Driveway

It's been a rough winter, for multiple reasons.  I won't mention the 100 inches of snow, or the ice dams causing leaks all over our house, our our water pipes freezing and bursting.

But I will mention that our driveway goes up a decently long hill.  And it gets icy.  And slippery. And my car's tires were bald enough that on more than one occasion I couldn't drive up it.

Usually we'd eventually get up after roughing up the icy patches or gathering more momentum or something.

But one night, I just plain could not climb it.  After four or five attempts and lots of frustrated muttering and despairing, I gave up and took the hungry kids out to Panera Bread for dinner (one who had been crying because he wanted to go home, while the other was crying because she didn't want to go home).

As we go up to the register and I start to order, I can tell that Edee really wants to say something.  I assume because we were just talking about what she was going to eat that she wanted to tell her order.

Me:  Go ahead and tell her your order.
Edee: Um, oh oh!  Mommy couldn't get up our dive-way and dat's why we got to come out for dinner!!!
Me:  Um, oh, Edee....just tell her you want the Mac n' cheese....thanks.

I mean, I can see why it was pretty exciting.  I was taking her to restaurant which I rarely do, and she really had not wanted to go home.  This driveway drama was a good thing for Miss Drama Queen.  Not so much for Chicken, poor boy just wanted to sleep.  He tolerated dinner fine though.

By the time we got done eating, Daddy had come home from a late night of work.  The kids had fallen asleep and were completely out by the time I pulled back to the dreaded driveway.  Daddy tried driving us up unsuccessfully and ended up just towing us up with the truck.  The kids didn't even flinch when we put them into bed, and that was that.

Chicken woke up some time in the middle of the night screaming.  His nose was a little stuffy and he was yelling for a drink.  As I took him downstairs into the kitchen and started to pour some water, all the crying abruptly stopped with realization, and he asked with a surprisingly clear voice--

Chicken:  You get up da dive-way, Mommy?
Me:  Yes honey, Daddy got us up the driveway.
Chicken (throwing his little arms around my neck and squeezing tighter than I can remember):  Oh I am yo, yo, yo, yo, yo  HAPPY!!  Dank you Mommy.  I yo happy!

Translation Key:
yo=so

It was probably one of the cutest things I've had to get up in the middle of the night for in recent history.  That little boy was more happy to get up that driveway and be home than I was...even though it was quite the delayed response.