She's Got A Lively Imagination

I'm lucky that my parents live very close to us and have a great relationship with the wee ones. They do the vast majority of our babysitting, and when they don't see the wee ones "often enough" in their minds, they beg to come over and hang with them. It isn't all sunshine and roses - we have some boundary issues - but it's a huge relief when I have two children who need to go two different places and only one adult is available. Thus, my mom picks Little Miss up every week at school to take her to gymnastics.

My mom being my mom has a hard time following the rules. She doesn't just go inside the school to the hallway and wait there patiently with the other mothers. Unfortunately, Little Miss's classroom is just around the corner from where the parents wait, and if you peek around the corner, you can see into her classroom - and watch them pack up their backpacks from their lockers in the hallway at the end of the day. Needless to say, this is frowned upon, as it's distracting to the students. My mom doesn't care; she just wants to see her granddaughter, regardless of the rules.

I discovered how much an issue this was when my mom accused me one day of planting stories with Little Miss. I looked at her blankly, truly having no idea what she was talking about, but she didn't believes me and insisted that I must have told Little Miss what to say. I hadn't. My dear child simply has an interesting and vivid imagination.

Little Miss told my mom that she had to stop peeking around the corner at her. Why? Because it isn't allowed. And not only that, but the school has cameras to watch for people doing this, and if you get caught, the police will come to take you to jail. Little Miss didn't want her grandma to go to jail. And no, I have never once used the threat of police or jail or anything like that to scare her into behaving. I have absolutely no idea where she came up with the story, but she knows now that Grandma doesn't believe her and figured out that it was a made up story.

Little Miss still had a solution, however.

I know you miss me at school. I miss you, too. Here is a picture of me so that you can keep me close to you. I love you, too!

(Forgive her spelling, as she's in first grade and being taught only in Spanish, so her English spelling isn't where we would expect it otherwise.)

Seriously? How precious is that. Hilarious. Highly entertaining. Gonna give me grey hair as she moves into the preteen and teen years, but precious nonetheless.

And They're Off!

Today was the day. Everyone got on their respective planes and headed out.

This morning, Little Miss came flying down the hallway to greet me after Mister Man told her it was ok to wake up.

Little Miss: Mommy, Mommy! Today we go to Florida.
Me: That’s right, Peanut. What do we have to do before we go to Grandma’s house?

Here, I’m thinking that she just woke up, her diaper hasn’t been changed, and she’s still in her pjs.

Little Miss: I need to pack my stuff in my suitcase so that I can take it with me on the plane to Florida.

Well, yes, I suppose she does, but her priorities are obviously different from mine. She flew back down the hallway into her room and reemerged a moment later, rolling her Tinkerbell suitcase behind her.

Little Miss: Look, Mommy. I packed up everything I need and put it in my suitcase, and I’m ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house now. Wordy for a two and a half year old, isn't she? She never stops, either.

She then unzippered to show me the contents of her suitcase. Snuggle blanket? Check. Penguin? Check. Naked Baby Coco? Check. Random hospital blanket? Okay, check. Baby Coco’s shirt? Check.

I then added her warm blanket with her name on it, the rest of Baby Coco’s clothes – sans diaper that appears to be missing – and three books that she chose. Not bad for a two and a half year old packing her own suitcase. And yes, she was then changed and dressed.

While Mister Man got dressed, I packed his suitcase, which made things much easier. His Baby (Thomas pillow), blanket, Douglas Kitty and grey teddy bear went into the suitcase. He later added a Thomas felt play book and three other books.

Ta da! We were done and ready to head over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in time for me to get back and start working on time. I was hard to say goodbye for so long, but I’ve already gotten the phone call that they’re enjoying Orlando.

Speaking of Orlando, if you’ve been reading this for any length of time you’ll know the story behind this trip. I’m the MOH at a friend’s wedding in Houston this weekend. Even though my husband is a schoolteacher and can’t make it down until Saturday morning, he can’t watch the wee ones because he leaves for school long before the bus comes for Mister Man.

My parents generously volunteered to watch the wee ones for us while we were gone. Then, they asked if they could take the wee ones to Florida. Every year, they’ve taken them to Tampa for four or so days, so I was fine with that. Then I got to call from my mom.

“The hotel we stay at had no rooms available at all for the time we want to go, so we decided to go to Orlando again. The tickets were getting expensive, so we booked them already. We’ll be leaving the morning of May first and will be back the Saturday before Mothers’ Day.”

Uhhh, what? You’re taking the kids for ten days without clearing it with me first? And now you’re going to Orlando, land of Mickey?

I had a little issue with that. Telling my mom that I did not want them to take the wee ones to Disney for the first time without me didn’t go over well.

“They’re young. They won’t remember that it isn’t their first time anyway.”

Considering that they remember the most minor detail from eons ago, I don’t think that’s exactly true. Plus, they’re my children, and if I say don’t take them to Disney, at some point you need to respect my POV. I was mildly irrirated, as you may already know.

My mom finally came down to resignation that she was fine with not taking them to Disney but that I had to convince my dad since she can’t control what he does. I had several conversations with my dad around this, since he also doesn’t really get it.

Then I started hearing Little Miss randomly say: Grandpa is going to take me everywhere, but not to Disney. I suppose that should have been my clue that my dad had finally come around. I confirmed that this past weekend, and there will be no Disney on this vacation.

As for me, I arrived at the Houstonian just fine, although much later than we’d hoped. My friends picked up dinner for us and had it waiting in the groom’s room. Mmmm, Texas barbeque. Anyone who’s from Texas, skip to the next paragraph. I’m not a fan of brisket, so I ended up having barbeque chicken, but it was so yummy! I’ve been told that not eating the brisket is somewhat of a heresy, so shhhh!

The baked beans in Texas are also interesting. They had baked apples in them, which I’d never heard of before. I don’t know if this is a normal thing here or just something this restaurant does, but it was interesting. My first bite of an apple chunk was expectedly tentative.

The hotel is swanky. I’ll be taking pictures and posting them after I get home. For now, I need to get to sleep as I’m going running before my friend picks us up for manicures and pedicures, lunch and mmm bubble tea!