Reggae Monday

The morning after a holiday always falls into a kind of Mommy-hangover zone. Today dawned all manic, and stressful, low on coffee and full of whining and missed targets and other good times. So we blundered on into the week, practically dizzy before it all began. Time for a little silliness, a little extra pep...

And thus Reggae Monday was invented; a cure for all ills.
It goes like this: Lockbox and I drink smooth, Jamaican coffee with extra cream, we cube mango flesh for the baby and laugh watching him eat it out of a little plastic dish, we laugh....a lot, we listen to Bob Marley and Michael Franti on Pandora and dance wildly in the kitchen and leftover Easter egg dye turns into spontaneous clothing dye projects. Then periodically all Mommy communication lapses into Reggae-speak thusly:

"Hey mon! Pick up de shoes. You gotta put 'em on de rack, yo!"

"Every one of de bikes bess be off the grass in five minutes mon! No kidding!"

"Wow! So many Legos in de box now! You boys be jammin'!"

And there is more laughing. By lunchtime we were standing around seriously discussing getting one single dreadlock each. Maybe in mermaid colors? Little seashells embedded in the strand? Will it be Reggae Monday every week? Stay tuned. 

Hand-me-down Shoes

Recently, we had a little discussion at the breakfast table about hand-me-downs because Ru was alarmed to discover that Dee was wearing one of his old shirts. A and I patiently explained that this is what happens to clothes in our family...the biggest person wears them and then the next person gets to have them, etc. Eyes were opened.

Then, later that day after lunch I came upon Ru telling his wide-eyed brother, Dee earnestly all about his personal take on the subject. He was fondling my black kitten heels and telling his brother matter-of-factly (with a touch of condescending reminiscence) that he used to wear these shoes and now Mommy did which meant that she was wearing his hand-me-downs.

Clear as mud, eh kid? To his credit, he did used to wear my heels around the house an awful lot around the age of two or so....but, we may need a little refresher course on what hand-me-downs are all about. It's amazing what seems obvious to a grown-up.