When I dropped Ben off at school this morning, he was all decked out in his Halloween costume. I should have known that I still wasn't feeling that hot (oh yeah.. I never blogged about the fact that I picked up whatever plague it was that Shiela also died of.. now she's feeling a little better and I'm not.. wonderful.. hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow).. anyway.. I should have known that I wasn't feeling 100% because I didn't have my camera with me to take a picture. No fears though.. Halloween is tomorrow and we'll definitely take lots of pictures.

Anywho.. we have a very strict routine. Ben likes routine. So does Mommy. When we get to daycare, it is no different. Each day we do the same things.. we pick up the clipboard to sign in. Ben helps. Then I take his jacket off. By this time, all of the kids are swarming around us talking about "Baby" and running through the bazillion facts that they have stored up to share with us.

Maddie and Riley (twins) were very impressed by the fact that Ben was wearing his Halloween costume. They were even more impressed by the fact that he had a cape. While that was a hot topic of conversation while I was stumbling over myself to take my shoes off so that I could follow Ben over to the CD player to turn on his favorite song before his head spun off of his shoulders.. the line of questioning soon turned to our standard daily issues.

I'm cool.. I get that. The kids like me. Shiela, though.. for some reason (I will not let it be said that she's cooler).. has some draw with the young folk. She's ultramega cool. Every day when I walk in to daycare, Maddie comes over and asks if Shiela is at work. "Shiela at work?" This has been going on since Shiela was known as "other baby mamma"... "other baby mamma at work?"

There have been a handful of times just recently where the twins have been there when I have picked up Ben.. most recently was this past Monday when Ben and I went there to hang out in the afternoon and I spent a few hours at school. When were leaving, I told Maddie that we had to go pick up Shiela at the train. She found this very interesting. On Tuesday and again yesterday, she asked me if Shiela was on the train when I dropped Ben off. I explained that no, right then, Shiela was at work, but that she took the train to work in the morning and then home at night and that Ben and I usually picked her up at the train station after work and school. She hangs on to every word intently and nods very seriously.. you can tell she's absorbing and processing it all.

This morning was no different.. but she mixed it up a little bit and totally confused me for a second. Remember, I was stumbling over myself to take my shoes off while Ben had my leg in a death grip while trying to pull me across the room.. Maddie comes over and says, "Shiela on Thomas??"

I stopped.

I laughed.

I said.. "um.. what sweetie?"

She repeated.. "Shiela on Thomas??"

HA! I finally put it together. Thomas is a train. Shiela rides the train to work. Therefore, Shiela on Thomas.