The Weekend Update

Today was the kids' first day back at daycare, after a two-month hiatus.  I knew Sammy would be  ecstatic to be back.  The entire time he was home with Dad, he would randomly mention how much he missed his daycare friends, and ever since we've told him he was going back he's been chattering about all the things he needed to tell his teacher about, including: Johnny the hamster, potty-training, Chuck E. Cheese visits, and various Lego masterpieces.  Natalie, on the other hand - I wasn't sure what to expect from her.  She had just moved into the toddler room a week or two before their daycare break, so it was still pretty new to her.  She also inherited my introverted personality and is happy to hang out at home.  So I was surprised when 1) Ron told me she didn't even look back at him when he dropped her off, and 2) her teacher told me that she had a great day and seemed really happy to be back.  

In other news, with the recent warm weather we dug our bikes out of storage last week but we haven't yet dusted off the bike trailer.  Ron's bike has a child seat on the back, but that means we can only take one child riding at a time.  Sammy likes bike rides, but Natalie looooves anything to do with the outdoors, and bike riding now is #1 on her list of favorite pasttimes.  All weekend long she drug her bike helmet around, pleading for just one more bike ride.  On Saturday, Ron rode his bike to the gas station for a Sunday paper, and Natalie got to ride with.  It's about 2 miles (one way) to the nearest gas station, but Ron reported that she just happily sat in her seat, enjoying the breeze on her face, and didn't make a peep.  He was so proud of how good she was that he bought her a lollipop at the gas station.  When they came home, Natalie came waltzing in the door, looking blissed out and still sucking on her lollipop.  Sammy's gaze instantly focused on the lollipop and he made a beeline for her.  "What do you have, Natalie?  Can I see?"  When she didn't answer, he persisted, "Do you have a lollipop?  Can I have a taste?" and he crouched down to get a better look.  I finally took pity on him and got him a lollipop of his own from my secret stash.

Ron's first day at his new job was yesterday, so the kids and I spent the day by ourselves.  I had a huge amount of projects to do this weekend, both indoor and out, and I was amazed at how well the kids played and let me get my work done.  Of course, it helped that all the outdoor toys are now new and exciting again.  We got the plastic off the windows (which involves touching up the paint on the trim, since the peel & seel adhesive always manages to peel off some of the paint as well), cleaned out the basement, rearranged some furniture, ran some errands, and cleaned out my potting shed.  By the end of the day, the garbage can was full to overflowing and my back was aching.  But there's nothing quite like the satisfaction you get from a hard day's work and a lot to show for it.

To end this post with one more bit of randomness, right now I am remembering the one good thing about winter: no thunderstorms.  Right now, we are enduring the first thunderstorm of the season and, as usual, it scares the you-know-what out of me.  At least there's one fewer tree to fall on the house now, should a bolt of lightning strike.