TGIF

Another interesting week in the books. Sunday afternoon we headed back to the swimming pool as Todd was hoping to rekindle his romance with Anna and Brian and I were just hoping for some water plus heat equals child exhaustion to ensure us a good night's sleep. Alas, we've learned. Things never go quite as planned. Within seconds of entering the swimming pool, Hayley was attacked by a vicious lovebug who tried to take refuge in her nose. A level three meltdown quickly ensued as Hayley soon noticed that lovebug season had descended on our tropical paradise. Certain she was being eaten alive, she did her best to defend herself by fighting off the lovebugs with 130 decibel screams. Now, I thought I was quite used to being the Mom with the child that everyone stared at, but for some reason I felt a tad embarassed. I'm guessing it's the fact that Hayley's conniption drew all sorts of attention to me while I was wearing a SWIMSUIT. We did our best to calm Hayley and tell her the "lovebugs" were just trying to give her kisses. She wasn't buying it. So after a long five minutes at the pool, we packed it up and headed home.

Hayley spent Monday and Tuesday living in fear of the great outdoors, convinced that the second she stepped outside she would be devoured. (However, she had no problems watching as Todd and I risked our lives and walked to the mailbox together each day.) As if the week was not off to a traumatizing start as it was, Tuesday evening the kids were horsing around in Hayley's room when she managed to cut her toe on a plastic piece attached to the box springs of her bed. It was bleeding and after nearly passing out at the sight of her own blood, she started in with the screaming. Lately, Hayley has been VERY protective of her boo boos, to say the least. We managed to get it bandaged and carried her to the couch where she demanded that Daddy blow on her toe until bedtime. She limped to bed that night and surprisingly, even remembered to limp the next morning. In case you're wondering whether I'm just being insensitive to my little tot's pain, I assure you, the girl can act. We've had boo boos like this in the past and she'll get confused which foot the boo boo is actually on and limp with the wrong leg. She's definitely well versed in the injury milking department. By Wednesday afternoon she pretty well had forgotten about her injury except when she occasionally saw the band aid on her toe and remembered to limp. I knew bathtime would be a struggle, but oh, I was so unprepared. Hayley refused (and by refused I mean screamed her little head off) to get her foot wet. I knew we had to get this cut cleaned and re-bandaged since all I'd managed to do the night before was slap a band aid on, so I managed to throw some water on her foot before getting her out of the tub. My plan was to cut the band aid off. At this point Hayley was still screaming at me not to touch her boo boo... and this was where my series of questionable parenting choices came into play. I told Hayley I was going to take her band aid off and that if she was a brave girl and didn't fuss, she could have a lollipop when we were done. The shrieks instantly stopped and she asked, "A wollypop?? For meeeeeeeee?" Do keep in mind that until this point, Hayley had never delighted in a lollipop. In fact, I was thinking she probably wouldn't even know what one was. I was wrong. She knew. Taking advantage of the brief silence, I grabbed my scissors and headed for her toe. Obviously aware of my unsleuth actions, Hayley started in with the loudest, most blood curdling screams I've heard in my entire life. Which in turn freaked Todd out who also began screaming. Within three seconds (that felt like three hours), the band aid was off. I set it down, Hayley looked at it, stopped screaming, and said, "Oh, it's all better!" She hopped off the bed and said, "I want my wollypop now, Mommy." At this point, Todd was still crying and I was concerned that we both were going to suffer PTSD as a result. I headed into the kitchen to get Hayley her lollipop, and hoped that the neighbors didn't call the cops on me! Because if the cops did show up on my doorstep, I'd have a lot of explaining to do. Particularly after they took a look at my three year old:"Honestly Officer... it's just a lollipop!!!"

Thursday - Awwww, Hayley's last day of her first year of preschool. Oddly enough, this day was much more traumatic for me then her first day of preschool was. On the verge of tears most of the morning, I made it back to Hayley's school at 11am to watch a video slideshow made by one of the moms that summarized the childrens' year. There were some very cute pictures of Hayley's classmates and the usual pictures of Hayley with a tear streaked, ticked off look on her face. It will definitely be a good remembrance of Hayley's disdain for being photographed. We said our goodbyes and thank yous to Hayley's teachers and classmates and headed for the car. As I strapped Todd into his carseat, Hayley jumped out of her carseat and started to climb into the frontseat of the car before asking me, "Mommy, can I drive?" And as I sniveled the whole way home, mourning the end of my little girl's first year of school, my sweet little guy did his best to remind me that I STILL have one baby!
And as if the week hadn't been strange enough, as I changed and got ready to leave the house and meet my running group Thursday evening, I walked into the family room to find this:
TGIF!!