Laugh

This morning started like most mornings. Except Avery woke up a little earlier...which made me get up earlier...which gave me the opportunity to make breakfast for my kids instead of them grabbing a bowl of cereal.

B didn't wake up at his normal 7:20 which was curious since he's always on time. I finally heard him fuss around 7:45 which is "go" time anyway. When I got him up he was burning! Great, fever time.

Fast forward to in the car...

All 4 kids are buckled and I'm leaving the neighborhood. I'm at a red light with cars all around me when I hear screams from the back seat. "B is puking!!" Oh fantastic! So at this point, I can't turn around. I'm not in a lane that allows me to turn right, I just have to go straight like originally planned. I tried to get the kids to use Av's blanket to clean it up @ which they declared they were not going to touch it! Can't say I blame them. So I decided I'd just keep driving to the bus stop & B would have to wait until we got home. Sad I know.

So we're almost to the freeway and I hear a smaller yet still fervent voice from the back of the car. M (who has just turned 9) says, "I don't have any shoes on!" So for the 2nd time in the last 5 minutes I assess the traffic and try to decide, do I turn around? Or make him deal with it?

At this moment I wonder why I had to put him in a school that's so far away? I drive 10-13 min to the bus stop. The bus takes him another 15 minutes to school. If I was walking him down the street to the local bus stop, pretty sure he would've noticed he didn't have shoes on. But I remind myself that the school we've chosen is much smaller and he's getting the attention from teachers he needs and and and...

Okay... do I make him ride the bus w/out shoes? Do I drive him home to get shoes? That would mean missing the bus, driving him to school & I have fever puking baby in back. So I call my friend who also takes her kids out there. Is she putting kids on the bus or driving to school? Bus. Okay...think...think. She asks what size he wears & sends a pair of shoes with her son to let M borrow.

Keep driving towards bus stop. Call Matt because he just needs to hear about this crazy morning. Michael pipes up from the back, "Mom I wear size 2 not 1". And his friend was bringing a 13. AUGH I don't think this is going to work. Think...think... Matt suggests our friends who live right by the bus stop. I call them, they're frantically trying to get their own kids out the door to the bus. I ask if there's any way at all they have some old shoes we could borrow for the day? Looking...Looking... YES!!

I was sitting at the bus stop, looked at clock, I had about 3 minutes. I pull out of my spot and drive like crazy to their house several blocks away. Round a corner and there's an old man pulling out of his driveway in a large truck. Brake!! Wait...wait... ok go! Get to their house, grab shoes and race back down street to see we're right behind the bus.

Phew! made it. When Michael got out of the car...wearing shoes, I looked back at B who had fallen asleep and I just had to LAUGH! Because the clock was telling me it was 8:15 and I was already exhausted.

Might I add the whole shoe fiasco brought out many of M's tears (not a hard thing to do) and the whole time I was trying not to laugh.

I was talking to our social worker since I was also trying to cancel a 9:00 apt for B. As I was telling her about my morning...and laughing... Al was getting really mad in the back of the car, telling me not to tell everyone. But what can you do besides laugh? And tell everyone? Because sometimes things are so crazy and it's a challenge to see just how you can adjust to this new twist life has just thrown at you.

Lately I've been sad that M is 9. In another 1/2 of his life he'll be moving out. In 3 years he'll be 12 and joining the youth in church. This is going too fast and I feel like I need to be doing so much more for him. Teaching him more, spending more time with him. 

But this morning told me that he's still a little boy... who still needs his Mom... or he may not get to school with clothes on.