freaky

First day of school. Ahhh. (that's a good sigh)

It was a nice day today. I took off from work so I could help herd the new kindergarteners into the school without losing any, and then I helped open milk cartons and mustard packets for them at lunch. I cannot stress how lucky I feel to be able to prioritize my life like this. That flexibility is wonderful. Seriously. I know how lucky I am.

Anyway, after a quiet afternoon, my son Q had a baseball practice this evening. E and I took him up to the field, and DH met us a little later when he dropped by after work. It was a long practice - about 2 1/2 hours, so after an hour or so, E and I decided to go home early.

I've told several of you before about E's "special powers," I think. During the 2004 playoffs, the Red Sox were down to the Yankees 3 games to none. It was the crucial turning point. It was game 4, the inning was bottom of the 12th, and the game was tied. If the Yankees won, it was all over. We were sitting around the TV, exhausted and sad. Little E, 5 at the time, who loves to occasionally sleep with me in my bed, was frustrated because I kept making her sleep in her own bed. She looked at me. "Can I sleep with you?" I was watching the game, and shook my head no. "Mommy!! PLEASE????" My answer was nope, eyes still on the game. She thought a minute. "If you let me sleep with you, I'll use my special powers to make the Red Sox win..." she offered. I looked at DH. What the hell? "OK." I told her. She closed her eyes and got a focused looked on her face.

The very next pitch, David Ortiz hit the 2-run home run that won the game for the Red Sox, who then went on the win the next 3 games, becoming the only sports team ever to win a playoff with a 3-0 deficit to begin, and, of course, won the World Series, ending the 86 year drought.

I'm not making this up. The timing was perfection. We joked about E's "special powers" after that, with a lot of humor but just a little ... hmm... fear?

So we were driving home tonight, just me and E. The road to our neighborhood is a little, windy road that is really only 1 1/2 lanes (very poor planning when a boat landing is at the end....try squeezing past a semi-large boat at 50 mph as you round a curve). It was dark and we were chatting about something inane. A car rounded the bend ahead of us with its brights on. It was annoying, but not dangerous. E suddenly screamed "DEER!!!!!!!" I slammed on the brakes, my heart pounding, and she laughed. "Not really mom, I just yelled that because I was pretending that car was a deer." I started to lecture her on not causing the driver of a fast moving vehicle to have a heart attack, but needed to stop because - a deer bounded out in front of me at the next turn. Because I had already slowed way down, I was able to hit the brakes, and it simply ran off, startled.

When E was about 4, she used to tell me that she had teachers. A "black man and a white woman" taught her about special powers. I just don't know what to say. I am going to be very kind to this child, though, because I do not want her to ever hate me. For the record, I also let her sleep with me pretty much whenever she wants.