Shift in the balance

Oh, I'm in trouble now.

Ryan knows how to use the printer.  He even turned it on by himself.  He has managed it one time before, but I thought it was a fluke.  Silly Mommy, Trix are for kids!!

I should've suspected something was up when he and Audrey were playing a Blues Clues game quietly.  No fighting, no "Mom!  Can you get Audrey?" 

I'm shredding junk mail, in my --ha--commitment to keep my countertop clean, and Audrey comes over, pleased as punch.  "Look at my 'peetchure' Ryan made me.."  ???  I look and see a Blues Clues masterpiece.  Oy.  "Um, sugar are you printing pictures that you are drawing?"  "Only that one I made Audrey."  Sigh of relief.  "Sweetie, if you want to print something, will you show it to me first?" "Okay."

I'm not saying I don't want him to use the printer, I'm saying I don't want him to print up a 15 page ode to Blue that will use up all my ink...the last time he printed w/o my knowledge, well, let's just say it's a good thing I caught it on page 3 of 25.  Full color.  A book he made on one of his Reader Rabbit adventure thingys.

Then after they were done w/ Blue, Audrey wanted some time with her little toddler game.  It's really cute, and she can push any button to get things to happen, so she thinks she's the cat's pajamas.  I'm tidying up last night's missed messes, and she starts making the 'uh-oh' sounds that bring dread into my heart.  I walk over, and she guiltily removes her hand from the mouse--all I hear is 'click.'  I don't know how she did it, but she managed to power the puppy off.  Perfectly.  Sigh.  At least when I turned everything on again, all was fine.  I'm here, aren't I?  :)

Oh, no, no, no, I won't compete for time on the computer with the small fry.  It's bad enough that the big boys want a piece of the action when they get home from school.  "Can I play Runescape?"  "Do you have homework?" "Yeah."  "Then, no.  Homework first."  Ha,ha, I know the neighbor kids will be by to distract them from it before the last spelling word hits the page.  It's mine, I tell you, mine....

There's nothing wrong with me carving out a little niche of my own.  A chance to sit at the grown-up table, even if I'm still in pjs, and should be doing the ten million other things I attend to each day.  Sometimes, this is it for me, before the madness of afterschool/evening hits.  You know, that time from 3 pm until lights out when you can't even say two words to the spouse w/o being interrupted?  The other day, I caught myself hiding in the bathroom, calling my friend Jenny, a bit annoyed that I was leaving another message on her machine (love phone tag-) but amused that I was hiding out to do it.  She teased me when we finally talked later: "Are you still in the bathroom?" was the first thing she said to me.  "Kiss my ass,"  I fire back.  "I'm not still in the bathroom, but I can't talk now, because I have a few extra kids overnight today.   Want to come over?"  "Are you kidding me?"  she laughs.  "Fine.  Be that way."

Today, I'm very excited.  I'm meeting some former coworkers for lunch at the hospital they work at.  I can't stay too long, but I'm looking forward to it like mad. 

It's a sad day when hospital cuisine du jour looks good, isn't it?