James starts school tomorrow! He will be in Mrs. Roach's class with a few friends that he's had before in his classes. Walker, Jacob, and Sarah were in his 3s class, and his friend Ryan had been his twos class. I'm hesitant only because he'll be going a lot more this year. Last year he went 3 days a week, and this year he'll be going all 5 days. On Wednesday, and maybe Monday, he'll be staying for "Afternoon Enrichment" and will be introduced to Spanish. He is on the waiting list for the class on Monday, which is Drama. Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit all know that James is supposed to be in Drama at some point in his lifetime, so hopefully this will be his entrance.
This afternoon, while Kaitlyn was taking her nap, James decided to ask us: "You know what we haven't had in a very long time?" Pause... "Candy!" Nathan and I had a pretty good chuckle at that, but laughed even harder when he asked Daddy if he knew what was inside the M&M he was eating. He bit into one and showed Nathan and said, "Candy!" We laughed more and told him that it was actually chocolate.
I decided to take the kids shopping this afternoon, so at 3 PM when Kaitlyn still wasn't awake from her nap, I went upstairs to wake her up. Apparently the monitors were off, I had turned one off due to some majorly annoying interference from the neighbors somewhere, and Nathan had turned off the one in the bedroom when he slept in this morning. So, when I went up there, and had thought she was still sleeping, she was not. In fact, when I went into her room, she told me, "Changed my diaper, Mommy." Huh? I didn't really get it... and she was pointing down in between where her bed butts up to the wall and the wall. There is about a 1.5 inch gap that is impossible to get rid of due to the wood frame that holds the mattress. I, stupidly, for a minute, thought that she was asking me to change her diaper, when in fact, she had done what she had said she did. She had taken her diaper off, and smashed it down through the crack and on to the floor. I about panicked when I went to "change" her and found a bare bottom under her dress. Thank GOODNESS she hadn't gone to the bathroom at ALL. Whew. That could have been tragic.
James really didn't want to go shopping today, and told me that he didn't want to go. He's been playing with his "Rescue Pack" (from Go Diego Go) a lot lately, and he decided that it would be fun for Rescue Pack to go with us in the car (cringe). Rescue Pack sings. Yes, sings... a very annoying song that most mothers (especially Aunt Beth :) ) can't stand. So... I figured, whatever... if he's happy with Rescue Pack and he'll go shopping then so be it. Pick your battles. BUT, then I told him, "James, if you bring Rescue Pack in the car, you can't play his song while I'm driving because it'll distract me, okay?" He nodded, no problem with that, he understood.
I got the car started and the kids strapped in, and when I sat in the driver's seat ready to put my seat belt on, James pushed Rescue Pack's button and he started his annoying song. I looked back at James and he said, "We're not driving yet so I can play the song." OOOOOH NO. He's already turning into his FATHER! :)
We started our shopping at Babies R Us, no big deal, got some diapers and some new jammies that were on clearance for the kids. Then we hiked over to Old Navy (with the kids in the Babies R Us cart, because I don't care), and shopped for a while there for new clothes for ME. Not them. I was able to pull off having them in the cart for a while, until James wanted go see the doggie with the button. ??? I don't know... but we did find a doggie on a bench with a button that you push and he talks. Good memory, James.
They were troopers the whole way through, and I even had them looking at books when I was in the dressing room trying on clothes. Everything was great, really. So when James was begging me to be able to get a toy out of the "bubble gum" style machine, I said yes and gave them both a quarter. Thankfully, they had two kinds of machines. One was the kind that sold the really small things that are chocking hazards, and the other had bouncy balls. Perfect! I thought.
As soon as I told James he could get one, he was pointing at the orange one saying that he wanted that one. I tried to explain the "unpredictability" of the whole thing and then just pulled the Mrs. Wilhite line (teacher of 3s at Methodist). I told them "You get what you get and you don't cry a bit." James went first, put his quarter in and turned the knob and out came a blue bouncy ball! So exciting! Little did we know that when Kaitlyn would take her turn she'd get GREEN of all colors. Oh NO. Kaitlyn surprised me and asked James if he wanted the green one, and when he said yes and thank you, Kaitlyn decided that she didn't really want the blue one. So then she threw it and it bounced away about 10 feet into a corner. Sigh. I thought we were going to have a tantrum but Kaitlyn actually got a hold of herself and was happy with the blue ball. Whew.
As if I thought I hadn't had enough, I took the kids to Dillard's after that so I could take advantage of the Estee Lauder bonus gift. Silly me, I even picked up a few dresses to try on. After I had paid for my stuff at the Estee Lauder counter, I hauled the kids back to the dressing room to try on the dresses.
It's amazing what kids find to entertain themselves while in the dressing room with Mommy. James found one of those sticky papers from the lint roller on the floor and was treating it like it was the best toy you could find EVER. So naturally, Kaitlyn wanted it. There was a struggle, there was crying, there was a bit of screaming, and there was a naught spot time out for Kaitlyn. All in all, 10 minutes later, out we walked with no new dresses for Mommy, and a sticky piece of paper... oh, and a bag full of Estee Lauder goodies. :)
I just realized that I've been in a bad habit of waiting for lots of things to write about before I blog, so they are getting a bit long. Oops. Sorry. I hope no one cares.
Now that the kids were hungry and I had gotten my goodies from Dillard's, I figured that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if the kids and I got some dinner while we were out. Nathan was out watching the golf tourney anyway, so he wasn't home. I asked James what he wanted for dinner and he said, "Pizza!" Of course.
There is a Pizza Hut really close to the mall that we had been to, so we headed over there. In my head I was envisioning the old style pizza restaurant that had the big buffet of pizza, a huge salad bar for those watching their weight (ahem), a lot of kids with their parents and lots of laughter and fun had by all. Boy was I wrong. Times have changed.
There was one waiter for the entire restaurant that was about the size of the smallest McDonald's you've ever seen. There was NO salad bar, no pizza buffet, and to top it all off, WEIRD poor trashy people. Ha ha.
We sat next to a table of 6. There was one father with two older sons. The oldest son smelled like big cigarette and was with a girlfriend who had REALLY bad teeth, blue hair, a baseball cap and a necklace with a skull on it. The "middle" child, a boy about the age of 12, looked exactly like his father, surprisingly very cute, but at one point slapped the older brother in the head. The "youngest" was a little sweet skinny little baby named Destiny. Clearly the baby daddy was the daddy of them all, but the woman was no way old enough to be the mother of the other two boys. At one point, while my kids were coloring and playing with their papers, I looked over to the daddy (wearing a Mt. Dew shirt) who was letting the baby suck on a straw full of soda. SICK. I mean really, people... what are you THINKING? The worst part is that the whole time I was there I was worried that they were looking at ME and judging ME because my kids were talking loudly and not sitting still. Oh how distorted.
Oh, and when we got our Thin and Crispy pizza, it was cold. Awesome.
I had better get to bed... it's a school night!
