The Gift of Magic

We're Disneyland pass holders again!

A year ago, November 22nd, 2011 to be exact, was our last trip to Disneyland. After that trip, our passes expired and we made the decision not to renew at the current prices. Walt Disney just wanted way too much for a little family of three to get in the gates. I really wanted to keep taking the girls to Disneyland, in the worst way! But, couldn't justify the expense. The worst part of that was disappointing Fenna. She still had several months left on her pass, but I figured she would go with friends a few times in the spring. I tried to go one last time with just her and I, but that proved to be nearly impossible and then my pass expired.

Libby was able to get into Disneyland and everywhere else because she was under the age of three, but once she turned three years old, it was time to start paying to get her in the gate too. Since she is small for her age, I was able to easily fib "she's almost three" for the two months after she actually turned three. She doesn't take up any extra seats on the big rides or cause anyone else to miss out on some fun, so I figured there wasn't much harm in saying she was still under age three. She still acted like a two year old!

So, it's been a year now since we've been to our favorite place. The girls have been saving their birthday and Christmas money in hopes of going to Disneyland again in a few years when they are much taller and can ride the bigger thrill rides. I told them we could get a hotel and stay for three or four days and make a good fun vacation out of it, but it won't be until they are at least 8 and 10 years old.

One Saturday morning, I was chit-chatting on the phone with my mom and she asked me how much Disneyland passes are now. I told her they raised the prices again and now they are a ridiculous amount. $269 each plus $129 for parking! And that is for the cheap pass that blocks you out on weekends and holidays. Later in the conversation she said she sent some mail and I should watch for it in my snail mail. I didn't think much of it since she is a good one for sending fun mail, and sometimes she sends newspaper articles or comic strips.

A few days later, I checked the mail and sure enough there was a card from Mom and Grandma. Inside was a BIG surprise! A check and a note of instructions for me. The money was to be used to buy Disneyland passes for me and the girls. I was also instructed to take Charlie and Henry for a day at Disneyland (since they are both under age 3 they don't need tickets), and to take lots of pictures.  Amazing! I nearly had a heart attack from excitement!  I wanted to scream and shout and show the girls, but I had to contain myself and make giving them the news a very special moment.

I called my mom to tell her that I got it and that I was blown away. I thanked her kindly and she informed me that it was my grandma's doing. Grandma insisted that the girls get to go back to Disneyland for more magic and fun. I will certainly take them!

I decided to tell the girls the next weekend, Veteran's Day weekend. I figured out that if I buy the tickets online, we would be blocked out over the weekend but if I buy them at the gate, we could go on any day and get in that day plus get our passes. I decided to take the girls on Sunday for our debut trip.

Now, how to tell the girls... This will be fun!

The Setup:  On Saturday afternoon, I told the girls that their Grandma and Great-Grandma sent some special mail to our mailbox. Libby perked right up and said, "I wonder which Disney character she sent!" She knows that her grandmas like to send her nice cards and even the stamps have Disney characters on them. Gracie wanted to run right out and check the mail (I knew she would) and so we all went to the mailbox and found it empty. Awww, darn. Maybe tomorrow. The anticipation sets in.

Sunday morning, I went out and stuck three greeting cards in our mailbox. I made sure to put a Disney character sticker where the stamp would go and address each one as if it had arrived in the mail. I also loaded the van for our fun day.

As the kids woke up, I told them I was bored and wanted to go for an outing. Did they want to do the same? Where do you want to go? Libby said she wanted to play with friends and Gracie said she wanted to go to a museum. Good ideas! They went to get dressed and I packed a picnic lunch and some water bottles.

Libby came out of her room wearing a Princess Belle dress with tights. She was trying to decide between her cowgirl boots or her Doc McStuffin shoes (pink glitter Mary-Janes). Little does she know just how appropriate her outfit is today! Gracie decided to wear a Hello Kitty shirt, leggings and Hello Kitty shoes. Clean and matchy. Good!

The girls remembered that they wanted to check the mail again because it's a new day and they were waiting for mail from the Grandmas. Yes, by all means, go check the mail!

They were super excited to find a card for each of them and one for me too! We all opened our cards and read them outloud. Their eyes were huge with excitement! I told them it was true! The Grandmas sent us Disneyland passes! Let's go!

