Out of the Running, Again

Every once and a while, I have a (usually very public) moment with the Trips when I realize that my nomination for Mommy of the Year is going to be pulled. Sometimes it is letting them eat the wrong thing for breakfast, other times it is letting them listen to ABBA Gold over and over and over.

I have already written about the wonderful S family here. They have shared so much with our kids, not the least of which is their very special way of speaking. The Ss have a vocabulary all their own. I have to admit hearing my 2 year olds saying "nasty" was hysterical. Since the Trips spend so much time with them, some of their language has found its way into the Trip'n lexicon.

This week, C's bunk made a little book they called the Yellow Pages. In it, they had pages with titles like Favorite Color, Birthday, Favorite Camp Activity, Favorite Sport, Favorite Camp Lunch. Then they listed each boy in the bunk and his answer. So we learned (or confirmed) that C's favorite color is red, he loves swimming and hockey, and will always eat the camp's hot dogs and french fries.

I know you are dying to know what this has to do with MOY nomination and the Ss.

Trip'n Daddy gets to the last page of the book and says "OMG." (Well, he said the words, not the initials). I just knew this was not going to be good.

C's Favorite Food: Krapple.

Crapple (or Krapple, if you are C's Morah) = Cranberry Apple Kugel.

Great.

Yeah, no MOY award for me this year.

Words to the wise

Some brilliant advice on How to Talk to a Triplet Mom from Multiple Bliss. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Sour Grapes

C's camp has a canteen. They get a morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack, but this is not enough for most boys. They also need to have access to myriads of junk to eat throughout the day.

As parents, we are expected to send in $5-$20 so that our sons can have a canteen "account." Last year, I ignored it. I ignored the phone call from the Morah "reminding" me about the canteen. After camp was over, I found out the canteen is a scheduled activity at camp. Not regularly for the pre-school boys, but they did go periodically over the summer. Apparently, C's Morah had rachmanut on him and bought him a snack or two when she took the bunk.

This year, I was determined to ignore them again. But the Morah called me today (not about the missing shorts!) to tell me that C was the only boy without a canteen account. Could she lay out $5 and I would pay her back? She wants to take the boys, but only once everyone had an account. I caved. Told her to go ahead, and I would pay her back.

C comes home today to tell me that he went to canteen and got a whole package (1 oz or 3 oz? No idea.) of sour sticks. When I asked if he shared with his friends, he replied "No, they all got their own ones." Oh, and "And we got a SODA too!"

Grr. No 5 year old needs that much sugar.

Why should they have discretionary spending when they have no discretion??

P.S. C came to me a little later to say his mouth hurt. From the sour sticks. Grr.

Lost and Found x 2

C has been in camp for 4 days. On Day 2 he came off the bus and I immediately noticed that his Tzitzit were missing. He wears them pretty long, so the sight of his legs without the strings hanging down to his knees was pretty jarring.

"Where are your tzitzit?"

"I don't know. We looked all over the classroom, but Morah couldn't find them."

I was extremely frustrated, because I was pretty sure they were a brand new, still white pair. Later that night, we got a message from a mother of another boy in the bunk. "Hi. This is Mrs. W, Boychik's mom. My son came home wearing your son's tzitzit." I spoke to her later and she said she would put them in a bag with our name on it. We got the tzitzit back the next day as promised.

Today (Day 4), C got off the bus in his rainy-day sweat pants. His poor little face was bright red and he was completely shvitzed.

"Where are your shorts?!"

"I don't know."

This time, I gave him the third degree. "Did you see the shorts in your bag?" "When did you lose them, before 1st swim or after 2nd swim?" "Did Morah help you look?" "Who gave you the pants?" I got nowhere (I later learned that this was due to a sugar induced coma, see here.)

Now, I was pissed. I understand how hard it is to keep track of the various camp parephenalia of 16 5 year old boys. Every day they each bring a towel, 2 swimsuits, a shirt, tzitzit, underwear, shorts, socks, a hat/kippah etc. Tzitzit and kippahs I can understand, especially since they are on and off all day for swim. But SHORTS? C'mon, people.

I actually abused my position as a former "employee" and texted the Camp's Office Coordinator while she was in a meeting. Usually, I am a pretty low key, non-complaining mom. This just seemed like something that needed to be brought to their attention. Soon, before they lose MY KID.

So tonight the phone rings, and Trip'n Daddy (previously known as H) looks at the caller ID and says, "Do we know these people?"

"It's C's shorts."

And behold, it was.

One of the greatest tips I ever got was to label the Trips' clothing with our phone number. I have a stamp from erubberstamps.com for underwear, socks, etc. and this year I ordered the adorable Tag Mates from Mabel's Labels. They both have our last name and phone number.

And they work!!

(BTW- since I was on a roll, I also called the girls' camp today. They have been in camp for 3 days and have gotten off the bus an HOUR after camp was finished each day. It is a big bus, and even though the camp is about 7 minutes away, I understand that it might take some time to get the run done. That was not my issue.

They are not allowed to drink on the bus. Not the frozen juice box or the bottled water I sent. Totally unacceptable. 5 year olds, on a hot bus, for an hour, after a day in the sun, with no water. No wonder they are so cranky when they get home.)