one element of stress removed…

…another eight billion to go. Get ready, everybody.  Come September 2009, the multi-talented and extremely energetic Mimi and Beenie will be spending three mornings (and possibly a few afternoons, too) in PRESCHOOL! The very flexible and cool Govan’s Presbyterian Preschool is being awesome and letting us do a three day per week program instead of the 5 day, full-time program we had initially been signed up for. And if I end up getting a full-time job during that time, I can switch them to full-time as well. No more terrifying, huge thousands of dollars commitment, just a small one. Their grandparents can still come up once a week if they like to hang with the ladies, and we can all get on with our lives. I can now stop freaking out about what to do for my daughters come fall. They need a change and so do I. I cannot express how happy this small but significant development makes me today. Shouldn’t we all go out and celebrate right now and buy mechanical pencils and spiral notebooks?

There was an unexpected burst of creative energy from the darlings this morning. As I was setting all of this preschool nonsense up and looking some things up online, I noticed a strange silence. The type of silence that only occurs when they are working together. And they only work together in silence when they know they will get in trouble for what they are doing. I ran in to find out what up with the quiet and much to my dismay/delight, both had gotten into petroleum products and were having their way with them. Beenie put this diaper goo all over her neck (she suffers from an itchy neck on occasion, and I assume this was an attempt to soothe the itch), greasing up the entire right side of her hair as well. Mimi had her bear paw in a pot of full-on petroleum jelly, and was creating the most lovely vaseline painting I have ever laid eyes on. The only vaseline painting, actually, I have ever laid eyes on. On the green fuzzy blanket on the futon in their room. It took my brain about ten seconds to assess what had actually happened, and when I realized petroleum was behind it all, had to move quickly to make sure it didn’t lubricate the entire top floor of our row house. I was swift and didn’t freak out too much (ooooh! hubbo whoulda had a conniption!). Outfits were changed, wipes cleaned off Mimi’s well moisturized hands. The blanket was removed. Later, when they went down for nap, I looked up on the interweb what to do for the goo on fabric. Cornstarch seemed like a good answer to my query, so I scraped off the lumps and put a bunch of powder on it. Into the washing machine soon, then hopefully good as new.

I must remove these lotiony products from their room, I now realize, since Mimi cannot be fully contained by her crib any longer and it is only a matter of time before she will return to the sensory tub of mush for more creative expression. Isn’t dragging her baby alive (yuck!) around in brown paper grocery bags with her sister enough expression?