Apparently, this week is Spring Break. I am confused for several reasons. The first being it is March. The second being it is still winter here in Upstate New York. And the third, didn’t we JUST have a week off?  Like Mid-Winter Break, this break took me by surprise, and I only just realized it last week. Listen, the boy is in Pre-K so this is all new to me! But really, didn’t they just have a week off?

This is probably a good thing because we had a of a “traumatic” weekend that needs some time before Lucas goes to school talking about it. Hopefully, by this time next week he will have moved on….

So we just moved to the country, and by country, I mean country. I grew up in Central Square, NY. Pretty country. But this, this is way more country. The closest real grocery store is 20 minutes away. We at least had a grocery store in Central Square. We also have a herd, a flock, a pack of deer that are literally in our backyard. The kids, Jeremy and I all love it, though for very different reasons. So I am not sure why other critters are surprising.

About 2 weeks ago, I went to put a bag of garbage in the garage (this may be another post – the amount of garbage one family creates) and there was an opossum sitting out there who leisurely walked towards our mountain of unpacked boxes when he saw me.

Great.

Fast forward to Friday morning when I am rushing around to get the kids out the door to get Lucas to school. Lucas tried his best to open the garage door but opened the wrong side first. It stopped after a foot or two, and he proceeded to open the correct door. I am getting the girl in her seat and Lucas is just staring at the partially opened garage door. I am of course screaming at him to move his feet and get in his seat but he doesn’t budge. I finally look to see what on Earth is so interesting about a garage door, and see the little claws, butt and long tail of an opossum dangling out the crack of the door, suspended in air.

Great.

At this moment in time, I neither have time nor the desire to deal with that. Seeing it wasn’t moving at all (trust me, Lucas would have screamed in horror if it as much twitched), I knew it was dead. But I told Lucas it was sleeping, so we better let him be.  We get home several hours later (Lucas had school, followed by speech and occupational therapies) and our new friend is still there (not a surprise). Of course, Lucas has 101 questions about why it is still sleeping. Luckily, they are nocturnal, so I was easily able to explain that one away!

I rush the kids inside and say I will deal with it later. And so, later, I decide to open the garage door. The opossum falls to the fresh snow (yes, you read that right, FRESH snow), but now is triggering the sensors so I can’t close the door! Because I don’t need any of his friends in our garage, I get a snow shovel and get him out of the way. Garage door closed. Dead opossum still in the driveway. Kids want to go visit daddy at his store.

Great.

Lucas is obsessed with knowing whether the opossum is still sleeping. I decide to tell him the truth. Lucas, honey, it seems the opossum isn’t sleeping. He’s dead.

“Why he dead, mama?” “How he die?” “What that animal called again?” Over and over and over again. Sometimes with fear in his voice, other times almost in tears because he is sad that that animal is dead. My sweet, sweet boy.

You can guess what the first thing he told his daddy about when we got to the store. Oh, and when he woke up in the middle of the night? He woke me up saying, “Mama, what that dead animal called again?” Not what I want to discuss at 2 in the morning. Saturday was filled with lots of conversation about that dead animal. In fact, he told me he wanted to tell his best buddies, Brady and Marcus about it at school. Oye. Sunday, a little less. Today, it was the morning topic but hasn’t come up since.

So here’s to End of Winter, er Spring, Break. Let’s hope that by the time it is over, “that dead animal” is last week’s obsession!!