We hopped into the van and hit the road! They were super excited! Gracie had so much excited energy, but she was strapped down in the van so it all came out of her mouth. She couldn't stop talking and she was putting a lot of words out very quickly. Her brain must have been in hyper mode. Libby was speechless. Just big gasps and squeals. They loved the ride, trying to spot Disneyland from 30 miles away. "I think I see it!" So funny!  Gotta admit, I was extra excited too!

One more year of Disneyland! We couldn't be happier! And we are going to make the most of these passes and see as much as we can and go as often as we can. We'll have lots of pictures and stories to tell the Grandmas. I'm so glad that the girls are old enough to understand that Disneyland passes are expensive and not everyone is so lucky. They  understand and appreciate the fact that these are gifts from their Grandmas, and extraordinary gifts at that. It's nice to know we are humble enough to maintain our sense of who we are while we are being spoiled rotten.

Thank you so much, Grandmas! We love you even more than we love Disneyland! And that's a LOT!

Driving the Lizard Taxi

November 8th, 2012

There was a lizard in my van! I got the kids in the van, nagged at them to buckle up even though they should know by now that's what should happen next. You get in, you sit down, you buckle up. Every single time! Anyway, nag, nag... they hear nothing and I shut the doors and got into the driver's seat.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move in the middle of the van. No clue what it was! But it was alive and moving! I see it! A LIZARD!!!  I screamed as loud as my little lungs could and hopped out! Because I screamed, so did Libby, she then stood on her carseat (it helped that they didn't listen to my nagging pleas to buckle up). While Libby and I were screaming and flailing about, Gracie just laughed hysterically.

A lizard! In my van! It flitted so fast, but I saw where it went, under the passenger side front seat. Yup, there is was. Little guy, but he was lively and quick. And he wasn't welcome in the van.

I had ten minutes to drive Gracie to school, and it takes 12 minutes to get there. There are 5 stop signs and 6 traffic lights in between the driveway and the school. Sometimes I hit every light on red. Of course that will happen on a day that I am running short on time. All of that screaming in the driveway took up too much valuable time.

We opened all the doors and tried to convince the lizard to leave. Just go! It wouldn't. It cowered further under the seat. Since we were running out of time, we decided it had to come along for the ride. We used Gracie's jacket to stuff under the seat and create a barrier so that it wouldn't escape and crawl on Libby. She was pretty nervous about that, as was I.

Actually, I was afraid it would crawl across to my side and touch me. I had on my Mary Jane shoes without socks, exposing a little bit of the top of my foot.  I drove the whole way to school half freaked out and I kept an eye on the floor at all times!

I thought about Fenna and how freaked out she would be if I were driving her to school with a lizard under her seat. 

Got the kid dropped off at school, then I stopped and inspected under the seat for that little stinker. Not sure, but I think he's still there, or maybe that's a piece of the hardware under the seat. Of course he's still there, where else would he go? Under my chair? I had to get home!

Libby wants to stop and get a donut. No way! We are going home and getting rid of this lizard! As long as we're moving, he seems to be too scared to come out. I voted for keeping him frozen with fright.  We got home and opened every door to the van. I took everything out of it: jackets, toys, books, blankets, trash, picnic blankets, stroller, wagon, etc. There's always lots of "etc" in my van.

Then, I sent the dog in there. If that lizard was still in there, the dog should be able to chase it out! The dog found some old french fries and lost interest in being in the van. Guess the lizard made his escape when I was unloading. Good!

I looked under the seat and there he was! Ugh! Time to bring out the big gun. Bigger than the dog! I went and got the vacuum. That little guy will surely be frightened and make his escape! First, I vacuumed the driver's side, front and back, because he was on the passenger side and if he had any brains at all, he would run out the passenger side doors and be gone.

No. He's a stupid lizard.  Fine, I'll scare the tail off of him and scare him across the other way.  I vacuumed the passenger side of the van. Then I went around and vacuumed the trunk. Might as well. The lizard was either gone or hiding deeper under the seat. I couldn't see him. I think he's finally gone. Success! Oh, no, wait, there he is. I could just barely see him under the seat.

It was now almost time to go pick up Gracie from school. I've spent my entire day trying to evict a lizard!

Libby and I went inside to grab a quick lunch and regroup from our lizard chasing. Maybe he'll leave if we give him some quiet freedom. We needed a little break. Lizard hunting is hard work.

Time to drive the lizard back to school. I do not want to drive while staring at the floor and knowing that thing will touch my foot! What if it scampers over my feet! I will freak out and we'll all die! I need boots. Good thing Fenna left her boots here, I pulled them on and declared myself ready to drive the lizard taxi. Libby wore her boots too. We're taking all precautions.

