The mornings are a whirlwind. Coop's door is usually the first to be opened. I can hear him banging on the wall pretending something is a hammer and something else is a nail. When I turn the knob, I hear him race to the door to clear away his pile of stuff. Blankets, books, a big metal airplane -- this kid piles anything he can find in front of the door in the morning. Huge fire hazard, but we pick our battles.
He gives me a hug, and a kiss on the cheek if I'm lucky, and then we're off to Jilly's room. "Door gocked," he says, not really using the letter "L" as part of his vocab. But the door's not locked, he just doesn't like to do the part where you turn the handle. Jillygirl squeals when she sees us; a little combination of a laugh and a cry. We're hoping the laugh/cry is a phase that's almost over.
The journey downstairs can be treacherous. Sometimes Jilly misses a step, sometimes Coop decides his "knee hurts." But when we finally get to the bottom, I put on my supermama suit and bust it for the next 15 minutes until we are out the door. It's a blur of bum changes, new clothes, finding 4 socks, 4 shoes, 2 hats, and making a "fooooood" for the car. The little guys walk themselves out to the car (hooray! gone is the time of carrying them everywhere!), and everyone knows that Jilly goes in first. Cooper points to her spot in the car and says "Jee's puhple seat." "Yes, bubba, Jilly has a purple seat."
The two minute drive to school is one of my favourite parts of the day. Coop chooses a paw patrol pup and mama sings the corresponding song from the book. "Chase is on the case, he's a ruff-ruff rescue ace. He'll use 1, 2, 3, 4 paws to uphold all of the laws..." You get the idea. We spot busses, trucks, "TWO BUSSES! TWO TRUCKS!" and he always points out the apple and the airplane on the Air Miles advertisement at Sobeys.
Last sip of milk in the car and then it's "bye Jee, have a good day!" They're both so brave. They walk right into their classes all by themselves. I leave them quickly before they have a chance to miss me and get back into the car at 8:45am. One big breath. I did it. Another day is ready to start.
At the end of the day, both kids are dirty and tired and ready to rest their evening away until bedtime. They've played with friends, made crafts, walked to the park and back, and learned a hundred new things. I'm so thankful for their school. And thankful for our hugs and snuggles at the end of the day.
"Bye, Jee," he says when Jillian is carried up the stairs by mom or dad. She's tired and rubbing her eyes, flopping around in our arms as if she can't bare to hold her body weight any longer. Coop knows that's the 2 minute warning.
"More paw-chole on. More paw-chole on."
"Sorry bubs, say night night to Paw Patrol."
"Whyyyyy?"
He walks up the stairs and into his room to choose 2 books before snooze. I secretly cross my fingers that he won't choose the Chuck Truck book. But of course, he chooses Chuck every night. It's only 5 pages long but for some reason the repetitiveness gets on my nerves. I skip 2 pages and move on to his second choice: a super cute dinosaur book called RAWWWWWR. "Skoo bus! (School bus...) Car! Swide! (Slide...) Patch! (Park...)"
At the end of the last page he turns over on his side, closes his eyes, and I give him a kiss on the cheek. "See you in the morning, snoozer. Love you."
And that's a wrap.