The Sound of Silence

I had every intention of posting last night about our day, but it seems I was fast asleep on our couch by 8:55pm. I managed to read two pages of a new book, flip through a Southern Living catalog, converse with my husband, and gear up to watch the Democratic National Convention....before I drifted off to a deep slumber, waking up only at 10:30pm to the sounds of my husband discussing (with himself? with me? with the news commentators?) the political convention. Alas, no post last night.

By the way, as I type this at 6am I believe my next door neighbor is weed-eating his backyard. Odd thing to do at this time of day. They also have a kiddie pool in their backyard...but have no children...so I think perhaps they march to the beat of a different drum.

Back to the task at hand: Posting about yesterday.

Yesterday was our "Back to School/Meet the Teacher Day" at Isaac's preschool. Due to his preschool holding Mother's Day Out this summer, this Back to School event was held after lunch. Groan. After lunch is never a great time of day for my children (or for me) because they are napping. We are BIG on sleep here at casa de phillips and all of us tend to lean towards the grouchy side when such matters have been neglected.

Despite the odd time, I put on my happy face for the day and off we went. The plan was for us to accomplish three things while out in the world yesterday:

1. Get Isaac's hair cut
2.Meet friends for lunch
3. Attend Back to School/Meet the Teacher event

After a semi-relaxing morning spent at home ("semi" because surely one child must play with the EXACT toy that his/her sibling happens to be playing with at that time) off we set for the local kiddie salon.

It should be noted that we do take Isaac to get his hair cut at the over-priced kid's salon where one gets to sit in a firetruck and watch television while getting his hair cut (by the way, Toni and Guy does the same thing for adults...minus the firetruck and add a glass of wine. Good-bye, personal interaction!). It would be cheaper to cut his hair at home, however I struggle cutting paper in a straight line and the color of his hair makes every scissor cut show. So, hello! Kiddie salon.

Isaac loves to get his hair cut because the salon has a train table and he can get his train fix there. Yesterday we walked into an empty salon, meaning there was no extra time for Isaac to play trains. After a dramatic pout face was made (Isaac's new speciality...which has zero effect on his parents because it makes us laugh every time), Isaac chose his car (firetruck as opposed to taxi) and set about getting his hair trimmed.

Evelyn was in the stroller....sobbing.

Evelyn is the sweetest girl ever, but there are days when she is super-sweet and days when she is moody. Yesterday was a moody day. Moody days involve LOTS of crying, lots of wanting to be held, and lots of unhappiness for everyone within a ten mile radius. She was slightly crying when we entered the salon, but it turned into a full-out wail the moment the hair-stylist got into her face and asked what was wrong. I am thinking of making a cute little sign to pin to E.'s shirt that reads, "Please do not speak to the cute, crying baby". The stylist continued to comment during the entire haircut that Evelyn just must need a nap.

Perhaps I should also add to that cute little sign, "Please keep unsolicited advice to yourself."

After a good haircut and a few minutes afterwards to play trains, off we went to the land of the Happy Meal to meet our friends for lunch.

Let it be known that the Land of the Happy Meal is not my favorite dining destination by any means, however if two Mommies (with four children between them) desire to have anything resembling a normal conversation, an eating establishment with a playarea is a must. Besides Land of the Happy Meal is cheap and the children and I can usually split two kids meals between the three of us.

Lunch was ordered, a table was selected, and we sat down to dine on nuggets and apple slices with our friends. It was about that moment when the swarm of half-day private school kindergartners hit the play area. Did I mention the majority of these children were girls....girls who screamed very, very loudly on a constant basis?

I could barely hear my friend talking to me across the table, much less manage to digest my food with all of the commotion. Isaac was the only child out of the four brave enough to enter the playscape with the big kids, claiming, "I am big like those boys!". He returned seconds later, in tears, because someone had apparently spanked him (never knew the culprit). We left shortly afterwards, unable to tolerate the constant high-pitched screams of five year old little girls and the neglectful parenting of a group of moms huddled in the corner.

My friend had to run home to grab something she lost before our preschool event (her oldest is starting school with Isaac this year). Since we had about 20 minutes to kill before heading to Isaac's school, I decided to drive the kids past our local pumpkin patch to see how the corn maze was growing. This was not met with a round of applause by either child.

Evelyn was fussing because by this point she was exhausted and I am sure her little ears were still ringing from all the screaming we had endured. Isaac was filled with a million questions about why we were going to his school at an odd time, if he was going to stay "long or short", if I was going to sit in a chair, what happened to one of his previous teachers, who was going to be there....and on and on and on. No one was too concerned about the growth of the corn maze..except me, who is fearful it won't be tall enough come October 1st.

Finally we arrived at school and entered the building for our "Meet the Teacher" event. We had to wait a few minutes inside before it started, which Isaac took as an opportunity to give me and the other waiting families a tour of his school. It should be noted that his school is quite small, so a "tour" was limited to such sites as "This is where we pee-pee" and "This is how we go outside" and (pointing to the chapel) "This is where Pastor Randy lives."

How could my very-shy-just-a-year-ago boy now be guiding the tour of the preschool?

"Back to School/Meet the Teacher" turned out to be kids playing in one half of the room while the teachers attempted to talk to parents (who were stuffed around a kiddie table...thus answering the question of whether or not I was going to sit down) in the other half of the room. Loud does not begin to describe the volume that room reached. At one point I looked over at my friend who had been at McDonalds with us earlier and her face was completely glazed over as if her body had simply shut down due to the overload of noise.

We got our information, hugged our teacher, helped put away the gazillion toys the 15 kids had managed to pull out in 30 minutes time, and left for home.

Hallelujah!

Once home, I put both kids down for naps and just sat on our couch...enjoying the sound of absolutely nothing.

It was wonderful.