Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Easy Like Sunday Morning













What a load of B.S. The Commodores apparently did not have young children when they were crooning those fine lyrics. The last two Sunday mornings have been trying (putting it mildly) here at FroFamily, Inc.

Dateline 7/24/2011 - Preston, MN - Mr. Mom forces the family to this small MN burg for a weekend of fastpitch paradise. We are lodging in one of the two fine hotels in town because camping was ruled out for the weekend due to the potential of insufferable heat and the subsequent likelihood of severe Mr. Mom sweat/softball odor. Saturday goes very well, but come Sunday morning, hold on to you f' ing hats because all three "angels" are in full whining/arguing mode. They get the drift that their behavior might not be acceptable after Mrs. Dad retires to one of the 2 bedrooms in our palatial suite and closes the door swiftly behind herself. All was not lost though, as this sad display was followed up by a great anecdote later that morning. Scene: After Mr. Mom finished talking the kids off the ledge of insanity, we load them into the truck for a pre-game drive to check out a nearby campground so as to scout it out for future camping possibilities. On the way back into town for the next game, Mrs. Dad is having a heartfelt, wonderful, melt-your-heart conversation with the kids about how their behavior that morning was unacceptable, but we still love them unconditionally, blah, blah, blah, .... Seriously, it was great. These types of conversations are definitely one of Mrs. Dad's strong suits. But the nugget of comic relief came from the mouth of Mr. C. As Mrs. Dad was in the middle of "we love you, and ...", Mr. C pipes up, "I haf sumpin in my nose". Mr. Mom and Mrs. Dad burst out laughing, look back, and there he is, finger extraction of a solid mucous particle in progress, oblivious to the seriousness of the ongoing discussion. Classic stuff from the 2 1/2 year old mind.

Dateline - 7/31/2011 - Eden Prairie, MN - Having gone to mass the evening before, FroFamily, Inc. was home for a Sunday morning (quite the rarity). Mr. Mom and Mrs. Dad had a potentially fun day planned that was centered around going to the Stages Theater (http://www.stagestheatre.org/) production of Annie Jr. early that afternoon. Needless to say, Mr. Mom and Mrs. Dad were ready for the child portion of the day to be over by 10 a.m. We scrapped all plans to go out to eat and do various other things before the show, and were even considering not going to the show. However, our parental frugality was not willing to let already-paid-for tickets go to waste, so we forged ahead bracing ourselves for the worst. Luckily, a cast of very impressive child actors performing an abbreviated version of a Broadway classic turned out to be a big winner, and FroFamily, Inc. survived.

Can't wait to see if this Sunday brings similar fortune. Twice may be a coincidence, but three times would establish a pattern. In short, Mr. Mom has a message to Mr. Lionel Richie - next time you are a penning a sweet ballad, come over for a visit. It may just turn out to be a heavy metal song.