First Date!

Well, not actually our first date. It just seems like it since it's our first one in at least 12 weeks. And who knows when our last one was in Indiana- it was pure craziness for the last weeks.

Anyway, I'm excited. Even if our boys are only 2 minutes away by car and the restaurant is halfway between us and them. Our restaurant choices in town are 2 pizza/french fries/chicken joints that are mostly carry-out, a pub and a bar (not sure if they serve food), a chinese restaurant that doesn't quite seem open, Subway, and this one. This one, "the Howie," actually seems pretty nice inside- I've been in there one time. And I can think of one other restaurant that's open during the day and recently started being open 3 evenings a week. And when it's warm there are 1 or 2 chip wagons around town, depending on...I'm not sure what it depends on.

So you can see that we don't go out to eat much. Besides, in spite of the small selection, they're rather pricey. In fact, I seem to be losing weight and can't seem to figure out why. The only major differences in eating or exercise habits I could come up with are rarely eating out and not pigging out on my mom's cooking. (There's something about eating my mom's cooking that makes me think I can eat just like I did when I was a kid and couldn't gain weight even though I desperately wanted to.)

But anyway, enough about restaurants and eating. A date! And I think I just heard my handsome prince ride up on the blue weasel. Bye bye!

As a follow-up to last night's entry about Eli's legs...

This morning Evan woke up too early (for me anyway) so I put him in our bed. He laid there for 45 minutes dozing off and on and playing off and on. At one point he started chanting: "Getting bigger- hairy legs! Getting bigger- hairy legs!"

It would appear that Eli's newly discovered leg hair made an impression on his little brother.

Getting Older

Tonight Eli made an important observation: "I'm getting older."

"Oh," I said, "How do you know?"

"I have hair on my legs and I didn't last night. See?"

I looked and sure enough, he had fuzzy shins. "Who has hairy legs?" I asked, expecting him to say that it was his favorite role model, Daddy. But no, he named his best bud, Isaac. :)

Sometimes I Feel Outnumbered

Last night at supper, Evan dipped his finger in the container of sour cream, then, in a loud stage whisper, said, "Eli! Look!" Eli, knowing that this was a no-no, smiled slyly at Evan and gave him a thumbs-up. See! I knew they were out to get us! They're ganging up on us!

The day went okay, but by suppertime I was frazzled. I mean, super-frazzled. Kendall had suggested that we all ride our bikes downtown to get our mail at the post office. I told him, "I'll do the dishes all by myself if you just take the boys and go." So he did and I flew around the kitchen to get done in record time. Then I scrubbed the bathtub as fast as I could so that I could have a relaxing bath. (I'm very bad at getting around to cleaning the tub, so I'm always motivated to scrub the scummy thing before I take a bath.)

Kendall stayed outside with the boys a long time so that I could enjoy some much-needed peace and quiet. Wasn't that so nice? It was very much appreciated.

Justice Served

Tonight Eli threw a slipper at Evan's face, which was the culmination of a series of misbehavin' events. It was almost snacktime, so Kendall told him, "No bedtime snack." Of course Eli could hardly stand the thought of that. "No! Give me a time-out!" Kendall told him he could take a time-out if he wanted, but that he still wouldn't get a snack. Eli stated that he wouldn't learn this way- only if he got a time-out instead. After a bit, he seemed to accept his lot in life. Then he got creative. He told Kendall that he came up with a way to teach himself. And then held a rolled-up slipper by his own face and let it fly, smacking himself in the face.

Eli's First Day of School (His Perspective)

Eli is safely home. :) He is going to answer a few questions.

How was your day?
Good.

Anything else?
Got a new best friend. Two!

What are their names?
I can only remember one of their names. One is named Evan. And I can't remember the other one's name. What are you writing?

Did you like your teacher?
(Shakes his head no.)

Eli, tell the truth.
I actually really didn't. I actually really did.

What is she like?
She likes all of us.

Tell me about her.
She's really nice and I don't know what else she likes. I'm gonna go. Bye bye!


