BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

The word “busy” doesn’t even seem to do justice to our lives lately, and looking at the calendar I think we’re “busy” until late August.  Wait – that’s when school starts again… maybe we’re forever busy. 

I try to pin point what exactly makes us so busy – and its fairly easy to blame it all on one little boy.  Cayla can have go to CCD, girl scout meetings, sleepovers, and birthday parties; sell girl scout cookies and collect for the Jump-A-Thon.  While Cayla may keep me in my car a lot (chauffeuring from place to place), Tate keeps me on the run.  Sometimes it seems like literally a foot race – and we all know I’ve never been known for my sprints. 

Last Tuesday Tate got in trouble at school for sticking a rock in his nose.  Apparently it was stuck pretty well, because one of the teachers had to pull it out with tweezers.  Luckily, he knew he was in a mess and admitted that the rock was stuck - “unluckily” he didn’t quite seem to learn his lesson.  He said,  “It’s a bad choice to put a rock in your nose at school… but it’s not too much of a bad choice if you can get it out”.  We went over how we don’t put rocks in our noses. 

Fast forward a couple of days (I had surgery on Wednesday but that will have to be another blog post), and Tate’s getting out of the car after school.  He sees the rocks outlining our flowerbed.  He points out the rocks and says,

“These are really big rocks.  They are too big for a nose.  We don’t put big rocks in our nose, right mom?”

Maybe this is progress, but I reiterated that we don’t put ANY ROCKS in our noses. 

Fast forward another day.  I’ve dropped Cayla off at a birthday party (painting pottery), and Chris is working until midnight.  Tate and I had some time to kill, because we darted away from all of those breakable items ASAP.  I get on the highway heading south (trying to think if there’s any quick errands I want to run).  In the mean time, Tate has taken off his shoes and is hanging them out the window as I drive a smooth 70 mph down the highway.  I holler –

“What are you doing?”, “Get your Shoes Inside!” , "Roll Up that Window!”, “Don’t drop those shoes!” 

I’m yelling at him, I’m going too fast and the roadway is too busy to just pull over, I can’t roll up the window because his shoes (and arms) are outside, and I fear yell too loud he’ll drop the shoes.  He pulls his shoes back into the car, as if nothing is wrong.    I tell him -

“Tate!  We keep our shoes in the car… and on our feet.  We do not hang or throw ANYTHING out of the window. We do not even roll down the windows.  When I tell you to do something you listen!  Why in the heck did you do that?” 

Tate: There were lots of rocks in my shoes. Mom,  remember we don’t put lots of rocks in our nose. 

We pull into the driveway.  He carries his backpack and lunchbox and I grab his shoes.  I’m a bit frazzled with him, and I drop his shoes alongside our “yard mowing shoes” in the garage. 

Tate: Why? Did you throw my shoes in the garage?

Me: Why aren’t YOU carrying your shoes?

Tate: My hands are full of too much stuff. Why aren’t you carrying my shoes?

Me: Why aren’t your shoes on your feet?

Tate: Because there were rocks in them. Why did you throw my shoes in the garage?

Me: WHY ARE YOU ARGUING WITH ME? Get your shoes and get inside! 

Tate: Because you threw my shoes in the garage...

The rest of the evening was “uneventful”.  He hit Cayla in the head with his cup (accidently I hear) and disarmed many of his army men.  No big deal.  All I really wanted to do was sit down and rest a bit… and that’s exactly what I did.

 

Fast forward  to the next morning.  Tate enters my room, saying he needs a “little help”. 

Tate: There’s a green thing in my nose?

Me: Is it a booger? Did you put something in your nose?  We don’t put ANYTHING in our nose!  What is it?

Tate:  I don’t know.  It’s not a rock.

I take him into my bathroom, turn on the light, but I can’t really see anything.  I’m wondering what I’m even looking for… maybe part of an army man?

I lay Tate down on the bathroom floor and sure enough I see something.  With tweezers pull out a bead… not green but blue.  I have no idea where he found it, and maybe he’s a little color blind like his father. 

Again we went over not putting things in our nose.  We also talked about how we don’t’ put things in our ears… just in case that was his next grand idea.  He named off a variety of things he wouldn’t put in his nose or ears: money, food, dirt, bugs, toys, ROCKS, circles (beads).   Ultimately it ended with how NOTHING goes in our nose other than boogers.

I guess it’s safe to say sometimes things just don’t go as planned…

Alright, this is enough for today.  So far so good this week (no foreign objects in the nose).  Between work and school; Chris missed out on all of last week’s “fun”.