Quiet and still

This is the first official day of both kids being at school and me being home. I should be doing something like vacuuming or laundry, but here I sit at the computer. It's so quiet and peaceful in here.

Driving to school this morning was not so quiet and peaceful. The kids were fighting over who gets to open the garage door and then who gets to close the garage door. Unfortunately the little fight over that resulted in Mommy getting to close the garage door and the kids losing that privilege for a while. Then Katie asked for the little mirror I have on my rearview mirror. They did a great job taking turns - she kept it for a few minutes and then handed it to Kyle. Then she asked for it back "when we get to the cows" which translates into "when we get on Spring Cypress". I'm not sure what she planned to do with it when we got to the cows, but it seemed like a reasonable request since that was still about 5 minutes away. I let Kyle know that he would have a few more minutes with the mirror and then he needed to share it with Katie again. His response? Let me throw it into the back of the car because if I can't have it, no one can. Typical two-year-old behavior which for some reason shocked me because he usually seems so much older than that. Of course some tears were shed by both parties and after a few minutes we moved to the apologizing stage. Kyle is very good about telling you he's sorry and for what and then asking for forgiveness, however, I have noticed lately that he is just going through the motions and not looking directly at the person he is apologizing to. So, now his apologies go something like this:

Kyle: I'm sorry for throwing the mirror in the back of the car.
Katie: He's not looking at me!
Mom: Kyle you need to look her in the eyes when you speak to her.
Kyle: [glances at Katie and turns head] I sorry for..
Katie: He's not looking at me!
Mom: Kyle, look at Katie's face.
Kyle: [turns head toward Katie but won't look at her] I sorry for throwing
Katie: You have to look at me!
Mom: Katie please don't yell at him while he's trying to apologize. Kyle, look at her while you apologize.
Kyle: [looks at Katie] Isorryforthrowingthemirror.Iforgiveyou. [as fast and as quietly as he can get it out]
Katie: No you don't forgive me, you have to ask! And I don't forgive you.
Mom: Kyle, sometimes the person that you hurt is not ready to forgive you when you ask for forgiveness, but you have done all that you can at this point.
Kyle: Katie's still mad, but I said I sorry.
His little mind could not wrap itself around the fact that she was still upset. I'm hoping that he got over it, but when I left him at school he was obviously still upset and threw a fit as I tried to leave him (which is not normal at all). The other thought in my mind is please don't let him be getting sick!!!

So for now I will enjoy my peace and quiet for it is sure to end around 3pm today when I go back to pick them up from school. Maybe I need to borrow Derek's noise cancelling headphones for the drives from now on...