A Different Reality (Lasting Love)

Priorities

"Come on girls, we need to leave!  You're going to be late for school!" Kay and her friend, Georgia, who I am taking to school are in her room playing.

When they don't answer, I grab Lexie so she can't run off and walk up to them.

"Oh my God." I stand in the doorway laughing.  They're both asleep on her bed.

"Girls," I nudge them slightly "It's time for school, you need to wake up." They don't budge, so I let Lexie out of my arms to jump on them.  They both wake up very quickly when she gets to them.

"Mommy, why do we have to go?" Kay asks as I finally get them in the car "We wanna play."

"Because you need to learn and Georgia's mommy wants her to go too." I get Lexie and Ben in their car seats and start to drive.  I try to listen to their random conversations, finding what they come up with hilarious.

"Mommy, I go school?"  Ben asks, trying to undo his car seat as I get the girls out of theirs "Pweas?"

"Yes, buddy.  You can go to school today."  I promise him "I'll take you to your school as soon as we're done here."

I quickly run the girls in to school, ignoring Kay's constant begging to stay home.  I know that she is going to love it today and have fun, even if she refuses to admit that.

"My turn!"  Ben yells when I pull up to his daycare.  He has himself practically out of his seat by the time I get Lexie out of hers and is trying to open his car door.  He pulls on the handle so many times, I swear it's going to fall off.

"Calm down, Ben."  I open the door for him "They won't start without you."

He grabs his little backpack and runs in front of me.  I follow behind, carrying Lexie into the play room.  I set her down to play while I sign him in, and turn around to find out that she is already across the room stealing toys from random kids.  She's trying her best to crawl around while holding as many toys as she can fit in her tiny hands.

"Looks like someone else wants to join us." The worker laughs "She'd fit right in."

"She'll be here soon enough."  I quickly pick her up "I can't leave her yet though, she'd scream the whole time.  She isn't too good with separation."  The worker nods her head, secretly thanking me for not leaving her with a screaming baby, and I turn towards Ben.

"Uncle Seb is picking you up later, okay?  He's taking you out to play."

"Okay, mommy!"  He quickly gives me a half ass hug and says bye to Lexie.  I laugh at him running off to play as we walk out.

"Well I guess it's just the two of us today."  I look down at Lexie, who in return pulls my hair and laughs.  I decide we need to go to the store, so we stop there next.

I sit Lexie in the seat at the top of the cart as I try to think of what I need.  I would have a list, but Justin and the kids drew over it yesterday.

"You having fun, baby?" Lexie is playing with a bag of chips, laughing at the noise it's making.  The smile on her face answers my question for me. 

I'm looking at some other snacks when I hear someone drop something in the cart.  At first, I think Lexie just dropped her bag of chips, but then I hear more.

"What the hell?"  I turn around to see Justin throwing random snacks in the cart while Lexie has her arms up, waiting for him to hold her "Why aren't you at work?  You don't get off until later."

He picks Lexie up and walks towards me "We finished early.  I was gonna go home, but I saw you getting her out of the car when I drove past here, so I thought I would come help."

"Oh yeah, I bet you'll be a great help.  Maybe you can remember what was on the list before you guys drew all over it?"

"A bunch of crap."  He takes over the cart, walking towards the meat "I'll get us some better stuff that they'll actually eat."

"Good luck with that."  I roll my eyes laughing "They eat gummy ears and chicken nuggets."

"Why are our children so freaking weird?" He asks "And why are you here on your day off instead of somewhere fun?"

"Priorities, dude.  Someone has to do this so we don't starve."  I pick out what we need and throw it in the cart "And it's kinda hard to go out by myself when I have her attached to me."

"We need more paper towels then, too."  He starts walking towards them.  I give him a confused look because I just bought some last week.

"Well, Ben may have been helping me pour out his apple juice yesterday when it slipped out of our hands..."

"So we need more apple juice too."  I say.  He doesn't respond, letting me know that I thought correctly.

We walk through grabbing everything else we need.  Justin throws Lexie around and helps her walk to keep her entertained when she starts to get upset.  He even opens a bag of crackers to share with her when she starts to get really cranky.

"This kid needs to sleep."  He finally gives up on keeping her from crying "Didn't she sleep at all after I left?"

"No.  She's been up since 5.  This is the first she's looked tired."  I take her, bouncing her on my hip to help calm her down "She needs a nap."

We quickly go up to the checkout line so that we can get her home.  She finally gives up fighting with us and falls asleep in my arms while we wait to pay.

"Let's get home before she wakes up."  Justin suggests "Maybe we can sleep."

"Yeah, I'd love too, but we have to take Kay to that doctors appointment."  I remind him "I need you there to help distract her from the shots."

"Freaking priorities." He mumbles getting into his car.