Meow Sigh

My daughter has been a huge fan of the "Warriors" series of books for a few years now. I would go so far as to say that these books were the turning point in my daughter's view on recreational reading. Prior to this cat-centered series, Cara would read and even enjoy books, but she had never really experienced that "can't put this book down" feeling until the Warriors came along.

For those of you that are unaware of this collection of Erin Hunter books, the Warriors tales are centered around different "clans" of cats and their various adventures in the wild. These cats have elaborate stories that follow these clans from birth to death (and sometimes beyond).  They have names like Thunderpaw and Shadowfang and Moonlightburps and they fight and forage and follow extensive codes of conduct, all of which Cara has committed to memory.

Oftentimes, Cara's passion for all things Warrior seeps into her daily life.  The rigidity that comes from having memorized the adventures contained in dozens of chapter books doesn't really allow her to enjoy these stories outside of when she's actually reading.  Connor has tried to "play Warriors" with Cara, but having not read a single book, he is not privy to the dos and don'ts of the cat world. He often chooses the "wrong" clan or behaves in a way that the cat he selected would not play.  Yellingmother often has to intervene and direct her kits to play something different.

Right now, Cara is in a holding pattern for new Warriors books. They just don't seem to write them fast enough for her. It was during this down time that Craig found a well-loved tissue sitting on the counter in the bathroom with a kind of code written on it.  Now, we're not sure if this was an attempt to take notes from a previous episode she read or even if this was a made up key that she was going to provide her brother so that they might play an unobstructed game of Warriors.  Whatever its purpose, this Kleenex is classic Cara. 

It reads:
     Meow - I'm cool with you
     Hiss - Get out of my territory
     Meowmeowmeow - I'm leaving
     Meow Long - Where are you / I'm here
     Meow cough - I'm hurt. Get over here

Two Kids. Same School.

As I've mentioned before, my two children have very different views of school.  So, it's fair to say that the mood in our house on the first day of school was a range of emotions.

You would have thought that Cara's first day back was Christmas. Ever since summer began, she had been waiting for this day. She's had her backpack ready for two weeks now. Her clothes for the first day week of school are all lined up and ready to go. She had trouble getting to sleep the night before and was up before her alarm, so eager was she for school to resume.

And this year, Connor will be going to the same school as his sister, which added a whole other level of excitement for Cara. She kept talking with Connor about how much fun the school is and describing all of the things that he might get to do while there.

Anyone who knows this blog or, better yet, knows my children, should know what's coming next.

The Donkey Factor.

With all of the energy and excitement my daughter was putting into talking up the school experience to her brother, he was using the same amount to dig his heels in about not wanting to go. He groused and grumbled about not wanting teachers to tell him what to do. When Cara would build the school up, he would try to hypothesize loopholes into her story. He even resorted to suggesting that he might just be "too sick to go to school" the night before. (Heaven help us when he learns to fake illness for longer than his normal attention span will allow.)

Tuesday morning came and both of the children were up and ready to go a lot quicker than I had expected.

We made it out the door in record time, which put us at the school early. A little too early. Their school does not really want kids to be dropped off earlier than 8:20 and here we were, 5 whole minutes before then.  We all sat in the car, waiting behind a few others for that magic time to arrive. This prolonged anticipation was too much for my son.

Connor announced that his throat hurt. Sometimes, this is code for "I'm gonna hurl". This time, I chalked it up to the cough he had from allergies. Until he spelled it out for us. "I feel like I have to throw up," he insisted. Craig suggested that the whole waiting game was allowing Connor's nerves to get the best of him. So, rebels that we are, we let the kids out of the car at 8:18 and watched them head off to school.

I waited most of the day, thinking that I might get a call from the school to come pick up my cookie-tossing son, but no such call came. And as I tend to do after a summer of thinking "I can't wait until they're back in school", I missed those two tremendously and counted down the time until I got to pick them up.

Pickup time came and my kids came towards my car. Cara had a huge smile plastered on her face and her donkey brother had a scowl. Great. As I prepare to hear how horrible this experience was just as he had predicted it would be, my son sternly asks, "Why do you have to be here so early? Why can't I stay for after school care, too?"

Bubble Bath

Connor has recently discovered a love for bubble baths. Honestly, who can blame him? 

So, I take 1/4 c liquid hand soap, 1/4 c of his shampoo, mix them together, and add to the tub while it's filling. Voila! A tub FILLED with bubbles.

"That's why they call it Mister Bubble. Because it's bubbles the size of misters."