Growing up with Joey

Yesterday was a very interesting day for me as a parent.  I spent the day cleaning up and doing laundry and going to almost 3 birthday parties but only went to 2.  I was trying to tell Joey the importance of working together when it came to chores.  "If you pick up your toys and clothes from the floor, I can get the garbage and sweep and we'll be done twice as fast!"  He seemed to think we had to first pick up clothes, then pick up toys, then garbage, like each thing had to be its own separate event.  He saw 4 things to do while I only saw 2.  I had to explain to him that his laundry basket and toy box were in the same room, that's why he could take both at the same time.  He couldn't seem to grasp that though.  Then I had to remind myself that's only (almost) 4 years old.  Deep breaths and all that jazz.

Then once I got the house in order, I discovered we would run out of dryer sheets before I could finish the laundry, and also that I needed some 'monthly pads'.  So we go to Walgreens on the way to one party (was at work, our 1st anniversary of being out of the mall, big sale and cake and everything) and he sees me pick up the pads and asks what they're for.  So I tell him- "When girls get old enough to have babies, they bleed once a month from their coochie and these keep their underwear from getting dirty."  The look on his face was utter panic.  "Mom!  I don't want you to die!"  I explained to him that the blood came from my belly, not from the blood in my veins and that I wouldn't die.  He wasn't convinced.  He told the checkout lady that I was going to die if I didn't get those pads and thankfully she just smiled and said "I think if you give her lots of chocolate and quiet time, she'll be okay!"  Must've had some experience in this field lol.  I thanked her and we went to the party at work...

Where it was CRAZY.  We were giving away $50 gift cards and brownies and it was just a madhouse.  The floor was jammed with people (and they'd wanted me to work those 3 hours the party was going on!)  We finally wriggle our way back to the break room and have some cake and split a piece of pizza, and we didn't stay long because no one was really able to come to the back and hang out.  And my coworkers all adore Joey but they didn't have time to say hi and he was kinda upset his buddies couldn't talk to him.  He kept saying, "But they know me, they couldn't say hi?"   He was really hurt, even though I tried to tell him there were just too many people to be really friendly.

So we came home and he moped a little, then Walt came home and cheered him up, and then we met his friend and friend's mom at Golden Corral for supper.  Joey is afraid of the friend because he's tall and weighs like 450- super large dude, but nice as can be.  One of the only friends Walt has that I genuinely like.  And the guys mom was AWESOME.  She reminded me of my grandma. Joey liked her a lot too.  He even went and sat in her lap and gave her kisses and showed her how to play Bad Piggies on his tablet. (She was a PAC-man champion in Nashville at some bar she used to frequent)  We were there for almost 4 hours.  But we had a great time and Joey made a new friend lol.  When we got home and I got him cleaned up and ready to sit down and get sleepy, he said, "Why is Ma Bolin so nice and Kenny so scary?"  I tried to get him to tell me what was so scary about Kenny but he never would say, but he would smile and say "Ma Bolin is so nice, Mom!"

Today he's convinced because we went to a buffet that he's going to be a 'whole eench taller!'  And he already asked me if I had enough chocolate so I won't die from my 'belly bleeding'.  Poor thing.  Learning about menstruation has traumatized him.