A Really Good Day (otherwise known as bragging)

First of all, I am happy to have made it to mass minus Dad with zero instances of me screaming at children to get themselves ready and to quit screwing around. Then, at mass, my bestest Texas gal-pal Heidi sat down right behind us with her precious 3 month old. About half-way through mass Grant leans over to whisper to me that he hasn't seen Eliza (the baby) for daaaayyys. (In fact, it hasn't even been 24 hours) At the sign of peace, he repeats this to Heidi. She invites him to come back and sit with her. Next thing I know I hear lots of "aawwwing" behind me. I turn around to see little Eliza being held by my Grant each of them grinning and cooing at each other. He could not have looked more proud if he had just been named a Rhodes Scholar. I decided it was in poor taste to snap pictures during mass, but in retrospect I wish I would have taken one anyway. You will just have to imagine to excessive sappiness of the imaginary photo.



At dinner time, not one child complained that there was something in it that their palate didn't fancy. They actually ALL said it was yummy and, get this - they all said "thank you" for dinner as they - holy crap - cleared their own dishes without being asked!!!! Is this the twilight zone? I do not care that it was paper plates. The point remains the same!



Later, I was putting Grant to bed and discovered at story time that I had forgotten to fill the all important ice-water cup. I got distracted by the new episode of Desperate Housewives on my way to correct this. When I finally regained my wits and returned to Grant's room with the water, I discovered this....




The Con-man had taken it upon himself to read to his baby brother! Seriously, melts a mother's heart. One of those rare moments when you think to yourself, "you know what, maybe I'm getting it right after all."

Don't be alarmed. I will return to bitching tomorrow. The Science Fair is giving me plenty of fodder to fuel that. But tonight I'm just going to sleep with the elusive feeling of maternal success.

(Just noticed how tomato red that wall looks in that picture. I promise it is not that bright. Its actually a very brickish Spanish red.)