Every once in awhile I get a glimpse of my world from one of those oddball angles and I think, “is this really how it’s going down?” Today was one of those days. We’ve got it goin’ on here – so I’m going to give a little update, framing it all through the events of today.
Songbird is full swing back in her life at college. It’s her senior year. She texted me today and asked me to please copy her first and second page of her passport and scan it to her. She’s applying to work for Amigos again – next summer. So my #1 college kid will graduate with a double major in Anthro and Bio and …. pretty sure she’s gonna make some awesome plans.
Twinkletoes is hard at work her sophomore year. She’s in a pretty intense and prestigious biology program and dancing ballroom in her spare time. Today she called me from campus with an “Obama” report (as in, the line for admission to the gather place was 3 miles long). Later, she e-mailed me an announcement for a super cool job studying the habits of carnivores in Kenya. She commented, “this looks cool, doesn’t it?” My first thought was, “Damn! I want that job.” She knew that, of course.
Waffles is doing his 2 week gig at his Dad’s, but he swung by about 1/2 hour ago because I had texted him that there was a crock pot full of pulled pork (his favorite). He finished his school day, remembered to pick up his ‘brag sheets’ from his counselor (for letters of recommendation for college), and spent about 2 hours volunteering at our local bilingual school – a gig he committed to for the year and inspired by his own Amigos experience. He is in the thick of college apps and a boat load of pretty impressive classes. No soccer this fall, but plenty of other stuff, including being a big brother to both Blueberry and Flower!
Flower got up this morning with a HUGE smile on her face. It was her turn to go with her class to the school forest and enjoy an amazing suite of cool ropes course stuff. It was 40 degrees when she left (this mama made sure she had layers and layers to fit the needs of being super active and also potentially cold and waiting in line!) and about 63 when I picked her up at the end of the day! Oh, but her end of the day ended with her first volleyball practice! WOOT! Back to the school forest – she liked the zip line best. She loved volleyball, too. And, can I just say, Flower is LOVELY. Mr. Sillypants looks at me every single night and says, “she couldn’t be any sweeter.” Agreed.
Blueberry and I spent the day together. We had to get to the grocery store – I have to pack school lunches for Flower!!! He spent the entire shopping hour running up and down the aisles and putting groceries into the cart. Every ‘grocery toss’ I assigned to him was finished off with his sweet cheer, “SLAM DUNK!” Before we went to the store he discovered a sucker that I think Clementine left on the counter when he breezed through here earlier in the week. I gave it to Blue. Blue asked, “what is this mommy?” I answered, “a sucker.” He looked at me perplexed, “No it isn’t a SOCCER! Tell me mommy, what is it?” Later, when we entered the grocery, he asked, “Can I smell the flowers?” I asked him if he knew what they were called and then told him, “They’re called Mums.” He replied, “You silly mommy, those aren’t MOMS!” Heh. Life with 2. I think our day had its fair share of playing cars, playing puppy, some painting, and a bit of outside rough and tumble. Oh, and there was a nap fail thrown in there. Bummer. Bedtime was a bit of a mess since he seemed particularly needy. He followed up my offer for a bath, bottle, and bed with “that sounds fun Mommy,” only to insist on being rocked to sleep. Sometimes it just goes that way.
Mr. Sillypants still isn’t home. He’s delivering a baby.
I’ll just add that my own professional life is in a bit of a tailspin as some very difficult and complex contract negotiations have just been made more difficult. Bummer. I slipped in a moment of Union activism today. I also did my typical reading/responding to a number of things. I also left a message with a certain someone at a certain agency about certain things that haven’t been certainly decided yet. ETA: (cuz y’all are commenting about this particular paragraph….which is sweet!) I’m serious about being uncertain – yet the uncertainty won’t rest in my head and heart until I have some clarity on process and program. Yeah, so I called. Otherwise, it feels like nervous unsettled energy. I don’t do well with not knowing things I need to know to settle into a course of action – OR – to desist from a course of action. But seriously, no clarity. I welcome any comments to me (privately – I won’t share) on older child adoption and disrupting birth order – program details too. You’ll know if there is something to know.
Speaking of…DON’T MISS THIS Tim Wise comment on talking about race with our kids! Tim Wise…. Mr. SillyPants and I get to see him give the keynote address at our local Racial Justice Summit. Yep, we’ll be there for the summit. I’ll be talkin’ it up, for sure.
That’s how we roll….
The upside for me is that I’ll be traveling to Ecuador at summer’s end for time with my biggest biggie daughter. 
Oh wait…the COLD was the most exciting thing that happened. It was crazy cold. Props to my vols that are living there for 7 weeks!
