Our morning commute

Thought I'd share a little bit about our weekday morning commute. We live about 20 minutes from Fort Benning and then once we get through the gate it's another 10-15 minutes to Lauren's daycare and my office, which are about five minutes apart. So we're in the car together for about 30 minutes or so each morning.

Back in 2008 when she first started going to daycare on post Lauren used to say nothing, then she started babbling, then it was the occasional few words such as mamma, dadda, bus, and now she starts conversations, most of which are quite funny. Take today for instance...we got in the car and drove past the bus stop which was crowded because the school bus hadn't come yet. Lauren said "What those kids doin'?" My response was, "They're waiting on the bus." And she said "They going to school like Warren?" (She doesn't pronounce her name very well). I laughed and told her "Yep, they're going to school like Lauren."

As we left the neighborhood and reached the first major intersection I got in the turn lane and it's funny, but Lauren can tell you if we're going straight to school or stopping at Starbucks first by which lane I get in. Typically I make coffee at home about three times a week and indulge in a latte the other two days -- today was an indulge day. Usually she asks when we're in the turn lane "You need coffee mamma?" but she didn't today. However, when we got to Starbucks there where already two people in the drive-thru ahead of me and Lauren hates that so she said "Those cars need to move."

The rest of the trip she was pretty quiet for awhile then she said "What 'chu doin' mamma?" I said "Driving, what 'chu doin' Lauren?" Usually her response is "I'm sitting in my carseat" but instead today she rattled off a list of stuff she needed to do, "I need to get my oil shanged, I need to go soppin', I need to get zroercies, I need to buy brudder bottles..." For those that don't speak Lauren that translates to I need to get my oil changed, I need to go shopping, I need to get groceries, I need to buy brother bottles. I laughed out loud. I told her she had a lot to do and she said "I busy."

Then mom called and we talked or little bit. After we hung up Lauren decided it was time for her to call people. So she got out her cell phone and said "I callin' dadda. Hey dadda. You runnin'? I miss you, miss you. Good night!" She then called her usually line-up of people...Aunt Hoddy and Biscotti, Michael, Jonathan and Nonie. Sometimes she'll throw someone else into the mix, but those are her regulars.

Shortly after she finished her correspondence we reach the Fort Benning Main Gate and if you've never been to a military installation you have to pull up and give the gate guard your military I.D. card so they can check to make sure you aren't Osama Bin Ladin. As we pulled up Lauren said, "We goin' through the gate? I need my card" She reached into her My First Purse and pulled out her play credit card, which she considers her I.D card. She held it out for the guard and said "Here, thank you!" (she does that just about every morning and it's precious).

After we rolled through the gate we had random conversations about buses and car colors, and her favorite, we counted the houses. When we finally got close enough to daycare she started craning her neck to see if her favorite teacher's car is parked out front. She'll look and say "That Emmie's car!" Ms. Emily is Lauren's favorite teacher and my daughter the stalker knows her car. God forbid Ms. Emmie go on vacation or get sick -- Lauren doesn't handle it well. We went inside the routine is pretty standard each day. They scanned my card to check Lauren in, we went in her classroom, washed hands and headed over to the reading corner. Lauren kissed me bye and I headed to work. She never protests going to school or me going to work because she has such a good time in daycare, in fact sometimes she requests to go to school or "go see friends" on Saturday. So that's pretty much our morning commute and some variation of it happens between 6:45 and 7:15 a.m. every weekday.