This is sort of a shorty drive by chapter...but I wanted to get it out and I can't seem to find more than 10 minutes at a time to SIT...
so here it is!!!
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We hopped off the cozy bus and into the steamy rain. The kids scurried up under the roof just as fast as their little legs would take them! Sally slowed down just long enough to GLARE at the smokers and cough heartily on her way by!
I'm not a big fan of those who cough and hack and make a big to do about having to pass by people who are smoking. It doesn't deter the smokers, it just makes the "cougher" look obnoxious...and that's about it. But when Sally does it, somehow she manages to make people look a little shamefaced. She is firmly in that stage of righteous wrath and clearly set boundaries of right and wrong. So I let her cough a bit. It makes her feel like her opinions are being noticed by rule breakers and don't we all like to feel like our voice is being heard?
Also it's funny...
*ahem*
We squelched our way into the Wilderness Lodge and head towards our room.
I stopped to take a picture of the "river inside" as Teddy calls it...b/c it was STEAMING!!!
As we headed towards the room, it was clear that Teddy's sugar high had him firmly in it's grasp as he was fairly buzzing with energy. Which meant he was bouncing up and down instead of walking and kissing my arm every few feet. I had to give him half an eyebrow and remind him that we needed to walk like a boy not hop like a kangaroo.
Teddy responded with,
"or hop like a wallaby, or a FROG...or a TOAD...or a GRASSHOPPER...or a FLEA...or a..."
Sally gave him a look and hissed under her breath,
"TEDDY, everyone in the whole EARTH can hear you! INDOOR VOICE!"
she waited half a beat before she added,
"Please."
She's a good girl. And she knows her step mama and her manners "twitch".
Teddy managed to quiet down some...but he literally hop skipped all the way to the room.
(I'm not trying to squash normal little boy-ness, but with Teddy and sugar highs...you gotta keep him in line early on or his silliness builds on itself and he ends up in trouble...so I was heading him off at the pass!)
seriously, no more sugar for that child this evening.
period.
We got into the room and did the end of the day "DROP".
Y'know how everything you are holding...including your body...drops to the floor or on on a bed?
That is what we did nearly every time we re-entered the room after being at the parks.
Just *PLOP*...everything went down.
for about five minutes.
which is pretty much my limit for letting things be on the floor or unorganized.
Jay got a phone call...which he TRIED to answer nonchalantly...like he hadn't already talked on the phone to work TWICE today. Which is one more than he is ALLOWED...according to the RULES! He was RULE BREAKING that's what!
So I smacked him around with my "look of wrath"...which differs from the eyebrow arch b/c the eyes are narrowed and brows are drawn together in a most terrifying fashion! The look of wrath isn't having a conversation with its recipient...the look of wrath doesn't negotiate...it's just making its point by being there.
Teddy saw it and started sing song-ing
"Daddy's in trouble..."
INDEED.
The weather apparently agreed with me b/c the skies darkened to almost black and the Heavens opened up and thundered rain down upon the Wilderness Lodge.
I gave Jay a look and said,
"SEE what you made me do...you made me control the WEATHER...don't MESS with me boy...get your rump OFF that phone and I mean 10 minutes ago!"
He smiled at me.
I gave up.
The kids were fascinated by the rain.
Sally ran to the sliding glass door and loudly squealed,
"MISSCAMMIE!!! THE DUCKS ARE OUT THERE!!! CAN WE GO SEE THEM?!"
She barely waited for an answer before she had opened the door and hopped out on to the porch.
ducks in the distance!!!
Sally was waving at the ducks and asking them if they were okay.
those ducks looked like they were having a party! There were four them waddling around, quacking up a storm, shaking their tail feathers to the beat of the rain! This was their idea of a good time!!!
They caught sight of Sally waving though, and I'm sure remembering the cheerios breakfast from the morning, came a waddlin at a pretty quick clip!
did somebody say CHEERIOS?!
and do y'all know what Sally did? She reached behind one of the chairs on the porch and brought out a box of CHEERIOS!
