1m2aSandbox

Recently Maddie’s been rather indifferent about food – and by “food” I mean anything but dessert. There is absolutely no ennui in her attitude towards sugar. But for regular meals, she’ll take all morning to decide what she wants for breakfast – half a bowl of cereal – then procrastinate for an hour over lunch, then eat a decent dinner (perhaps because she doesn’t get to choose that meal). This has left me saying, “What do you want for lunch, Maddie?” over and over again, only getting an answer from her right after I’ve sat down and put my feet up to eat my own lunch.

So a few days ago, I finally said, “Maddie, if you do not tell me what you want for lunch in the next five minutes, I will not make anything for you. If you are hungry, you will need to provide for yourself. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I heard from behind a book.

Dear Camp Counselor of Maddie’s Day Camp:

Last Friday as Maddie was finishing her breakfast on the last morning of her week-long school-sponsored day camp, she said, “Mom, can you set up a playdate with one of my counselors?” Turns out she had so much fun with her over the week that she wanted to keep the new friendship going. I explained that older girls wouldn’t come over for a play date, but as a babysitter, to which Maddie responded, “Then the next time you go out, will you call her to be my babysitter?”

“I’ll look into it,” I said, then added, “How will I know which camp counselor to ask? You have two of them!”

“Oh, it’s easy,” Maddie replied. “I want you to invite the one who likes kids, not the other one.”

Have you guessed, Camp Counselor? You are the “other one”.

At the pool last night Maddie met two older girls, fifth graders who were, of course, incredibly cool to Maddie. They were kind girls and allowed Maddie to attach herself to them for most of the evening. They played games with her and paid attention to her – to an extent. But after a while enough was enough and they paused on the other side of the pool to hang out and gossip, big-girl style.

Maddie, desperate to get their attention back, climbed out of the pool, stood at the edge, and said, “Hey, guys! GUYS!” The girls looked up politely.

“Watch me!” Maddie shouted. “I’m going to say ‘Mickey Mouse’ in slow motion!”

What?

Maddie and Cora have both been in camp this week, and I have to admit, it’s nice having a couple hours of space to try to get back on top of my domestic life. I adore having the girls out of school, and we’ve positively wallowed in our togetherness – copious hours by the pool, multiple rounds of Go Fish and dance-a-thons, and so on. But as we spend so much time hanging out, other things fall by the wayside: suddenly I’m doing laundry in fits and spurts, and may get three loads washed one day but take almost a week to get them folded and put away. Small things break down in the house and simply don’t get fixed.

And as for housecleaning –well, let’s just say don’t look at my toilets too closely.

A couple people asked me after yesterday’s post to elaborate on our bedtime arrangement – how the girls get to color in their room, etc.

So here it is.