Bump In The Night

Well, we made it through the night without Dr. Baughman.  Barely though.  Our troubles began when I decided to go to bed and set the alarm.  The alarm has never caused us any problems.  Never.  It is a very secure security alarm that up until this point, I have had complete faith in.  So it was a little bizarre when I went to set it last night and it began angrily beeping and telling me that L3 was unlocked.  I had no idea that I had a L3 sector in my house! And now that it was unlocked, what did that mean? I quickly turned the alarm off and went through the house pulling the doors tighter and making sure everything was locked.  Once again, I was told in an angry beeping that our L3 was unlocked.  I called Brandon in Minnesota (who was taking advantage of being in a quiet hotel room with a king size bed and no small people coming to find you every 15 minutes to let you know that the bathroom light was on, but please don’t turn it off because the didn’t like how the air in their room looked in the dark.) , but he never picked up.  I guess we know that should something terrible happen to our family, please make sure to call B during regular bankers hours.

I decided that we would probably be just fine, especially since it was raining really hard outside and who would want to be out burglaring in the rain?  Then it was off to bed…..where I found a small boy complete with a whale, a monkey and his own bedding, sound asleep in my bed.  It was bound to happen eventually anyway.  When Brandon is late or gone, Reese always makes his way into my room and this was much more considerate of him to just begin the night that way as opposed to scaring my later on.  We were safely tucked in, and I was happily giving in to the lulls of the sleep fairies accompanied by the rain outside, when I got a text.  It was my alarm letting me know that at 12:05, my garage door had been left open.  Hmmmmmmmm Maybe that had been the problem.  Maybe this whole time the garage door was open and that’s why the alarm was angry.

Nope, the door was securely shut.

Back to bed

Sometime a bit later, Reese got up to go to the bathroom or get a drink or make a sandwich or something and when he was heading back, he reached down to pick up his bedtime collection that had fallen to the floor.  When he stood back up, he hit his head really hard on the edge of the night table.  I was tending to him and assuring him that he was going to be fine, there was no blood and I couldn’t even feel a bump.  I got him settled and had just started to roll over when I saw a ghoul in stripes standing at about an arms reach away from me, crazy hair illuminated by the moonlight steaming through the bathroom window and when the lightning crackled and light up the striped clothing….I could have sworn that Beetlejuice from that ’80s movie was standing in my bedroom.  He must have snuck in earlier and disarmed our alarm.  It all made sense now! Then Beetle Juice spoke, “Can I be with you?” For half a second I was terrified….and then I realized it was Mattie.  Why does she have to be so incredibly frightening late at night?  Every single time she scares the willies out of me.  And I’m not the only one, many a person has shouted out in fear at the arrival of my daughter by their bedside.

So once Reese stopped crying about his traumatic brain injury and Beetle Juice was tucked in beside me, we slept like children and their mother for the rest of the night.

All was well this morning, until I realized that I had finished off the milk last night with my Oreos, which I had used as a replacement for the Nutella and Strawberry cracker snack I was really wanting.

On a completely different note, on this dreary day it seemed as good a time as any to share a 7 years ago photo.  This would be Mattie, the same age as Lila is now, looking like a much older girl.  She has hair……and walks!

 

Home Alone

I probably shouldn’t say this.  This is probably the same as putting on Facebook that you are going out-of-town, but I think I’m okay with taking the risk.  We are home alone right now.  By we, I mean it’s just the women and children and women children.  Brandon headed out this morning for a vacation to Minnesota.   That’s not entirely true, he went to a sports concussion thing and it’s in freezing, snowing Minnesota so I hardly doubt that he’s looking at it as a vacation.  But he got to go somewhere, on an airplane no less, and gets to stay in a hotel and right now, that would count as a vacation for me.

We have done fine this evening, the kids aren’t completely unaccustomed to Daddy not being here when they go to bed.  But I think when he isn’t here to play last-minute batman with Reese in the morning or go over spelling words on the way to school with Matilda, he will be sorely missed.  Thankfully, Nene and Papa will be arriving to spend the weekend with us tomorrow evening so I won’t be single parenting it for the entire weekend. And it feels like it has been forever since we had some Nene and Papa time so this will be wonderful.

