The Karate Kids

I had a not-so-proud parent moment Thursday night when I picked the girls up from school. When I arrived in Katie's room I found out that she had kicked a boy in the stomach (because he took her book away). Needless to say, I wasn't happy to hear this. We had a talk and then went to get Caroline. Upon entering her classroom I had to sign an "incident report" because she had hit her teacher (because she didn't want to be redirected from something she wasn't supposed to be doing). Jamie had a work dinner that night and when he got home I found out that he had shared the news with his co-workers at dinner and the girls had been dubbed "the Karate Kids." Thankfully Friday was incident free.

Saturday was a single-parent day for me as Jamie went with some friends to South Bend for the day to watch the Notre Dame football game. Katie had a birthday party in the afternoon, so we had to work our day around that. We did the Y in the morning, had an early lunch and an early nap. Lunch included some apple slices, which prompted Caroline to make some of her funny faces, and Katie got in on the act too. We all talk about how funny Caroline is and it's interesting to me that Katie is never jealous of that-- she just says "that girl cracks me up!"

I'll insert a sidebar story here: on Thursday night when Jamie was out I gave the girls a bath together. In just the few minutes that they were brushing their teeth, Caroline 1) tried to get her head under the faucet to get a drink-- and almost got it 2) put her toothbrush under her arm to take her temperature and 3) when I told her her feet were filthy, she stretched her leg up from her little step stool and tried to get it into the sink. Later, as I wrapped her up in her towel like a burrito and went to carry her in my arms, she decided to hold herself stiff as a board so I had to turn sideways to get her through the doorway . . . and she cracked up at herself the whole time, which only made it funnier.

So back to Saturday . . . after rest time we dropped Katie off at the birthday party, which was her first party without a parent there. With Jamie out of town, she knew the only way she could go was if she could handle being there by herself. She did fine until Caroline and I were about to leave and then she got a little concerned, but quickly came around as I assured her that her friend's mom had my cell phone number and would call if she needed me.

During the party time I took advantage of my 1:1 ratio and did the grocery shopping. Overall Caroline was good, but she has high expectations for the number of samples that she will get to eat, so I had to manage that situation. The highlight was when we got to the frozen foods and she lifted up her dress to put the frozen spinach on her tummy. We ran home and I put the groceries away while Caroline took her baby dolls on a shopping cart ride.

Then we got Katie from the party, went to the park and it was time to go pick up our girls dinner- Taco Bell. Daddy doesn't care for Taco Bell, buy the three of us love it. The girls devoured everything on their plates and I thought Caroline might even eat the wrapper that her taco came in. She was so content that she didn't even ask for ice cream afterwards.

That night Katie told me that she had been fine at the party, but one of her classmates who wasn't even four yet was also left there alone too. She said "I would never leave my child alone at a party if she was only 3." She often makes funny, adult-sounding comments!

Jamie got home late Saturday night, and we were both grateful that Katie did a good job staying quiet until 7:30 or so the next morning. After some lazy cartoon/newspaper time and making scrambled eggs for breakfast we split up to do some errands-- Katie and I won in both the length of time and dollars spent competitions while we were at Target. Jamie and Caroline's trip to Home Depot didn't come close in either category!



After lunch Katie and I made a snack that we saw on TV called Monkey Munch, which is chocolately peanut butter covered Crispix cereal. It's one of those great recipes that you can have lots of nibbles while you're cooking it.
Later in the afternoon we packed up the Monkey Munch and went to a nearby park where they had a play about Charlie Brown. Caroline was happy as long as she was eating her snack. We forgot bowls, so she had to eat hers out of a shoe box that she plays with in the car. I think this is one of those things that is more likely to occur with a second-born child- the first time around I probably would have made Jamie go back home for bowls.

The girls enjoyed the show, but once we let Caroline out of her stroller she took off. Katie was sitting a few rows ahead of us in the amphitheater because she wanted to be in the shade. Caroline headed that way and then went right on by Katie on her way to the stage. If I hadn't gotten to her, I am 100% confident that she would have joined the cast of the show!