On Sunday, I was getting over some kind of stomach bug that made me miserable all Saturday night. Unfortunately, Pat had duty on the ship and there was nothing I could do but try to get through the day with the kids. I've always known that being sick and still being Mommy was not going to be fun. Pat having duty on a Sunday is never a lot of fun either. And then they both happened at the same time.
The TV was a pretty decent babysitter, at least for a few hours. I learned that Casey could probably play by herself all day and still be happy. (I'm not sure she even noticed the TV.) Jack, on the other hand, asked me every five minutes if I was still sick. I was able to keep him occupied with the TV and with a stack of Saltine crackers which became his breakfast, snack and lunch. We kind of had the same diet that day.
By the time I started to feel better and be up for more than 5 minutes at a time, Jack had become starved for attention and had quite an aversion to sharing with his sister. It was a really, really long afternoon and I can't remember the last time I looked at the clock or checked Facebook so often.
By Monday, I was fine and Jack was a new person too. The things that have come out of his mouth this week are so amusing...
"Mommy, can we play outside for a little bit and watch the tomatoes grow?"
"Don't bother me Mommy, I'm reading."
When Casey wanted some of Jack's snack, he told her, "They're in my belly now Casey. You can't get them." He wasn't being smug about it, just stating the facts and letting her know where they went.
To Jack, anything that makes him different right now is a good thing. Yesterday, we played with the paint out on the deck. He painted his hands and then he wanted me to paint his toenails. I obliged, gave him blue toenails and then told him that usually boys don't paint their toenails. His response was, "But I can do it." He just thought that made it/him even more special.
He also thinks that the headband he is wearing in this picture is pretty special. I let him wear one to the gym a few days ago and he was very proud. It's not my favorite accessory for him, but who am I to mess with his unique sense of 3-year-old fashion. And it was functional too, I suppose...keeping the sweat out of his face during his intense workout in the childcare area. He's seen me wear one to the gym and he thinks that they shrink to fit his head..."It got small enough for me to wear too."
The blob of Play-Doh that you see with various pencils sticking out of it is Jack's birthday cake creation. It's for when he is five - that's why there are so many "candles." He worked very hard on it, crafting it over the course of about half an hour. And he never stopped talking the whole time. "This is my birthday cake...this is going to be a really big cake...this color is going to go in here too...Casey, this is my birthday cake and you can have the cans when I empty them...this is a really good cake...it doesn't have any eggs in it...it looks like my lemon cake but it doesn't have any eggs..." And on and on and on. At least he was entertaining himself.
But that blob of Play-Doh...it kills me. All those colors mixed together cannot be unseparated into their own color-coded cans and that doesn't sit well with the organized, perfectionist part of me. I've actually tried to separate them. But, it does make clean up a little faster to just throw them in cans and it doesn't phase Jack in the least so I have let it go. Future cakes will just be a bigger cornucopia of Play-Doh color.
I leave you with a picture of Casey, who is just happy to play with all the cans that the Play-Doh came in, trying to get a little piece of Play-Doh to nibble.
No comments:
Post a Comment