A Novella (Part 3. And I'm Spent.)

(If you're just joining us, please scroll down to start with Part 1 of my novella. I'd hate to blow the ending in this suspenseful plot.)

Chapter 6: Big E Struggles with Summer Vacation
Elliott's been having a lot of trouble with the idea that he's NOT going to school four days a week, all summer. He loves preschool. And, he LOVES the bus. And his bus drivers. The fact that they give out all kinds of sugary treats factors in, but only slightly.


In spite of my ridiculous work hours, I decided I had to take a break and go into Elliott's school on his last day. They had a bubble extravaganza! Here's one friend bracing for something incredible from E's bubble wand. This is particularly funny if you've ever seen Elliott try to blow bubbles. He manages one tiny bubble with way too much force and lots and lots of spit.


This year, Elliott developed quite a little crush on his girlfriend Lily:



There's only one very big problem: She graduated. The class is made up of three- and four-year-olds, but Elliott didn't understand until graduation day that the love of this month will be heading to kindergarten next year. (E, who will turn four on 6/22, has another year of preschool ahead.)

I'm sure we can count on Patrick to offer a sympathetic ear/scream all summer long.

Chapter 7: Adventures in Growing

As Elliott continues to question if he'll be four or five on his birthday next week, we try to review how both boys are growing and growing every day.

A recent exchange about growing and returning to school went like this:

Me: Your friends won't believe how much you grew over the summer!

E: Yeah!!!

Me: Will you say, "It's me, Elliott, and I'm a giant!"?

E: No, I'll say, "It's me, Elliott, and I'm a grown-up!!!"

Yipes. That happened fast.

Anyway, growing boys need growing food. One day I got a genius idea to tell them they were both giants who ate broccoli trees. They had a lot of fun with this idea.

See? See how he's a GIANT next to this full-grown tree???

I may have mentioned it before, but growing Patrick also LOVES shoes. (Do all kids do this?!?) He'll put his feet in anyone's shoes, but it's really funny when he tries to do it with Pete's size 12 clodhoppers. In addition to them being 27 times the size of Patrick's feet, they're heav-y. Big shoes to fill:

Yeah, he ends up on the floor a lot, somehow confused that he fell.

Chapter 8: Did I Mention We Have Two Dogs?
With joint-baths, we have a new tradition in our house. The boys get soooooo excited to get wrapped up in the doggy towels, so they can (obviously) pretend they're dogs. Pete will walk unsuspectingly into the room, and the boys will dive into their barking/yelling/giggling routine. Appropriately, Pete looks shocked and runs out the door. The boys LOVE IT.

My job is to stand there, laugh and try to get photos of the fiasco.

Someday I'll get wise to the whole video-postings-to-blogs idea, but for now, you'll have to rely on my play-by-play. It is uh-dorable.

Chapter 9: Phew! I'm Exhausted!

This Scully Space novella was brought to you by the letter A:

(A is for apple, get it?)

Anyway, I end with this to tell you we've finally planned a trip out east to both visit my family aaaaaaaaaaand take the boys to Sesame Place!!! The last week of July will include two days at "Sesame Street," as Elliott calls it. Most days, Patrick (who, by the way, still calls himself "Tatrick." One day, when I said, "Can you say 'Puh, Puh, Puh, Patrick'?" he replied dutifully, "Puh, Puh, Puh, Tatrick!") Anyway, he wakes up and asks for thee very same Elmo book time after time after time. To lessen this overload, Elliott wakes up asking if we'll be going to Sesame Street TODAY, thinking he has waited LONG ENOUGH.

Ahhhh, anticipation with toddlers...!