Mom, You Need to Make or Buy Bread

Yesterday afternoon Shelly came over and says those words to me, in a bit of a commanding voice.  Not rude at all, but firmly, as if it was an order of sorts.  'You need to either buy or make bread so I can make my lunches in the morning.'

At first I was in a bit of shock.  I mean, really, I'm the adult here.  She is not supposed to be lecturing me on what I do and don't need to do.  

Then came the agreement.  She was right.  We were out of bread.

It took a while for the appreciation of what that really meant to sink in.  Then I decided I was rather proud of her.  She is responsible for getting her lunch ready in the morning and not having bread was preventing her from fulfilling that responsibility.

Basically, she knew what she was responsible for, she knew that she couldn't do her job with missing supplies, and she knew how to get those supplies restocked, and she remembered well in advance, and she took initiative to see that her needs were taken care of so that she could fulfill her responsibility.

Wow.  I confess, I was impressed.

My Childhood Comes Back to Haunt Me...

Megan and Adalia moved out over the weekend.  Mark and I spent a little bit of time vacuuming and re-arranging the couches in the living room of the Apt and then ended up spending much of the rest of the afternoon just sitting on the couch (and napping - somehow the time change takes it out of ya...).  Most of the kids found us and joined us down there off and on.  Emily never did come down.  As Mark was realizing he needed to go get ready for work, he headed up stairs.  It wasn't very long before he was back down, informing me that he couldn't find Emily.

Let the Search Begin!

Let me just start off by saying that we've gotten pretty good at finding kids when they're 'missing.'  Often they are outside playing, hiding under a blanket (awake and playing, or asleep and clueless), tucked in a corner, using the bathroom, etc.  I've even found kids asleep under the table, asleep under the kids' beds, asleep in the playroom surrounded by stuffed animals... You get the idea.

So, we're on a hunt for Emily.  Start with the obvious places: plain sight, in beds, under the crib, under every blanket, under the table/kids' bed, playroom, outside... 

No luck.  

Move onto the less obvious spots: coat closet, bathtubs, bedroom closets, inside large empty cupboards (we have two at the moment - unless all the toys are pulled out of the ones in the playroom, then we have 4), in the fort in the playroom, outside again but this time with more effort...

Still no luck.  

We were contemplating starting on a walking campaign - each going in a different likely direction around the neighborhood - but decided to do one last thorough search of the house.  Started in the apartment and looked everywhere a child could possibly squeeze into - again.  Finished off the downstairs, came upstairs to put on shoes and grab a jacket (not really at the nervous point, but certainly past the 'don't worry about it, she's fine' point) and realized there was one place left that we hadn't checked.  Under our bed.  Mark sticks his head underneath and says 'I hear something.'  

Turns out she had crawled underneath our bed and fallen fast asleep.

Yea, she's my kid.  

-------------------------------------------------------------

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, I was around 4 and in this exact same house being babysat by my grandparents while my parents were gone. Suddenly they turned around and I was nowhere to be found.  They searched everywhere, finally called my parents who came home worried.  (There is a creek about 1/2 block away that I knew of and they were aware that I could have found it and been pulled into the pipe.)  They were about to call the cops when they found me .. are you ready for it?  Asleep under the bed.  I guess I was playing hide-and-seek (and maybe didn't tell them?) and had fallen asleep while hiding...

Riot Act

On Sunday, Shelly came upstairs complaining that she had been pushed against a door and gotten a doorknob in her back.  Upon further questioning, all I got were more offenses by the other child involved.  When I went downstairs and after I had gotten other said child in quite a bit of trouble, I heard the 'other side of the story.'  I realized that Shelly had conveniently left out vital parts of the story, and subsequently rather firmly informed her of future consequences of lying (the kind of lying that involves telling only half a story to get the other person in trouble whilst avoiding trouble for yourself).  When I went upstairs and told Mark all that occurred, I informed him that I had 'read Shelly the riot act, but only read, not actually did anything.'  As I stuttered my way through that, I realized that I had no idea what that saying actually meant, and if it implied anything more than 'reading.'  So I decided to look it up (thank you Al Gore for inventing this awesome information database now know as the internet - or thank you wikipedia, one of the two) and now I'm going to share it with you!

So the saying is based on a Riot Act of 1715 (at least I think that's the year).  It basically says that a group of more than 12 individuals gathered in a rowdy and destructive manner can be dispersed forcibly within one hour of being given notice (hence the 'reading' part).  There were some other cool parts (like if injury or death occurs people involved in the dispersing are exempt from prosecution, and in at least one version it fines the neighborhood to help pay for damages - which incentivizes them to help quell riots, stuff like that).

So I guess I actually did 'read her the riot act' and I didn't have to add the part about only reading it, and not doing anything about it yet...

Now you know! :)