide if he should roll in something. I headed for him, and Cottonballs-For-Brains heads straight for the road.

Our stretch of road is at the very edge of the city limits, so the speed limit is 50 mph. This dumbhead dog ignored me calling him and circled right up to the edge of the road. The car that was coming was just slow enough that it didn't have to swerve as he finished his circle, or perhaps it didn't even see him, but either way he headed towards me with no apparent remorse. I clicked that leash back on and told him his morning run out front privileges have been revoked, which is a shame as he's too fat, but this dog just can not be trusted. I know he's not even two yet, but goodness, I sure hope he grows a brain! Fool. 

In other news, Thing1 has an art show tonight, so eventually there will be pictures of that extravaganza. Have a great day!

Dear Diary

It isn't even 8:30 yet and I can tell for sure that it's a Monday.

 Carrie staggered into the only one of the four bathrooms in our home that I was using first thing to tell me how tired she was and how she wanted to go back to bed and how it's too eaaaaaaarly. I suppose girls who pee together stay together. We headed out and caught her bus without incident. There was a fellow bus rider who waved enthusiastically to me as it pulled away, and it wasn't Carrie. Cracked me up.

On the stroll back into the house, I noticed our mini daffodils are all open and facing excitedly toward the sunrise. I'm pretty sure they weren't doing that yesterday. That's one of the best parts of a new house... seeing what comes up and where and when. All these fun plants that we didn't have to plant! Yay!

Of course, Liam isn't up at this point, though he should be. Dada even set his alarm and turned it on last night for him. Round one. Ding ding!

He comes down, griping that Damon kept him awake all night and that he wouldn't stop talking, which we already knew as we'd both been in there more than once to talk to them about not talking any more! I popped some trusty, fast, Eggo waffles into the toaster to get him moving and that helped turn things around. He got dressed, finished breakfast, stripped his bed, brushed his teeth, and had 10 minutes of Lego time. As I'm rejoicing over this improved morning attitude, we meander out to the bus.

He hugs me, and I notice the pockets of his fleece are BULGING. That kid tried to smuggle two pockets full of Legos to school on the first day after break!

I've been snookered!

As I'm fishing Legos out of his pockets (which are way deeper than girl pockets, naturally) and into mine, naturally the bus shows up and I can't even get them all. I send him off, admonishing him to "keep those in your pocket!!" He waves cheerfully and off he goes.

I get back into the house, not in as sunny of a mood as when I left, and I almost trip over the orange flip flops spread out in front of the door. I look in a little farther, and there's a pajama-clad, robe-clad, hoodie-over-robe-clad Damon announcing he's going outside. But needs socks.

I tipped off Liam's teacher that she may want to use her XRay vision first thing and perhaps store certain belongings in a safe location until the end of the day. Nothing like shattering illusions of a perfect first day back from spring break before she's had her mug of tea...

I was going to finish my coffee from yesterday, but when I checked my mug, I noticed what I thought was a hair floating in it. Upon further examination, the black ant must have needed the caffeine more than I did, and fresh coffee was brewed after all.

Dinner is in the crock pot, the second load of sheets is in the washer, the dog's been let outside, Damon is socked and booted and also let outside, so now maybe I can go have a bowl of cereal. I've only been up for a little over two hours.

Today they'll all have karate lessons, I hope to get to Aldi, Walmart, the post office, the tax office, and the Y.

Um, is it bedtime yet?