"I Sorry, Mum."

Paul had a great day! Which was totally unexpected because Trent went out of town for work, and I was completely dreading dinner time without him. Whenever Trent is working, Paul asks hopefully, "Daddy?" about every 20 minutes or so. He's gotten used to the idea that Daddy comes home to ja (eat) dinner. Today when I told him Daddy would be home in two sleeps his face fell, but he nodded and repeated, "Two sleeps Daddy."

As an aside, for some reason Paul thinks Trent operates heavy machinery, so anytime we see a digger or a bulldozer or a steamroller, Paul yells, "Daddy! Daddy! Mum, stop! Daddy!" Wishful thinking, perhaps?

The morning didn't start out so great. Paul woke up at 3:30 am but thankfully went back to sleep until 5:55 am. Still too early, but he ate a banana and snuggled with me in front of Barney while I tried to sneak in a few more minutes of sleep. Of course he wanted to "spin motorcycle" first thing after breakfast. I told him he had to wait and gave him his Kindergarten Ready book, but he was having none of it. He went outside, got on the big wheel, and took off. Uh, oh. Disobeyed Mama - big wheel gets locked up until AFTER we finish the Kindergarten Ready page.

Now, normally this would result in a tantrum. So I geared myself up, even though it was still only 7:30 in the MORNING! (UGH!) Paul DID try to cut through the lock, which I let him work away industriously on until he climbed up to grab the real saw, which is a no. He kept after it and got a time-in on the chair with Mama. But - cue celestial music - no fuss, no fight! Instead he said, "I sorry, Mum." DID YOU HEAR THAT? He said, "I sorry, Mum!" Shazaam! Thank you, Dr. Karen Purvis and The Connected Child. Thank you, Drs. Cline/Fay and Parenting with Love and Logic. I love you all and want you to come live at my house forever and ever, too.

Then, THEN, he worked on not one but THREE Kindergarten Ready pages (shapes - he was whipping right through them)! So after such a GOOD CHOICE Mama unlocked the bike and we got to go for a spin. So proud of my little guy!

Mom and Dad came over after lunch and Dad put together a slide that is meant to be for the little pool, but the pool is still freezing. So while Paul and Sam did splash around a bit, they didn't stay in long enough for the slide to make it in the water. But I'm not going to complain. I'm sure we'll have plenty of 90+ degree days this summer. Paul was excited for Nana and Papa to visit. He didn't shut down and actually interacted with them!

Dinner time - great. "Rata (love) chicken! MMMmmm, mmmm!" Bath time - great! Snuggle time on the couch - great! Then Mama screwed up. Sam desperately needed time with friends. She was going to go to a movie, but her friend got home too late. So Katie asked Sam to spend the night. I said, "Sure, Paul and I can take you, then I'll bring him home and put him to bed."

Ooops.

We did take Sam, Paul even met Katie and Katie's parents (although he had his somber, quiet, scared-to-death-of-you-people face), but Paul was NOT leaving Sam at Katie's house. NO WAY! This is a family, and no one, NO ONE gets left behind!

So I did a Super Nanny no, no. Sam got back in the car, reassuring Paul that she loved him and that she was going to be his sister forever and ever, then we drove the Gene Snyder until Paul fell asleep. I did a sort of rolling stop in front of Katie's house, Sam jumped out and escaped for an evening of teenagernish.

It had to be done, Super Nanny. It had to be done.