These last 2 weeks have been so intensely busy. We’ve had so many fun things on our schedule and I am so grateful for our friends and family.
The last week of January was pretty routine. The boys had swimming and basketball. They also started Pokemon Club, which happens after school on Wednesdays. They get to play pokemon, trade cards, and the 2 teachers who lead it are young, fun, know a lot about pokemon cards, and basically spent the whole time actively engaging with them in serious conversations about pokemon cards. The boys were thrilled.
Last Friday, Nate and I went down the block to Kelly and Silas’s house for game night and hung out with the whole neighborhood, laughing hysterically. Saturday morning, I woke up feeling the late night, and so Nate ended up taking the boys to Xander’s basketball game on his own. I spent the morning getting ready for our Thanksgiving 2.0 dinner party extravaganza which was happening later that day.
We had so much fun at Thanksgiving and enjoyed having a huge meal with a million side dishes, that the day after Thanksgiving, I texted everyone and insisted we do it again (with a new menu). This time around it was red wine braised short ribs, risotto, chicken wings, smoked mac and cheese, tres leche cake, and more. We ate and ate and ate, played games, and laughed until my stomach hurt.
Recently, Xander very thoughtfully said (completely out of the blue), “ya know, we never see Danny and Heather arm wrestle.” I told him that married couples don’t typically arm wrestle, but agreed that, yeah, it DOES seem strange we’ve never seen them battle it out. Luckily, we were able to convince them to go against each other, which made Xander very happy.
Last Sunday was a nonstop playdate- Xander was busy with Sam and Abby. Gussie had his good buddy E over for the first time (this is the young lady he told me he was in love with). Gussie and E decorated cookies, did some craft projects, played outside, played in the playroom, ate lunch, ran around, and stayed busy all day (10-3 was a long play date, but I think they could have played longer!). At 2:30, Xander’s buddy’s dad texted and asked if he was free, and then he came over to play. The weather has been unseasonably warm, and as playdates overlapped, our yard was filled with kids running, playing, and having fun. I was exhausted by the end of the day (as were the boys).
This past week was another pretty normal week, with a few exceptions.
Nate’s friend has a golf simulator in his basement, so Nate and the bros go to his house and hang out regularly. They have an ongoing competition where they add money to a pot and whenever anyone gets a hole in one, they get to keep it. Apparently that doesn’t happen very often, because Nate won a fat stack of cash when he hit a hole in one this week! It was very exciting.
Xander is showing interest in cooking and this week made eggs and toast all by himself. I was so proud of him and I can’t believe how grown up he is.
Speaking of growing up, another big milestone- Xander learned to tie his shoes! When we went to buy new ones, the pair he wanted had laces. We looked at “no tie” laces, but the shoe salesman said, “oh, if he’s playing basketball, he wants to tie them for the extra support.” SOLD. He was ALL IN on learning to tie his shoes. It took a few tries, but he is a fast learner and had it in under an hour. Such a big kid!
This weekend was FULL.
On Saturday morning, I somehow signed myself up for a rowing marathon at the gym. This was a memorial event for a young man who was a member of the gym and tragically passed away. I wasn’t going to sign up but my neighbor Aaron convinced me that it would be fun and that I should join his team. Our team had 5 members and we rowed 42,195 meters in 2 hours and 43 minutes. We switched off every 2 minutes, then 90 seconds, then every minute- taking 21 turns each total. It was BRUTALLY hard. And then our friendly, not-that-competitive event, got harder when people started saying our team was on track to finish first. OMG, I have never pushed myself that hard, but I wasn’t going to be the reason we lost (my 4 hard core bro teammates were KILLING IT). And then we won! I was so proud of myself just for showing up, but then to win was a huge surprise.
But a rowing marathon was just the beginning of the weekend of fun. After lunch, we went to Xander’s basketball game where he scored 2 baskets and their team won their first game! It was very exciting. By the afternoon, I thought I was going to pass out from exhaustion, so we ordered pizza for dinner and had a movie night.
We had early bedtime, because Gussie and I were up early on Sunday for his first swim meet. We had to be there at 7:45 for warm ups. Xander and Nate were going to arrive later to cheer him on, but the meet was PACKED- like, wall to wall bodies crammed into the bleachers. I encouraged them to skip this one, rather than fight the crowd, so Xander spent the morning playing with Sam. Gussie swam the 50 yard free style and 50 yard backstroke races. He was one of 2 6 years olds (out of nearly 500 kids who were in this meet). He was SO tiny and I was so nervous for him. But he did well and he was calm and cool. I was so proud of him for just being there!
We got home from the swim meet around lunchtime and I had just a few hours to do some light house cleaning and food prep before the whole neighborhood arrived to watch the Super Bowl together. We had so much amazing food, spent lots of time laughing, snacking, chatting and hanging out. Xander LOVES Patrick Mahomes and was glued to the game (more than anyone else I think). I put the boys to bed after the halftime show. Xander was super bummed, but I promised to write the score on his whiteboard so he could see who won as soon as he woke up.
When the game went into overtime, Nate was pretty convinced that the Chiefs were going to win, and so we decided to wake Xander up to watch. He was VERY excited and happy he got to see them win.
This morning, our neighbor Sean texted Nate and I that he saw Xander outside this morning playing football. Sean said, he was “running up and down the block saying, ‘Patrick, go Patrick’. You made a great decision to wake him up to see his hero win.” I agree. Also, what an amazing text to receive first thing this morning.
It was a packed weekend and I am exhausted but happy.