Parenting skills

Wednesday was the last day of school for our Providence Hall kids. Today is Elli's last day.  Since most of the kids don't have to get up, Christi and I get to sleep in a little bit, but Christi still gets Elli ready and on the school bus.  Yesterday when her alarm rang, she said, "I'm so tempted to just keep sleeping and then drive Elli to school later in the morning."  Sensing an opportunity to gain some always-needed husband points,  I told her I'd get up and take care of Elli. (Poor Elli.  I've given up on trying to make her hair look even remotely good.  I just make sure it's in ponytails and out of her face.)

By the time Elli was on the bus, Sophi and Lexi were awake.  I was needing to get started on some projects, so when those two asked me to make them breakfast, I told them they could do it on their own.  Now I know they face some obvious challenges in this course of action, but they really are quite capable and often feed themselves, usually working as a team to take care of everything they need.

About ten minutes later I hear scrambling in the kitchen and start to smell smoke.  I rush in and, even in the midst if disaster, they've taken care of things.  The burning item has been taken outside and they got it out there before the smoke alarm could go off!  Apparently they had found some leftover french toast in the fridge.  Lexi thought it would be better with some chocolate syrup on it, so they unwrapped a couple of mini Hershey's bars (leftover from Halloween) and put them in a bowl in the microwave.  Sophi asked Lexi, "How long should we cook it?" Lexi replied, "I don't know. Try two minutes." Hence the smoke.

Undeterred, they kept going.  They melted another round of chocolate and heated up the french toast. When they finished their creation, they were so proud they invited me in to see the final product.  Three layer french toast with chocolate and whipped cream between the layers and topped with strawberry yogurt.  Gourmet!