The Best Part of President’s Day

The excitement of yesterday afternoon having faded to the (relative) tranquillity of the morning, I can write about the fun part of yesterday.  Since it was President’s Day, which I can remember used to be Washington’s Birthday, Kayla was off from school, so I took the day off too, in part because she had to go to the orthodontist for a “records appointment.”  A records appointment is like the warm up act for the main concert – the people at Allen Orthodontics took x-rays and an impression of her mouth.  They are very nice there, and Kayla was a trooper.  I let her go back without me, because she seemed comfortable, and I heard her tell the technician that she was good listener, when she wanted to be, except at school.  Little comments like that managed to keep the entire office staff entertained throughout her visit.  Kayla asked a lot of questions, and most of them were very good.  Friday is the “main show” – they will put braces on her front teeth and a few in the back to help with the front work, but at least she will only have to have them on for about nine months.  She is very excited about getting to choose the colors in her rubber bands though, and was even more excited yesterday when she learned she gets to change colors every month!  Her first choice is orange and blue, to honor “the trees”; ie., the trees at Toomer’s Corner. 

When we finished at the orthodontist, I took her to Books A Million.  I wanted to buy her the Little House on the Prairie series, but let her look around in the children’s section for a while by herself.  When I caught back up to her, we had to open negotiations – she had picked out $90 worth of Lemony Snicket books, and I wanted to get the Little House on the Praire set.  We settled for the first three Lemony Snicket books and the Little House on the Prairie set, with a promise that when she finished reading those we would go back and get more Lemony Snicket books.  Her teacher read her the first book at school and she is wild to read more. 

After Books a Million, we met Mark at his work and went to lunch with him at Cracker Barrel.  I was amazed at the power of imagination in children;  without any other implements in hand, Kayla took the pegs that go in the triangle game that they have there, and the crayon box that comes with the children’s meal, and pretended that the pegs were people riding the bus (the crayon box) to go see a pyramid.  She even tucked one peg in the box to be the bus driver.  It was quite inventive.  Her manners to the waitress were impeccable, too; she even remembered “please ma’am” without having to be reminded at all!

After we dropped Mark back at work, Kayla and I went to a place in Opelika called Head Master’s, where I let her get her hair washed and blown dry, which is something my little princess always loves, and then as an extra special treat, I let her get a manicure next door at the Lee Spa Nails place.  She was transported with joy!  Nail polish is something she only gets on rare occasions and I let her get a little darker pink polish then she has ever been allowed before.  We even had a good ride home, without any arguments over the radio station.  (Sometimes she has a difficulty with the concept of the cockpit controls in the car being mine. You have to draw the line somewhere!)  Of couse, it was all too good to last, but how nice it was while it lasted.