She batted her eyelashes at me and said "Oh look MissCammie...I just found some left over cheerios from this morning that I guess I forgot about...from this morning...gosh they've been out here all day...I mean I guess we could give them to the ducks...since the cheerios would be garbage...unless we fed the ducks...and not wasted food...right MissCammie?"
little POOT hid those there this morning fully intending to feed the ducks later.
so I eyebrow arched a her a little...just to make it clear that I'm no dummy...and told her to go ahead...feed the already over fed ducks.
sometimes I think the kids merely LET me think I'm in charge.
but I AM...in charge...I am.
of everyone.
I am.
it's true.
*ahem*
I left the kids with the ducks and went in to yank the phone from my husbands hands b/c he BETTER be off it by now or he is cruisn for a bruisin let me tell y'all!
He was off the phone.
smart man.
"So what should we do tonight babe? Where should we eat? I'm hungry...what do you think?"
I was about to answer when Jay went ahead and answered himself!
"Let's do Downtown Disney...what do you think? Let's do it. We can find a place to eat down there...it'll be fun...what do you think?"
I looked outside and regarded the black skies and the pouring rain.
"Are you sure babe? I mean it's raining pretty hard...we'll get wet...and you know how I feel about being wet. I don't like it. At all."
He gave his most winning smile. The smile that requires his entire face to engage. The smile that reminds me that my husband may be on the phone to work more than he is supposed to be but he's still in vacation mode. I'm not about to shut that down!
SO...Downtown Disney it is!
Jay jumped in the shower and I started figuring out wardrobe.
I had resigned myself to the fact that we were fixin to have WET feet this evening.
so my comfy Privo flips were OUT. I was seriously considering the $1.99 Old Navy flips...cuz it was WET and Teva Mush flips soak up water like a sponge!
hmmmm...these decisions are such crucial ones aren't they?
I set out a cute pink and white striped dress for Sally and a red tee and gray knit shorts for Teddy. Plays clothes if you will...again cuz we were fixin to get SOPPED.
I was somehow able to pull the kids away from the ducks and the rain and dunk them in the bath. Teddy sang a round of Yellow Submarine as I attempted to wash his hair. He just sang and bobbed his head all over the place...no awareness that I need him to be still for two seconds so I could soap his head...no matter how many times I asked him. It was the sugar. Seriously.
I finally got him sudsed up and rinsed off and out of the tub.
Sally went MUCH more quickly. She's good that way.
FINALLY everyone was dressed and ready to go. It was still raining cats and dogs. I commented on that fact and Teddy said,
"MissCammie can it rain Mickey's and Pluto's instead?"
"Sure Teddy...it's raining Mickey's and Pluto's out there!"
I told the kids to put some scoot in their boot cuz we needed to get out the door! I needed shoes ON and manners in place ASAP!!
I hear Teddy behind me say,
"Oh look, MissCammie...can I wear these? They match my shirt!"
I turn to look and there is Teddy sitting on the bed admiring my red sparkle-y Chinese slippers on his feet!
(Y'all know what shoes i'm talking about right? I don't know if it was all over the country, but for a while those little mesh mule slippers with the sparkle flowers were ALL OVER Manhattan. EVERYBODY wore them...I was no exception and since I lived in the city and the shoes were being sold for very little on every single block, I had about 84,000 pairs in a rainbow of colors...I actually wore a black pair to an "event"...it worked...they looked dressy and I didn't have to wear heels!")
What were we talking about?
Oh yes...Teddy was wearing my red sparkle-y shoes!
He tromped around the room in them, admiring the sparkles on his feet.
Jay came out of the bathroom, took one look at Teddy and said,
"No."
"But Daddy..."
"No."
"But..."
"GET THOSE WOMEN'S SHOES OFF YOUR FEET SON...NOW!!! and I MEAN NOW!!! TOUGHEN UP TOUGHEN UP TOUGHEN UP!!!!"
He then thumped his chest and challenged Teddy to an arm wrestling match...
Okay he didn't really...but he was thinking it.
I thought the shoes looked nice...
*ahem*
Teddy put his blue camo croclings on and Jay felt immensely better! Camo means MALE.
It was time to go to Downtown Disney!!!
!
