Magic Mom Moments and Muddy Buddies

People ask me all the time if my kids ride the bus to school. When I tell them no, the response is usually the same: "Oh that's too bad. What a pain to go back and forth." And it is a little bit of a pain as I go back and forth a total of four times a day (twice for Dee who is in full-day Kindergarten, twice for Jeigh who is in afternoon Preschool).

But why would I want to send them on the bus and miss out on mornings like this morning?

This morning, like any other morning, I pulled up to the school. Dee was sitting in the front passenger seat. Usually he bounds out the door before I can hardly put the van in park. This morning, he lingered. I don't think he was sad or reluctant. He just lingered. It was a sweet moment, that I didn't want to end, but that school bell has no patience for sweet lingering moments.

I prompted him to go. After a quick hug and kiss, he did. As he ran to the building he turned and waved to me. Ran a few feet, turned and waved. Ran, turned, waved. Ran, turned, waved. The whole way to the gate.

I watched.
I waved back.
I audibly uttered "I love that boy!" to nothing but an empty cold van.
I {almost} cried. How can he seem so big and so small all at the same time??

I clicked a mental pic. I want to remember the grey hood pulled up over his head. The batman backpack, almost as big as he is, bouncing on his shoulders. His big scrunchy grin that helps him keep his broken glasses on his nose. The flailing arms and legs and coat that surely one day he will coordinate. How he pointed to the school when he got close to make sure I knew exactly where he was headed. How small and sweet he is. How big and wonderful he is getting. How much he loves and trusts me at this moment. Why would I ever want to miss out on this?

I'll send him on a bus when he's fourteen and he thinks I am a dork and walks out the door with a sullen look on his face and a surly comment under his breath.

Can we just stay in Kindergarten forever?


P.S. I mentioned Muddy Buddies in my post yesterday. It always surprises me that there are still people out there who have yet to know the chocolaty, peanut-buttery, crunchy goodness of Muddy Buddies (or Puppy Chow or "Tummy Yummies" as my little brood calls them). Here's the recipe. You are welcome.

Muddy Buddies

(This recipe can easily be doubled...Go ahead and double it...you know you want to!)

• 9 cups of Chex cereal (I like a mixture of rice and corn)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 & 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Measure out cereal into a large bowl (make sure you have a lid that fits). Combine chocolate chips, PB, and margarine in microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 1 to 1 and 1/2 minutes stirring after first minute. Remove from microwave, add vanilla, and stir well. Pour chocolaty goodness over cereal and stir until all pieces are well-coated. Add powdered sugar. Cover and shake it like a Polaroid picture until all pieces are "dusted". (You may want to add more powdered sugar depending on how you like it.)

If you don't have a bowl handy or just want to save yourself some time on dishes later, try using a large Ziploc bag for your shaking. (Unfortunately, this means you can probably only do one batch...at a time.)

I like my Muddy Buddies "aged" in the fridge for a couple of hours or even overnight.

So.darn.good.