Back out to the van. I opened the doors and he's still there! Right in the middle! And, he pulled a wheat thin cracker out from under the seat too. Guess he was planning on feasting and staying  a while. Crazy lizard! My screams scared him under the center console. Great, now he's even closer to the driver's seat. This is not ideal!

Why won't he leave?

You know what I need to do? I need to get a professional to get him out. I've been at it for hours and made no progress. I know exactly who I need to ask for help. This lizard will not reside in my van!

I went to the school, Lizard stayed under the console and I was only a little freaked out while driving. I parked, got Libby out and we walked into the school instead of going through the pick up line. When I saw Gracie's teacher she gave me the generic friendly, "Hi! How are you!" And I said to her, "Actually, I need some help." Libby nodded, adding genuine sincerity to the situation.

She was immediately concerned. As she should be, I was having a lizard crisis after all. "What's the matter?" I told her in complete seriousness, "Only an expert can help me. I need help from the Lizard Whisperer."

Her expression went from confused concern to resolve. "Do you have a lizard in your car?" "Yes" She said, "I'll go get him". Thank goodness! I would have fallen apart if he wasn't in school today! The teacher's son is passionate about lizards and he calls himself  "The Lizard Whisperer". This is common knowledge at school. I'm so happy I happened to know this!

Nine-year-old lizard loving Bradley was more than happy to help! He ran to my van, not caring if there were any cars ready to run him over in the parking lot, he was on a mission! I couldn't open the doors fast enough for the kid. He dove in head first and like the lizard genius that he is, he located it in an instant.

He grabbed a set of fast food chopsticks from the center console, good thing I had that random item available, and he used one to poke under the seat, where the lizard was hiding again, and shoo the lizard out. He didn't poke the lizard, just used the chopstick to shepherd the thing out. As soon as it fled from the chopstick, he grabbed it with his other hand.

Captured!

It took the Lizard Whisperer less than a minute to capture the beast and I worked on it all day long. Sure, my method was a lot less "hands on", but since he's an expert in lizard behavior I decided to give myself some grace and not let my pride be hurt by this little boy.

Bradley skipped off back to the school building with a huge smile on his face to show his mom his new prize. The lizard might end up a classroom pet, a resident of the teacher's car, or maybe he found a new home in the school landscaping. I do not know. But, he's out of my van and I can once again drive while watching the road. Whew!

Thank you, Lizard Whisperer! You have a true talent!

Halloween Costume Extravaganza!

I made five costumes this year! I just cannot say no to these adorable little children who love to wear custom costumes made just for them. They like to watch me sew and "help". The helping, I could do without that, but I have gotten Libby to cut up scraps of fabric as her way of helping. That keeps her out of my way a little bit, but sure makes a mess.

This year, I acquired some fabric (quite a bit actually) from a nice lady here in town. Her grandmother passed away and when the family went to clean the grandmother's house, they discovered that she had filled her home and garage with fabric, notions and machines. Apparently, the lady was a sewing enthusiast and one of JoAnn fabrics best costumers. They had too much fabric to deal with, so they posted an ad on facebook for a fabric sale. One of my friends saw it and sent the link to me, so I sent the lady a message and went over and got lots of fabric and zippers. With the amount they had to clear out of the home, it was just a small bit that I took home. I don't know what I was thinking, because I recently stocked up and have plenty of fabric already. I promise not to fill my whole house with stashes of fabric. I will use it!  Four of the five costumes I made this year all have some of the fabric from this gal. Plus, I made a few tote bags and a couple of pillow cases so far with her grandmother's fabric. I hope it comforts her to know that her grandmother's passion for sewing is alive and well in my house.

I made three costumes for Gracie: Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, Cinderelly (the working dress), and "Modest Tinkerbell".  I made a Doc McStuffins costume for Libby.  And, I made a Captain Hook costume for Charlie. 

Surprisingly, the doctor lab coat and the pirate coat were from the same pattern. I just altered it for character effect. The pattern was for a dress and jacket pattern; not a costume pattern at all. But, it had just the right features for these two costumes. I improvised the pirate pants and the stethoscope and doctor bag.

