Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program
The big crunch at work is over and we just ended four days of socializing and togetherness and a few attempts at organization. Now it is back to regular blog postings about our favorite boys: Adlai and Simon. Apologies for the delay.
Simon celebrated Thanksgiving in school with a sing-along and an art project on which was written that he is thankful "for parents that love me and turkey!" How sweet and odd since Simon had never eaten turkey up to that point. He slept in on Thanksgiving morning so that, when he awoke, the three of us heard him exclaim from his bed "It's THANKSGIVING!" before the familiar sound of sliding down his bed-slide and trotting over to join us in our room. His excitement lasted at least until Friday when he told our new British friends "Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday!"
Both boys enjoyed the Thanksgiving meal complete with a sprinkle of Grandmother, a dab of Feefadder, a dollop of Cindi, slice of Mike, while heavy on Daddy's heritage turkey.
Friday we took the boys out to lunch at a sandwich place while running some errands. We bought each boy his own child's meal (this is actually Adlai's second restaurant meal of his own, both grilled cheese - Simon ate half). I handed Adlai my pickle as a joke and, much to my surprise, the budding picky eater devoured every last morsel. (A few days later he cried when I didn't give him my lemon-olive oil soaked asparagus so I gave him three pieces each he devoured with equal enthusiasm. Since he won't eat anything plain, we suspect he is a big fan of salty and sour.)
After failing to find what I was looking for in the store, we drove home and single handedly killed the Sears web site by attempting to purchase my long desired treadmill online. (The other few thousand people taking advantage of Black Friday deals probably helped.) Eventually the server returned to working order. The treadmill should arrive in our "garage" this Friday. I'm really excited about this purchase since I've been trying for months to find a workout routine that doesn't involve missing out on the lives of my children. Now I can do something I enjoy from home while they are sleeping and, perhaps, Matthew will have time to play video games all while we are next to each other. Which is kinda-sorta romantic if you think about it hard enough.
Friday afternoon our new friends from the UK came over for a park play date and an excellent meal prepared by none other than Chef Matthew (baby Ben is two days away from Adlai in birth). We had a great time comparing favorite pastimes, shows, books, meals, drinks, etc. Because there were enough adults to cover the exits in play structure, Adlai crawled up the steps and slid down the slide on his own for the very first time. He looked a bit shocked (not in a good way) each time he reached the bottom of the slide but was clearly proud of himself as he tried it again and again.
Saturday we took on the arduous task of organizing the "garage" (bonus room). We've done this several times before; each time Simon discovers new items and makes the place a complete disaster within days. This time was no different. However, since we actually plan to use the room on a regular basis (after the treadmill arrives) we're no longer going to be able to ignore the mess.
Later that evening we took the boys to Lenore and Carl's "leftovers" party which was much more fun than cleaning. Adlai complained about the number of people until he discovered that there was food at which point he cheered immensely. Simon played the piano and sang late into the evening and we didn't even charge for his services. Both boys went to sleep two hours late and both boys woke up an hour early which brings us to Cranky Sunday.
Cranky Sunday was characterized by lots of horrible whining. Fortunately for Simon, the day ended with a bouncy house party for one of his friends. All of his favorite classmates were there and it was the first time he didn't need Dad to crawl with him through the bouncy obstacle course or slide with him down the enormous bouncy slide. Simon couldn't have been more thrilled. Adlai wanted nothing more than to get away from the large number of people and the loud music and the gleeful screaming and wouldn't be put down or allow anyone to comfort him but Daddy. He was, however, relatively happy while consuming two large slices of cheese pizza. Our boys do have their priorities. Once we were home we immediately stopped the suffering by tucking both boys in bed and we enjoyed the last couple of hours of a long weekend in relative silence.
Photos and video coming soon.