This Morning

I'm a sweaty mess on the train right now.  It's not ideal or desirable, but I'm not complaining.  That I'm even on this train is nothing short of a miracle.  You see, 52 minutes before the train left the station, I was waking up (after my alarm!) and jumping out of bed.  And I was the first Leatherman to do so this morning.

And I credit myself entirely for making it happen as I masterfully managed my kids out of their beds, into their clothes, into their shoes and out the door like only their mother could do.  Here's how it went down:

I brushed my teeth as the shower warmed up and then hopped in said shower.  It wasn't a quick one -- I don't know why -- but when I got out, I threw a cami and a skirt on and headed to Cal's room to wake him up.  He was awake.  I kissed him and told him softly that it was time to get up.

I headed to Ella's room where I found her wrapped in Blue Blankie (her coveted baby blanket) like a little burrito... so I told her this.  "You look like a little burrito," I said.  And then making little munching sounds I added, "I'm going to eat you up," and proceeded to pretend munch her face, which was really more like little kisses.  And then -- and this was brilliant -- I said, "look, Ellie, Zoe's here!  She slept with you all night!"  Ella loves Zoe, our kitty, and especially loves that she chooses to sleep with her.  Ella immediately sat up in bed.

And then I left to continue to get myself ready.  Dan was up and in the shower himself.  I looked at my watch -- 7:02am.  We needed to be out the door in 9 minutes if we were to comfortably make the train, and by "comfortably" I mean my definition of "comfortably" (with a little running) and not Dan's (no running).  It was at this point that I had to decide -- make the 7:32 or give in and make the 7:52.  I chose the former and headed back to motivate the kids.

Cal was already up, dressed and heading downstairs.  I looked down at him and told him, "good job, Baby, when you get downstairs, put your shoes on right away."  He said he would, and I sort of believed him.  Cal's definition of "right away" doesn't always match mine.

Ella was still frolicking in her bed with Zoe, so I walked in and asked, "I'll get your dress, Baby Girl.  Which one do you want to wear?"  With no answer, I held up one and asked, "how 'bout this one?"

"No," Ella said and paused.  "I want the one with color that's white."  Whaaaaaa does that mean?  Ella sensed my confusion and added, pointing to her arm, "it's like the color of my skin."

With that, I knew the exact dress she wanted and pulled it out of her closet.  And somehow, I don't really even know how I did this, I got her to cooperate getting out of her jammies and into this dress, with me helping her along the way.  Ordinarily, we encourage independent dressing; today, I needed to get out the door, so I did most of the dressing.

She complained about her leg hurting, so, yes, I carried her back to my room to see Daddy and for me to get my earrings and put my hair up.  Magically, maybe from Daddy's morning kiss, her leg healed while I was doing my hair, and she headed downstairs herself.

When I headed down the stairs, Cal had one shoe on and was putting on the other.  Ella was actually pulling her Crocs out of our shoe bin.  And Dan was getting his wallet and phone from the kitchen.  It was 7:10am.  This was going to happen.

I packed my laptop and folder into my backpack.  I then offered to stuff Ella's stuffed animals in her backpack while she put her shoes on, and she took me up on it.  I grabbed Cal's lunch from the fridge (thankfully, I had made it last night) and handed it to him hurriedly.  And we all shuffled out the door.

By the time we were backing out of the garage, it was 7:13am.  We arrived at school at 7:16am, where I announced that we'd need "an efficient drop-off, Leatherkids," which we got because we were pulling out of the school parking lot by 7:18am.  With some strategic maneuvering of the car, taking what traffic gave me, I got us to the train station in a parking spot by 7:30am -- leaving a couple of minutes to run to the station from what seems like a mile away (it's probably .2 miles), pay for parking (at a slow machine) and hop on the train.

I did it.  Sweat was dripping down my back and beading on my forehead, but I did it.  I had to do it.  With that cooperation from the Leatherkids, I had to make that train.