Travis has been under the weather the last couple of days. He’s been quite an easy patient, actually, happy to play with his trains or watch movies. He had a good day yesterday but by evening his fever had come back and he was worn out. He asked to go to bed at 6:15 and didn’t want any dinner.
All was well until 5:00 this morning, when apparently he’d had enough rest and his stomach started calling. He knocked politely on our door. I staggered out to him and he announced happily, “I’m bored of sleeping. Can I have some breakfast?”
I compromised by giving him some apple and milk and telling him that after that he’d have to go back to bed until morning. I tried snoozing on the couch while he snacked, but his constant chatter made that pretty impossible. At one point he said something I didn’t catch. “What was that, T?” I asked groggily. “I’m munching my apple softly so you can have a little rest over there!” he announced proudly. I guess he didn’t figure all his jabbering was keeping me awake at all. It was a sweet thought, though.
After I picked Travis up from school, we went through the Starbucks drive-through. I explained to him in advance that I was getting a gift card for a friend and we weren’t buying drinks. As we pulled around to pick up the card, Travis commented, “I didn’t ask for anything!” I thanked him and let him know I appreciated that.
About halfway to our next destination, Travis reminded me, “I did a really good job not asking for a drink at Starbucks, didn’t I? I did it just like you asked me to.” I reassured him that he had indeed behaved admirably.
A moment or two later, “Mommy, since I did SUCH a good job not asking for a drink when we were Starbucks, can we go back to Starbucks and get me a vanilla milk?” I think he missed the point a bit, but the entertainment value made it worthwhile.
When I look back at our activities of this weekend, it seems like we’ve been cross-training. For what, I don’t know, but something with lots of different activities.
After much begging (largely prompted by Travis having a new bathing suit and goggles he’s been dying to try out), I took the kids swimming after school on Friday. They then spent Saturday morning tearing around at a park for 2 hours for Evelyn’s birthday party, after which we went ice-skating.
This afternoon the kids rode their bikes to Lion’s Park to watch the BMX races (to which they both now aspire) and then did lots of laps in the parking lot and neighborhood. Both kids are doing so well on their bikes. Hallie’s now getting herself started alone. She even declared gleefully, “Mommy, I don’t need you anymore!” I gasped in mock horror, but I knew what she meant and I was delighted. And Travis showed lots of great control, catching himself and preventing spills several times. They were both justifiably pleased with themselves.
After a fun dinner on the porch the kids still wanted more. So we played a quick family soccer game in the back yard. Add to this my visit to a consignment sale and a late night doing the R-Line pub crawl with some neighbors last night, and I’m beat! But happy.
Travis loves my reflective running vest. Lately he’s been wearing it several days a week. Sometimes he’s a construction worker, sometimes he’s a safety officer, and sometimes he’s just a guy wearing a reflective vest all day.
He had it on during our visit to Costco last week. A lady stopped us in the parking lot and said, “That’s a GREAT idea! I could really see him in the parking lot!” I laughed and explained that the vest was all Travis’s idea, not something I’d done on purpose. She looked a bit crestfallen but then brightened and said, “But that would be a really good idea to do that!”
I recognize I’m way towards one end of the “overprotectiveness spectrum.” My actions, which I have to consciously moderate, may not reflect how very controlling I’d often like to be. But even I am not far enough gone to put my son in a safety vest for outings to Costco. At least not yet.
During her more dramatic moments, we often tease Hallie that she has a future on the stage. She thinks this is a great idea and has been asking about how to get involved in plays, etc. Apparently she’s about to get her first chance. Read the rest of this entry »
As with so many things, I often don’t realize (or don’t admit) how bad things are in the moment. It’s only when they are back to normal that I can say, “Oh, so I really did feel crummy!” or “Yep, unemployment really sucked” or “Wow, that was a tough stage to get through.” Hallie was never ALL that sick the past couple of weeks. But I’m realizing now that she’s back to normal that it’s been quite a while since she’s been totally herself. The last two days she’s played hard, read a lot, and asked for more challenging math problems because “this homework is too easy.” That’s my girl! And I’m glad to have her back.
After many months of trying, and envying Hallie’s abilities, Travis has learned to whistle! I’ll admit it’s still pretty airy (which is better than pretty spitty), but there’s a definite whistling sound coming through. I’ve no doubt he’ll keep practicing.
Hallie’s home with me today, though it sure doesn’t seem like she needs to be. In fact, it kind of feels like she’s playing hooky. She had a cold a couple of weeks ago that turned into a cough. The cough stuck around and then Friday night she developed a fever. I figured she had another sinus infection so I took her in on Sunday morning. Turns out she’s got “walking pneumonia” again.
She was pretty draggy when the cold (or maybe it was already walking pneumonia) first struck. But she’s been doing just fine lately, other than the cough. Since she had a fever yesterday I had to keep her home today. She’s on the medicine now, though, and hopefully will be back at school tomorrow.
All things considered, this winter hasn’t been too bad on us healthwise. I’m still ready for it to be behind us, though!
Travis is a good sleeper but every week or two something has him up in the night. The night after our last sailing trip he had a very rare bathroom accident. When he came to find me, his mouth was running a mile a minute. The monologue went something like this: “I woke up and my bed was all wet and my pajamas were wet too. I don’t know why my bed was wet and my pajamas were wet, too. I looked around and decided this was a problem and I tried to figure out what to do to fix the problem but I didn’t know how to fix the problem so I came to find you because if I wake up in the night and I find that I have a problem and I don’t know how to fix the problem I know I can come find you and tell you that I had a problem that I didn’t know how to fix and that I came to find you to help me fix the problem since I know you’re good at fixing problems if there are problems I don’t know how to fix.” Read the rest of this entry »
Hallie started getting an allowance when she turned 5. Originally it was a dollar a week but she balked at my direction that she save part of it to share with others. We compromised at upping her allowance to $1.25 and agreed she’d put the quarter in the “share” part of her bank each week. She’s done this consistently but other than a contribution toward some holiday donations last year she has been reluctant to actually share that money. I haven’t pushed the issue and she’s let it build up. Read the rest of this entry »
