This Friday was the annual Kinkaid v. St. John’s football game.Last year Olivia had a nasty stomach bug on
the day of the game so she was SO excited to go this year.We decided to bring Eric to the tailgate before-hand and then he and I went home while Matt took Olivia to the game. Both kids LOVED it!
Olivia ran into one of her classmates in the parking lot and that was
basically the last time we had a good handle on her whereabouts! She spent the entire night with her friends.
Cheerleading was a huge part of the night! I think every parent spent the night scanning the crowd of matching cheerleading uniforms to find their daughter!
And Eric was living his best life too.
He had no interest in eating – he wanted to be by the DJ, dancing with
the big kids.
When it was time to go he
gave Olivia a kiss and then quickly realized that meant he was going home to bed, while she was staying at the game.
I had to basically man-handle him into the
stroller and he screamed “No mamma!
No!! Yah-Yah! Yah-Yah!” for about ½ of the way home. With a Kinkaid win at the game, we are already looking forward to next year! Go Falcons!
We had a happy Halloween this year, especially considering that tornadoes and hail were hitting our area in the hours before!
Olivia agonized over her costume this year but finally decided on a doe (doe, a deer, a female deer). She looked cute and she knew it!
And Eric was a duck. Which he LOVED! As soon as we got home from school, Olivia ran upstairs to put on her costume. And as soon as Eric saw her, he began yelling "DUCK! DUCK!" So we quickly ate dinner and then got them changed and headed out.
It was a little rainy when we started but neither seemed to mind. Olivia and Rory (our neighbor) walked around with little duck trailing behind.
He would waddle up behind them to every house yelling "Nack! Nack! Nack!" (snack!).
He loved it - it was all the things he likes - being outside, being around people, following Yah-Yah, and, of course, snacks!
I think Olivia had a good time too, we went for several hours (baby duck went home to bed with dada) and then she asked if we could head back and she could hand out candy. It ended up being great timing because she handed out candy for a while and right as our supply ran out, the torrential rain hit Houston and it was time for bed! (Note: Handing out candy is also a perfect job for Olivia. She is super sweet and enthusiastic, commenting on all the costumes -- what a scary monster! what a pretty witch!. It was pretty great to listen to her!).
The next morning she had late arrival (so genius of the school!), so I took her for a special breakfast. At breakfast all of a sudden she gave me a look and calmly and cautiously told me she needed to ask me something "private." I knew what was coming so I just said she could ask me anything. She then summoned all her courage and asked me about truth/reality and some of the stories she has heard (Santa, E. Bunny, T. Fairy, etc). We suspected this was coming because a little girl at school recently gave Olivia a dose of "truth" after a recent tooth loss. So I was prepared. We talked openly and honestly about stories, magic, truth, lies and the things parents to do try and make childhood seem a little special and magical -- especially in times like today where the real "adult" world seems pretty hard at times. And we spoke about how "Santa" teachers a bigger lesson about believing in something -- in yourself, your family, your friends, and in things you can’t see or even hold in your hand.
It was a hard talk for both of us. I think she was sad that the reality wasn't what she thought and though she didn't have the words to verbalize it, I think she felt a little "taken" by us and the lengths we went through to perpetuate the story. And I was sad because she's getting bigger and little things that I could do to seem magical to her aren't easy anymore.
But as I spoke with Matt about it later, I hope that what we did today was build another link in our "truth chain" with Olivia -- that we showed her that coming to us and asking a question is met by honest, truthful answers given thoughtfully and earnestly.
And, to end on a little bit of a good note, I was able yesterday to do a bit of magic for Eric. My good friend Katherine gave him "blue puppy" which he is hopelessly attached to. He is moving up to the next class at school and I think it will be a hard transition, so I wanted to get another one for him to keep at school. Except that Gund stopped making blue puppy and now only has brown puppy and pink puppy. We went to the store and looked at brown puppy and he hated it. So, mamma went on a mission. I searched high and low, emailing everyone I could think of. I enlisted Matt on the search who thought he found blue puppy only to be taken by a credit card scam. (Good lord people! Scamming on stuffed animals?!?!!) So I had basically given up when I found a store in Minnesota who claimed on its website to have the elusive blue puppy. I called up and spoke to the owner who promised me it was the same blue puppy and not a scam -- she then connected me with their website person so we could ensure that I got a blue puppy. And yesterday, I went to check the mail and found a package from Minnesota. I called Eric over and he was SO HAPPY for TWO BLUE PUPPIES! And I am happy because at least I can still do some mamma magic and make this little one happy GOSH DARNIT!
