A Week in the Life - Day 3 (A Fun Leatherkid Morning)

I worked from home today, which generally means a much less stressful, easygoing morning for us Leathermans.  There was no train for me to catch, no traffic unknowns to concern us and, to my surprise, no Leatherkids instigating a fight.  Dan was able to get out and headed for the train carrying only his backpack, which made for a fast and easy exit. In other words, he was heading to the train several minutes sooner than we do when we have two kids in tow having to drop them off at school before heading for the same train he was catching today.

Anyway, I really don't remember any struggle getting the kids ready and out the door for school.  Could be that there really wasn't any; could also be that how I remember this morning's goings on just how it was captured in three pictures on my Blackberry.

First, there is this one:

Cal and Ella both chose their outfits for the day, which they typically do.  If I hadn't seen them, I would have guessed that Cal was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt, pocket- and string-less sweatpants and his velcro running shoes; and I'd figure Ella would be wearing her pink skort, a buttonless short-sleeved shirt and her Nike running shoes.  

Clearly, the only thing I would've gotten right was the shoes!  A shirt and tie?  I have no idea where that came from!  And that sleeveless dress?  Ella wore that one other time and only until she realized what she was wearing.

When I asked Cal why he chose to wear a tie today, he didn't really have a clear answer.  He made reference to his first day of Kindergarten and how he had planned on wearing a tie but decided not to that morning.  He also said that Ms. Jennifer, the teacher in his drop-off room, would think that he looks really handsome.  Maybe it was just a whim, but I have a feeling there really was a reason behind it that he's embarrassed to share.

As for Ella, I have no idea why she picked that dress to wear today.  With her pink skort in my hand, we perused the shirt options in her closet.  "Ummmmmmmmmmmm," she said, eyeballing her choices.  "Dat one," she decided, pointing at the pink dress.

"You want to wear this?" I asked, now holding the dress in front of her?

"Yep," she answered, accompanied by a certain nod.

"Okay, so this dress instead of the skirt?" I always call it a skirt to Ella.  I don't know why -- skirts seem more "princessy" than skorts.

"Yep."  So I threw it on her.

Their outfits warranted a picture, so I grabbed our camera and took a few, the kids cooperating fully.  "Cheeeeeese!" they said several times, smiling through the word.  I then decided I wanted to share the scene with Dan sooner than later and pulled out my Blackberry (my only mobile device for quick picture sharing) for another picture.

This lead to the second picture:

Not that I'm exactly thrilled with my appearance in this picture, I am pretty impressed at how good it is -- Cal took this one with my Blackberry.

"I want to take a picture," he declared after I took the aforementioned picture.

I set up the phone so all he needed to do was get me in the screen and push the center button to take the picture.  And he proceeded to do so; and with me almost centered in it, it's pretty well balanced.

Of course, when Cal does something, Ella really wants a turn at doing the same thing, whether she's capable of actually doing it or not.

This lead to the third (and final) picture:

I probably don't need to explain how this one went down and have to give myself credit for actually getting my head into the picture.

I set the phone up exactly as I had for Cal and gave Ella the exact same instructions I gave him; however, she didn't execute on them as skillfully as Cal did.  I paid close attention to where the phone was pointing and followed its every move (up, left, up again, right...), trying to keep my face in the camera's view on the off chance she actually pushed the center button. After a lot of mirroring of Ella's awkward handling of my phone, I found myself doing downward dog with my head facing Ella and heard the familiar sound of the camera taking the picture.

Those three pictures and all that lead up to and followed them made for a pretty fun Leatherkid morning.