Pow!

7-6-10




It seemed like that was the shortest weekend ever, and we had an extra day! What the hell?



Saturday was supposed to be a productive day. It really ended up being slightly lazy. I did have a dance session with the boys, which was fun. The boys helped me out with going through a giant bin of Playmobile. This was a bin that ended up being played with all weekend. We also took the boys and the dogs for a nice walk. By the time we got home, the boys were beat, which meant a nice long nap from both of them. Sure, we could have taken this time to work on projects, but we just caught up on some shows.



After nap, we were in the back yard when it occurred to me the boys needed to laugh. So I stripped down to my undergarments and jumped into the pool, despite it being insanely freezing. The boys laughed a little, but the laughter was way too little for how freaking cold I was now. Bobby ended up coming in the pool with me and we splashed around for a bit. Dax wanted to come in, and even though we advised against it since he is more sensitive to the cold, he jumped into me. As his feet touched the water, you could see his brain switch from way happy to holy shit get me the fuck out of here are you guys mad?



Saturday night Ken and I watched the M*A*S*H finale. I had ordered it on Netflix. It was wonderful. I had seen it a couple of times before, but it had been a while. It was also incredibly draining. I didn’t remember crying so much the last times. What was particularly amusing was that while we watched, it was hard to distinguish the shelling in the show to the fireworks outside our house. They had a cease fire, but we certainly didn’t.



Sunday was more hectic, yet slow at the same time. After bowling, we ended up doing an extensive clean out of toys. I had intended on just putting the toys away in Dax’s room, but ended up dumping everything out on the floor and sorting them into proper containers. This resulted in several old things being tossed and a reduction in containers. Dax’s room almost sparkles. While I was working on Dax’s room, Ken and Bobby were in Bobby’s room doing the same thing. We did good!



That afternoon we went to my parents’ house to BBQ and get ready to go to fireworks. When we arrived, the boys, my mom and I, worked on pictures for my mom’s new office. On Friday, the boys had painted out the sky and grass, and on Saturday, my mom and I helped them cut out houses and helped them make a picture that my mom would then put in frames. It was a lot of them, but it was a lot of my mom and I, too.



Matt actually had friends over. No joke! He had been hanging out with this guy Kip lately at work, and on Thursday, he tells my parents that Kip is going bowling with them on Friday, and that he had invited Kip, and their other friend Samantha, over for 4th of July. This is a huge deal. This was not encouraged inviting. This was all Matt’s doing, which is awesome! They were nice. Obviously they were in a similar mental predicament as Matt, which was fine. Matt was more obnoxious than both of them, but he seemed more nervous which may have accounted for this. But he hung out with them and was super chipper. It was cool.



We made our way down to the same spot as last year in Redondo to watch the fireworks and they came with us. Matt and his new friends even wandered off to the pier for a while.



We got to the spot around 6, so we did have 3 hours to kill before fireworks. That time went by pretty quickly considering. Ken and the boys tried to fly kites, which worked a little bit. They drew with chalk and did some bubbles. I was pleased with how well we kept them entertained.



My dad was all pleased with himself when he managed to get a cop to do his job. There is a red zone in front of where we hang out there. Last year and this year, people just ended up parking there, even though it was red. What they would do is park there, stay in the car, and watch the fireworks. It is a good spot to do it. This enrages my dad to no end. Especially since there were numerous cops all over the place. None of them did a thing about this. Finally my dad went up to one of them and asked why it was that no one was doing anything about them parking in the red zone. The cop actually had the gall to say he didn’t have his ticket book with him. What the hell? So my dad pointed out the people were still in the car and that he didn’t need to ticket them, just tell them to move. So the cop actually did this! He also brought his bike over and he set up camp at the spot to prevent more people from parking there. Of course, one person ended up double parking right in front of him and he did nothing, but I suppose baby steps, right?



Dax was a little nervous about the fireworks at first. He sat on my lap (which is no small feat for 20 minutes since the kid weighs 45 pounds) and I had to cover his ears at first. I whispered to him during, and by the time the fireworks were over, the kid was loving every second. Bobby was memorized from the first boom to the last pop.



