Spark Into a Flame

Pippa

If one other thing went wrong with the wedding planning I was just going to snap.  Not only had the caterers cancelled, but now the flower store we were planning on using was going out of business.  Perfect timing.  I'd gotten the call earlier in the day and since then I had pulled up my Excel document to search frantically for a new one.  Thank goodness I'd done tons of research before hand.  I spent the afternoon trying to call up the various businesses and get updated quotes.

Jack was in rare form.  Most of the time he was a happy-go-lucky kid but for whatever reason today he was in a very bad mood.  I had fixed him lunch and I'd apparently cut his peanut butter and jelly sandwich wrong so he threw it on the floor and proceeded to scream his head off.  He kept climbing on the coffee table and jumping off and when I put him in time out it was like the world was ending.  By the time Alex was dropped off by the school bus around 3:30 I just wanted to put them both to bed but it was hours away.

Alex as well seemed to be in a bad mood.  I grabbed her some Goldfish crackers out the pantry as she took off her backpack and began kicking it around the room.

"Alex, please pick that up and put it in your room," I asked her, my voice level.

"No!" she told me outright.  I spun around and gave her my best mom look, which seemed to be getting less and less effective these days.  She just stared back at me, her arms crossed and a defiant look plastered on her face.

"Excuse me?" I asked her.  "You don't talk to me that way.  Did you have a bad day at school?"

She just growled, which was what she did when she didn't want to tell me something.  I sighed and set a little bowl of Goldfish on the table.

"Do you need to tell me anything before I check your take-home folder?" I again kept my voice level while Jack started to scream about something in the living room.  Every day, Alex's teacher sent home a behavior report which indicated if Alex ended the day on anywhere from purple (excellent behavior) all the way down to red (poor behavior).  Most of the time she was on a positive color – purple, blue or green.  More and more these days, though, she was ending up on the other end – yellow, orange or red.  I had a feeling it had been a tough day.

She didn't answer me and walked to the table.  I picked up her backpack and unzipped it, then fished around for her folder.  Her behavior report was in there, but it was ripped up.  I could piece together that she'd ended today on orange, which meant she'd gotten in trouble twice.

"Why's your paper ripped up?" I asked her.  Alex picked up the bowl and threw it on the floor, scattering pieces everywhere.  "Alexandra Miranda!"

I just gaped at her a moment as she stared back at me, daring me to do anything.  Jack screamed.  "Where's my Spiiiider-Maaaaann!?!?!"

"Jack, look in your room and lower your voice, please," I told him firmly.  Where was Lin when I needed him?  Even Joey.  Two kids completely melting down simultaneously.

Just then my phone rang and it was one of the florists that I'd been trying to get in touch with all day.  They were one of my top picks and I didn't know when I'd hear from them again if I didn't pick up.  I sighed and walked down the hallway to the bathroom with my planner.  Jack was still screaming and now Alex was joining in too so I closed the door and put my hand over my other ear as I answered.

It was a challenging conversation to say the least.  I had to ask the woman to repeat herself a couple times because I was having trouble hearing over all the noise.  I was dreading going back out there.  It sounded like Alex was a tornado hitting the apartment.

Finally, I set an appointment to come see her the following Tuesday and hung up.  After tucking my phone back in my pocket I stepped back into the madness.  Alex was screaming and stomping all over the Goldfish crackers on the kitchen floor.