Happy Weekend!

I had to explain to Alex on Friday night at pick-up that Daddy’s plane was delayed (by 4 hours) leaving London and that he would not be home before bedtime. I knew that this would be upsetting to Alex so I talked to him prior to getting Zach from the arena (usually get Zach first). But we still went for Chicken Fries at McDonalds and had a good evening together. We actually did lots of puzzles together – even Zach! Alex did not believe me, I guess, because he did not fall asleep until 9:30 pm! I was even asleep when Chris got home – after watching Slumdog Millionaire on the DVR.

Chris got home just after 11 pm. Not sure if he wanted to sleep in on Saturday morning, but the boys had other ideas.  They were both so excited that he was home so they woke up by 7 am and marched right up to his side of the bed to give him hugs and kisses.  Zach and I did our swim class as usual. He was better than last week (which was better than the steroid rage week) but he decided that he wanted to jump in the water to the Alligator song while the rest of the circle did the Hokey Pokey. Oh well. Sometimes these things just happen.  After the boys had lunch, Chris took the boys to his parents’ house for a few hours. I was able to then go grocery shopping and I made a trip over to Kohls. When they arrived home, I was doing the laundry and cleaning out my part of the closet. It was great to get some things done and have a small window break from a long week with the boys. 

We were off to church this morning. We are in the midst of a three week discussion on “Faith in our Home and Kids” with the Family Minister Reverand Caroline Dennis. She is wonderful to hear and her youngest son is in Alex’s church class. I like this discussion because we have talked about how to being up our children in a world that he decreased the importance of faith and religion.  Then the boys played and napped while Chris fixed our bathroom toilet and I made two big batches of Butternut Squash soup….YUMMY!!!  The good thing for me about Chris’s P90X diet is that I have made some wonderful soups – all from fresh vegetables, etc. Some of the recipes are keepers, but the Chilled Cucumber Soup recipe will get buried in the mix!

Grandpa and Kathy arrive on Thursday. Alex is already excited and Zach “calls” Grandpa on his phone to talk to Kathy and Sadie (the dog). The last time Grandpa and Kathy were here, Zach continued to “call” them on the phone and we were like “Zach, Grandpa is RIGHT THERE!!!” So cute. 

My Boys

I’d love to say “my sweet boys” but Zach was hell on wheels this morning trying to get him out of the house and into the car. My tantrum-loving 2 year old screamed at top shrilling sound all the from home to school and from the car to his room. Then I sat with him for about 10 minutes until he calmed down. I sometimes forget that he can even be affected by Chris being gone. Chris has been traveling to UK every 6-8 weeks for nearly two years now – he was promoted to Publisher in May 2008. At the time the big worry was how it would affect Alex since Zach was only 6 months old. But now the roles have reversed. This trip (and maybe the last one) Alex has been GREAT. He whines a bit about missing Daddy but nothing like what used to happen. Zach, on the other hand, has had me needing extra coffee each morning. On pick up tonight, he came up to me with his teacher, Miss Kirk, and he said (without prompting from me), “Mommy, I sorry ‘bout this morning.” I nearly cried and then we hugged and kissed.  Miss Kirk said that she was just shocked that Zach had had such a tantrum – most people are pretty shocked…except Grandpa and Kathy who witnessed first hand an infamous 30 minute screaming back in November.

So tomorrow is a new day. We’ll see how Zach is. I put him to bed early tonight – closer to 7 pm and he was fine with that. Since Alex has been such a good boy, we played a game of Candyland after Zach went to bed and then we did his reading homework.  The boys are also looking forward to Grandpa and Kathy coming out to Indy for a visit next weekend.  Grandpa likes spending SuperBowl weekend with the boys and it is even more fantastic that the Colts will play in the SuperBowl. Lots of jokes on Sunday night about when he was out here in 2007 for his first SuperBowl at our house…really because Kathy went to a gymnastics tourney with the twins…but oh well. It was sooooooo cold that weekend and I was happy that I did not join Chris and Dad on their midnight journey to Dicks Sporting Goods to get Colts SuperBowl gear!!! I asked Dad if he will do that again and he said “Not if it is as cold as that night!”

Go Colts!

The boys are ready for the Colts game tomorrow and wore their Colts jerseys to school on Friday! Lots of blue jerseys at school AND work!  Alex was very excited to have a picture taken of himself wearing Colts too so I took a picture of him with his camera too.

Since Grandpa and Kathy will be out here for another Superbowl weekend so we are all hoping for a big Colts win over the Jets tomorrow. Yes, even me. Lots of my co-workers are curious if I am really a Jets fan. This of course leads me down the whole “Giants or Jets” and “Yankees or Mets” fan guidelines in the NYC Metro area. You are one or the other…NEVER BOTH. So its Giants and Yankees for me, people. So I’m in the clear for this playoff picture. 

Chris left for England this morning. His plane left Chicago about an hour ago so he is probably over NJ right now Zach, Alex and I left the house around 10:15 am to go to the YMCA. I still wanted to have Zach at his swim class this morning so we talked with Alex about going into the Y play area this morning. Luckily, he was pretty game for it. So he enjoyed his time in there playing on the indoor playground and watched Finding Nemo for awhile too.  Zach was very happy to go swim. He was much better this week – not perfect…but is Zach ever not asserting his independence. Then we came home and the boys played, ate lunch, and Zach took a nice 3 hour nap!  While Alex watched a movie on the laptop, I was able to get in some exercise so all three of us were happy today.

Tomorrow we are heading off for church in the morning. We talked about it tonight and the boys clapped and essentially said hooray. Well okay, they said hooray when I mentioned that they will get a donut when we are done. But they LOVE going to church – which I just love because it is important that they enjoy our weekly worship with our church congregation. 

Chris will be home on Friday night so we look forward to his return. We had a great first day together. Hopefully Chris will be able to watch the game in the UK. I’ve been told that I may end up showing him the game via oovoo videoconference.