Some Mornings are Just Like That

(Mom and Dad? Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents? You may want to skip this one. It doesn't reflect will on your wonderful daughter/niece/granddaughter/me. Heh.) 

7am - I pop awake, and realize the baby slept through the 5:30 feeding she has insisted on the past few days. Hooray! I hear her just starting to complain, so I hop in the shower. During the shower, I contemplate how I will make today better than yesterday. Because yesterday? Everybody in the house agreed: I was a pretty terrible mother.

7:15am - Go into Ming Wai's room. Yesterday, simply removing her pajamas and putting her clothes on her seemed to keep whining to a minimum, so I tried that again. I scooped her out of bed, and carried her over to her dresser. "You'd better stand up, or it will hurt when I let go." She complied, but only just barely. It was like trying to dress a rag doll. As I am putting the last item of clothing on her, she says, "I don't want to wear that. I don't want to wear this shirt. I don't want to wear any of this." I bite my tongue and try to come up with a mantra that will get me through this morning - I don't want to be up any more than she does! "I am too cold. I just want to wear my pajamas." I grab her hand and walk her over to my bathroom, where I brush, braid and clip her hair into submission.

7:30am - Time for breakfast! I remembered I had two toaster strudels in the freezer - perhaps that will tickle her fancy? It worked! She ate the toaster strudel, then made herself two waffles, and finally asked me to cut up half a plum. She's like one of the old pumps - you've got to prime her first, and then she eats like a starving horse. She's always been that way.

7:35am - Head back up the stairs to grab the baby, who is loudly complaining about being left in her crib. Bring the baby downstairs and start feeding her. Trying to continue my mission to keep the 7 year old happy, I decide we will take the car to school. That means we can leave the house about 15 minutes later than normal. And I don't have to deal with the "I'm cold/I'm tired/My tummy hurts" diatribe on the walk to school. (Yes, mornings are a minefield around here. Why do you ask?)

8:05 - First bell rings in 20 minutes, and we want to get to school at 8:15, the drive takes 3 minutes. Time to send the 7 year old to the bathroom to wash breakfast off her face and hands, and load up the car. Oh. Wait. Umm...FIRST, we need to change a nasty diaper. (Thanks, Ying Ying!) The kids climb into the car at 8:10.

8:10am - Kids are loaded up, I go to back up the car...and there's a pet, in the middle of my driveway. My neighbors have a pet bunny. Turns out, they are allergic to their long-haired pet, so they bought her a "bunny condo" and put her on the back deck. Then then started leaving the door open, so she could roam the gated backyard. Then the bunny figured out how to get into the front yard. She returns to her pen at night, so they are just going with it. Unfortunately, for me, she has no idea what a car is, or what it can do to a long-haired pet bunny. It took me three full minutes to back out of my garage and head down the driveway, because Mr. Huggies would dart towards my car, and then sit in my blind spot, and then run away, and then run back. Repeat, et. al. I was being held hostage by a bunny with a death wish!

8:15am - Still waiting at the entrance of our development - there are cars coming from every direction, and most of them trying to get to the elementary school. Plus kids in the crosswalk. I remember, again, why we usually just walk.

8:20am - Finally on the street to the school. Kids in the crosswalk, so I'm stopped in the line of cars waiting to turn into the school. The bell will ring in 5 minutes.

8:22am - 3 minutes to the bell. I see an empty spot on the side of the street and dive into it. "Come on, Ming Wai! You get to walk the rest of the way!" I left the baby and the 4 year old in the car, and walked her 20 feet to the corner. "You've got to run, baby - the bell will ring." She starts to cry, certain she can't make it down 20 feet of straight sidewalk, across a crosswalk, and around to her class line by herself. I grab a passing fifth grader and beg her to walk with my little girl. She agreed. I couldn't go any further from my car! As I turned to hurry back to the car, I passed a few more parents and kids that I knew. "Can you please help Ming Wai? I have the baby in the car!" They agreed.

8:30am - In my car, waiting for all the people who are even later than I am to get their kids past me and off to school. The Mom who agreed to watch Ming Wai passed me. The kids missed the bell, so she sent them inside to cut through the school to their classrooms. So...there is a very real possibility that my daughter wandered around the school for a while and was tardy anyhow, since I'm fairly certain she has no idea where her classroom is. Her teacher is on vacation, so I'm not even sure who I would e-mail to find out.

Tomorrow? We are walking to school.