A real kick in the pants.
On Sunday two of the four members of my family punched me in the crotch. One of them was me. It has proven to be great foreshadowing for the week.
This is one of those weeks that has a school holiday that is not a work holiday.
I love my children, and I love spending time with them, but having them foisted upon you when you already have a busy week is daunting.
Thankfully one-year-old Vera’s school is open, so we only have to shuffle around six-year-old Franklin. We survived Monday, but thanks to some storms I was unable to get to sleep Monday night. To add to my general sleepiness, Vera woke us up early and ended up in bed with us coughing on me and repeatedly slapping me in the face. I did not get up to run.
Mornings are a little crazy in our house on a typical day and taking us out of our routine certainly doesn’t help. We left Franklin eating his cereal and put Vera in the pack-n-play so we could get ready.
As I am literally in the process of stepping into the shower Franklin opens the bathroom door and is crying. His large blue stuffed bunny knocked his cereal bowl over.
Trying to clean spilled milk and cereal from every surface within a ten-foot radius of Franklin’s chair, without glasses, while clutching a towel around my waist sums up nicely how my morning was going.
My wife and I compare who has meetings when and try to come up with some sort of plan for shuffling around Franklin for the day. Of course as we try to get out the door things like his ”Never-Bored Kid Book” and rain jacket are missing, and the bookmark falls out of the chapter book he’s reading.
My wife gets Vera loaded in my car as I finish grabbing my things and decides to take Franklin first. As we pass in the garage she asks if I grabbed Vera’s lunch and I hold up her school bag to signal I had.
As I unpacked Vera’s bag at school I realized the subtext of the question was not had I grabbed her bag, but literally had I gotten her lunch out of the fridge. The answer to that question was no.
Fortunately enough for me, my wife left her phone at the house and had to go back to get it so she was able to grab Vera’s lunch and I headed to her office to meet her and retrieve it.
Some good news, while getting a wipe to clean Vera’s horribly snotty nose I found Franklin’s activity book in the diaper bag.
I’ll take my small victory. I may even do one of the mazes in this book. As I sit, illegally, in the faculty-staff lot writing this, waiting to make the lunch hand off I see parking enforcement slowly making their way down the row writing tickets. I watch wondering if they’ll give a ticket to someone sitting in a running car. I’m a parent, an actual adult, surely that means something. I consider putting on my tie.
The woman with the iPad and miniature printer continues down the aisle toward me writing tickets and as my wife turns into the parking lot I feel thankful for the college kids she complains about always parking illegally in her lot, I think they’ve bought me just enough time. Things are looking up.
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