Chuck E. Cheese

My big revelation for the week came at Chuck E Cheese Thursday night. We were there for a birthday party. You must know that I am a big fan of the place. I have always liked it. It is a great place to take the kids to blow off steam and have fun. The thing we like best about it is that children of many ages can have an equally good time. We also really like the salad bar - which is a rare find in the "meat and three" loving South.

So I am usually really vigilant about the token distribution only allotting so many tokens to each child at a time so as not to "lose" very many. For a variety of reasons, I wasn't able to control the token and ticket situation on Thursday like I wanted to. This caused me lots of anxiety as the night went on and I found myself obsessing about it as I wandered around looking in on the kiddos and keeping up with Will when it was my turn. What I realized was that that's part of the kid fun atmosphere of the place. The hunt. The great find. The big score when some poor sucker left his four tickets hanging out of the skeeball machine. Finding that one last token under the machine when you bend over to pull out your winnings from the ticket dispenser. It's all good!

I am so glad to be free of that pressure. It's liberating. And it made me feel like a kid again.


On another note, I have to admit that I am obsessed with a blog. I truly LOVE it and am addicted to it. I check it throughout the day because not only does this blogger blog, she also Twitters so I HAVE to keep up with that, too. I must confess I secretly hope to meet this woman someday (not in a weird way) but simply because I feel like she is a close friend. What a treat! Smiles and laughs abound when I read her blog and I find myself showing it to my kids and even George (who harasses me for being so into it). He still doesn't get it. Anyway, it's fabulous and I am glad to admit it.

Here are a few photos of what we've been up to. Have a great week. Meg's parent-teacher conference is tomorrow. That should be good for some laughs!

Meg brought home Nutbrown Hare from school.



Olivia lost another tooth. She is learning to talk and eat with no front teeth.



This is how Will feels about baths.

Update on Meg

Meg asked me last night when we were going to have another baby. This was after asking me to recount the story of when each of them was born starting with Will. This morning, she said she was praying to God to help her get married and have a baby. I asked her later what God said. She said He wasn't listening. He didn't answer. He was busy listening to someone else.

Gigi

These are Meg's hands (no, she is not 92 or related to Benjamin Button). She took a really really long bath.




I promised a photo of our 92 year old Great Grandmother Catherine. Here she is. Happy new year!

Lonely?

Yesterday was Will's first day of "school." He is a mama's boy and so I was apprehensive about how it would go. George got sick and couldn't drop him off (yes, I am that chicken) so I had to be the one to do it. I wasn't sure I could do it if it was ugly. I didn't really have anything I had to do and sort of feel weird about the whole thing anyway. He did great! He enjoyed himself as soon as he got there. He kept coming over to me to hug me and then would run off again and check out some other item in the room. Meg went with me to drop him off before she went to her room. She was insistent on going to "baby school" to drop him off. After we got in the room, she proceeded to tell the teachers EVERYTHING about him. What to do when he gets hurt, what not to do, how to change his diapers, what he eats, what he doesn't eat...EVERYTHING! They were cracking up (one of them didn't know Meg at all). He slept for two hours and played and threw his food all over the place. He was just like he was at home! The first thing they said to me when I walked through the door was, "He's not a crier (sp?), he's a screamer." So they really got to see my Will at his finest. I warned them diaper changes are not easy and neither is going to sleep. But some lucky teacher (actually it was my dear Angela) got to rock the boy (a.k.a. The Prince) to sleep.


While Will was at his first day of school, Meg and I got to have a little mother-daughter time. This was not such a big deal to her (like it is to Olivia who is used to this concept and expects it) but it was nice nonetheless. We went to lunch and while we were at lunch a boy from her class came in with his mom. Meg was so funny and kept flirting with him and wandering over to his table to ask him questions or tell him stuff. I asked her if Jackson had any brothers and sisters. She said she didn't know but she would go ask him. She went over and came back with the answer, "No, he doesn't have any brothers or sisters." I said, "Ok then, it's just Jackson." Meg paused a moment and said, "It must be lonely not to have any brothers or sisters." Mom: "Well, Meg. He has his mommy and daddy and that's what his family is made of." Meg: "Well I think it is still lonely." Hmmm. I was so shocked by this statement. It was not coerced and I don't think I led her to it. It really seemed sincere. It also made me laugh. Meg is certainly one to talk about being lonely. She is the life of the party these days (interrupting everyone and everything). And it was also sort of ironic. She was all alone with me...certainly a rare occasion.