A few weeks ago, Dawn decided that keeping two 3 year olds under control and away from each other’s throats was no longer a sufficient challenge, so she returned to her nursing gig but now works the night shift. She usually just sneaks out of the house when it’s time to go, and the kids will get a little teary & sniffly when they realize she’s gone, but it hasn’t been too bad. Tonight we decided it was time to be straight up about it, and depart with an official good-bye. Before the words even left her lips, Kate launched into a full-blown nuclear meltdown, and Sam quickly realized that meltdowns are a ton of fun, so he matched her banshee pitch and tear production. I’m quite confident that both of them understand that she’s coming back and that we love them, so I actually found it mildly humorous more than pitiful or maddening.
So we have our ups and downs, of course, just like with potty training. Overall Sam has been doing great, so we rewarded his performance last Friday with his first trip to Chuck-e-cheese. Like many other children, he really gets excited about flushing the toilet. But the strangest thing is that almost every time he flushes, as the water rushes down, he’ll say “bye bye tee-tee, see you at church!” What? Where in the world did that come from? Did one of your children teach my son this warped view of church? Or maybe he heard that line on some rogue video spoof of “Elmo learns to use the potty” on YouTube? I figure there are many other things he could be saying that are much worse, so we just shrug the shoulders and laugh.
Kate’s first Halloween was a fun family affair. The kids are still so innocent – there are no grim reaper costumes, no thoughts of decorating a neighbor’s house with a “trick” after a disappointing treat attempt, and surprisingly they don’t even care about the candy. I didn’t expect them to employ a nightly candy audit like an 8 year old would to regulate parental consumption. But they were so tired by the time they reached the bed that night, they must have forgotten about the treasure. Kate enjoyed her role as a bunny, and Sam stuck with the plan to be Curious George. I made a game-day run to goodwill with the kids and scored a bright yellow dress shirt to complement my spray-painted banana yellow hat. A lot of people didn’t know who I was, or maybe wondered if I was in costume or not. But it made my night when we were strolling down a fairly busy street and a mini-van hit the brakes, rolled down the window, and the male driver barked in celebration: “Yes!! It’s the man with the yellow hat!”
In the last entry, I mentioned the progress with the grandparents. That trend continues and we’ve now had successful sleep-overs at both grandparents. We’ve also made some good memories with the great-grandparents. Kate & Sam joined my grandmother in blowing out the candles on her 93rd birthday cake this past weekend. And we took the kids to visit Dawn’s grandfather out in Tignall, where their life-long dreams to ride a tractor became reality. I love how Kate can be 100% girl in some situations, but then a moment later she’ll flip the switch and catch fish, play football, and stare longingly into the grill of a John Deere.