Charlie's mom didn't want the Captain Hook costume to look quite so frilly as it does on the real Captain Hook. To man it up, I disregarded the white ruffles and I made the pants black instead of pink. I added a cute skeleton print to the pants as a sash and as a headband, perfect print for a pirate costume. And, instead of a wrap around belt, I gave Captain Hook's jacket a cinch thing on the back. I have no idea what that thing is called. It's a small piece that pulls the back together. Anyway, I think it worked well. The costume really came to life when my daughter  bought a pirate hat to match. Charlie decided to pull on his Lightning McQueen boots too. Sure, why not!

I didn't have a pattern for the Cinderelly costume, I just had to wing it and I used Cinderella storybook pictures to figure out how to make it. Gracie had her input too, she did not want straight three-quarter sleeves like the story illustrations have, she wanted puffy sleeves with elastic at the elbows. Since it's her costume, of course I said yes to that. She also chose all of the fabric. I do wish I would have made the bodice longer, oh well.

Here are the costumed kids in all their glory:

Got my braces off!

After 25 months of dental torture, my teeth are free!

I love my new smile!

 Guess I could learn to brush my hair  now that I've got this terrific straight toothed smile to show off. Don't want to deter focus from my fabulous (and expensive) grin.  The cutie-pie I'm holding in this picture is my grandson, Hank.



This is how I started the process back in September of 2010, with the removal of a wisdom tooth:

In October 2010, I looked like this:

December 2010, can really see some teeth have started to move:

In May 2011, I still had a lot of crowding and I looked like this:

I'm trying to remember when exactly it was, but I ended up having four molars yanked out to make room for all of these extra large teeth of mine. My jaw is small and my teeth are big, not an ideal situation. I thought I had them out in January of 2011, but it took a while for the other teeth to fill in the gaps.

Here I am at the end of 2011, lots of progress! What you can't see are the big gaps where my 4 molars were removed in the back.

June 2012, even more straight! At this point I am sick to death of having the braces too. I just needed those gaps in the back to close up and the little gaps in the bottom row to pinch together. What you can't see is that my profile has drastically improved! I didn't realize how much my teeth stuck out, and then my lips stuck out over them. Have I been walking around all my life looking like I'm ready to pucker up and give kisses? No wonder I always think people are very friendly, I've been looking like I'm going to kiss everyone all this time. No more!

That brings us to now, the fall of 2012. The braces are finally off and my teeth are nice and straight! For the first time in my life, I can floss. Exciting, huh? I still can't believe I went through this. I'm glad I did it, but I hated doing it. It hurt and it was frustrating. But, it's done! If I had it to do all over again though, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do it. But if I did, I would choose metal brackets over plastic.  Metal brackets work faster and they do not wear down like the plastic ones do. The plastic brackets are harder for the dental assistants to work with, meaning more pain and torture for me.

Now, I have to see if I can do anything about my hair. I think I'll ask Santa for a hairbrush, looks like I haven't brushed it in the last two years.

Mystery History

October's school project was called "Mystery History". The assignment was to research a historical figure, report and present to the class information learned. The grand finale of this project was a big event at school where each student dresses like the historical figure they chose, and the other students try to guess who it is.

When I read the assignment description to my first grader she didn't get very excited about it until the word "costume" came into play. Apparently, that's the only thing she heard. The kid has selective hearing just like her father.

Once again, choose a person from history and find out all about that person.  "History? Does that mean a long time ago?"  "Yes."  Cue the flailing of the arms, stomping feet and the extra loud whining. "I don't wanna dress up like an old person! I wanna be a princess!" I decided to just let her get it out of her system and I didn't press it further.

She settled down and said, "Mom? Were there any princesses in history?"  "Yes."  She bolted up from her super slouchy position to sitting on the edge of her seat with wide eyes. "Really?" "Yes!" "Was Cinderella a real princess from history?" "No." "Were any Disney princesses real?" "Yes: Pocahontas and Mulan. But there were a lot of real princesses." "Any real princesses in history named Gracie?" "Yes."

Exuberant jumping up and down and happy squeals.  I think we found our historical figure!  "Mom! Let's google her right now!"

I helped guide her through picking out important facts about Grace Kelly that she could use for her presentation. She just needed some talking points, not an essay, but she needed to know about her life and so we read all about her. It was kind of fun.

Gracie made her list of "clues" and I made her costume. Ready!