We started our walk back to the car, but both boys were beat. I ended up stopping with them and Ken continued up to get the car and came and got us. Poor Dax had to pee, but what with the bumper to bumper traffic, he was told to hold it. We finally got out of a lot of the traffic and Dax whimpering in the back seat. I had Ken pull over at the Del Amo Mall in an empty parking lot and we let the kid go. He had been holding it for a while. It was good we stopped since even though we were away from the Redondo Beach traffic, we hit the Torrance traffic from Wilson Park. Sheesh! It took an hour to get home even though it would normally take 10 minutes.



Monday was a big day. Bobby was starting camp! I had considered just dropping him off at the school without even getting out. Ken would then get him since he would already be there, and he could take him. Instead, we went early enough that I could park and Dax and I walked him into the school. Ken was just finding out classroom info anyway, so we went with him and Chelsea to each of the classes Bobby would be going to. He had cartooning first for an hour, then basketball for an hour, then a break, then Lego with Chelsea, which was next door to Ken. Bobby was excited, so with 15 minutes till gathering time, I wished him luck and told him I would be back to pick him up at lunch. He was fine with this and Dax and I headed out.



Ken told me later that he ended up having some tears and even gripped onto Ken’s leg a bit. However, once he got to cartooning, the teacher there was awesome. He knew how to ease Bobby’s anxiety. Bobby was wearing his shark sweatshirt so the instructor told him he could show him how to draw a shark. This had Bobby pleased. Ken then went to his class and Bobby was on his own.



Bobby did injure himself a little at break, and instead of going to the playground advisors, he did go to Ken’s room. This was not a bad thing since really, it is good that Bobby was able to remember how to get there.



Dax and I went to my parents’ house briefly to see my mom’s hair color and the artwork framed. I also looked up the directions on how to get to the park we went to. My mom had seen a picture of this cool looking waterfall in the Daily Breeze. It was at a park in San Pedro. The park, Averill Park, looked cool, so Dax and I headed over there. It was a good day for it. It wasn’t hot out and the overcast made for awesome lighting for picture taking. We found it with no problems and we headed down the trail.



We found the ponds and Dax and I were equally thrilled at the number of ducks. We watched them for a while, exploring as we went. Several other folks were walking around, all of them complimenting Dax on his shark sweatshirt or hat. I was a little bummed I had not hit up Brandy for some duck food before hand. I will need to make sure to get some so I can keep it in my car.



The squirrels there must be accustomed to being fed by people. This one was rather brazen and practically went right up to Dax. He was thrilled. I got some cute pictures of that.



We finally came across the waterfall. It was cool! Dax wasn’t as impressed with this, but I enjoyed it. It was so peaceful. We had spent about an hour walking around, and Dax was saying his legs were sore, so we went back to the car.



I asked Dax what he would like to do. He only wanted to go to McDonalds. I had promised that I would take he and Dax there once we picked up Bobby. I explained this to Dax, so his response was, “Let’s go get Bobby then.” Crud. It didn’t help that I had no money to really do anything interesting, so despite his request that we didn’t just go home, this is where we ended up. Although he ended up being ok with this since he could watch Mickey Mouse.



We headed back to the school at the best time. I got parking and we arrived only a few minutes before a swarm of parents showed up. Dax and I sat at the Zone, which was the central meeting point for all of the classes. I figured it would be good for Bobby to not have me get him different from the other kids. Ken came out before Bobby did. He had his class with him. Plus, Ken, being the one with the most booming voice, he was directing parents and traffic. Then Bobby’s class came out. Bobby looked so lost with the whole thing. He was calling out for Ken since I am sure he knew that his dad was there somewhere. I called over to him and his face lit up when he recognized someone. He ran over, all happy. He then started pointing to all the kids in his group saying that they were all his new friends. That was cool. He wanted to introduce me to them, even though he didn’t know their names. LOL! It was sweet. He also then wanted to take me to introduce me to his teachers.



