third days and forgetting your kids

                                                                                                   Santa Fe, NM sky

Welp.  Kinda feels like summer has begun.  This is the last week of school for my kids, and it barely even counts.  I hate this week.  Because Monday through Wednesday, the girls have a "half day."  I am air quoting half day because it is actually more like 2 and a half hours of school.  It's more like a third day.  Let's call a spade a spade.  And Thursday may as well not even be considered a school day at all, because the kids literally go in to school for one hour.  Yep.  One hour.  It's not even worth my time getting up and dressed and driving Brooke to school for an hour.

Anyway, my problem with the third days is this.  I forget to pick up my kid.  All joking aside, I am mental.  I have a blockage somewhere in my brain that makes me forget certain things.  Like picking up my kid from school apparently.  Which is exactly why having my iPhone is so important to me.  Because I have conveniently set an alarm to go off every school day a few minutes before dismissal.  Except however, on the days that the kids are going to be released early.  Those days, I am on my own.  And damn it all, I forgot to pick my poor little Brookie up today.  Thank Cod that I happened to randomly look at the clock at 11:39.  On these third days,  she gets out at 11:30, and it only takes me about 2 or 3 minutes to drive to where I pick her up.  But you guys, 11:39!

So anyway, there are times when I haven't been there on the nose for whatever reason.  She just sits in the grass by the crossing guard and waits for me.  But I've never gotten there more than a couple of minutes later than she has.  But the extra bad thing about today was that Brooke was having a friend over after school.  Which  means I wasn't just late for my kid, I was late for someone else's kid too.  Which is a terrible thing.  So when I looked at the clock and saw that it was 11:39, I was like, shit!!! 

And even though I was still in my pj pants and shockingly, bra-less (don't judge me!  I didn't get around to the shower at that point for some reason!), I ran out the door bare foot, grabbing my sweatshirt as I went. I rarely have to actually get out of the car at pick up, so I thought I was OK.  Either way, there was no way for me to go change and put on a bra - so I took the gamble on being that mom who shows up in such a mortifying state of affairs that you pretend you don't know her.

So I frantically pulled up to the pick up spot and I was so happy that she wasn't there.  I could see her and her little friend swinging on the school playground swings and I felt myself physically loosening up.  I was all stressed, and I had forgotten that when Brooke has a playdate, I let her swing for a few minutes before she walks down the path to my car.  So they were just swinging along, happy as little clams, no idea that I was late.

Phew!

So as I waited to for the girls to wrap up swinging and make their way down the path to me, I temporarily reset my alarm to go off a few minutes before 11:30 so we don't have such a thing happen again.

Then we came home, had yummy popsicles and lunch, played house, went swimming, jumped on the trampoline, got chill zones... such a good happy summery day.  I hope all of the summer days go like this.  Except for the late part.