Sara’s Expression: Grandmommy, I’m keeping our little secret about the late night hot cocoa!

Kelly’s Expression: Call Grandma Sally!  I need a Grandma fix immediately, if not sooner!

There are some days when joy just rains from the sky.  The giggles are flowing, the sprinklers are on, and everyone gets their fill of the sun.  TODAY, is not that day.  It was sunny.  The sprinklers were flowing.  There was a picnic with friends and a trip to the park.  But today is the type of day we call, “The Day After”.  It refers to the day after a Grandmommy visit.  The day the late nights and ice cream cones stop.  They day no one seems to let the girls roll in the mud for hours (although I thought it was awesome when Grandmommy did it!).  The day Mommy loses her back up and must be the Love Boat Social Director AND the Cook, AND the Nurse, AND the Maid, AND the Captain….and NOW, in this blessed moment, the Bartender.  Because no matter how bad the day, there is nothing a glass of red wine won’t fix.

It started last night when they were far too squirrely to read night time books.  It went something like this:

Mommy: Girls, I want you to both turn around and face me and sit down.  We need to talk.

Sara: I know what you are going to say.

Mommy: What do you think I’m going to say?

Sara: That Grandmommy has gone home and we have to obey and listen to you and do things the first time you ask.

Mommy: That’s right.

Kelly: And NOOOO nagging!  Mommy does not wike to nag!

Mommy: Good chat.  Let’s calm down and read some books.

I love it when they lecture themselves.  It’s as if they’ve heard this speech before.

This morning Kelly slept in very late.  When I checked on her, she was trying to hide her smile with a frown, and had the blankets pulled to her chin.  It’s a very 13 year old expression, like she is about to ask permission for the car keys, even though she knows she can’t drive.

Mommy: Kelly, are you getting up today?

Kelly: NO!  NO, I not do anyfing!

Mommy: You don’t want to get up and have some juice and watch a cartoon with me?

Kelly: NO!  Not anyfing!

Mommy: OK.  You’re not even going to get up?

Kelly: I not going to say anyfing about anyfing! (At this point she could hardly suppress her giggles and I was rolling with laughter.)

Mommy: What do you want for breakfast?

Kelly: Ummmm….tam I hab pancakes?

Mommy: I have all the time in the world.  Absolutely.

Kelly: (Giggling uncontrollably): Awright…I get up!  Wet’s go eat pancakes!!

I’ll end here.  Telling you about how Sara behaved so poorly at the fabric store tonight that I thought we were going to be asked to leave, only puts me in a bad mood.  When we got home she suggested that I never take her there again, and I should always leave her home with Daddy.  I think I’ve found a good consequence for bad choices.  When I asked her to take a potty break before bedtime, she descended into a tantrum of new proportions.  Even for SARA.  It’s as if someone is looking at a Monet exhibit and thinks, “You know what we need here?  More watercolors.  More pastel watercolors.” You cannot ADD to a MONET.  In that tone, you cannot ADD to a Sara tantrum.  They are rare (thank God), and already at the height of tantrum-y goodness.  This one ended with a genuine Sara apology (little people apologies just melt my heart, and maybe I shouldn’t, but I can’t stop hugging and kissing and truly repentant child), and with good ‘ole Kelly looking her right in the eye and asking, “Sara?!  What is wrong with you?!”

And I think my rambling point here is this: I have plenty of wine and Doritos.  No one is grounded from going to the Peter Pan Ballet tomorrow night with Grandma Sally (yep, another “Day After” awaits me on Saturday).  The whining and complaining beasts that look somewhat like my children were asleep before I could flip their light switch off.  Therefore, if the girls have the relationships with their Grandmothers that I had with mine?  I’ll  gladly pay the price of 1 million “Day Afters”.