Gracie chose the dress that I would replicate for her; to my delight she chose the black and white gown from "Rear Window". It's so pretty!  Since my Gracie is a child, I made a few alterations to the design of the neckline. I didn't think she needed a swooping Vneck exposing a lot of bare back, nor did she need to have her dress barely hanging off of her shoulders. Don't get me wrong, I love the dress and it's lovely lines! But, the costume needs to stay on an active six-year old for an entire day.

To finish the costume, we purchased long white gloves from the Halloween aisle at Target, and topped her head with her sister's tiara that she bought at Claires  years ago for prom. Perfect! In the movie, Grace Kelly did not wear a tiara with that dress, but it added to the princess aspect of the character. In total, the entire costume cost around $10.

I omitted the detail work on the hips of the movie star's dress. I desperately wanted to add it, but I ran out of time. The dress looked great without it, and so I just let it go at that. Not a perfect copy, but close enough.

The event at school was great! Organized costumed chaos at its best. There are four classes of approximately 30 kids each. The teachers had all of the kids stand in a large circle and one class plus all of the parents were to mingle around as if they were at a wax museum. The museum subjects stood still (supposedly) and gave the museum guests clues as to who they were. The museum guests then tried to guess who the mystery history figure was. And, on to the next. Every now and then, the teachers would switch the mingling class for a standing class.  But, with all of the mingling, the kids standing still found this a great opportunity to talk amongst themselves as did the parents. Wandering through the crowd, the conversations were all about the kids history characters, so even though it seemed like chaos, the purpose of the event was right on. There were a lot of great historical figures in the room, very cool! In fact, it reminded me of the movie, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" when they gathered so many people from  history together.

The teachers: Cleopatra, Albert Einstein, Maria Montessori and Mona Lisa

Historical characters acting as wax figures waiting to give clues to the museum guests.

Educational Chaos

Princess Grace with Princess Diana

Betsy Ross, Princess Grace, and Amelia Earhart

Walt Disney, Shirley Temple and others try to guess Princess Grace's name

Hybrid Homeschooling

Gracie goes to this really amazing school. It is a charter school that is run by the school district, so it is a public school, but has that private school feel to it.

The school has two programs, well three actually.  The third being a full time homeschooling program where the student does not participate in a classroom. The other two programs are homeschool/classroom hybrids. The first program they offer is called Classical Minds. The kids in this program attend class on Mondays and Tuesdays and homeschool on Wed, Thurs, and Fridays.  The second program, the one we chose, is Montessori and meets in the classroom on Wed, Thurs, Friday and homeschooling is on Mondays and Tuesdays.

So, Gracie is in the first grade and goes to school three days per week. She has homeschool when she's home. Homeschool work is no different than homework. In fact, if she went to a five-day school, she would still have this much homework.

At home, she does Language Arts, Math, Handwriting, Spelling and a monthly project. It seems like a lot of worksheets to do, but she's managing to get them all done, so I guess it isn't so bad. It was overwhelming at first though. I got her a storage clipboard and I load it with a few worksheets at a time. She can take her clipboard with her in the van, or wherever we go, and work on her papers. I take out her finished work and put in fresh worksheets as the time goes by.

Last month her monthly project was a poster "All About Me" and this month her project is a history report. Upcoming monthly projects include a science fair project, art history, and a healthy recipe. They vary quite a bit, and you can put a lot into the project or a little. It can be tailored to the work level of the student too. I love how you can make it your own.

She also has to do two hours of online work each week. She spends one hour (all at once or a little at a time) on reading and an hour on math. The school provides the website information and keeps track of her progress. All I have to do is keep her on task. I'll admit, that's not always easy.

The only other thing we have to do for homeschooling is 100 minutes per week of physical activity. Per week, that's super easy!

In the classroom, she works on a lot of the same things plus she has music, art, French, science, history, and I'm not sure what else. She plays games, stands in line, socializes, and learns. They do all the traditional classroom stuff: say the pledge, calendar, weather, recess, lunch, wait for the bell...  They also have a behavior color coded chart. This is a hard one, she has to remember to stop talking! Some things are very hard to learn.

I'm so happy that Gracie is in a Montessori school. It emphasizes hands on learning and student lead learning, which basically means every kid can work at their own pace. No waiting for classmates to catch up and no holding others back while trying to catch up. The kids are very sweet about working at different levels and not making a big deal about it. Gracie is super competitive at home, so I figured this style of teaching might either work or be an epic fail. So far, pretty good. She's saving the competition for home I guess.

