We've been deep in recovery mode around here, as well as trying to finish up all summer reading and math work (even if it kills us, which it might), and maybe having some fun along the way. About a week and a half ago Nemo had his second eye surgery, which went well although he took a long time to come out of the anesthesia this time and that was worrisome, but we got it done in time to allow the full two-week recovery time before school starts. We thought that, and me breaking my blasted ankle, would be the most exciting thing that happened this summer.
Don't need to tell you how ridiculous that is.
Friday Nemo told us that his tooth was loose and it was bothering him. This was the first we'd heard of it and we were skeptical, but sure enough it was wiggly and I knew making a tooth pillow was in my future. Saturday morning he was laying in bed snuggling with us and in my half-asleep fog I dreamed he said "Mommy, I pulled my tooth out, and it didn't even hurt, I just pushed it down!"
I wasn't dreaming.
So I spent Saturday making his tooth pillow (just a felt pillow in the shape of a tooth with a little pocket on the front to hold the tooth). He was bored waiting for me so he went outside to see what my husband was up to, which was pulling out all nine (!) of our bikes to see what bikes fit who and what we needed to get rid of and how.
Now, Nemo's had what we call the scooter-bike for a couple of years, which is basically a teeny two-wheeler with no pedals on it that you ride by balancing. He's been too big for it for at least a year, and a friend gave us a bigger bike with training wheels on it, which BDF immediately removed because we believe training wheels actually hinder a kid learning to ride a bike. This bike was one of the multitude lined up in the front yard.
My husband called me outside to survey the craziness and we started making decisions about bike disposal while the kids messed around with the bikes. The girls used the tiny red trike as a scooter while my husband called kids over to try different bikes to see what fit who. We determined that Sunny needs a bike, Little Man needs a bike, Trout can use mine while I recover and then she'll need a bigger one because she's growing rapidly and already taller than me. We needed to get rid of four bikes, two of which were put at the curb and then dynamically reallocated by strangers (the other two will be donated later this week).
While we talked, we didn't really notice that Nemo had grabbed the hand-me-down bike and started messing around with it.
You know what's coming.
And he starts kindergarten next Monday. Don't know if I'll cry or dance. Probably a little of both.
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*A normally forbidden activity, since the ice cream man is ridonculously expensive and is, well, he's from another country with a thick accent and you ask for something and point to it even and end up with something entirely different. A requested strawberry shortcake might net you a bubblegum bomb pop, or a pushup will become a neapolitan ice cream sandwich. It's an adventure that typically I don't want to finance. But this was a big day. Miraculously they all ended up with more or less the right stuff, though my husband got a strawberry shortcake for his requested strawberry ice cream sandwich. Close enough.