Sunday, February 24, 2013

Time and Tops

We were on our way to Dates' house to take part in a tug-of-war. Lena, checking the time, said "Hurry up Mum, it starts at 11!"

I said, "It's okay, that clock is fast". And I wrote this response to a thread about things you miss about pre-kid life:

Deciding to go somewhere, and just going, instead of taking 10-20 minutes to corral each person with all their things to the car.... waiting for them to get ready only to realize they are waiting for ME to walk out the door before they START getting ready. Then sitting in the car for five or ten minutes while everyone finally gets ALL their stuff. Then going back to get someone's jacket.

Then I leaped up and watched my prediction come horribly true. 

Amy sat down at the piano and started to play. Lena, as suggested by her warning, was actually ready to go and had her coat on even. Erica was all over the place. I sent Erica upstairs to get some socks and said to Amy, "Don't wait for me while I'm waiting for you. I wait, you get ready to go!". 

She replied "I wasn't waiting". 

oooookay....

Well, fortunately it didn't take her long to get ready after she finally condescended to actually do so, and we all bustled out the door. (It's even more of a challenge actually getting out the door these days with the cats, they often use the opportunity to try to escape - no going on little adventures until they are fixed!!!). 

I brought Erica's jacket of course, it's just too much to expect her to remember it, but as I was starting to put it on her I noticed the breadcrumbs and nutella on her shirt from breakfast. 

Sigh. 

We were going to see friends and out in public, so I didn't want to look like a completely useless mother (her hair was also not brushed) so I stripped it off her and told her run back inside and get another top. 

I do sincerely wish I hadn't been too lazy to take off my shoes and had gone up and got it instead. First she appeared downstairs with a top that was two sizes too large, which she declared her absolute favorite she loved it. Well, too large looks almost as neglected as nutella'ed, so I sent her back up again, starting to get impatient. She came down next with a sleeveless top, which she desperately wanted to wear because it was the same as Lena's. So I sent her back up again to get a top to put under it, because the sleeveless look in winter with singlet sleeves is almost, but not quite, as bad as too large or nutella'ed. She came down, with a pink patterned long-sleeve top over her singlet that was too small, so the sleeves were half way up her arms (I'd been keeping that top in the pyjama drawer to use as underwear), struggling to get the sleeveless top over it, but when I said "What are you wearing now?" she was so sincere in her attempt to explain to me that she now had the right type of long sleeve top for under her sleeveless top that I had to leave it. 

Then I noticed she still had no socks on. 

Sigh.

At this point Amy reappeared in the doorway, and miraculously found a hair brush right there in the genkan. Erica tore up the stairs and down again with socks now, and we finally got out the door, although not without a final screaming session as I told Erica to "get out of the door!" meaning OUT, quickly, so the cats would not follow, but which she took as a sign that something was dangerous and retreated back IN.  

The final irony? While I thought it was at 11 and we were late and missed it, it turned out it was not until 1pm!!! That's the second time Kanji's done that to us, told us a start time over an hour before the real start time. I don't know why, because my instinct is always to add an hour anyway. I was aiming at leaving at 10, knowing that would mean 10:30 in reality, and without the top drama, I would have arrived at about 10:35, well in time for the so-called 11am start. 


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