Anecdotes
Ducky
At bedtime Friday we realized we had misplaced Ducky, one of Sam's loveys. I assumed it was in the car, but when it wasn't I sort of panicked. I knew it wasn't in the house because I distinctly remember the chaos with which we entered the house. And we came empty handed. My fear was that it was lying in the Tetco parking lot where I stopped for gas and a bathroom break for Sam five hours earlier.
It was one of those gas stations with a McDonald's attached. Even though Sam had already snacked on 'square cereals' and granola, the walk through McDonald's made visions of chicken nuggets dance in his head (or more likely, visions of a Happy Meal toy), and he proceeded to lay in the parking lot of Tetco wailing something like "I HUNGEEEEE. AAAAHHHH!" I immediately fell into that 'don't make me yell at you in public' mode and managed to get him in the car. Now, hours later, I'm afraid that in the melee Ducky somehow fell out of the car and is now in the hands of someone else, someone who won't appreciate and love Ducky like we do.
After about 20 minutes of online searching I found the gas station's phone number (yes, I tried the operator. She didn't have the listing.) But the attendant couldn't understand me. "Do you have a lost and found?"
"A credit card?" he asked.
"No, I've lost a stuffed animal. Did anyone turn in a stuffed animal, a yellow duck?"
"A credit card was returned to the lady."
What? Nevermind.
I fretted about that duck all weekend long. Only once did Sam say weepily, "I've lost it forever."
Fast forward to this morning. I was secretly hoping it was still in his cubby at school and that we'd simply forgotten it on Friday. It wasn't. So I stopped at the front desk and asked if anybody found a yellow stuffed duck. There he was. Grungy little Ducky.
I think I was happier than Sam.
Practice What You Preach
The Batman bike Sam got for Christmas has a Batman phone. Sam has started calling Batman on the phone regularly. The conversations sound quite real. I suppose Batman is Sam's imaginary friend, to some extent. Jake would love to get his hands on that phone. It may be wrong but I let him play with it when Sam isn't around or napping. But this morning, on the way to Jake's doctor appointment, Sam was using the Batman phone and Jake wanted it ... bad. I tried to mediate by giving Jake my phone, assuming he couldn't do much harm. (He did manage to call Bryon.)
The point of the story is that after the doctor's appointment, as we are driving to school, I realized I had no idea where my cell phone was. When we stopped at school I rummaged through my purses (yes, I brought two today), my lunch, the diaper bag. Nothing. I asked Sam. "Have you seen my cell phone? I can't find it."
And he actually told me. "It's not my phone. It's your responsibility."
Introducing Felix
Three Christmases ago, Bryon went into the kitchen for coffee and found a black cat sitting in the middle of the floor. Long story short, I started feeding him, he adopted us, we adopted him and he has been with us ever since. After tossing around many quirky cat names (Mojo and Goby were front runners for some reason) we settled on Chairman Meow. I thought it was funny but the cat has a wail like a crying baby so it seemed fitting. Officially, the cat goes by Blackcat.
This year one day around Christmas I kept hearing a quiet 'mew mew' around our house. I thought maybe our other cat was locked in a closet but both cats were accounted for. I finally traced the noise to ... you guessed it, a stray black cat. A small, timid beautiful long-haired black kitten. I fed it. (Apparently many of the neighbors were feeding it.) One day our neighbor asked if we'd seen the cat. It had bitten her and she wanted to keep an eye on it. Again, long story short, the cat is still around. Sam's friend Delta named it Felicity, but we found out recently that Felicity is Felix. Although it loves being brushed and following the kids around the yards and alley, it doesn't want to be held. I don't know who of us will adopt Felix (I'm fairly sure someone will) but I believe Felix has adopted us.
At bedtime Friday we realized we had misplaced Ducky, one of Sam's loveys. I assumed it was in the car, but when it wasn't I sort of panicked. I knew it wasn't in the house because I distinctly remember the chaos with which we entered the house. And we came empty handed. My fear was that it was lying in the Tetco parking lot where I stopped for gas and a bathroom break for Sam five hours earlier.
It was one of those gas stations with a McDonald's attached. Even though Sam had already snacked on 'square cereals' and granola, the walk through McDonald's made visions of chicken nuggets dance in his head (or more likely, visions of a Happy Meal toy), and he proceeded to lay in the parking lot of Tetco wailing something like "I HUNGEEEEE. AAAAHHHH!" I immediately fell into that 'don't make me yell at you in public' mode and managed to get him in the car. Now, hours later, I'm afraid that in the melee Ducky somehow fell out of the car and is now in the hands of someone else, someone who won't appreciate and love Ducky like we do.
After about 20 minutes of online searching I found the gas station's phone number (yes, I tried the operator. She didn't have the listing.) But the attendant couldn't understand me. "Do you have a lost and found?"
"A credit card?" he asked.
"No, I've lost a stuffed animal. Did anyone turn in a stuffed animal, a yellow duck?"
"A credit card was returned to the lady."
What? Nevermind.
I fretted about that duck all weekend long. Only once did Sam say weepily, "I've lost it forever."
Fast forward to this morning. I was secretly hoping it was still in his cubby at school and that we'd simply forgotten it on Friday. It wasn't. So I stopped at the front desk and asked if anybody found a yellow stuffed duck. There he was. Grungy little Ducky.
I think I was happier than Sam.
Practice What You Preach
The Batman bike Sam got for Christmas has a Batman phone. Sam has started calling Batman on the phone regularly. The conversations sound quite real. I suppose Batman is Sam's imaginary friend, to some extent. Jake would love to get his hands on that phone. It may be wrong but I let him play with it when Sam isn't around or napping. But this morning, on the way to Jake's doctor appointment, Sam was using the Batman phone and Jake wanted it ... bad. I tried to mediate by giving Jake my phone, assuming he couldn't do much harm. (He did manage to call Bryon.)
The point of the story is that after the doctor's appointment, as we are driving to school, I realized I had no idea where my cell phone was. When we stopped at school I rummaged through my purses (yes, I brought two today), my lunch, the diaper bag. Nothing. I asked Sam. "Have you seen my cell phone? I can't find it."
And he actually told me. "It's not my phone. It's your responsibility."
Introducing Felix
Three Christmases ago, Bryon went into the kitchen for coffee and found a black cat sitting in the middle of the floor. Long story short, I started feeding him, he adopted us, we adopted him and he has been with us ever since. After tossing around many quirky cat names (Mojo and Goby were front runners for some reason) we settled on Chairman Meow. I thought it was funny but the cat has a wail like a crying baby so it seemed fitting. Officially, the cat goes by Blackcat.
This year one day around Christmas I kept hearing a quiet 'mew mew' around our house. I thought maybe our other cat was locked in a closet but both cats were accounted for. I finally traced the noise to ... you guessed it, a stray black cat. A small, timid beautiful long-haired black kitten. I fed it. (Apparently many of the neighbors were feeding it.) One day our neighbor asked if we'd seen the cat. It had bitten her and she wanted to keep an eye on it. Again, long story short, the cat is still around. Sam's friend Delta named it Felicity, but we found out recently that Felicity is Felix. Although it loves being brushed and following the kids around the yards and alley, it doesn't want to be held. I don't know who of us will adopt Felix (I'm fairly sure someone will) but I believe Felix has adopted us.
posted by Romine Family at 12:19 PM
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