Day 11.

27 September.

Today was the first day I needed to press the '7' key and was reminded that Mr had pulled that button off the keyboard and it has not found it's way back...ggrrrrrr.

I was reminded how different our kids are this morning when I woke up to the quiet sound of crunching at the side of my bed.  I knew the sound immediately! (sadly probably because I eat too many of them myself...) OREOS!  The first words out of my mouth before I even opened my eyes were, "Mr!  Spit out those cookies!"  Then as wakefullness slowly began to set it, I realized what I had said and Mr. Literal was going to open his mouth and drop soggy black goo all over the carpet in my bedroom.  Crap!

Bug always asked for permission, even at 2 years old.  First, she wouldn't have wandered down stairs alone.  She is NEVER  the first one out of bed.  If she is the first one awake up until we moved to Alaska she would just sit in bed and read until I got up.  Here, she comes to ask if it's morning and if she can get up (thanks Alaskan sun - you've forever confused my poor kid).  Mr, just helps himself.  This may be the beginning of a long phase that I can't wait for him to outgrow... It seems to be a common sense thing, I say, no drawing with pens, and I take away the blue pen that he used to poke holes in a piece of paper with - on my white chair.  A moment later he is pulling  a black pen out of the drawer asking, I write with this one?  No, dude.  No pens.  No matter the color.  Do I really have to point to each pen and say, don't touch this one, or this one, or this one?...

After settling the monsters at the table with a proper, Oreo-free breakfast, I decided this was no way to start a Saturday where we had no plans and no where to be.  So, I decided to function on kid time, all day.  And we did.  We may have over done it a smidge and by 4 they were pretty toast because we had been out for 5ish hours, which led to a large meltdown on Bug's part leading to a rough 2 hours at home before dinner, bath, and bed.  But by the time they were ready for bed, they got some Dad Skype time, Mr was pretty proud that he could hold books for some reason and wanted Dad to know, Bug accurately recounted our day to him (which is a pretty big step for her), and after we said good-bye Bug and I had a good conversation about responsibility and earning and sacrifice.  At least I think we did, she had some pretty long blinks during the conversation, so I'm thinking she didn't get all of it, but it's a start!