SAHM - day three of four

I'm getting a taste of this SAHM thing, and I need some Scope. I signed Sawyer up for the "Little Red School" Monday and, lucky me, the following night was parent's night. I had to make a ceramic mug for Sawyer to use on special occasions. It'll be a miracle if the thing holds water. Everyone else had goblets with dinosaur designs and I basically made him a test tube with his name scratched into it, only the rim wasn't straight so it'll be a challenge not to pour water all over himself. One woman I met invited me to join a mom's group, which meets within sight of my house.

The kids and I headed over this morning and we met a whole bunch of young-ins Sawyer's and Arden's ages. But it was basically a business meeting. They were filling their calendar for the month of October and it was like: Monday we'll go on a hike and Tuesday we'll make Indian headbands and Wednesday - should we go to the pool or the park? hmmmm . . . and who's interested in making soup together next Friday? I was all: Sign me up for wine night! But, I'll probably never be able to do any of the other stuff. This whole Stay At Home Mom thing is a bizarre deal if you ask me . . . no offense to all you all out there who choose to do it and do it well. I just feel like the chick in a business suit at a Dead Show sitting around these intense parents with their crafts boxes and binders full of . . . WHAT? exactly.

Now, the mom I want to meet is the one that asked to bring a 13-year-old blind wolf in to school for her kid's show-and-tell. I'd could have a glass of wine with her!

Along with my not-so-great parenting shtick, Arden rolled off the back of the couch this afternoon and landed on a wood box. No, I did not have my eyes glued like a hawk on the kids, who were supposed to be watching a movie while I put some boxes in the basement. And, no, I did not have a ready supply of frozen peas in the freezer or ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet. So, after a quick head to toe assessment, and determining that her lip, once again, was the mass casualty of the day, we raced to the store, where I discovered that there was a widespread power outage (that would explain the dark freezer at my house). We bought Popsicles and Advil and raced back home. Arden had three pops, which I hope will deplete the swelling. But, once again, my girl looks like the Million Dollar Baby:



ps - that little 'emergency' officially broke my no driving to the store streak.

First Day Update

Long before the sun came up this morning Scott and I were awoken by the unmistakable sound of a dog about to upchuck on our bedroom floor. Scott flew out of bed and pushed Duncan out the sliding glass door of our bedroom. We were just falling back to sleep when we heard a bang from somewhere in the house. We didn't hear any crying but we listened quietly for a while. Then I heard a soft creaking on the wood floors in the hallway and there was Sawyer, sneaking towards us through the dark. It was the earliest he's ever been up and it was the first time he ever let himself out of his room in the night like that. He climbed into my arms and said something that sounded a lot like: "New School." We had been talking about it the night before and we think he was excited. A few minutes later we heard Arden making happy sounds in her bed. For whatever reason, the entire household was now up before the sun.

Hours later, we all dropped Sawyer off together for his first day of preschool. He walked in, started playing with trains, and pretty much ignored us. After about five minutes, it was clear that he was fine and that it was time for us to go. I knelt down and explained gently that we were about to leave.
"We'll see you later," I said.
"See ya!" he said without even looking up from the toy train he was assembling.
And that was that.

Arden did fine too. Her teacher is clearly a baby person and Arden didn't have one bit of stranger anxiety. Of course, she didn't really understand what was happening.

I haven't called to check on either of them yet. While I do wish I could be a fly on the wall, I think I'm probably better off not knowing, just imagining them looking as happy and content as they were this morning.