The End and the Start of a Long Weekend

Here I am at the very last few remaining minutes of a long weekend. It's been a very relaxing weekend. I know... we should have done something fun with four days off (I've been wanting to see Monticello and Jason still has many battlefields to explore), but it was just too cold outside to even think of braving the elements. Instead, Jason spent a lot of time in the basement clearing out our filing cabinet and organizing some of our many piles of miscellaneous papers that pile up and pile up and pile up. The basement looks amazing. I do wish that I had been more productive... maybe I could have actually started/finished putting those photos that are sitting in that box into an album.

Going in reverse order, we celebrated (without actually celebrating) Eli's 4/3 birthday yesterday (Monday). Yes... he is now one year and four months old. His vocabulary has expanded slightly. Now instead of only saying "hi" and "baba" (his way of saying mama), he also says "bye bye". It used to be that at bedtime when I tucked him in, I would say goodnight and he would respond with "hi" (he used hi for both hi and bye). Now he tells me "bye bye" as I kiss him goodnight. Also, he had his 15-month checkup this past week. His vitals are as follows: weight – 23lbs 12.8oz (34th %ile) and height – 31 ¼ in (43rd %ile). His percentiles are up (he jumped a few lines on the curves)... go Eli boy!!

And still poor Lucas. He finally gets better after that horrendous stomach virus and then all weekend he was suffering with a virus in his eyes (not pinkeye). He is doing much better now, his eyes aren't oozing anymore, but they are still red and swollen. He just looks so pitiful.

Saturday night we went over to a friend's house for game night. They gave us a quick tour of the wonders of the Wii. Clara and Lucas tried out baseball, I crushed Jason in a game of bowling, and then they demonstrated the aggressiveness of boxing. After the kids went to bed (notice I did not say sleep... since Clara and Lucas were heard talking and laughing for hours after we put them to bed), we got out the big guns and played Rock Band until the wee hours of the morning. Our band didn't do too bad at all... that was my alterego on drums (she did vocals on a few songs)... I think she might be finally starting to get the hang of it. It was tremendous fun!! We were definitely sluggish the following day, but it was so worth it.

Friday was the start of Jason's long weekend (as it was his Friday off). He stayed home with Eli while I went to the dentist and then to volunteer in Clara's classroom. The dentist appointment was pretty much routine, although they did fit me for a bite guard to use at night. I've been having some jaw pain due to teeth clenching at night while I sleep, so hopefully this will take care of that. But what I really want to talk about was my first experience volunteering in my kid's class. I was terrified. I'm not good with kids in general... sometimes that includes my own. I kept hoping that maybe the teacher would take pity on me and sit me in a corner stuffing envelopes or something on par with that. You know... take a slow, one step at a time approach. But no. It was completely the opposite. I walked in and she sat me with two kids and had me helping them with their assignment. As each kid finished, I had to call another to come up. What a nerve-racking hour!! I keep replaying it in my head and I've finally decided that it was probably the best thing for me... that sink-or-swim approach. Now, when I go back, I definitely won't be quite so scared... I mean what could be worse than working one-on-one with the kids? Ok, well, obviously, reading or speaking to all the kids at once could easily be worse (public speaking fear slowly creeping into my chest as I think of the possibility). Aside from my own anxieties, I am so very glad that I did it and I will continue to do it for as long as I can. The look on Clara's face when she saw me there was, for lack of a better word, priceless. She was so proud and excited and I know that she felt special, singled out as the occasional child would interrupt their own activity to come over and ask me whose mom I was. And the truth was... after the first couple of kids, once I stopped sweating, it wasn't so bad.

And tomorrow, the routine starts back up again. No more relaxing, not too much free-time, and my alterego is hiding in the closet until the next game night. However, I can take solace in the fact that it's only a three day week... before another long weekend.