Just a Typical Day

This morning started off with Madeleine waking me up because she seemed to think her new size 5 skort, which she had tried on the night before, had shrunk overnight.

MADELEINE: Mama?  It's too SMALL.  Uh...it got small.
ME: (blindly reaching out from my bed to feel her legs.)  Honey, you put both legs through the same leg hole.

Problem solved.  We fixed the skort, and then headed downstairs to simultaneously use the bathroom.  Here, I got to enjoy the pleasure of being on my period with an overly curious child who has no understanding of privacy.

MADELEINE: (peering into the toilet bowl as I'm going pee) Seriously??  Little drops of POOP keep dropping out?!?
ME: (wearily) That's not poop, honey.  It's blood.
MADELEINE: (looking at me with distress in her eyes) Well Mama?  I don't like it when you do your period, because it gets BLOOD all over the toilet.

Well, Madeleine, I don't like it when I do my period, either, but unfortunately, it's a fact of life.  And just you wait, honey.  Someday you'll get to do your OWN period and get blood all over the toilet. 

Julia came downstairs shortly afterwards, dressed and ready for school:

All that remained to be done was her hairstyle, and as I stood above her, braiding her hair, I remarked upon how tall she's getting.

ME: Julia, you're so tall that I can barely braid your hair when you're standing up.  What will I do if you grow taller than me?

Luckily, Julia had the perfect solution.

JULIA: Well Mommy, we can just have Auntie Shannon do my hair then, because she's taller than you.  Well...if she still LIVES here we can have her do my hair.

I bet Auntie Shannon is *really* hoping she's still living here by the time Julia has outgrown me.  Even if that date comes as soon as Julia thinks it might.

JULIA: So Mom.  When WILL I be taller than you?  Like, THIRD GRADE?
ME: Uhhh...I doubt you'll be taller than me by third grade.  But you'll be getting closer!
JULIA: Okay.  So.  FIFTH grade?
ME: Maybe fifth grade.

I mean, I'm a pretty short adult here, but I don't really think Julia will suddenly shoot up past five feet in another year+.  Third grade is dreaming a *little* big, honey.

After Madeleine and I dropped Julia off at school, we began our walk back home, and crossed paths with a mom who was running and pushing her baby in a jogging stroller.

MADELEINE: But why is she RUNNING?
ME: Well, she's pushing a jogging stroller.  Some moms go out for a run and they don't have something like the Y with baby-sitting for their kids.  So they use a special kind of stroller that they can push while they're running.  It's called a jogging stroller.  When you and Julia were both babies, Daddy and I would sometimes run with you in the jogging stroller.
MADELEINE: Well Mama.  What did it look like?
ME: The jogging stroller?  Well, it looked a lot like the one you just saw, except that it was dark blue.  It had one wheel in the front and two in the back, just like the one that you just saw.
MADELEINE: (gasping) Wait!  Mama!  I know what that kind of triangle stroller looks like!  And Mama.  Sometimes I think I even DREAMED about that stroller.  And...sometimes...I just think about it QUIETLY.

Wow.  I had no idea our old baby jogger occupies such an important place in Madeleine's mind.  She even thinks quietly about it!  Honestly, is there any other object about which to sit and think meditatively than a jogging stroller?  I think not!

At any rate, both girls are now at school, so I best be off to do my period while there's no one here to gawk at me.