More Joys of Motherhood

I guess some of the most dreaded words a mom hears from her school-age child, spoken at bedtime is, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, but my teacher said I needed a ______ . And I have to have it tomorrow. And, did you remember that tomorrow is picture day?"

Dylan is the world's worst.

It's hard to believe we've fallen so quickly. I mean, school just started Monday. But, with yesterday being a holiday, after only 3 days of school, it was enough to derail us.

Last night, it wasn't just one, but two things, she had to have.

The first, a shoe box filled with items that would help tell about Dylan. Important little items with lots of meaning and stories behind them. Things to give one a sense of who Dylan is. What makes her tick.

But, when you're scrambling to get hair clean and special outfits ready for school picture day, and it's already well past bedtime, it's hard to sum up 10 years of Dylan. But we did our best. Thrown into a beat up Keds box was just about anything located within arms reach.

A toothpaste tube lid? That'll do! Talk about how it's your favorite flavor and all.

A dirty sock? Great!! Tell about how you have this freaky toe thing that drives you crazy if the toe part of the sock bunches up and it takes about 10 minutes to put them on and take them off again and how your mom has to get your socks from only one store that carries a special no-seam toe and they cost about 5 times more than regular socks and how we end up spending more on socks than we do on shoes.

A popsicle stick? Sure. That's a good one. You can start with how your brother calls them poppa-see-wees and how we discovered that the real reason he loves them so much is because he can coax the puppy to come near him by sharing his poppa-see-wees with her and how your mom screamed and went on about where that dog's tongue has been and why does she even bother any more.

But that shoe box had not been filled for more than 5 minutes when Dylan remembered something else she just had to have. Tomorrow. A book cover.

There's no way I can get a book cover tonight, Dylan. You'll have to tell your teacher we'll get it this weekend.

I've got to have it tomorrow! She said something about being on me like something about rice. I don't know what she meant. But it sounded bad!!

Yes, Julie. In Jersey, we really do say it. Whaddya gonna do?