The Gift That Keeps Giving

So what do you give your son's preschool teacher that conveys how much you appreciate all she does? What shows that you don't take her for granted, that you do recognize all she does, no matter how fast you breeze in every day. Something that really shows you know it is hard to work all day with 20 5-year-old kids on a teacher's salary.

Well, if you're me, you give her a big 'ol dent in her car from your big 'ol minivan as you drive your big 'ol self out of the school parking lot.

That's right. I rear ended my son's teacher at school this afternoon.

Lovely.

Gross Story of the Day

There are a lot of things you don't want to hear your kids say from the backseat. What's that smell ... I'm not going to make it ... You left the car seat on top of the car ...

As of this morning I can add another to the list. We were almost to school on an otherwise uneventful drive when Sam asked "Jake, what are you eating?"

Good question ... We didn't bring any breakfast in the car and I know there aren't stale Cheerios or hardened fruit gummies lurking in the seats. (Bryon, the lover of all things minivan, has declared there will be no eating in the car.)

"Yes Jake, what are you eating?" I ask him by way of the rear view mirror.

It only gets worse when Sam yells "Oh gross!"

My imagination goes wild but Sam breaks the suspense.

"He took a hair out of his eye and ate it!" An eyelash I presume.

So either Jake is turning into a cockroach or he's vying to be a contestant on Fear Factor.

Trying to Make Sense

Like everyone else, the shootings at Virginia Tech put a knot in my stomach. As a parent, a former student, a classmate, a person ... And like a lot of people I was compelled to listen to news of the incident, trying to understand who did it and why.

At one point Sam was in the car with me and I realized I'd been listening to a news report when he asked if someone had killed some people. We were stopped at a red light so I took a deep breath and turned around to face him.

"Yes. Someone who was very sad and very angry used a gun to hurt a lot of people," I told him.

"Did they die?"

"Yes, a lot of people died."

"Maybe they said something mean to him. Maybe they hurt his feelings."

"Yes, maybe, but I can't imagine saying anything that would make it OK to hurt so many people."

And then, in one of those bittersweet, I-wish-it-could-be-that-easy moments, he said: "That's right. He should have just turned the other cheek."

Miss Doolittle

Over the weekend I had one of those stereotypical, idyllic Mom moments. All three kids and I were snuggling in bed, enjoying each other's company. No one was poking or pinching or pooping or spitting up. The boys were talking to Abby and she was trying hard to talk back. She has started to coo a lot - one of the best sounds in the world. She curls her little heart-shaped lips into a perfect circle and makes the sweetest sounds.

"Sam, listen. She's talking to you," I told him. "Talk back to her. That is how she learns to talk. She listens to the sounds around her and tries to mimic them."

"Has she been talking to owls?" he asked.

Preschooler Angst

So Sam hasn't been feeling great. It started over the weekend with a fever and a cough. Even though he said he didn't feel bad, he couldn't walk from the living room to the kitchen without resting (neither can I and I'm not even sick). But Sunday we were sitting outside eating lunch when he got a strange look on his face. I know now it as the 'about to vomit' face.

"Sam? You OK?" I asked him, prepared to dash over and remove anyone and anything in his trajectory.

"If everyone in the family would just leave me alone, I might be," he said.

Jesus Who?

Because the kids' day care is at our church, they go to chapel once a week. They like chapel and I like to hear what Bible stories they hear and songs they sing. It reminds me of Sunday School and Vacation Bible School when I was young. Jake especially likes to sing Zaccheus. In case you aren't current on your Bible stories:

Zaccheus was a wee, little man
And a wee, little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior came that way
He looked up in the tree.
And he said, "Zaccheus, you come down from there."
For I'm going to your house today.
For I'm going to your house today.

This morning I told Sam I thought the song was about Jesus, so who was "the Savior" Zaccheus saw. Sam slapped his hands on his knees and said, "You know. I have NO idea."

And the Kitchen Sink

I know some have it worse than I do. I know some have it better. But just for the record, this is what I had to keep track of this morning, my first day back at work:

1 package of size 1 diapers
432-count package of wipes
2 pacifiers
3 sets of back-up clothes for Abby
nose syringe
tube of Desitin
bottle of Mylicon
3 3-oz bottles
crib mobile
'Thank Heaven For Little Girls' baby blanket
box of sidewalk chalk for Jake's school auction
1 bottle of bubbles and bubble wand for Jake's school auction
breast pump
box of breast milk storage bags
2 Spiderman backpacks
1 Mama (Jake's teddy bear)
4 pairs of underpants (Jake likes to carry spare pairs)
1 Woo (Sam's favorite blanket)
Sparky (Sam's stuffed dog)
2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
1 stroller
1 car seat
1 stroller blanket

Last but not least ... Sam, Jake and Abby.

Ringing Endorsement

We were driving to church at 9:30 Sunday morning in our new minivan (more later) when it occurred to me how far Bryon and I have come. We met in 1993 when he was a bartender and I was a shot girl at a new wave/techno bar in Columbia, Missouri. On a typical Sunday morning back then I was probably barely asleep at 9:30 a.m., let alone on my way to church with three kids in a minivan.

Nevertheless, I could tell Sam was excited about the new car and the day ahead (there was an Easter egg hunt at his favorite park after church) when we pulled into the parking lot and he said, "Sunny days are here."