Dear Susan, Thanks for the kind thoughts.  It is people like you with a good heart that gets us through the tough  times. Speaking of good hearts, [Number 4] has one of the biggest. She has taken our new little boy, J, under her wing and he just loves her.  She has been trying really hard to control the talking and it is working.  Thanks for being her mother.    [Mrs. O]
 
Whoa!
 
What the hell happened to Number 4?!?!?
 
Woo hoooooooo!!!!
 
 
Again!!!
 
But apparently the victory celebration was a little premature.
 
 
Then, on Wednesday night, I was waiting for her in the locker room after swim practice.  All the girls had come in, but there was no sign of Number 4.
 
Huh.  She must have been talking to one of the coaches, or maybe she forgot her goggles and went back to get them.
 
After about 2 minutes, there was still no sign of her.
 
I poked my head out onto the deck.
 
She was nowhere to be seen.
 
 
Where the hell could she have gone?
 
After some frantic searching, I finally found her.
 
In the therapy pool.
 
With another family.
 
Which is where she may find herself permanently.
 
Because she also divulged one more piece of information to me yesterday.
 
That is, after she came home with someone else’s sweatshirt on.
 
That she took out of the lost and found.
 
And consequently attempted to convince me that it was hers, by telling me “because you’re getting older, you probably just don’t remember that it’s mine.”
 
Keep digging, Number 4.  Keep digging.
 
So anyway, this week some of Number 4’s lunches were coming home totally uneaten.
 
One day she said she had a stomache ache.
 
The next, she just didn’t feel hungry.
 
And then, yesterday, she came clean.
 
“Mom, I have a confession to make,” she said, totally out of the blue.
 
I just looked at her.  I didn’t even say anything.
 
“I bought lunch at school,” she said, half-smiling, and looking down at the floor.
 
Angry mom glare.
 
“Mom!  It was pancakes!  I just needed those pancakes!”
 
Now, my kids have never bought a school lunch.
 
Aside from the fact that most of them suck, that shit is expensive.
 
And if  I let one of them buy, then the other 3 will want to also, and if all 4 of the kids who are in school bought lunch every day, it would cost me $11.25/day.
 
$11.25 x 180 = $2025.00
 
Two thousand fucking dollars!!!
 
For pancakes.
 
And french toast sticks.
 
So anyway, I tried not to yell.
 
But before I could even say anything, she kept going.
 
“Mom, I actually bought 2 lunches.”
 
I just closed my eyes and exhaled.
 
So she backtracked.  “Okay.  Actually I didn’t.  I’m just kidding.”
 
“I’m going to find out, so you might as well tell me the truth.”
 
“Okay.  I bought lunch twice,” she confessed.
 
“Number 4.  School lunches are expensive.  And where did you get the money for that anyway?” I asked her.
 
“Mom!  You don’t even need money!  You just get a ticket!!!”
 
Sigh.
 
So I had to explain to her how you have to pay for the tickets.  And how I was going to have to email Mrs. O.
 
To which she replied, “Mom, don’t you think you should forgive me? You know, because of my adorableness?”
 
No.
 
But I do have to give her one thing.
 
She did fess up.
 
And it only took her 3 days.
 
I mean, who am I to talk?
 
It took me 25 years  to come clean.