Weekend Minutiae (a little long and possibly a little boring)

Friday, My Day "Off:" Usually I take Grace to Occupational Therapy from 9-9:30 AM, but because she sported a temp of 101.1 the day before, I cancelled her appointment. I also cancelled her 12:45 PM therapuetic playdate at the OT/ST office (this is where a younger girl's mother has asked Grace to join her daughter in her daughter's Speech Therapy lessons as a role model). Grace as a role model for speech and how to communicate? I'm thrilled she's come along so far. Basically, Grace gets an extra hour of private ST a week for no extra charge to us. But instead, Grace, Johnny and I went to the Chapel Hill Public Library and then to University Mall to Chik-Fil-A.

They had the coolest piece of artwork displayed at the library that I have to tell you about. It was this toddler-sized paper mache pony up on its hind legs that was covered with hundreds of tiny toys. All of the stupid little Happy Meal toys or toys that come out of gumball machines (we have several of those tiny ninjas laying around our house) were glued to this structure to make the pony. The pony's mane and tail were fashioned out of doll hair and the doll faces and bodies were on it too. It's hard to explain but it was very cool and the kids were told they could touch it. It's the kind of project I'd like to see us doing at home, and with David being the artist, and me getting crafty now and again, it is possible.

Grace was too sick to go to school but not sick enough for me to cancel my standing Friday afternoon playdate with my friend Amy and her two children. We met at Meadowmont for ice cream at Lickety Split (I told Amy about Grace's temp, in case you were wondering. I'm not one of those moms). Let's see, after bringing dinner home and getting the kids to bed, we watched "Melvin Goes to Dinner," an arthouse-section movie that was alright.

Saturday: We haven't been to the beach all summer, so David and I had planned on taking a day trip to Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington on Saturday. After his 10-mile run (!) early Sat. morning, we checked the weather forecast, saw that it called for afternoon thunderstorms, and decided to do something local instead. So, we went to one of the public beaches at Jordan Lake since we live like only fifteen minutes away. Not quite the same, but pretty close to what we wanted: sand, sun (but not too much), water and fun. Whereas Grace didn't want to have anything to do with the water last summer, she got in yesterday and the kids and I had a truly fun time splashing around in the shallow end. Not "fun" like
I'm-having-fun-because-my-kids-are-having-fun, but fun-because-I'm-having-fun fun. I gave up on reading my book while the kids played by themselves, because they weren't playing by themselves. David had time to sit and work on a website update, pretty much uninterrupted.

When we got hungry, we jetted to Pittsboro for an old-fashioned lunch at the soda shop. Later for supper we grilled shrimp, chicken and vegetables, mixed it with cous cous and ate outside. David continued to work on the computer while I read my 4 Blondes novel. (Western Otto: if you're reading this, Mountains Beyond Mountains is next on my list. I promise).

Sunday: We haven't been to church all summer, so I took the kids to Sunday School. Another break for David...aren't I nice? It was nice to reconnect with familiar faces and to feel the simplicity of greeting your neighbors and feeling like even though you've been away for a long time, people were happy to see you and that you belonged.

Today we got the rain that it called for yesterday, so in the afternoon, we asked the kids where they'd like to go to get out of the house. They both agreed on University Mall (?)--again. We all four went there, but Johnny just wanted to sit at Hungate's and play with the Thomas train table and the little knights and pirate figures beside the train table the whole time and threw a fit when it was time to go to another store. We gave him some chances to pull it together, but he couldn't, or didn't, so we got in the car and went home. He was hoppin mad at that point, and took off his one of his "croc" shoes (for those not in the know, crocs are the latest craze in summer footwear and we all have a pair. Except for David) and threw it at me. Crocs are lightweight but still, I'm not having any of that behavior. We were already heading home, so I told him that was very ugly behavior and he would have to go to his room when we got back. More sobbing and blubbering and saying that he didn't want to go to his room. A few moments later, I got hit in the face with the other croc. Can you believe this guy? It was about 3:30 PM now, and I wanted to make a 4:00 yoga class at the gym. Finally, I was going to get my hour, but I felt sorry that David would have to deal with Johnny's nonsense because he was full-on hysterical. He wouldn't stop crying, so I asked him if he'd like to go to the kid room at the gym while I went to yoga class. He said yes, and stopped crying immediatley. I said he'd have to keep it together and apologize for acting ugly, and that he'd have to go to his room for a little while first (this sent him back into fits of crying). We made it home, sent Johnny to his room (WAAAA!), he did stop crying, he apologized, and we went to the gym. The kids played for an hour in the kid room, I had a great yoga class, and David got, well, another break.

The weekend's almost over but I'm looking forward to story time, a little more reading and reruns of Grey's Anatomy. All considered, I'd give the weekend a 7.5 out of 10.

Oh, I registered for the race in Nov. at the Outer Banks: David for the marathon and me for the half. It's official! Johnny's birthday is in eight days so I'll be blogging about the preparations for that...the gifts, the party, the joy...but also the emotions I'm feeling as my kids both leave the baby years.