Skip to the End (Name that movie!)

Wellllll, I'm back from the living dead. You didn't know I was with the living dead, did you? The beauty of saved drafts.

Is it just me or is this winter's round of illness particularly prevalent? And harsh? Bo has been SO sick this whole week. It started last Saturday and the moment he said, "My head hurts" I looked at him and knew it was the flu. And it was a doozie.

Today is his first fever free day and he is using all newly regained energy to yell at and taunt Avee---so I know he's on the mend.

I loved the comments in the last post--I wanted to respond to them individually, but I just didn't have the oomph to do it, and now it seems like I'd show up at a Fall party wearing white shoes---so I'm just not going to embarrass myself. But I appreciated what people shared, and some really got me a'thinkin'.

One thing that stood out to me was how much other's words affected us, in our youth. I told J last night, "If I ever catch our kids being cruel to each other, I will...I will...I will beat them." I was so serious and he laughed at me. It makes me sad that people still struggle in their adult life with things their siblings said carelessly or even parents. It makes me want to be more careful with how I say things to my own children. Makes me want to.

Bo really wanted to go to school today but I bribed him to stay home with the promise that he could play with friends when they got home, and we'd go on a walk or to the park, and that we'd go to Family Fun Night at his school. Sort of backwards, but ehhhhhhhh, he wasn't quite ready for a full day of school, even though he wasn't contagious anymore. If it's possible for a child to ever not be contagious. What with all the licking and picking and touching...
This was acceptable for Bo.

So basically, what I realized after a day spent with semi-healthy Bo is, I could pretty much never send him back to school and be happy with it. There'd be some guilt with such a decision because I also probably wouldn't homeschool him--but I'm sure more TV and less getting up to take him to school would assuage that guilt. He's just downright delightful. And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom. People stop me all the time and say, "he looks like he's downright delightful."

No they don't.

We had a really fun day.

My friend came over in the morning and after stepping over my piles of laundry long enough, we decided to get lettuce wraps and go to the park. We called a couple of other friends and made it a party. The weather is beautiful here right now. Danyo thinks he's died and gone to heaven---he hasn't played outside since the Bush Administration. We all know that the Bush Administration essentially ended before a new president was actually put in. It's been a long time for poor lil' Danyo.

I was sort of dreading FFN at Bo's school, but I had a promise to keep. But THEN I found out that the Family Fun Night was actually Family "Empty the Bank Account" Night and that it was a totally packed event and blah blah blah. So I bribed Ben AGAIN with a trip to Mr. Cheese's to play ski ball---his new passion. He threw in a trip to get a pack of Pokemon cards with his own money, and we had ourselves a deal.

We got a babysitter for Avee and Danyo and went out on the town. By way of Chuck E Cheesery's. My friend called me on our way home and asked incredulously, "Why'd ya get a babysitter to go to a kid's place!"

Ehhhh, we wanted to play. Avee and Danyo were tired and are kind of the "have to be watched and stuff" brand of kids.

Bo probably played 37 games of ski ball. He's really good and it kind of cracks me up to watch his little 5 year old self hurl a ball up the ramp in hopes of the 10,000 point hole "up in the coh-no"

I've been a little sick myself this week, and while one of the symptoms is exhaustion, for me it's also coupled with mild restlessness. Where I usually fall asleep quickly at night or take a nap easily when the opportunity presents itself, I have been unable to do both all week. The combination of which, has resulted in a Nobody with diminished capacity. On all fronts.

I knocked the cup of tokens off the ski ball lane two times in less than 5 minutes. My high score on ski ball was on average, 10,000. For some perspective, Bo was averaging about 22K. There's a basketball game I love to play there and I try to beat my best every time I go, my best of about 197 or something. I got nothing over 150. I bumped into people regularly, I dropped over 100 tickets, like three times. Basically I was a bumbling idiot. It really made me laugh. J? Not so much. I guess he doesn't like "picking things up all the time". Whatever.

We got some nice pictures taken. I think I'll cancel our appt with JCPenney's Photography and just have Avee and Danyo photoshopped in. What do you think?

One thing I noticed is Bo's similarity to Barack in that 3rd picture. As much as he'd like his skin color, his nice suits, and his residency in the White House---for now he'll have to settle for pictures of them both with a disproportionately large hand.