Delayed Post
October 22, Saturday morning, we all piled into the van and headed toward my brother’s house to see his firstborn. We had only planned on being there for half and hour, but the visit was prolonged when the boys found a Spiderman figure. My brother has always been a fan of Spiderman, and he has infected my boys, especially Kyle, with the fever. Nikolas didn’t do anything but sleep, which is common in newborns, so the children ran up and down the stairs.
We later went to Skyler’s party at a park. Nothing was prepared. The hostess was wearing what looked like pajamas. It was supposed to start at two, and people were still cutting apples and oranges and laying party platters out a quarter after two. The soup was forgotten at the house.
The three older children started playing with the birthday boy and his school friends. Ty and Karina and Skyler raced. Kyle and Taylor tied balloons to their wrists. Ty and Kyle went over to the party that was one picnic table over, picked up their baseball bats and started playing with the big boys. That’s the problem about home schooling: The children don’t know how to socialize.
And we went to see the parade at the mall. The marching bands were pretty good, even the middle school bands – although a few of the band members didn’t get the memo to wear white sneakers. Eh. Taylor’s face lit up when she saw Hello Kitty waving at her. Mrs. Claus, the elves, and Santa Claus all went by on their floats. No, wait. The elves walked. There were some weather folks from channel 10 on their own float/decorated car.
I met a mom who was planning on putting her five month old boy on solid foods. She seemed to feel guilty about it the decision. She didn’t know that a baby should slowly be introduced foods and not be expected to rely on solid food entirely until after his first birthday. I told her that I’ve been nursing for six years, through pregnancies.
We got home. The boys went back to the park to see if Skyler’s party was still in the works, but they were long gone. It was dark. They went to the grocery store to buy an easy dinner. We passed out on the couch, amazed by the amount of energy and patience it took to survive the day.
I can’t believe that people run around town like that every weekend and call it “a day off.”
