Valentine's Day

This morning started with Eliza screaming in her crib. Rushed in after quickly feeding dogs (if they don't get fed right away, they pee on the rug). Then Max was up. Something was wrong with the remote. Eliza very cranky. Oscar up to no good, I think. Eliza and I walked dogs. Instead of showering, I made valentines for everyone in Max's class with necco hearts taped on index cards. Max worried the tape would make the hearts taste funny. I was like, "yeah, they'll taste just fine," and I gave him one. Eliza happy after big bowl of warm milk, oatmeal and honey. Very pleasant, in fact!

Just before we walked out the door, I noticed that Max's cereal was untouched. I threw a bagel quarter in the microwave to defrost. Max and Miriam were shocked I made them walk in the cold, and I shouldn't have, it was miserable. Ten feet from the door I remember the bagels, still in the microwave, and decided to leave them. By the time we got to school, Max was a mess. Considering he'd had 2 necco hearts for breakfast and had walked a mile in cold so bitter slicks of water on the sidewalk were frozen solid, I couldn't blame him. But I did. Miriam was being very patient, but maybe that's just because she has the ability to make a necco heart last for over three avenue blocks...

About one hundred feet from school, Max started to complain of something hurting on the left side of his abdomen. I assumed his appendix was about to burst. Does that mean I can't leave him at school? I mean, they have a nurse, right? I was grilling him so heavily in the hallway about the location of the pain, the character of the pain, the exact level of its intensity that he finally said, "This is boring," and waltzed into the classroom.

Did I mention that his new thing to do on a crowded subway car is shout at the top of his lungs to all the other passengers, "Give us your seats!"

I ended up feeling so mad all the way home that I started to think that maybe my appendix was going to burst. Or something. I was mad at Max, but it's hard to be mad at a four year old you love, so I just was running through different rants in my head--I was even angry at this 9 year old ahead of us walking really slowly through the school doors.

Happy Valentines Day, everybody!!!