Clear and Present Mommy

After holing up for nearly three hours in the Child Care director's office on Friday afternoon to discuss the ins and outs of saving Sam's school from the spectre of closing, I claimed my weary son and got him packed and fed and ready for an overnight at Carter's. Since the office door has a large window in it, Sam had been aware of my presence at the centre: he and the other kids are used to seeing me in the halls a lot more lately, since the "accommodation review" has ramped up and certain alarming writing has been on the wall, so to speak. He's aware of it, and he's more than a little tired of it.

As chair of the Carleton Heights School Council and a member-at-large on the Board or Directors of the Child Care Centre, I'm chin deep in this process and it's taking over more and more of my time, my brain space. When I kissed Sam good bye and wished him a fun sleepover, he responded "And have a good time ... uh, working on the computer!" Yeaaahhh. Between the school issues, my job, Garnish projects, this blog, my upcoming presentatations at Ottawa U, and keeping in touch with friends (sort of), I sit here a lot. A LOT. So I resolved right there to carve out a chunk of time for giving Sam my undivided attention this weekend.

We spent it at the Museum of Nature with Tracey & Anabel and Debbie & Michael. It was a beautiful, warm Crustaceous morning (a direct quote from the short film called "What happened to the dinosaurs?" — a warm Crustaceous morning... in case any of you kids out there think this sort of extinction-level event can happen on just any sunny morning). I had to be pulled out of a two-hour morning meeting with the neighbours (to prep for a big meeting tomorrow night), but I was glad for the call to my cell. "Sorry, ladies, but I made a promise to my son." We zipped to the downtown with the moon roof open and the radio on and met up with the others in the gift shop.

We spent about an hour and a half touring three levels of the museum—taking in most of the dinosaur and mammal exhibits and hanging out in some of the kid zones, where they create climb-friendly installations, craft spaces, costumes and puppets. And I stayed right there with him. Not just physically there, murmuring "really?" and "mmmhmmm" in response to his endless monologues while keeping my own train of thought on track. Nope. I parked my own thoughts in the train yard and cleared my mind of anything but the museum moment unfolding right then and there.

And it was really, really nice.