david, chicago, men, olive

david is working what seems like constant hours these days. i don't have a clear understanding of why but it really stinks. he is, as some of you know, a high end photo retoucher (aka professional photoshopper). clients demand things done and at a breakneck speed and david is the go-to person in his position. this has lead to several nights coming home at 2 am and at least one night where he never came home at all and worked two straight days with one 30 minute nap somewhere in there. i feel like the kids and i are having such an amazing summer and it's all without david. i feel guilty saying it but sometimes it is a little nice. i mean i have a lot of freedom which means i've been reading all night long and eating whatever i want for dinner. the rare time we spend together i feel like i talk his ear off though because i miss him so much. i don't laugh with anyone like i laugh with him.

tonight augustine and my dad are taking a bro-trip to chicago to see legoland, the field museum, a cubs game, and the fireworks. it's about 6 hours there but augustine packed some books so i think he'll be fine. however david gets sick when he tries to read in the car and this is the first trip where auggie has tried to read so here's hoping it's not genetic!

okay so maggie and i were hanging out today and i was telling her about augg-os trip and she brought up an idea spread by two friends. these friends have it as their family standard to not let a man babysit their child(ren) unaccompanied. not even a family member, other than the dad naturally. for me this is a bit much but what do you think? i do think one of my greatest fears is some sexual assault happening to my children. like, i cannot even go there in my mind it seems so painful. we stress never, ever keeping secrets that have the slightest chance of hurting someone. i tell them that often. fun secrets, fine whatever but those boogers are going to spill it if it could hurt. especially if someone bullies them not to tell, that is a clear indication that they should. however, they are 7 and 5 so who knows if my words carry more weight than a peer. we saw a situation like this arise with a friend who was being bullied (and then it turned sexual) on the bus. the friend never told anyone until someone saw it, told their parents, and the parents called our friends mother. never in a million years would i have picked this cute, confident, sweet kid to be the target of that kind of thing. so what if im being naive?

olive is thriving in her kindergarten readiness class. she has had a developmental milestone just in the last week and discovered that she likes boys. well one boy in particular named brady. they each have a mailbox in their classroom to encourage them to write letters and such to each other. i found this in her bookbag today.

"dear olive. i love you. from brady"

so it begins

also, i couldn't find olive yesterday. every once in a while she will hole up somewhere, get extremely, almost creepy quiet, and ignore me calling for her (on purpose), while she is in her own little world. yesterday i found her on the top shelf of her closet reading and coloring. oy with the poodles already.


and finally, i saw this picture yesterday and haven't stopped laughing. this is SO my future with olive.