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<\/a><\/p>\nGrandma and Grandpa got a pontoon boat.<\/p>\n
When the kids weren’t fishing….<\/p>\n or flinging themselves into the lake….<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
A full house is almost impossible around here.\u00a0 One of the kids is always missing—sports, sleepovers, birthday parties, camp, play dates, any excuse to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.\u00a0 Sometimes we’ve got one pair.\u00a0 Occasionally we’ve got three of a kind.\u00a0 Sometimes we’re busted.<\/p>\n
In the beginning it was disorienting to count heads and come up with fewer than 4.\u00a0 My heart would pound and my breath would catch as I’d realize that not only had I finally lost one, but I had no idea what the missing child was wearing.\u00a0 No idea.\u00a0 Not even a haphazard guess.\u00a0 What kind of a mother couldn’t describe to police what her child was wearing before he or she wandered off in the Food Lion???\u00a0 (Besides a mother that makes them dress themselves, wash their own laundry, and put it away in their drawers and closets on their own.\u00a0 And should I admit those facts to the police?\u00a0 Is it even legal to make kids do their own laundry nowadays?)<\/p>\n
Even worse, what if the stress made me stumble over his or her birth date like I do in front of the pharmacist after a bout of illness in the kids??\u00a0 People, it’s confusing to have some children that are born 2 years apart and some that have birth years that are back to back.\u00a0 (Anyway, who’s fabricating stories in the CVS to get illegal pink eye medicine??)\u00a0 God help me if the police asked me when I last had all 4 kids together.\u00a0 Surely we all arrived in the car together.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 I mean, probably.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Um,….were they all in the car when we got here??<\/p>\n
Eventually my brain would override my panic and I’d remember that the missing child was at a bowling birthday party or swimming at the neighbor’s house or staying after school for practice.\u00a0 As the kids grew I even got accustomed to the absences.\u00a0 Lately it’s unusual to have all the kids together.\u00a0 I’ve become resigned to it.\u00a0 I figured the days of all 4 of them trooping through the house, battling over board games, rushing in and outside, building forts, and playing tag through the yard and the woods were almost finished.\u00a0 Maybe even over.<\/p>\n
My parents did not yield so easily.\u00a0 They weren’t about to fold.\u00a0 No, they were ready to call against baseball games and sleepovers.\u00a0 They were ready to raise\u00a0 the stakes.\u00a0 And for the past 2 weekends we’ve had all 4 kids together.\u00a0 All in one place.\u00a0 All day long.\u00a0 That’s right, people.<\/p>\n
Grandma and Grandpa got a pontoon boat.<\/p>\n When the kids weren’t fishing….<\/p>\n or flinging themselves into the lake….<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n