The Chronicles of Friday

I started out my day today with the help of my alter-ego, my sleep-walking/talking/acting self. I somehow managed to dial the intricate code to get our alarm clock to turn off in my sleep, which is something I have trouble doing half the time when I’m awake. I don’t know why our alarm clock befuddles me so badly, but I never can hit the right buttons to turn the dang thing off – except this morning. In my sleep.

So I woke up at 7:55 to the sound of “Mooooommmmy hoooold you PLEEEEASSSSEEE!!!”. I guess I needed an extra hour of sleep this morning, because we all know that our asleep self knows best.

So I jumped up with tons to do, being that we were leaving at lunchtime to come down here.

In case you can’t read my mind, “down here” would be Kitty and Leo’s – in Orange Beach.

And, for the first time in my life, I saved ALL of mine and Ali’s packing to do on the day of departure.

And let me tell you, that’s big. I was the kid that my whole family made fun of for having three packing lists made weeks before trips – one that I wrote out as I thought of things, then I went back and rewrote a new copy alphabetically, and then re-re-wrote a third copy categorized.

I’ve come a long way, people.

Back to waking up at 7:55. I jumped out of bed full of guilt and ran into Ali’s room, apologizing to her and telling her, “Mommy was asleep.”. She was perfectly fine with that explanation, and said “oh. Mommy was ASLEEP!”. Still half asleep, I brought her into our bedroom where we “read books in Mommy’s bed!!” every morning.

So I’m sitting there, finally waking up, trying to figure out how in the world I’m going to get a shower (something I ALWAYS do before she wakes up).

I floated up a test baloon to her.

“Would you mind reading books in ALI’S bed so that Mommy can take a bath?”

“Okay – read books in Ali’s bed!”

That was easy.

The rest of the morning was a blur of packing, fixing breakfast, packing, giving Ali a bath, visiting with Gramamma and Pop, packing, fixing lunch, and then leaving.

Oh yes, and Ali having this extraordinarily graceful moment:
Oh come on, you know you put on your lipstick on the toilet too. While wearing rain boots. Over your footie jammies. And while wearing a man’s hat.

Her sense of style is so beyond mine.

So the plan was to leave at lunchtime, and retry that grand lofty goal of having naptime in the car. It’d been a while since we tried it, and the last couple of times were either not at all successful, or very marginally successful (30 minute nap instead of the usual 3 hour nap).

I was trepidatious, but feeling ambitious.

The first time I told her it was night-night time and that she was going to go night-night in the car, she gave me the most confused, what-planet-do-you-live-on look ever. After a few more minutes of attempts to explain and help her understand the concept, I finally pulled her blanket halfway up her face.

That was like magic.

She dozed off in no time, and slept for an amazing-for-a-car-nap one and a half hours.
Hallllllleeeeeluuuujah!!!

When she woke up, after a good stretch,
I gave her stickers to play with.
Now normally I would have given her one sticker at a time, trying to make them stretch, but I scored the sticker deal of a lifetime last week. If you use stickers, you must go to Michael’s on 280 – on their clearance aisles (a new discovery of mine) – they have huge boxes of 6000 stickers on clearance for $7.99. AND for some reason their system doesn’t realize they’re already on clearance, so you can use the 40% off coupon that’s always in the paper and end up paying $4.80 for 6000 stickers.

And let me tell you. Although I am a bit jaded when the number of stickers are advertised, 6,000 stickers is a lot. It will last her for FOREVER.

Or maybe the rest of the month.

Now I feel compelled to share my skepticism about sticker advertising. Because I know you care.

There was this time I bought a box of stickers (the really popular ones when I was a kid – Libby something? Really bright colors. . . I don’t think they’re in business anymore because I couldn’t find them to reference here) when I was around 9 years old that advertised sheets and sheets of stickers in this particular box. But when I opened it, there was woefully fewer sheets of stickers than the outside showed. So naturally, being as anal-retentive as a child as I am now (maybe more so, evidenced by my excessive packing list making that I have now given up), I wrote the company and stated my disappointment in their false advertising. A few weeks later, I actually received a letter apologizing several more sheets of stickers enclosed!

Consumer feedback works, people – even for a 9 year old!

ALL THAT TO SAY, I got a GREAT deal on stickers, so it didn’t bother me in the least that her clothing had a whole new dimension by the time we got to Orange Beach:
All in all, the trip was a huge success – the easiest drive ever. She was perfectly content reading and stickering and napping, and we were completely content talking and listening to This American Life.

After a delicious dinner with Kitty and Leo at one of our favorite beach restaurants, Mikee’s, we’re snug here at “home”, and here I sit telling you about my day.

That’s all.