Classic Parenting Day

“LEVE ME OLOne”

Piper-to-English Translation:  “Leave Me Alone”

There’s two days a year that I have a love-hate relationship with: Valentines and Halloween.  This year, though, I made a very deliberate decision to not be a room parent so I’m not in charge of the classroom parties for either of those.  Good thing, too.

As I walked out of the office towards Wesley’s classroom, dressed as a duck with my vomiting pumpkin trick in my bag, Wesley was walking toward the office with another mom.  He had just thrown up all over the foyer, in front of three classrooms of parents waiting for their child’s parties.  I gave him to the nurse to clean up, while I acknowledged the irony, gave the pumpkin over the Kindergarten parents, gathered all his stuff, and took him home, where he took a bath and felt perfectly fine the rest of the day.  Kyla walked off in a huff at home because I was spending more time with the sick child at first than I was with her.  (You know, the home-schooled child that gets more time with me than the other two combined?) 

I was also signed up to help at Piper’s class party, and Kyla was coming with me because she wanted to have a Halloween party, too, but only if I could get Grandma to watch Wesley.  There may have been 5 frantic phone calls and a couple of emails before she called back and said she could come over. 

Piper had a great party, Kyla hung out with some 3 graders and said she had a terrible time and blamed me, somehow.  With Wesley getting asthma attacks at approximately 1am for about half the week, I was a little tired by the end of Friday.  I quickly succumbed to temptation and ordered pizza from Garlic Jim’s.  After Piper’s hour long tantrum about her math homework, I was able to go pick up the pizza. 

Somehow, one of the cats got in the car and was taking a long nap when he figured out the car was moving.  It was too late to go back, so I had a very upset cat, uncaged, in the car for the entire round trip, the meows only broken by a call from the children all blaming each other for outrageous insults and physical violence while proactively claiming complete innocence.  I still haven’t sorted it all out, but I might have mentioned that I hadn’t bought Garlic Jim’s pizza since August, and if they ever want to have GJ’s again, it would be wise for them not to kill each other while I am getting it for them. 

And Piper had holed herself up in her room, using the sign as a paper barricade.  I think I’m going to put it over my bedroom door tonight before going to bed.

 

But Dwayne earned 3 marbles tonight for coming home before 6:30, something that happens about a handful of times a year.  He knocked on the door at 6:15, and actually made me jump.  Since the kids earn 3 marbles in the morning if they do all their morning chores and are completely ready for school 5 minutes early, Dwayne decided he should earn the same in the evening.  If he keeps this on-time-or-early thing going, he might get more than marbles….