Making A Statement

I realized that this will be my 13th move in my life. You would think I'd be a lot calmer and a lot less stressed for this move. I think the fact that my children are old enough to have developed friendships makes it a bit more emotional. It's hard to see them learning to say goodbye.

So, thinking ahead to this Friday, I asked Katarina if she would like to bring a treat to the school - kind of a do-it-yourself going away party. Katarina shrugged and looked around the kitchen, spotting our stash of leftover Valentine's candy and said, "I don't know. How about some dum-dums?"

I realized she was serious and started laughing. "That's what you want to bring? 'Here, remember me,'" I say, imitating her passing out the lollipops, "'Here. Dumdum? Dumdum?'"

Anabelle joins in, remembering the scene from Night at the Museum. "Have a DumDum, dumb dumb."

Katarina giggles. "Okay, fine." And she takes some time to think about what she wants to bring.

Thirty minutes later Sam arrives home from his tennis class. I ask him what he'd like to bring, and he does the same thing Katarina does - looks at our leftover candy stash, spying all the boxes of Nerds candy. "I don't know - how about a bunch of Nerds?"

We burst out laughing. Anabelle connects the dots for me and begin acting it out. "Here, remember me. Bunch of nerds!"

They all pick snacks that have no brand names ( :

And, I, being very conscious of what I pick, choose a bag of Smarties candy for my preschool class. After all, I was one of their teachers...