Weekend to Remember

No, I'm not referring to a marriage retreat, but after this weekend, I feel like we need one! It was actually a lot like those breakfast things McDonalds came out with about a year ago: "bizarre but good."

Our noteworthy weekend began on Thursday. I bought Rachel her first pair of scissors on Wednesday, so she could practice cutting shapes. Thursday morning, while I was watching 2 little friends of Karis', I got out Rachel's crayons, markers, paper and scissors, so she would have something to keep her occupied for a while. Well, the first thing she decided to try cutting was, of course, her hair. Proudly holding out a handful of curls, she informed me that her scissors did, in fact, work. Luckily, she hacked away a section in the front, and with such curly hair, the uneven cutting job isn't all that noticable - it just looks like she has some long bangs. When I informed her, however, that it would likely not grow back out until well after her 5th birthday, instead of in 2 days, as she thought, she immediately burst into hysterical tears. I must confess, I didn't try too hard to console her. The more upset she is, I thought, the less likely we are to have a repeat performance!

Just as I finished cleaning up all the hair, I noticed Karis happily munching on a handful of yellow play doh (which I had gotten out for Zekers). I realized it wasn't the only play doh she'd ingested, as that same yellow, and lots of other pretty colors, came gushing out of her mouth, along with some breakfast cereal. Later, Rachel again burst into tears as a fight between her and Zekers resulted in one leg being torn off her "R" pillow. I helpfully suggested that now it could just be her "P" pillow, which only made her cry harder. ("But Mom, there's not even a "P" anywhere in any of my names!" True.) On his way home from work, Danny picked up a Sobe green tea for me, and I definitely felt like I'd earned it. (My favorite is Starbucks tazo green tea, but the nearest one is about 30 minutes' drive from here, so Sobe is the next best thing.)

Friday seemed much more promising. In the morning Rach & I walked to her kindergarten "screening", and I actually came away very encouraged. It turns out a lot is expected of the kids before they enter; I was given a long list of things Rachel needs to know, and tips/activities to help us work with her. The really encouraging thing was that she's already mastered the entire list, and then some (with the exception of writing her last name - I've gotten lazy these past couple of months and haven't worked with her much on that one).

One thing that struck me as rather curious: every teacher I talked with, as well as the one who addressed our little group of parents during the screening, seemed to operate on the basic assumption that kids who haven't attended pre-school don't know anything - not their alphabet, not how to write their name, not their address, not what a word in a book looks like. It kind of struck me as funny. Why on earth wouldn't a child thrive under one-on-one instruction at home, even a pre-school aged child? Anyway, I came away feeling much better about her coming school experience, and feeling good about her readiness to attend.

That evening we dropped the kids off with some friends (our turn for a date night!). Generally, we drop off all three kiddos, then pick Karis up around 8:30, while the other 2 spend the night. The next month, they do the same with their 3 kiddos. We had such a wonderful time - doing nothing! I wasn't feeling great, and Zekers had been in meltdown mode all afternoon, so we opted to just stay in town and use a gift certificate for dinner. We got coffee afterward, and went walking in the park for about an hour - so we could discuss a book I had just read and asked Danny to read before our date night. (Let the record show that I gave him his "homework" about 2 weeks in advance; he started reading at about 1:30 Friday afternoon. To his credit, he did manage to finish over half the book - enough that we could discuss it.) The material contained in this particular book holds the potential to drastically affect our lives, so I wanted to make sure we were on the same page (haha). More about this in a future post.

We finished out the evening by spending insane amounts of cash at Lowe's for our yard, picking up Karis and heading home. This is the part where you can rest easy, Marfin, because it's nearly impossible to have a "romantic" evening at home when your son goes hysterical and wants to come back home at 10 PM, which is exactly what happened. He continued the hysterical thing at 3 AM, when we finally brought him to bed with us. He woke up again at 6:15 and wasn't about to go back to sleep. Oh well . . . at least Danny & I had a fun evening together, and I completed some scrapbooking pages! Besides, it's almost impossible to be frustrated with your son when he throws himself into your arms and tearfully says, "I just wanted you, Mommy." I do believe, though, that every time Danny and I make plans, God has a good laugh. And we're learning flexibility . . . or something.

Saturday we did yard work, Rachel got stung by a bee, and after she recovered, I took her with me to a bridal shower. (I suppose I should also mention that I dragged Karis to Wal-Mart in the morning because I developed an inescapable craving for cheese danish.) After dinner, we went for a family bike ride and stopped at the park; what a perfect evening to enjoy the outdoors. We have one seat on the back of each bike, and Danny hauls Kari Bou in the trailer - great exercise! I guess I'd better start working out before the baby comes, because next summer I'll be hauling a trailer, too!

Today was a momentous day . . . Zekers not only told the children's church workers he had to go potty and went all by himself, but for the first time in over a week, he actually pooped in his potty and not in his underwear! Yay Zekers! (Hey, what's the joy in life if you can't celebrate the small things?) This afternoon Rach, Zekers and I went with a friend and her kids to see a performing act with a stunt artist/mime and her dog: Pino and Bonzer. They loved it. And Danny loved the 1 1/2 hours of quiet while we were gone; I didn't even bother asking him if he missed us! We grilled hamburgers for dinner, then Danny & the kiddos went to a small park nearby while I cleaned up the wreck that is our house. I was going to join them as soon as I finished, but ended up talking to a neighbor. Oh well.

And to top off the weekend . . . I received the most thoughtful gift - crackers and Easy Cheese! A friend had compassion on me and dropped it off just before dinner, so now I can indulge away, without actually having to admit that I went out and bought the stuff. Although it does contain real cheese, so it has to be good for me, right? I've already had WAY too much fun using the cheese to make shapes and designs on the crackers; I guess it doesn't take a whole lot to amuse me.

So that's the weekend wrap-up: and I have to say that the good moments far outweighed the bizarre ones!