Arrivals and Departures

I picked the Boy up at 4:30 the other day - almost an hour earlier than usual. My class ends at 4pm, and there's no way I was going to go back to the office just so that I could pretend to work. Apparently, an early departure was not in the Boy's plan. Everyone was having their snack, and they looked at me like I was an alien. I had to sit there while the Boy ate multiple crackers, and kept asking for more. The new kid deposited his half-masticated banana in my hand and proceeded to climb on my new coat with his unwashed banana-hands. (Yum! Who are you again, kid??). Then the Boy would simply NOT put on his winter gear. He kept standing, sitting, walking, sleeping and performing the "dead fish" move on me. It took half an hour (!!!) to get out of the damn daycare. Bad times.


This morning, I had to walk to daycare in the minus-gazillion-with-the windchill weather. Mr Earth was conducting interviews in Waterloo, so the Boy and I had to make do with the stroller for transportation. The Boy helped put on his "po-pants" (snowpants, for those unused to toddler-speak) by lying back. He actually allowed me dress him in full winter regalia, hat, scarf, mittens (!!!), and boots. The only whisper of complaint was that he wanted to put on the boots before the snowpants. I got him into the stroller and out the door in record time. I was even allowed to use the heretofore forbidden windshield and plush Winnie blanket. Have I mentioned how ridiculously cold it was today? By the time we arrived at the daycare, the windshield was frozen in place. The Boy's little voice, buried under many layers, piped up "I stuck!". I couldn't remove the windshield, so I tried to get him to duck under it. That didn't work, but he spontaneously pulled the "dead fish" move, and slid out from under it. I had never appreciated the versatility of that move until today. Good times.