family: ... i'm learning in due time...

One of the joys(?) of parenting is that I get regular opportunities to relearn "truths" that I thought I'd already learned/dealt with/put behind me.

Simple things like, if I need to get out of the house early, K will wake up even earlier. And, the best way to get her worked up is to get worked up myself.

Well, duh, right? Right. Except that I forget stuff. And then I get reminded.

So this morning I needed to get out of the house early so I could get to work early and make up some time. My plan: get up at 5.15a, which is plenty of time if it's just me and the beast, time to eat, shower, dress, and catch the 6.50 water taxi to downtown.

So, K got up at 5a.

I helped her in the bathroom and then put her back to bed. And lay back down in my own bed, stewing because I knew she was awake now and if she heard nothing, would probably fall asleep again for an hour or so but if she heard me, would get up too. I waited until 5.30, then tried to slip downstairs quietly. With the dog. Did I mention that her toenails are long and click on the bare floorboards? And that we have to tiptoe through the girls' room?

5 minutes later, K was up and heading to the kitchen. Which meant M, knowing I was trying to get out of the house, was up too.

I met K at the dog gate and said "It's still night time. I need to get to work early. Do you want to get into bed with Momma?" In her normal voice she said, "Yeah, but I can't sleep." "Shhhhh!" I whispered, figuring the best way to really complicate things now would be to wake up L as well.

Like blood to a shark, K smelled my stress and started to talk more loudly, saying she didn't want to go back to bed, saying she didn't care, saying.... all sorts of things.

My whispered "ssssssshhhhhhhhhh!" came more and more often, and things were heading for a breakdown.

To make this slightly less boring, I'll just say that M ran interference, L woke up, I stressed my way through breakfast and shower and still managed to make the water taxi.

Thanks M.

And sorry K, for not just taking the 5 minutes to snuggle, instead of trying to shut you down.

How long before I need to relearn this? A week? A month? I'll put it back onto the list of "stuff that'll come back around."

p.s. Wish M luck. After dealing with all of this, she'll be driving a group of children from K's class to see a puppet show. And L is going too. According to M, who did this same field trip last year and vowed never to do so again, the puppet theater is crowded and cramped and claustrophobic. Once in and seated, it's nearly impossible to get out. The girls are under strict instructions to behave, the payoff being cupcakes at Cupcake Royale.

p.p.s. Maybe this too gets added to the "learn and learn again" list?