Friday Woes

I don't know if you know this or not, but waking up early is quite a task for me. And, fortunately, until now at least, my children have been trained to wake up at 8:00 a.m., no earlier! When they do, it's disasterous for mommy. But, upon registering at Elise's new school, we found that, to my dismay, her school starts at 8:00 a.m. And, she must catch the bus by 7:39 a.m. We faced this endeavor with great enthusiasm and boosted our egos by saying, "We can do this! No problem!"

Well, it's Friday and neither I nor Elise really felt like getting up.

I woke to the sound of a grumbling garbage truck driving through the neighborhood, dumping cans with loud thuds. I jumped, realizing, I forgot to put the trash out (and we have lots of trash, mind you). And then, I realized that if the trash man is already here, it must be very late. Looked at the clock and it read 7:03 a.m. Still enough time to get about 10 more minutes of ZZZZZs.

Finally, about 10 minutes later, I finally forced myself out of bed and dragged myself up to Elise's room, crawled in bed with her and whispered, "It's time to get up." Sleeping children, no matter how old they are, are just simply precious. I found myself debating to let her continue sleeping, miss school or be late to school, then reality hit and I thought about how unproductive my day would be with 3 children at home. And how much Elise really needs to be at school. So, louder, not a yell . . . yet . . . I said, "Elise, get up!"

One eye opened and then quickly closed. Determined to continue sleeping all morning, she pulled the covers up over her head and rolled over.

Again . . . not a yell . . . yet. "Elise, Honey, you gotta get up. You only have 20 minutes to hurry and get dressed and eat some breakfast before you have to catch the bus."

Elise responded, "NO, I'm tired. I don't want to get up. I don't want to ride the bus. I hate the bus."

I felt bad for a split second then got a little frustrated and the volume of my voice got a little louder, " I don't care if you hate the bus. You have to ride it. Now, get up before you miss it!"

Still, nothing.

So, finally, I ripped the covers off, grabbed some jeans and tugged them up her limp legs. Not willing to participate, Elise continued her limpness and repeatedly fell back to her bed. I yanked her up and slipped her shirt over her head, then pulled her over to her shoes, shoved those on and dragged her downstairs to eat some breakfast.

Of course, she's so like me and doesn't feel like eating when she first rises. I gave her several options and the only one that sounded good to her was yogurt.

I looked at the time and it read 7:35 a.m. The bus will be here in 4 minutes. I looked all over the house to find her coat, slipped it on along with her backback, and attempted to push her out the door.

"No, I don't want to go to school. I don't want to ride the bus. Noone knows me." She complained. "Will you walk with me over to the bus stop?"

Clad in Ben's plaid pjs, an old nightshirt from college and brown socks, not to mention my bedhead, I held her hand and kissed her delicious cheek and proudly walked her across the street to the bus while the children stared at us.

One sweet little girl with a pink camo backpack watched us the entire time. As we approached, she faintly smiled at Elise. I whispered in Elise's ear and said, "That little girl smiled at you. I think she wants to be your friend."

With a squeeze of the hand, I guided her up the stairs of the bus and walked home, realizing that sooner rather than later she's not going to want me to walk to the bus with her. And that makes me sad.

We did it. Not sure we made it on time with much finesse but we did make it. And, that's quite a feat for both of us, especially on a Friday.

On a side note and probably you don't care, but I woke up with a zit on the lower right corner of my mouth - right in that place that hurts. It's one of those hurty ones that doesn't look like much.

And, Andrew walked down with no clothes which means . . . guess? Yep, he peed the bed last night. I just had the feeling, last night, he would, too. We had company till late last night and we had drinks later than we should've. So, I can't blame him.

So, off to washing bed sheets and doctoring my zit, I go.