Now back to this single parent thing.  Like I said, Brandon does sometimes work late, but at least he always comes home.  I can also ask him to pick things up on his way home that I may have forgotten or just not been able to get due to my passengers behavior.  Today for instance, I realized after we have already come home from piano lessons and I was getting dinner ready, that we were out of coffee.  And we were also out of Nutella….(that was meant to be read as extremely dramatic).  I have recently discovered probably the best late night snack ever.  Graham crackers, Nutella and strawberries.  It’s rainbows and sparkles and happiness all in the form of  hazel nutty fruity goodness.  I have the crackers, plenty of sliced up strawberries, but that Nutella jar is empty.  I feel like it was slightly irresponsible for him to leave without making sure that our necessities were covered.  “Kaylee, are you making sure to set the alarm at night? Don’t forget to turn on the lights over the driveway. And I made sure to buy coffee and Nutella and I took the trash out for you, too.” Yeah, he didn’t do that either.

So desperate times call for desperate measures.  Realizing that leaving the house was not going to be an option, I started trying to figure out some other way to procure the provisions.  The thought actually crossed my mind of asking the young girl next door if she would run to Kroger for me if I gave her $10.  I figured I could run by Starbucks in the morning when I take Mattie to school to get my coffee, but that Nutella……  Some might think it would have been easier to ask her to just watch my kids and brush their teeth while I did the running myself, but I know my kids and that would have turned into way more of a circus than I wanted for this evening.  And by the time I got them calmed back down, there would be no chance to enjoy my little snack.

I have also STRONGLY considered asking the security man who patrols our neighborhood how he would feel about hanging out for an extended amount of time once in a while.  I was this close to asking him the other day if Reese could just ride around with him in his truck for about 45 minutes.  I think it could work out wonderfully,he could continue doing his job and Reese would be contained and couldnt’ cause any problems while I maybe ran an errand or two. Or would he consider running an errand or two for me?

I think that there could be a great business opportunity here for someone.  Being an errand runner for people who were stuck at home once the kids went to bed.

Oh no! we’re out of milk and are going to need some for breakfast in the morning! But I can’t leave because I am the only adult here.  What am I gonna do?

Oh no! I forgot to pick up the hubby’s dry cleaning on the way back from swim lessons and he needed that suit for court tomorrow.  He can’t get it because he’s at the hospital saving lives! I’d get it but I can’t leave the kids alone here at home!

I need to run to the Gap and exchange this top before the 40% off sale is over, but the  kiddo has a stomach bug and I can’t risk them vomiting in the car!

The scenarios could go on and on, I have plenty, but in all of them the problem is the same.  You just need one person to run one little errand, pick something up…nothing big and complicated or really even personal.  I would call it, “Man Down” and people wouldn’t be allowed to overuse it.  It wouldn’t be an assistant service, just something you could call in the case of a late night snack, early morning coffee, that sort of thing emergency.

I feel like it would be a fantastic job for teenagers that really want an excuse to drive.

Needless to say, on my To Do List for tomorrow, right before clean the bathroom and vacuum in the Annex (the guest room) for Nene and Papa’s arrival is run by the grocery store.

And call Brandon and remind him how much we love and miss him.

 

 

There Goes The Neighborhood

Since Brandon and I have been married, we have always lived in a neighborhood of sorts.  Our first residence together was a cheap apartment bordering the edge of scaryville.  One of the many reasons why we only lived there for a short time had something to do with the questionable folks that mingled in the parking lot and we were locked in with at night when the gates to the complex were closed.  It wasn’t so much that I was afraid of who might come into the complex, but more of who was already in there with me.

We then moved into a little house that was at the end of a street.  It wasn’t in a neighborhood so to speak, with a proper entrance or a name.  But we were in town and had houses all around us so it had that neighborly feel.  This is where we met Dino and Artemis, our favorite neighbors ever.  Dino and Artemis were fascinated with us and I will admit, we spent a good amount of time studying them as well.  They were an older couple, 2nd marriages for both and had grown kids and grandkids.  They were Greek and if their names didn’t give that away already, the incredible aromas that would come across the street shouted it loud and clear.  Dino taught Brandon everything he knows about yard work and after asking to borrow his weed eater 3-4 times, we arrived home from church one day to find a brand new one with a big red bow on the front porch.  The card read, “Happy Everything! – Love, Dino and Artemis. They spent all day long working in their front yard or out in the garage, the garage by the way, had been turned into a huge kitchen because as Artemis said, “Dino is messy”.  He would stand out there with the garage door open and make bread and or some other something delicious.  Like I said, they were pretty fascinating.  They also shared and I have a very spoiled, very high level of expectations for baklava now.  They even grew their own jasmine and olives…..and yes, there was a lamb on a spit roasting in the yard a few times.  We loved them and they loved us.  They were in our business and had opinions about everything we did, but we adored them.  And we always knew we were safe because they would be watching us.

