Disappointment Served With a Side of Snot

Soooo, why am I disappointed?

This weekend I was supposed to go to the lake with the kids.  It's the town celebration and I was looking forward to going to the craft fair and shopping and just having fun.  The kids are at an age where they're great to take to stuff like this (and once I find one of those kid leashes, Jake's wandering ways will worry me less) and I don't know if I have more fun at the event or just watching as they experience the event!  

Probably watching them.

But Friday afternoon at work I got a voice mail from John saying that the kids were sick.  I asked how they were feeling and he said that Katie actually *admitted* that she wasn't feeling good.  This is not normal for her.  Usually she'll exclaim over and over that "I not sick!" while her nose is all stuffy and her voice sounds scratchy.  "She's got a runny nose and she's hot," he told me.  He also said that he felt her forehead to see if she was warm and Katie told him that it wasn't her head that was hot, it was her neck.  

So I decided to wait till I got home so I could see for myself how they were doing.  After a quick stop at Target for popsicles and bread.  And, well, Target also happens to have other stuff that magically ended up in my cart!  Totally necessary stuff like the 30-Day Shred video (so mine could go back to the library before fines bankrupt us), a bottle of shower gel (I had a coupon), grapes, apples, steak, potato (yum, yum, yum, and yum) and I think that's it.  Oh, and the popsicles and bread I had gone in for.

I got home and saw the kids and decided we would not be going up north to spend lots of time outside in the extra hot heat.  Runny/stuffy noses, glazed eyes, irritability.  All things that would make this weekend less than fun.  Also?  When I told her to get her jammies, she picked out winter jammies because she was cold.  Meanwhile, I'm sitting there sweating from the heat.  So, yep. Sick.  That ruled out the lake.  And the fun we were going to have.

Not that we aren't having an awesome time here.  At home.  We already ate breakfast, picked up toys, and the kids are having a nap (I know... what!?!?  Katie NEVER naps.  I guess getting up at 5 a.m. can be a little tiring.  I wouldn't know.  I bribed her with her shows and unlimited popsicles for a couple of hours more sleep for mommy.  And it worked.  I love 4 years old).

So, I hear Jake talking to himself in his crib now.  Strange... he's yelling "Ow, ow, ow" so I better get him.  I think it's time to wake Katie up too... we've got to keep up this 8:30 p.m. bedtime I've been enforcing!

Oh...

On another note... I just realized that my dryer sheets come in packs of 276.  I've got three packs.  I could do a load of laundry a day and not need to buy dryer sheets for 2 years.  I don't know how I ended up with so many...  

Oh wait.  I remember now.

Costco.  The same place that sells enough chocolate chips in a bag to make 500 cookies.

Thanks Costco.

Katie Goes From 4 (year old) to 12 (year old) in Six Seconds. And back again.

Katie and I went to Target today.

On the way there, she was using the French pronunciation n: Tar-jjjjay (and if this is an indication of her language skills, it looks like someone is halfway to a translator if I, um, I mean if someone ever goes to France) and it was adorable.

We did some shopping and spent about 10 minutes converting the convertible sofa* they had sitting on an end-cap.

*As an aside, it was really cool.  I wish I had $179 (plus tax) sitting around gathering dust because I would have taken one home.  Even though we have no place to put it.  And it wouldn't go with our living room.  And it would probably break with the strain of two active kids climbing all over it.  *sigh*

Anyway...

As we walked by the girl clothes section, Katie turned and wandered in.  It was like her eyes were suddenly seeing the multitude of options out there where before there were only three; shorts, dress, pants.  No exciting patterns, no new fabrics, just the same three clothing options in many shades of pink and purple filling her closet.

For so long, her usual outfit has consisted of knit pants, long sleeve knit shirt during the colder months and sundresses and knit shorts in the cooler months.  Today, she explored the world of options.

I did not like it.

But she was glowing with big girl pride.

She wanted to try on sandals, pink pants (and not in a knit fabric!), a cute patterned jacket, two sundresses with cap sleeves, and two sundresses that were more like what mommy she was used to.  And - this is the cutest thing - every time she tried something new on, she did a "happy dance" to celebrate how cute she looked.  And she did look cute in every.single.thing.

Like this ensemble:

Which made what I had to do especially hard.

I had to limit her purchases.  I had to tell my sweet daughter that, even though she looks adorable in every single one of the outfits she tried on, we could not purchase all of them.  It was tough but she's grown up hearing "We didn't budget for that this time" so in the hopes that it wouldn't fail me now, I pulled it out and fired away.

As I spoke the words, I closed my eyes a little expecting a full blown tantrum (she's never actually shopped for her own clothes before so I was thinking she might get attached to everything and have a really tough time with the reality of having to leave some stuff behind because "we didn't budget for it this time") but she absolutely surprised me with her maturity.

There were no tears, no shouts, no "mean mommy" name calling.  Just acceptance.

What a relief.