Okay, so that didn't work so well. But when I picked him up, he seemed very happy to see me and happy about his day too. He ran over to me and gave me a big hug. Pretty much the first thing he said was, "Do we have any plans for this evening?" "Eli," I asked him, "Don't you remember about our big celebration?" (He got to choose what to eat and he chose Subway. We'll take it out to the bush and go grouse hunting.) "Yeah, but I mean something else too. Like going to a friend's house to play." Apparently he hasn't had enough socialization yet today.

Eli did say that he had a super-good day. He said they got to play outside 2 times and went to the gym. There they played Simon Says. He said he had 4 teachers. When he got home he pulled out a project he is working on (a bandit mask- basically a roughly-cut triangle of construction paper) and said Evan could help him. Then he proceeded to ask for books from the book order he brought home. I forgot all about those things! He told me, "There's something you need to get me, even if you don't like it..." That's how he prefaces anything having to do with Spiderman. Sorry, I still win on that one. Although I'm wondering if I should give up the battle against Spiderman so that it loses its appeal.

Anyway...the boys are happily playing "beaverhouse" right now. That's where they pile up anything they can find and crawl in under the pile to be beavers. Right now the pile contains 3 bed pillows, various couch cushions, one game, one video case, 2 shoes, one fish net, one small container, one moose (stuffed) and a box of papers. Oh, and 2 slightly wrinkly apples. And they're trying to put our huge stroller on top of the whole pile.

First Day of School (From Mom's Perspective)

I sent my little (big?) boy off to school this morning. And I am so proud of him. He was sitting at breakfast and apparently hadn't picked up on Kendall's comment about school. All of the sudden Eli said, "I just remembered I'm going to school today!" The smile on his face was so big and bright and proud. So we got him all ready for school and he and I set off to walk to school.

As we walked, I felt a need to explain everything I possibly could about school...again. Just want him to be prepared, you know? He was fine, though when we got within sight of the school and saw all the kids playing outside, he did get a bit quieter. At least I think he did. I know I did. There are very big kids there! This ain't no preschool! As we walked across the schoolyard, I was thinking, Am I supposed to leave him at the playground? Who am I gonna play with? What if no one talks to me? I'm nervous! (Oh, wait. I was talking about Eli, not me. Right?)

Thankfully, we went in the kindergarten door and there were all the kindergarteners. They were drawing or looking at books or putting puzzles together until school started.

I could tell Eli was nervous, but he walked right over to his cubby. (When we met his teacher last week, she showed him where it was.) He sat down and changed into his new inside shoes and hung up his backpack and sweatshirt. Then he stuck close to me as we walked into his classroom. He decided to go look at books. At one point he checked back for me and I told him I wouldn't leave without telling him. The bell rang and it was time to gather on the rug. I told Eli goodbye then stood at the back of the room to watch a bit. He didn't turn around to check for me, but started a conversation with the little boy sitting beside him. So I left.

I did feel a bit better about all the scary big kids when two smiled at me as I walked off the school grounds. :) It appears that some might actually be kind to little kindergarteners and nervous mommies!

I'm very glad that I could drop him off at school and didn't have to watch him disappear onto a big yellow school bus. We were both disappointed when we found out that they don't have bus service to our house, but for the first day it was just fine for both of us.

I will say that back at home I felt like superwoman. With only one kid, I can do anything! (Some would say that with only two kids they can do anything!) I can have a pleasant grocery shopping experience. I can maybe go into a store that doesn't have carts. (We'll have to see about that one.) I can maybe even be more patient and less frazzled. I'm looking forward to less intensity and a lower noise level 2 days a week. My boys play and fight loud. Sort of like the family I grew up in. But I'm glad Eli's only going 2 days a week. It feels like a really good thing for him, but not too much.

And here I sit, freshly-baked bread on the counter, a cup of coffee at my side, relatively clean floors (swept, but needing to be mopped), clean laundry (still sitting in the dryer), plants needing to be watered, jeans in need of patches and ironing on the table, books on the floor, bathroom needing to be cleaned, a messy desk, rugs still hanging over the railing outside, papers that need sorting, and a little boy that needs to be woke up soon so he can sleep tonight. Alright, alright...I'll get to it. I was going to say I feel like I am living a life of leisure, but I just effectively reminded myself that I should probably get up and get back to work.