pessimism is underrated

I must say, perhaps pessimism is underrated. I dreaded the day home with the boys and it turned out fine. I threatened them to within a day of their lives so I could take a shower without a fight ensuing, but I did shower in peace.

Pook's art project took 13 minutes. Yes, I timed it. But it turns out Bug can skip second grade math because he already understands symmetry and made a nice picture with pasta and glue. I happened to have some Pirate Pasta around, scoring me serious Mom Points. Then, they didn't pitch fits when I told them we were going to the Y. They wanted to go to the same childcare room, but Bug is too young and had to stay in the nursery with babies 6 months and up. Six year olds get the computer lab, making this a tough split. However, they seem to always have a tv on there, so Bug saw Toy Story 2 and was happy enough when I returned.

We came home and I garnered even more good will by making mac and cheese for lunch. I keep boxes around for just such emergencies. They flattered me by telling me it was salty and they like my homemade mac and cheese better. I need to get them to watch in the kitchen more. Learning to make a simple white sauce is vital to a good education.

After lunch we went up to the nature center since I'd realized that it was the day to register for summer camps. We wandered around a bit, kicking away the remaining ice from the muddy paths. At the art center, also nearby, I'd already missed the "early bird discount" for camp registration. Hard to believe I'm already thinking about summer. But, the boys will have a week mid June of outdoor-water-splashy-finding-bugs-camp and a week late July of indoor-art-on-the-theme-of-island-paradise camp (visual art for Pook, performance art for Bug).

We baked chocolate chip cookies (our second choice, but there wasn't enough oatmeal for the oatmeal raisin we'd voted to make) and I cursed my tiny oven which can hold no more than twelve cookies at a time. The kids left for the higher pursuit of lego building after the initial mixing, only coming through to stick a finger in the bowl of batter and wandering off again until the hot cookies were available.

I had to impose separation rules after then since Bug was getting bored and picking on his brother was his activity of choice. Sending them out to play lasted ten minutes, but they brought in handfuls of (muddy) mail when they came. Somehow the threat of losing out on dessert cookies was taken seriously and we survived the rest of the afternoon, Pook reading and Bug listening to his new classical story CDs.

Bug has both Thursday and Friday off from preschool for teacher training days, so he'll have a two day week. He's concerned about his status as Snack Provider/Show and Tell Day/Line Leader since he'd been assigned Monday. We'll send the snack and show and tell items tomorrow and see what happens. Trying to encourage him to remain optimistic.