Full weekend

Much wildness last weekend. Very, very busy but we really enjoyed it.

Friday
We had been all set to go to the Starlight Movie in the Park, and then I found out that our Faithful Families group from church (parents with kids on the younger side, as in, not in Youth Group) were planning to go. (Not sure how I missed that before.) So I RSVPd to bring a side salad and dessert. Then I was chatting with a friend who has done lots of care for G through the church, and she was going to have a crazy end-of-week preparing for out-of-town houseguests. So I offered to take her son to the movie. Very enthused.

Then the evening approaches and we get home in time to let the dog out and pack up quickly, and there's a message on my answering machine, shifting the event to our church instead. It had been a chilly, breezy day, and was getting chillier and breezier. I thought it was a great idea, but had forgotten about the transition thing that G sometimes gets caught in: he was bereft. Insisted we had to go to the outdoor one (they do do fun activities for the kids before the events), didn't care that it was all set up to go to the church, sad sad sad.

Fortunately, he adjusted quickly enough, we picked up N and made our way to the church. The nice thing was that since we were setting our own timetable, we could (and did) start the movie at 7 instead of the 8:15PM that the outdoor movie has to stick to (and it's barely dark enough to see the movie at that time), so it worked out better especially for the younger kids. There was plenty of pizza, and my side salad (thanks to Papa Murphy's) and cookies (thanks to frozen cookie dough!) were well accepted.

A friend from my Single Mothers by Choice group had also responded to my broadcast of the movie, and was able to join us with her son. Next time, I'll make an effort to get her into the pot luck loop so they don't have to bring their own food.

After the movie, we went back to our house and G and N played Wii for about an hour, until N asked to go home, about 10PM.

Saturday
We were well on our way to having a lazy Saturday, when I noticed an Evite from a friend in the South Bay. She had inadvertantly left me off of the original invitation to a BBQ at their house, and the party was that day. I had pretty much decided we couldn't go, but mentioned it to G in case he was interested, as I like this friend and knew several other hockey players on the invite list. G was enthusiastic, and the invitation was open-house style, and also encouraged folks to bring something for the potluck that they hadn't tried before. I went through my saved recipes and found one for a pasta salad that (a) I hadn't tried before, and (b) I had most of the ingredients (and could sub the ones I didn't have). It called for multicolor rotini and I had regular and whole-wheat, so used those (but slightly undercooked the WW ones, darnit); it called for bacon and I remembered that I'd bought some red-pepper-and-corn Aldell's at Costco recently (smoky enough); and it called for chopped scallions, for which I subbed chopped sweet white onion, sauteed in butter. I also added sliced black olives, because, well, yum. It worked out well in the end. It was a recipe from "Death By Chocolate," as I recall, a book-club book that was OK but whose recipes sounded great.

The party was fun, and it was great to see my friends. G did really well with Val, but not well with a younger child who was a bit overzealous but still 4ish. He honestly doesn't seem to have a concept that younger kids will act their age, and tends to call them "babies" and say other nasty things. I call him on it, but am still baffled as to why he tends to go there. He can be a kind person elsewhere; why so unkind to a certain few? We ended up leaving after yet another unkind eruption, but it was time to leave anyway. Urgh.

Sunday
I really wanted to go to church, so I managed to get us both up and dressed and to church only a little late. I finished the shawl I'd been working on while at the beach, and took it to church, weaving the ends in while in the service. I got lots of warm fuzzies from my knitting friends over it. It really is lovely. Sadly, G thinks it's neat, too, but wants to play with it all the time, which makes me nuts, as his play starts off gentle and quickly accelerates to rough. Which makes me nuts, as I've been working on it since 2006 and the yarn alone cost about $60. Agh. It was a pretty challenging weekend behavior-wise, so much so that I kept looking for possible links. His behavior lately has been SO great. Was it candy/sugar? I think I'll eliminate candy and sugar next time his behavior peaks in an ugly way.

After church, we went home and futzed around until there was barely time to go to the Alameda Art & Wine Faire for just an hour before a friend's surprise birthday party. We actually both enjoyed it, after I pointed out to G that there would be things he'd want to see that I wouldn't, so he needed to stop dragging me away from things I was looking at. We ended up buying nearly nothing (G, four flavored honey sticks; me, scented salt crystals for the car and home), except for a local bookstore I'd seen but not visited. We'll be going back there for sure! We ended up selecting 4 VHS videos for under $2 each from their sidewalk display, including MIB and ID4, as we are both fans of Will Smith. (The other two were "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing," which I'd just been thinking about, and "Flubber.")

G looked at the climbing wall, but decided against spending $5 of his allowance on it ($5, folks, really? That seems really spendy). We made it back to the pickup corner just moments before a wheeled Trolley car showed up to take us back to Grand St. We made it to the birthday party just a few minutes late (close enough to the allotted time as to be on time; they'd left a 45-minute window)--and then found out the birthday girl had been told! Her father is in poor health and they had to make sure she would actually be in town for her own party. It was a full party, with several friends from church but many more whom I hadn't met; quite a varied group! G grazed for a bit, then claimed one of the chairs on the front porch and read his book to the end while I chatted happily inside. We left three times, returning for forgotten items... but it was a good day.

Then I showed M.I.B. to G and scared the pants off him, poor thing, till he finally asked me to stop the movie. Then crawled into my bed at midnight, from nightmares, and couldn't fall asleep until I put my arm around him, poor lamb. He can be so brave about movies that I never really know which ones will scare him. (Now I do.)

Well, overall it was a good weekend.