I went to the temple today. Since I am nursing Mary, and she's not much interested in food, my going was a family event. We all drove the hour to Columbus, where Greg and the gang dropped me off at the Columbus Temple. What a blessing to be able to step out of the world and feel the peace of God's love.
Meanwhile, in contrast to the temple, Greg took David and Mary to, of all places, Chuck E. Cheese's! Yes, I am morally opposed to Chuck E. Cheese's--the chaos, the germs, the disgusting pizza, the high prices, the stupid games, the even stupider prizes. But, believe it or not, this was actually my idea. Greg needed to kill an hour and a half in Columbus at lunchtime, and it was way too hot to go to the park. There just so happened to be a Chuck E. Cheese three miles down the road. Destiny? David had a good time, unsurprisingly; Greg was underwhelmed by the experience, also unsurprisingly. And Mary was just along for the ride.
I know it may seem odd to make a whole family event out of my desire to spend a couple of hours in the temple. But it makes for a nice outing. Mary slept in the car both ways, and we took the DVD player for David, so Greg and I had two hours of time to ourselves. I love being in the car with Greg! So many of our most important and most interesting conversations have happened on car drives. Husband-wife bonding time aside, the reason we all went to Columbus was so Mary wouldn't have to endure five hours without nursing. So David can thank his baby sister for his (probably) one and only trip to Chuck E. Cheese. (The irony? Mary didn't want to nurse the whole time. Oh well.)
When we got home, David went down for a nap, and Greg and Mary assembled our new Hoover Steam Vac. Hooray! For months I have been fantasizing about deep cleaning our carpet. (My fantasy is deep cleaning the carpet?! I must be getting old...) It finally occurred to me last week that I could make the fantasy a reality. I spent the next two hours running the Steam Vac over and over the entry way. I think I might have a new obsession. (If you don't hear from me for a while, you can guess what I'm doing.)
When David woke up we went to a teacher's supply store. I took for granted all the things David was practicing regularly when he was attending Four Oaks, like holding a pencil correctly, crossing his legs (he's a W-sitter, a big no-no), using strokes to paint, and cutting with scissors. The scissors regression is sad, because he had such talent! Of course, as his mother, he won't let me help him (like Miss Fran and Miss Julie could), so he's getting worse and worse. I wouldn't worry about it so much, except for the fact that he really likes cutting with scissors. This summer he's signed up in a little shapes, numbers, and alphabet class at the rec center, and I was talking about this to his teacher (who is an occupational therapist for children). She suggested buying some spring-action scissors, the kind that open up automatically after each cut. So that's why we went to the teacher's supply store. I also picked up another pre-writing workbook. On a whim, I had bought one out of the dollar bin at Target, and David loves it. It's one of his favorite things to do! I never would have guessed! I just never know what's going to strike his fancy.
Afterwards, we went to dinner at Chipotle, which we like, but it's still a poor substitute for Cafe Rio. Even though it was hot, we ate outside, and that was nice. Why don't Americans eat outside very much?
Our last activity was swimming at the Y. We introduced David to the diving board. He was all excitement and totally fearless! (Is he really related to me?) It was adorable! He had the time of his life jumping off, again and again and again. It was great. Have I mentioned how much I like that kid?
David and I have been talking a lot about what we're thankful for. He's been especially thankful for tow trucks and firetrucks. I am thankful for Saturdays! And that's because I'm thankful for my family!
Here are the 2 token pictures:
David on some contraption at Chuck E. Cheese:
Mary helping her dad assemble the SteamVac:
(Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of David leaping off the diving board--you'll have to use your imagination. Or come visit and see for yourself. It'd be worth the trip, I promise!)