One of the best things about Montessori, and I don't know if they do this in the other program or any other program, but I love it: the classrooms are mixed grade levels. They have "Lower Elementary" which are classrooms mixed with kids grade 1, 2 and 3. And "Upper Elementary" which are grades 4, 5, and 6. Gracie is always surrounded by smaller kids, and in school she finally gets to experience being social with kids her own age and kids older than her. The older ones help the younger ones and I'm sure Gracie is learning more than just the curriculum with this experience. Plus, she's not the tallest kid in her class. She might be one of the youngest, but when you see the kids all lined up, there are a few that are taller than her and she doesn't stand out one bit from the other kids. She blends right in. I think the older kids also motivate her to learn more too. I don't know what it is like for the oldest kids in class, but I sure do like having her in class with some older kids.

The classroom doesn't have rows of desks. They have a couple of group tables, but mostly the kids work in small groups or pairs on the floor. They have little rugs that they lay out and work there, or on the big rug in the center of the room. Looks so casual and laid-back.

Another amazing thing her school does is they communicate! I know, that sounds like it should be a normal thing that all schools do, but no. Not true. Gracie is my third kid, I've been through the whole "oh, I assumed school and parents would communicate effectively" thing before. I'm always wrong about it. But this school, they really do communicate and they seem to enjoy it! One of the best tools we have is the syllabus. Yup, a first grade syllabus for the entire year. There is a curriculum map and a project outline complete with expectations, project details and due dates. All the way to the end of the school year. Guess how much this helps a mama plan? I love this!

The knowing ahead of time thing works so well, because you never know when inspiration for an assignment might strike. Gracie was inspired to learn about a piece of art, now half of her May monthly project is done. If we hadn't known about the assignment, we wouldn't have known which way to guide her learning about this piece of artwork and to save pictures and resources.  I am loving the communication!

Since we only have to send her to school three days a week, we have two weekdays to play! We try to do the homeschool work on the weekends so that we have Mondays and Tuesdays to run around and have fun. I prefer to go places during the week to avoid the weekend crowds and traffic. Plus, weekends are "Daddy time" and I like the kids to be home when he is so that they can get all of his extra time that they can. He works a lot, so we might as well go on our outings while he is at work rather than when he's home.

We go all kinds of places. Museums, parks, Seaworld, the zoo, beach, shopping, playdates, just anywhere and everywhere. Gracie usually brings her clipboard and gets a little bit done on the go. Three days of school: four days of fun! Love that class to homeschool ratio!

Poop Covered Psycho

Three adults in this house and we all have colds, the three kids are just fine: energetic, playful, hungry, etc. 

Ten minutes before time to leave and pick up Gracie from school, Lexie was fast asleep on the recliner and since she feels the worst of any of us, I decided to let her sleep and I would take Charlie with me on my mom-taxi run. He was only wearing a diaper though, so I had to first find him something to wear. I grabbed a clean shirt and pair of shorts from the dryer and chased him down. 

He just finished lunch (which was why he was naked, who eats with clothes on?) and he was covered in gooey macaroni and cheese residue. He had it on his face, neck, arms, chest and belly.

I reached for him to clean his face and in doing so, I twirled him around to brace him against my legs and get a good firm hold on him while wiping him down with baby wipes. I yanked his fresh shirt over his head in the process. After twirling him around and clenching his little body with my legs, I realize he stinks. Oh, Lordy, he stunk!  I finished wiping his face in a couple of swoops and then stepped back only to find that his diaper wasn't holding it all in. 

I got poop all over my capri jeans, legs and a dollop landed on my foot. It was on his shirt, so that had to come off already too. I then realize he has it on his hands which he is using to hold onto my arms, which are now also slimed with fecal butter. So I scream at Lexie to wake up and charlie gets away. This makes me scream louder, like a poop covered psycho. In an instant he is standing on the bathroom counter and trying to wash himself in the sink with soap and toothbrushes crashing to the floor. Now I'm ramped up and start screaming at the little poop monster and Lexie finally comes to. 

Poop covered Grandma and poop covered toddler, both yelling at the tops of their lungs to Lexie for help. She's in a sleepy haze and the clock is ticking. Gotta go get Gracie from school!

I threw a towel on the floor and laid Charlie on it with instructions to STAY, and let Lexie clean him up, then I ran upstairs and cleaned myself up. 

I managed to calm down and pick up Gracie on time and without any leftover poop or mac & cheese smears on me. What a crazy ten minutes! Remind me to buy bigger diapers next time.