Glove drama

One would think, by this point in the season, I'd be better at this. It's been at least two months since the annual letter came home from school, reminding parents to dress their children in snowpants, hats and gloves every day. And yet, once again this morning, I was running around the house, frantically searching for a matching set of gloves

Note from the school aside, it's four degrees this morning in our chilly part of the tundra. Not wearing gloves is simply not an option.I don't need a reminder to dress my child in appropriate warm weather gear. What would help is tips on how not to lose those winter accessories. Or maybe a reminder to give oneself at least ten minutes to find them before the bus rounds the corner heading for our driveway.

AJ is wearing two very different gloves to school today. And part of me hopes he gets laughed at. Maybe it will teach him a lesson.

Bad photo... but there was no time to pose... trust me, the glove on his left is green camouflage. The one on the right is black and royal blue.

Finding matching gloves this morning was not easy. I located a few single gloves in the closet, and found a lot of single gloves buried in the mess better known as my dining room table.

"AJ, where are your gloves?" I asked in desperation as he put on his hat and struggled to zip his coat.

"I don't know, I wore them at hockey last night."

"Which ones?"

"The skeleton gloves."

I checked his hockey bag. No gloves.

Then I realized, as cold as it had been last night, he probably also wore them home.  I checked his room where he'd piled his hockey gear. No gloves.

I checked the car. No gloves.

I tried the "think about what you did when you got home last night. What did you do? Where might you have set them?" routine. It didn't work.

I briefly debated sending him in my gloves, but didn't want to risk losing them. A glance at the clock revealed the bus should be rolling down our street any second. I grabbed the blue/black glove. It was for a right hand. I ran to the closet and found the camouflage glove. Could I possibly be this lucky? Yes! It was for the left hand. Victory!

"Here you are. This is what you're wearing today."

As AJ was heading out the door, Jeff - who gets to do this fun job the other four days of the week when I'm working - came wandering from the bedroom to see what the commotion had been about. Or maybe he justn't want to enjoy watching me stumble through what he seems to do much more smoothly. "AJ wore the white gloves to hockey last night," he said.

The white gloves? Of course. That's the pair I usually put on Sydney when we can't find her regular gloves. I'd found those earlier this morning and noted they seemed particularly dirty and had thrown them in the laundry.

We'll likely need to wear gloves for at least the next three months. I shall count my blessings that I only have to get my first grader ready for the bus one day a week. And now I think it's time to tackle the mess better known as my dining room.