I was having a little bit of a tough time accepting that she's grown into her own person... until 3 outfits into her trying on session, she looks at me and says "Mommy, I have to go potty."  And I said "Are you sure?  You just went less than an hour ago and you haven't even had anything to drink..."  But she did.  And like, right now.  So I whipped off the Target outfit and threw on her dress and shorts and shoes, dumped everything into the cart, and told the attendant we would be back as we rushed down the aisle.  Made it just in time.  *Whew!*

Katie finally finished going potty (after we had a conversation like the mom and daughter I overheard talking in the Famous Dave's bathroom here) and we were ready to leave the happiest place on earth Target.

I bought her a Snickers bar at the checkout (she usually asks for something so we treated ourselves - I made her share with me) and paid for the pink shorts, two dresses, and a few things from the dollar section (they had a 75% discount on all of the "black dots" and I think I spent about $3 from that section but I couldn't resist the lure of a good deal on stuff I didn't realize was missing from my life till I saw it there at 75% off) and headed to the grocery store.  We were just about to turn onto the street in front of the store when Katie AGAIN told me she had to go potty.  Arg.  And again I asked her "Are you sure you have to go potty again?  You just went!" but she was sure.  So we visited their bathroom too.  Not as nice as the ones at Target but hey, what do you expect.

Then we got our ice cream and headed home to John and Jacob.

John and I Get Out of the House... and a little Bathroom Humor

If you'll remember, a few weeks back I posted about my date with John to Feed My Starving Children.

Well, tonight we went to Famous Dave's for dinner.  Mom watched the kids so it was actually a date-date.

We were catapulted back to our single days (except for the coupon I had for our dinner thanks to "liking" Famous Dave's on Facebook, because pre-kid a coupon was never something we considered... now with Katie in pre-school it's a little more important to save where we can) and enjoyed talking without having to refill a juice glass or pick something up off of the floor or help with a potty break mid-meal.

I did crack up a little when I went to the ladies room.  There was a mom with her daughter in one of the stalls and I could have recited the lines with her, I use them so often with Katie!

Mom: Are you done?
Kid: No.  Not yet.
Mom, after a slight pause: Are you done yet?
Kid: No... almost done.
Mom, after another pause (and me silently laughing to myself in the stall): Are you finished honey?  Are you going anymore?
Kid: Yes, all done.
Mom: *heavy exhale*
...
Kid: Wait, not done yet.
Mom: *sigh*

This is totally how every potty break with Katie seems to go!  It was hilarious to be on the outside of the conversation and I felt a certain... kinship with the woman.  Especially after they came to the sinks and the mom hoisted the kid up, her little legs flailing about behind mom and little soapy hands reaching to the sink.  (You know, the classic airplane pose.)  Unfortunately the sink, one of the automatic ones, refused to go on.  And the mom seemed to be about ready to start laughing (not the ha ha laugh but the laugh that I've laughed many times before when the situation just seems too ridiculous for words and if you don't laugh you're going to start to cry big "poor me" tears) hysterically.  I could just imagine me and Katie in this same situation.  Soapy hands, kid in place, the end of the bathroom visit in sight... and the sink won't work.  So I hurried up so they could use my sink and I chuckled all the way to my table.

Ahhh, good times.

Anyway... For some strange reason, the minute I walk into Famous Dave's I begin to think that it's perfectly logical, nay, necessary to order a whole half a cow for dinner (along with the cornbread muffin, corn on the cob section, cinnamon apples, and fries... yep.  AND fries).  When the food comes I'm always a little bit in awe of the size of the thing.  John and I usually share but today... today we had a COUPON!

So I did what any sane person would do.  I ordered the half slab of ribs.  Justified by telling myself that I can bring leftovers home with me.  Still thinking that I would totally scarf this meal down because I hadn't eaten much that day and I was soooo due for a good meal.  And did I say I had a coupon?  That just makes the meal (well, any purchase really) that much better.

The food was great.  Our time together was great.  The silence in the car was awesome... but it was still good to get home and see the kids.  The kids who had a great time with Grandma.

Probably just as much fun with her as they did with me yesterday when we... organized toys.

Yep.  You heard me right.  We.organized.toys.

I know they are probably going to end up all over the house again soon, but for now they're in order and not underfoot.  While we were organizing, I sat down in front of the bins we bought for Katie but left in Jake's room once she moved into her own room.  (After all, the pink, green, and blue bins match Jake's hand-me-down pink room.  With the pink curtains.  And the flower decals on the wall.  And the pink Hello Kitty lamp. *ahem*  The only concession we made with the change in ownership was to move the butterflies out and put them up in Katie's room.  We've got to paint that soon... I'm thinking blue would be a great color.)

As soon as I sat down, Jake came over to me and sat down just in front of me.  Close enought that I couldn't move my legs.  Then Katie came over and sat down on my legs.  Not conducive for cleaning.  But we still made progress (and when I say "made progress" I mean that I actually found a place for 90% of the stuff.  The rest of it we just shoved into two of the bins but it's still progress).

Then it was bedtime.  Thank goodness.