We found the basketball coach and I went up to him and told him that my son wanted me to meet him. He seemed so indifferent to this. He said, Oh, hello, then said to Bobby (who’s name he clearly didn’t remember) and said, “Good work buddy!” and gave him a high five. Then he went on his way. I told Ken about this later, and he said this was so unlike him, so I am hoping that I just caught him in the middle of something. Look, my kid doesn’t just introduce me to people, so when he does, people, you had better be nice.



We left Ken behind since he had another hour or so of work, and we headed over to McDonalds. I was so proud of me! I actually had the boys go sit at the table in the play area while I went and got food. Normally this would freak me out, leaving them alone. But with two of them, I don’t get as worried. And shockingly, neither one of them was worried about me doing this.



It was a good visit there. The boys got toys from their happy meals and the one Bobby got was a guy on a hang glider thing, which was cool since he had been obsessed recently with hang gliders. Bobby asked me if they could take the toys with them to the play structure. Bobby actually used the phrase, “All the other kids are doing it.” Sigh. I suppose it was bound to happen some day. I ended up saying ok, and it was a good thing since both boys found a friend with a matching toy and had a good ole time together. At one point, Bobby came running over to me and says, “Mom! My friend needs your help!” That was AWESEOME! I could not help, but I helped Bobby get help. His friend’s toy had lost a part behind the structure. I couldn’t reach it, so I told Bobby to run up to the counter, and tell Ken, who had just shown up, to see about getting a broom. Bobby ran for help, but by this time, the kid’s sister goes and was able to reach it. Either way, it was an awesome thing.



They played for a couple hours, and had a blast. I watched other kids, not having as good of a time. This one lady, who looked to be about my age and had 4 kids, was sitting with another couple who had a couple kids. One of the kids was in the habitrail above where these people were sitting, the whole time doing the standard knock on the plastic, yelling, Hi Mom! These people were oblivious. Poor kid was crying, with zero acknowledgement from her parent. I finally waved to her, which made her smile, so that was cool. This one set of brothers was horrid, too. The older brother took his kid brother’s face in his hands and proceeded to shake him and yell at him. I couldn’t see what this was over, but it sent the younger brother in tears off to find their mom. She was on the phone and couldn’t be bothered with seeing this happen or to even punish the older kid once the younger one told her what happened.



I was pleased when I watched Bobby show concern for others. Dax was near by when a kid came down the slide in tears. I asked Dax if he saw what had happened, and he had not seen. So Bobby says, “I will go find out!” and he runs over to his mom and asks what happened. It was very sweet.



We got home and went out to clean up the yard. Ken and I worked on the garage, organizing the trash and recyclables into piles and filling a trash can (OH SHIT! I meant to take that out. Oh well) up with crap. We managed to do quite a bit, including getting the yard in order for the gardeners today. The boys were in pissy form, both of them seemed tired, plus they just didn’t want to listen to directions. Luckily, they also seemed super content to just play without us being around, so we could work on clean up.



I enjoyed making lunches for Ken and Bobby last night. I packed them all up in Bobby’s backpack, and Ken got a little bag. I am thinking that I will need to start putting in notes and treats, too. I just don’t want him too distracted since he does get that snack break, and if he expects cool things in his lunch bag, he might start doing that before lunch. I could always have Ken keep the lunch in his fridge in the classroom so that all Bobby has to worry about is his snack. We will see. His backpack seems like over kill, too, since there is only a small item in there. I just don’t know.



I swear, I have been zones out in front of my computer all day. I started reading some articles and then did some customer emailing for a while, and next thing I know it is 11:30. I probably should set a timer to stand up more often.



I am not happy about my recent leg cramping. My inner thigh, which I had never had a cramp in before, tensed up, well, the most delicate way to put this was that it happened in the middle of relations, which let me tell you, is not nice to do to your man who assumes he is killing you until you can explain that your leg just tensed up so bad you can’t see straight. I have always gotten calf cramps. They happen randomly and have since I was a teen. I have gotten used to those. But this was crazy. I started looking up leg cramp info and one of the causes may have been dehydration or recent heavy activity. Since I had taken a vigorous walk earlier that day and had not drunk enough, I could see this being an issue. Either way, it wasn’t fun. I am planning on making sure I stretch before these walks, now. I think it would be a good preventive.