Not a creature is stirring...

And it's only 7:47pm. So very quiet here in the Penthouse. An hour ago? Not so much. An hour ago there were a lot of screams and tears and exhaustion being played out. I had to keep reminding myself, she's tired, don't hold this against her, she's tired, don't hold this against her. She finally begged through giant tears after being entirely wicked in the shower, "Mom, can I have a hug?" We snuggled on the couch and I snuck some info out of her about her 3rd day of school, then she brushed her teeth and went to bed without a struggle. Phew.

She is enjoying riding the bus. It picked her up at 8:36am and dropped her off at exactly 4:00. It seems like this may be the schedule that sticks. When it happens two days in a row, I will feel more confident, so for now I am giving us windows of waiting at the bus stop. This morning, to kill time, we played freeze dance. Thank goodness for the speakers on the iphone!

There is a special needs girl on her bus and Em has become fast friends with her. She is 7 years old and her name is Hannah. Emma got a kick out of the fact that she was wearing glasses today, but not yesterday. "Mom, why do some people wear glasses? Do they lose their eyesight and the glasses bring it back?"

She also requested an extra snack for the bus ride home. She said she is starving by that point and a snack would be a nice treat.

Ben and I had a busy day together. He did a meet and greet with his teachers and all the kids in his class for an hour this morning. He could have cared less about the teachers and played the hour away with, dum dum dummmmm, the school's train set! There are only 13 kids in his class - 8 boys and 5 girls. Yikes! There is another Benjamin, believe it or not, so I worked it out with the Mom that we will call our kid, Ben, and her kid, Benjamin. That way we don't have to use last name initials. Emma is forever known as Emma B to most of the kids in her preschool class.

After school, Ben tagged along with me to the Apple Store Genius bar. I needed some knowledge and the employees there are loaded with it. We walked into the mall at 11:25 and Ben immediately said, "Hey, let's go see Santa Claus!" Hahahahahaha! You can tell how often we go to the mall (three times a year?) I love that he remembers the Mall as the place where he can see Santa. Maybe he will actually get his picture taken with him this year without a frowny face!

We stopped by the food court for a quick slice of pizza after the Apple Store. I was marveling the whole time about what good company Ben is. We had a lovely lunch with all sorts of random conversation that one has when sharing a meal with a 3 year old and it was awesome.

Speaking of random conversation, I think I have mentioned Ben and I have some of our deepest conversations when he is taking a poop. For instance, yesterday's stream of conscious poop thoughts went something like this, "Mom, I don't poop on the floor. Poop goes in the potty. It's getting dark out. Day is turning into night. Caterpillars turn into butterflies, Mom." Pretty profound, no? I love how he starts and ends every sentence with Mom. And, these days when I ask him a yes or no question he answers with full politeness, "Yes, Mom." or "No, Mom." He is so proper...

Pizza trumps Santa.

Best friends.

We ended the afternoon with a play date. These kids truly are best friends!