if i would have known that picking up my mom and bringing her to the auto shop was going to be a two hour adventure, i’d have packed a lunch and wore socks. i should have known just picking her up and dropping her off and home without pants in a matter of 10 minutes was just too easy.

see, somehow once i got there she conned me into bringing max to school. she has max monday through wednesday while sister #2 is at her internship. i don’t know how or why i was conned into it, but i was.

so after sitting around for an hour, we headed out. dispensing of mamala was easy enough. taking max to school, well that is nothing less than adventure.

“i’ll show you how to get there,” max said.
“ok, because i don’t know where your school is,” i said. yes, i was a little worried taking navigation from a six year old, but what could i do?
“i won’t get you lost like that time i got grandpa lost.”
“great,” i said.
“you do know how to get to shakopee, don’t you?” he asked.
“yes, that much i do know,” i said.
“do you know how much 700 trucks weighs?”
“well if they are one ton trucks they would weight 700 tons,” i said, feelng like the smartest aunt in the whole world.
“how much do all the houses in the world weigh?”
“i have no idea.”
“my mom might know,” he said.
“yes, she might. so what kind of books do you want for christmas?” i asked.
“i don’t want books, i want toys.”
“i’m not buying toys this year, you have too many.”
“good think i can ask santa for toys,” he said.
“yes. so what kind of books?”
“animal books with pictures, not a lot of words. i can’t read yet.”
“well you’ll be able to read someday and jaycie can read to you.”
“she can’t read that many words yet,” he said. “besides she just pretends to read the harry potter book all the time. she’s so weird.”
“sisters are weird sometimes,” i said.
“was aunt keke weird?” he asked, referring to sister #4.
“yeah, she’s a little weird.”
“yeah, she is weird. she kept pretending violet was her friend,” he said. yesterday max, jaycie, sister #4 and i went to see the incredibles. violet’s the one who could pretend to be invisible. after the movie we went to target to pick up the t-shirt making items needed for the bowl-o-rama on saturday. while max and jaycie each took one of my hands, sister #4 pretended to be holding violet’s hand.

“so, is this where i turn?” i asked.
“yeah go that way,” he said, pointing to the left.
“ok,” i said.
“does ruby just know where to go?”
“no, i have to tell her where to go,” i said.
“so do you just whisper to her ‘max’s school’ and then she knows?”
“no we don’t know at all.”
“do you see that sign?” he asked after the light turned green and we made the left.
“the one that says bus?”
“no the other one.”
“the one that says for sale?”
“no, that other one.”
“the one that says stop?”
“no that one right there, right there that says school on it,” he said as i passed the sign. “that’s my school. TURN HERE TURN HERE TURN HERE. NO GO THAT WAY GO THAT WAY.”
“here?”
“yes.”
“so now what?” i asked.
“you park.”
“park where?”
“anywhere you want.”
“ok,” i said, gliding into a spot.
“now what do we do?”
“there’s nobody here so we wait,” he said.
“we wait?”
“Yes, i don’t want to be first becuase then they kick my backpack.”
“ok. what do we wait for?”
“A BUS!” he said.
“a bus?”
“yes, there’s a bus,” he said, digging into ruby’s back looking for his superman backpack. “that’s your bag, here, here’s mine.” i watched as he put the backpack on. “ok,” he said.
“ok what?”
“now we go.”
“go where?” i asked.
“you have to walk me to the playground.”
“what?”
“to the playground.”
“you mean down that hill?”
“yes. geez aunt jodi you act like you never walked before.”
“i’ve walked before,” i said as i opened the door.

“ok pal,” i said was we walked down the hill. “gimme your hand.”
“don’t call me pal.”
“ok booba.”
“don’t call me booba at school.”
“what can i call you?”
“you can call me pal, i guess.”

we get to the other side of the parking lot, and across the driveway where the buses go and he takes off.
“hold up there bucko,” i said. he stopped turned and looked at me. “don’t i even get a hug?” then he ran back to me with his arms up and outspread.
“thanks aunt jodi. i love you.”
“have a good day at school boo, i’ll see you thursday.”