When we arrived in Memphis, we moved into a tiny gated neighborhood in the ‘burbs.  The houses were built like caves, little zero lot line caves and unless your front door had a window in it like ours did, you couldn’t really see what was going on all around you.  I had a lovely kitchen window that looked out into my postage stamp of a yard and another that had an awesome view of my neighbors brick exterior.  If people were walking by, you really couldn’t see them.  There were very opportunities to meet the people around us because a) most of them worked during the day and 2) people pretty much kept to themselves.  Most of the houses had rear entry garages so you couldn’t really tell if folks were home or not.  And since none of us really had much of a yard, no one was every out playing or working in theirs.  We did meet some neighbors once while we happened to be out playing in the street and they were going for a scooter ride.  Rowan and her grandma Ann lived behind us, along with her mom and grandpa.  Rowan was a year older than Mattie and they got along really well.  And “Grandma Ann” was the same age as my parents.  She and I hit it off right away and we spent a lot of time together.  They are the only thing we miss about that old neighborhood we used to live in.  Luckily, Ms Ann works at the Janie and Jack store right near my house so I can pop in and visit her whenever I need a fix.

And then we moved here, and were amazed at the amount of people we would see at all hours of the day roaming around.  Walking and jogging and biking, strolling with their evening night caps even.  Kids that would just run freely down the street from one house to another.  I had never seen anything like it! It was like something right out of a movie or the 50’s.  This sense of safety and community, like we all shared the same big park or yard even.  You didn’t see the kids that much during the colder months, probably because they were in school and all, but I have noticed since mid March, that they are coming out of the woodwork.  And about 2 weeks ago it started.  The weather has become warm and the kiddos are coming out into the front yards.  They are on their bikes and scooters and they are scouting each other out.  We met Maddy who lives with her family two doors down from us.  She is right between Mattie and Reese’s age and she and our kids have spent a few afternoons arting it up with sidewalk chalk and doing a little planting for her mom in their yard.  I met Will the other night while taking the kids on a bedtime walk in the wagon.  He asked me my name, how old I was and if these were all the babies I had (I had only Reese and Lila).  Pretty straight forward that Will.  I also learned his parents names and how old they were.

Sunday, Maddy from two doors down showed up and wanted to know if Mattie and Reese could play and at the same time, other kids were all congregating outside as well.  We have a sorta cul-de-sac at the end of our street and they all gathered down there and were playing with water balloons.  On Monday, I pulled into the garage and as I was getting out, I saw Maddy standing in our drive way ready to play.  I informed her that Mattie and Reese were going to give Crosby the dog a bath, but she was more than welcome to come and be a part of that fun.  She said she would love to and ran off to put on her bathing suit.  She came back armed with balloons, a suit and a towel and plans to stay until dinner.  She was here for about 30 minutes when there was a knock on the door.  It was a little girl wearing a school uniform shirt and gym shorts, with red popsicle dripping down her hands.  She wanted to know if the girls were here.  I said yes and showed her to the backyard.  I wasn’t sure who this little person was, but that didn’t seem to matter to her or her parents, so I just went along with it.

I was cutting up veggies for dinner when I heard the front door beep (the alarm) and a little voice called out, “Is everyone here?” Not is anyone here, but instead, everyone.  And before I could really even answer, he was letting himself in and headed out back.  There was a point where I wasn’t sure how many kids were in the yard and I certainly didn’t know who they all were or belonged to.  But they were happy and laughing and flooding the part of the yard where Brandon’s baby grass is just starting to come it….and I liked it.

We have moved into that neighborhood.  Where once the temperatures hit the low 70’s, the kids meet in packs and play in the streets.  Where we know to drive to slowly because there might be a water balloon fight or a kickball game going on in the street.  We will need to stock up on popsicle this summer because it appears that I will be feeding way more than my own and the dress code is bathing suits, shoes optional.

A dad came to get his little girl and rather than come to the front door, I saw him just go up to the fence and holler over for his little girl.  I don’t imagine that he had any problem figuring out where she was with the laughing and squealing coming from behind that fence.

I’ve never lived somewhere like this before, but I think I’m going to like it.  No one is offering me freshly made baklava and I don’t have someone to sit and talk with like a pseudo mom, but my kids have friends to throw water balloons at and that’s really enough.

On a side note, the ice cream man drives through our neighborhood too, but my kids don’t know what he is.  I have been very tempted to run out and “meet” him while the Littles are napping.