Dinner for the Diaper Crew

We had dinner with a couple other families tonight. It was funny to see how alike our tastes were in boosters.

The Big 2nd Grader

It finally arrived. The first day of 2nd grade. Emma was so excited/worried/obsessing over her first day of school/new teacher/who is going to be in her class/worried that mom wouldn't wake her up in time/etc. that she had a rough time going to sleep last night.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was a little less than ecstatic this morning: Her kindergarten class won't start for two days. Can you tell?

Emma went with a non-character backpack this year. My 7-year-old is suddenly too big for such juvenile accoutrements.

Seriously, how old do I look?

Tonight we attended the start of the year staff party for the high school. And once again, my age (or lack of looking like it) came up in conversation. And not once, but twice.

The first was when I met Ryan's new principal for the first time. He examined our brood (for they were all there eating hot dogs), asked their ages, how long we've been married and then asked my age too.

To be fair, Dr. S asked Ryan's age as well.

Later, some of the high school aged kids brought up how youthful I looked. Ryan thought it was a good time to bring up the following story.

6 years ago was Ryan's first year teaching, and no one had really met me yet. One day after school I was walking down the school hall with Ryan, holding his hand and watching an 18-month-old Emma running down the halls. Mr. Shearer (another teacher) saw us and did a double take.

"It's ok," Ryan quipped. "She doesn't attend school here. She goes to Zillah High School." (That's another school about 20 minutes from here.)

And we kept walking.

I turned to Ryan and asked, "Are you going to tell him you're joking??"

"Nah. I'll tell him tomorrow."

Everyone laughed at Ryan's story. I just squirmed while they evaluated how not-old I look. One or two of those high school kids thought I looked their age. I look at them and think they look like babies.

So..... I look like a baby too? Sigh.

For (N)ever and Always

Today is our wedding anniversary. I was thinking about how my life is now, versus how I'd imagined it would be 9 years ago. (Wow, 9 years ago, right?) And you know what? It's exactly like I'd imagined.

There are never shoes on the couch. We always eat balanced meals.

My floors are always clean.

I always take a shower every day.

My kitchen tools are never borrowed for other purposes.

The laundry never stacks up.

The car is always picked up, and full of gas.

My kids are always clean. No snot anywhere to be seen.

My kids never leave food on their plates.

I am never so tired that I'm not sure how I'm going to get through the day.

My angel children are always happy.

They never run around without pants.

They are always "gentle" and "soft" and "kind" to each other.

They always have good fashion sense, and/or let me pick out their clothing.

I am never driven to eat any chocolate I have on hand, since there are no insanely long and awful days.

On anniversaries, babysitters never cancel.

I never have to share dates with the other women in my husband's life.

Our dates are always romantic.

With really good food.

And there is ALWAYS chocolate cake. (Thanks Ryan!)

It's a good thing life turned out the way I always thought it would. I wouldn't trade it for any other.

Bubbles

Last night we had an "away" Family Home Evening. We all went to the city pool for some swim time. Mid-way through swim time, Emma looks at me and says, "Mom, it tickles!"

I looked around for pestering sisters, or anything that could cause an outburst like that. Was there some random kid getting fresh with my daughter? But no, and I was at a loss. "What tickles, sweetie?"

"When I 'toot,' it tickles my back!" Emma giggled.

Honey, girls should never, ever 'fess up to something like that.