Great weekend

The weekend wasn't without its difficulties, especially with a toddler who futzes and delays as much as I did as a kid (karma)... but overall was really good.

We hopped out of bed on Saturday, packed up some food, and took our dog and a friend's on a breakfast hike. So pleasant! Our dog did her usually disappearing trick, where I can't see her anywhere and then discover her neatly hidden behind my left knee. Some day, I will learn...

Friend's dog did not have her best manners when we met up with a ball-chasing chocolate lab, so she was kept near us while we ate and Maddy romped. We hiked back to the parking lot, drove home, and set off again for skating lessons. I took Graham out to his class, holding his hand so he could glide while I skated--and he did it! He has never done this before: usually holds onto me with both hands, torquing my back. I can't believe the improvement in just two lessons. SO worthwhile. Went off to my beginner class where we did some elementary skills and then practiced getting ready to do crossovers. I kid you not. Was cool to pick up yet another thing to practice, though.

Headed off to El Cerrito where I returned a bag full of borrowed video tapes to a friend who I hadn't seen in, we calculated, two years (!!). Lost time chatting with her and her new gf, and then more time in the Sketchers outlet, and ended up being two hours late to a birthday party for an old friend in Castro Valley. Well, two fewer hours of Graham acting up at a mostly adult party. Then they broke out the piñatas, yes, two, but thankfully, no one got clobbered by the bat. There were only 3 kids to grab the candy, so Graham was in heaven. Typically, he didn't end up eating much of the candy he picked up. Too funny.

Sunday, went off to church, fed our friends' cat & returned the dog to the house, then went home to pack for a trip to Great America. We got the VIP passes recently and this was our second visit of, I think, many. Did 3 trips around the lazy river, spent a little time in the 0"-to-3' pool, and did a bunch of the kiddie rides till the park closed. Graham got to ride the bumper cars (and that kid is NEVER gonna get a driver's license, OMG!), bought a souvenir with his own money (am loving that: "No, you can't buy that because you don't have enough money; you can afford this or this or this") and we headed out to the car to eat what we'd brought for dinner and head home. Very pleasant.

More than one way to descend stairs

Yesterday, after lunchtime, my front stairs were a bit wet. Trusting that friction would win out, I stepped down--and my feet came flying out from under me. I bounced down the stairs, ending in a crumpled heap at the bottom of my 7 concrete steps.

I was lucky in two ways: 1) I have a well padded butt, which made me bounce (honestly! I bounced!) rather than break my tailbone, and 2) my head didn't hit the stairs. My back did, which was unpleasant, and apparently, my left elbow did, which hurt.

I limped back to work and immediately iced my elbow. Didn't realize how bad my butt was bruised or I would have iced it too. (No, I have no pride at all.) A friend ominously warned me that I would be in awful shape come morning. She was right--well, not awful, but not great. My kid wanted me to lie down with him last night while he fell asleep; just couldn't do it. I lay down with him for bare minutes and had to get back up again. Squished in a very firm twin bed: as GHWB said, not gonna do it.

But as for falling down 7 concrete steps--I don't recommend it. Give this one a pass!

QOTD: Are you a Change Back person?

It has recently occurred to me that there are two types of people* in this world: those who want their change back, and those who don't. I seem to be surrounded by no-change-back people. It is foreign territory to me. My last girlfriend and I had a running tab that went something like this: "Well, you paid for the iced coffees, so I owed you $1.25, but I paid for dinner, so you owe me $5.75." We rarely rounded things up or down by much and we really did pay each other the five and three quarters, too. And we were comfortable with this.

(*which reminds me of a joke: "There are three types of people in this world: those who can count, and those who can't.")

Others, when you buy them a $1.79 carton of milk, hand you $2 and are done with it. Or you buy them a $18 carton of cat-food cans and they hand you a $20 and don't seem to ever want that extra $2. It's generous of them, or maybe it's easier, but I end up feeling lost. How can you not want your $2 back? I find myself wanting to play by their rules, but more often than not offer them a perplexing handful of coins....

So, are you a Change Back person, or not? Or is there an in-between?

My Mother's Day present

Just to prove I'm a bigger softie than Viv...

I got the standard uglier-than-fuck homemade butterfly pin from my wonderful son at the Mother's Day event at his school on Friday. Wonderful. My son didn't even really remember making it. (shrug) Whatever.

