Snot on my scrubs

If I worked in a traditional medical office, snot on my scrubs would probably be normal. But I’m an office manager in an eye clinic. Snot is not a part of my day.

Today is the first day back to school after a 2 week spring break. J woke up today adamant that he was no longer going to school. He barely got dressed after putting pajama pants on instead of clothes first. He didn’t eat breakfast. He tried to leave without shoes or me before I was ready. He decided taking a backpack was too much work.

When I got him to school with a lunch box that also contained some breakfast and his binder, he didn’t want to get out of the car. I explained that I had to work and if i don’t make money, he doesn’t get food or fun stuff. So he got out of the van and nearly kicked his binder into the way of on coming traffic.

I stayed in the van watching but it seemed that he was really agitated and being verbally abusive to the parapros who were there with him. So I pulled out of the drop off line and into a parking spot. I went up to hug him (deep sensory input)  and he blew his nose on my scrubs.

I ended up having to walk him in to school. We compromised on going to a life skills room instead of class. I basically left him with hi low expectations. No fit throwing today so you can have electronics time. Electronics time means he can spend his money on Amazon. I told him he’s allowed to feel the way he feels about school but he’s not allowed to act badly about it.

On my way out, I ran into another mom on the sidewalk who I know from special Olympics. She was trying to coach her son to go into his classroom from across the lawn. We acknowledged that it was a rough morning for all of us, a few tears escaped, and I hugged her. We walked out of the school together, hopeful that our kids navigate this Monday well.

And the award goes to….

ME!

Best Mom Ever!

When the boys grumble or complain about something I’ve done or made for them, I usually reply with, “I’m sorry, I think you meant to say, ‘Thanks mom, you’re the best mom ever'”

Yesterday they each said it on their own, in separate instances, without prompting, for something they were genuinely grateful for.

I couldn’t ask for a better reward.

(I’m writing this now as a reminder since lightning might not strike twice…or at least soon.)

What’s for lunch?

Little j: I forgot to take my lunch on Friday.
Me: so did you eat school lunch? What did you have?
Little j: salad.
Me: really? Salad? Did you eat any green stuff?
Little j : no but I ate some of it.
Me: what kind of salad?
Little j: chicken
Me: so you ate chicken off the salad?
Little j : yeah it was really chicken nuggets. And I ate the crunchy bread pieces.
Me: croutons?
Little j : yeah that and the roll.
Me: so you ate salad but you didn’t eat any vegetables?
Little j: I almost ate a zucchini. It was stuck to a proton. <— not a typo

At this point I couldn't stop giggling.

A supercalifragilisticexpialidocious morning

6 weeks has passed since my last post. A lot of good has happened to/for me and the boys peppered with some not so good days.

Today, despite the winter rain and gray skies we are having in the desert, I’m having a great morning. I got woken up by instant messenger just before my alarm. Normally that would make me crabby but when I got done talking with the friend and the alarm went off, I was already wide awake.

I found little j in the kitchen already making his breakfast. J woke up without complaining and I didn’t have to yell even once to get him moving. Plus, he’d slept in his bed all night.
Little j then said he was going to make his brother’s oatmeal for me so that I could have more time to start on lunches.

In the meantime, another friend started messaging me and put a smile on my face for the day.

Both boys and myself were ready a few minutes early which made getting through the rainy day drop off lines easier.

Getting to work early meant I didn’t have to rush my devotional time while eating my breakfast.

In this moment, I’m grateful for a peaceful rainy day.

Compliment bomb

J: You’re the best mom a guy could ever have….

Conscientious lunch

We got up really really late yesterday. We took a lot of shortcuts to get ready and out the door for school. For J’s lunch, I slapped ham and cheese between bread and skipped making his usual pb&j. He doesn’t like mayo or mustard so that was a faster sandwich.

When he got home and unloaded his lunch bag he said, “Mom, I recycled my bread.”
You did what?
“I recycled my bread from my sandwich.”
What did you recycle it to?
“I saved it so you can turn it into a PB&J for my lunch tomorrow! “

Cross referenced

Last night J wanted to snuggle with me. We started out next to each other reading our respective materials. He had a new Ranger Rick magazine and I had my Kindle app. Then he got to a story about an iguana. And he had to look though his books to find the one on endangered species so that he could give me all the facts about the iguana. Then he turned the magazine page. In a matter of minutes, I got monologues from the movies/tv shows Totally Tropical Rainforest, Rio 2, and Wild Kratts to go along with the animals he encountered.

He left me with this gem:

Welcome to the rainforest. Mom we went into my book.

Great, can I still read my book? (kindle app on my phone. )

No you don’t have international coverage.

Oops

I have an addiction to fuzzy socks. Many of them are striped, purple, or striped and purple. I think this falls under the category, “close enough.”  Sadly, I thought they were a match when I grabbed them from the laundry this morning. One of my favorite quotes is,  “life’s too short to find matching socks.” My mom likes to remind me that in junior high, my friends and I would compete to have the most outrageously mismatched pair.

A miracle day

I worked half a day today. I told the boys last night that they would have some responsibilities to take care of while I was gone. When I left for work, I left a checklist of chores plus thier rooms to clean. Last night before bed, J started on his room all on his own. Little j was busy in his when I woke up. When I got home, they were making their lunches and that wasn’t even on the check list. All their chores were done and their rooms were age appropriately cleaned. Then I found out that J helped little j with one of his jobs because they were worried I’d be home before he could finish.

Now they are outside playing chase/hide and seek/cap guns together.

If I ignore the fact that J was sneaking electronics at 430 am, I’d call it a perfect day.

Escaping reality

J is convinced that he has a robot duplicate. This duplicate gets sent to school so that the real J gets to go on wild adventures or just stay in bed. He’ll tell me, “mom, this is not the real me in the car. This is my robot duplicate. The real me is on a cruise to Antarctica.” I usually respond with, “whoever you are better behave or the real J is going to be the one in trouble. ”

Side note, today I woke up and my first thought was, “why don’t I have a robot duplicate that can go to work for me today? “