The following is brought to you with limited commercial interruption from the Bartle household.
Gavin and Lexi were bent on having a pudding cup after lunch. Since I had just given them each a mint brownie (even the last ones in the pan!), I declined their request. I went about cleaning up the very messy house. I walked into Kate's bedroom to put away a pile of doll clothes and found the curtains blowing in the breeze. Then I saw that the window was open. When I poked my head out, I found Lexi on the ground below...eating chocolate pudding.
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I had an appointment this afternoon, but my scheduled babysitter got sick. Her sister wasn't available, either, and there are precious few teenagers capable of handling my five crazy children. So I called a young adult friend, left a message on her home phone, and completely forgot about the whole thing. Two hours later, after I had made plans in my head to take Kate with me and leave the other kids with Zach, the friend called back. I was astonished that she knew I needed a babysitter--and exactly when. I asked her several times who called to ask her to babysit for me. She finally said, "YOU DID!" Oh. Right. Wow.
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While I vacuumed the basement and couldn't hear him, Gavin popped a bag of popcorn in the microwave, melted half a stick of butter, and mixed the two together. As I came up the stairs, he and Lexi were sharing the giant bowl of popcorn, butter dripping down their fingers and chins.
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Kate climbed on the table after breakfast and, wearing only a diaper, spilled half a gallon of milk. Two days later she raided the pantry and started eating sugar by the handful.
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Monday's weather was chilly. At going-to-school time it was 26 degrees outside with a stiff wind blowing. When I picked Zach up from the middle school at 8:50 a.m., he was standing on the curb, red-faced and shivering. When he got in the car and started blasting the furnace, I asked if he knew what might make him warmer. "No, I don't get it! I'm wearing jeans AND a t-shirt AND a hoodie! That should be enough!"
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On the same day, Tyler was running around before school, looking for a pair of jeans. They were most likely in the washing machine with the other dark clothes. He was in despair; those jeans are his ONLY pants. Ha! I remembered that when school started I said I'd buy him some pants when it got cold. That time has apparently arrived.
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1 comment:
Ben walked out the door this morning in only a t-shirt. While it isn't quite as cold as Monday was, I just rolled my eyes. At least you got some good Christmas ideas out of all this--a jacket for Zach, jeans for Tyler, pudding cups for Gavin and Lexi and a bag of sugar for Kate! :)
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