My kids are taking over

Dear Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh, and Eric Weiner,

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You have been a part of my life for 5 years now and I have never taken the time to give you the thanks you deserve. When ever we are having a bad day I know we can count on Dora to make it all better. When I need to take a shower, Dora saves the day. Have to get dinner made, hello Dora.

Thank you for the 20 minutes of quiet you give me every day.  Today as two of my children were fighting over a marker and the baby was screaming wile trying to take said marker away from his sisters I searched frantically for the remote. I found the remote, searched my dvr list and found Dora. As soon as I hit restart and the wonderful d,d,d,d,d, Dora sound filled my living room all 3 of my children stopped what they were doing, and locked eyes on the t.v.. And that is where they have been, silent for 19 minutes.

But it had been 19 minutes and I just heard Dora say “I like that part too”, My time is up.  The insanity is about to continue.  Thank you for the last 20 minutes.  I was once again able to feed my family because of you.

This week was a big week for Abby.  She had her dance recital on Saturday and on Wednesday she graduated from pre k.  Some people may not think that a pre k graduation is an occasion.  But to a 5 year old it is the biggest thing that has ever happened in their life.  Abigail spent so much time practicing for this.  She and her classmates practiced almost ever day at school, and every afternoon she would practice the songs when she got home from school.  By the time the morning of her big day came she could not even sleep.  She was so excited she was out of bed before 5am.  (I know this because I was also unable to sleep that morning.)

Abigail had a wonderful day. Her graduation from pre k was so special.  She had her own little cheering section sitting in the row right behind her.  My dad could not come because of work but you better believe that he was here that night to hear all about it.

She was expecting one more person to be sitting in her cheering section.  The night before he had asked what time the graduation was.  She heard him ask and expected him to come.  I heard him ask and thought “why the fuck did he ask, we all know he is not going to come”.

She asked me about it last night. We were working hard on all the really cool fathers day cards my kids  are making for all the special men  they have in their lives.  I had no idea what to say.  I changed the subject and thought to myself, thank  God we see him less than 10 times a year because unless the kids see him they don’t even think about the birthdays, dance recitals, and pre k graduations he was not around for.

This picture was taken at Abigail’s dance recital.  As much as this man looks like he works  at some sleazy club he was in  fact the bouncer security guard at my 5 year olds recital. His mission?  To make sure no parents brought flowers to the stage at the end of the show.  This is not a joke.  At the end of the show, when all the girls came out to take a final bow the bad ass mall cops stood, arms folded at the front of the stage. Making sure that no little girls day was ruined by some crazy flower yielding fan.

I had planed on writing all about Abigail’s recital this weekend.  But I can not find words to describe the way I felt watching her dance on that stage. It was without question one of  my top parenting moments.

She was so happy up on the stage. She had the biggest smile up there. (I think, I never took my eyes off  her so I am not even sure if there were any other kids with her on stage.) And the more she smiled the more I smiled.  Wile she was dancing I was sitting there thinking so many things.  I was thinking “She is so beautiful”, “when did she get so big” (no Mom, it was not when she put eye makeup on.) and “I am so lucky”.