But Sunday rolled around, and despite my hosting a Mother's Day potluck in the afternoon for my SMC friends, I decided to go to church that morning. I decided that one thing I really enjoy is singing in church, so I got myself and my son ready and to the church barely in time for rehearsal. Only there was no one there except one of the male couples from our church, who were just early. One is in the choir, and I said, "Oh, so we're not singing today, huh?" and he said that there was some kind of children's choir that day. I vaguely remembered something about that having been mentioned.

So, for my Mother's Day present, I got to see my lovely son standing in the front of church with the other Sunday School kids, and not only that, but singing his little heart out to "Do Lord." Even doing the hand gestures sometimes (hand to brow, "Look away beyond the blue!"). I honestly beamed. I was grinning so hard, it's a wonder my head didn't split in two. Half of it was that weepy, "Oh my God, this is so wonderful, I'm so touched" feeling, and the other half was "DAMN it he makes me laugh, he's so freakin' funny." I think he sang the whole song with his hands perched on his hips. I'm still laughing.

Best freakin' Mother's Day present I could have asked for. (but I'm still holding out for a relaxing breakfast at a nice restaurant. someday.)

Look away beyond the bluuuuueeeeee...

Sleep update--victory! So far.

So, I laid down with him last night, and after a bit of fidgeting, he fell asleep in 1/2 an hour. Yay! This could actually work.

Now, to do it earlier and earlier so I can implement my scheme of swimming every morning after I drop him off at school...

Sleep troubles, version 3

When Graham was a baby, he woke up at baby intervals but slept through pretty early. (Note that 'sleep through" is defined as 5 hrs by most folks, a horrible fact to learn when you really want 8 hrs of solid sleep.) So I survived the initial weeks and was grateful for the sleeping when it came.

Then when he was 2, I was ready for him to sleep in his own crib, in his own room. The existance of a girlfriend and the possibility of sex highly influenced this. He did not take well to sleeping in his crib every night. After girlfriend and I parted ways, I took him back into my bed and we slept well.

Then he got a bed from a generous family in San Leandro. Very high quality twin mattress set. He slept in his own bed after I lay down next to him 'till he fell asleep... maybe for a few months. Then he came back into my bed full-time.

Luckily, he was a pretty quiet, still sleeper. None of the kicking my sister reported and not a lot of the pinwheeling I'd heard about.

Fast-forward to now. I'm ready to get my freak on. And Son Number One has developed the unfortunate habit of bracing his feet against my back while he sleeps. I inch away, he reseats his feet, with gentle pressure all night. I wake up with backache. Repeat.

So I explain that he is going to sleep in his own bed from now on, period. No discussion. And for 5 nights, I get him into his bed, we read some books, and I sit and read my book while he falls asleep. So far, so good.

But the last two nights (YAWN!) we've had trouble. He tosses and turns, I read and wait, he talks to me, I declare Silence, he signs "I love you" in sign language, I sign "I love you; go to sleep NOW!", he gets up and hugs me, I hug him and tell him I'm outta here in 5 mins whether he's asleep or not. Insanity continues for the next hour. I finally lay down with him and he falls asleep in 5 minutes.

The moral of the story is, just lie down in the first place and get it over with. How can I not remember this? Oy.

The Word according to my son

At Sunday School at our church, they often start with a spiritual song. The most often annoy me. The latest one is "Do Lord," as in "Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me." Graham apparently liked it a lot, as he started singing in the car after we left church, "I've got joshy joshy take-oh that outshines the sun." The traditional words are "I've got a home in glory land that outshines the sun," but I kind of like his better, even though you have to sing the "that" really fast or it doesn't fit the melody well.

And what's a joshy take-oh?

A lot of death around

A friend's grandmother has died. Cali the Pembroke Welsh Corgi passed on last Sunday. And two moms who were so happily awaiting the arrival of their lovely daughter first had the awful news that she had a serious brain bleed, and yesterday, saw her pass away. That's enough death, thank you.

But it also makes me think of the Death card in tarot, which doesn't always signify a person who ceases living. It far more often signifies change and rebirth.

I hope the combined souls of these three frolic together a bit, and then land back at earth in new, wonderful, exciting bodies.

But much more than that, I wish healing on those who have lost. My heart goes out to you all.