This week, Corey is home with the boys. They are attending St. Jude bible school in the mornings all week. The first day they came home with leather (bracelet for Jake, cross for Landen) that they stamped their named into with metal stamps and hammers. Yesterday Landen brought home an anorexic phallus of a candle. I'm sorry. I know no other way to describe it. Today I got a small cardboard flowerpot with a Ducati drawn on it (Jesus loves motorcycles. You didn't know?) and a beaded cross necklace. Jake has marker all over his hands, but he hasn't brought me any crafts since Monday.
In the afternoons, there is video-game playing and errand-running and movie watching. Today they cleaned out their closet, where all the toys live, to give toys to little kids whose parents can't afford to buy them. I was not here for this process, but I can report empty bins and less clutter in the closet. Corey said Jake got kinda into it, and Landen wanted to keep everything. He threw away everything they haven't fooled with in a year (mostly Ben 10 and Power Rangers) and anything broken, whether they wanted to keep it or not. I suspect we lost quite a few Transformers in this last category of purge.
This is what you wear at our house during summer vacation if your name is Jake Allbritton.
This is what you wear at our house during summer vacation if your name is Jake Allbritton.
Let me break it down for you, top to bottom. His hat is a boonie cap he got from his dad when he got back from Iraq. The bathrobe is FLEECE, and for the life of me I cannot get him to understand how fleece is not a summer fabric. The gloves are Darth Vader gloves from a full Star Wars costume set. The satchel is a prop from an Indiana Jones costume. There is a belt on this robe, but he prefers to cinch it with his brown leather braided belt. There is no name for this outfit. Oh, and underneath? Underwear. This is what he puts on when he gets home from bible school or summer camp, and he takes it all off (and puts all the elements in the proper places) before he gets in the shower.
Tuesday night Corey and I went to see the extended version of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which was showing at our movie theatre for one night only. (Next Tuesday is The Two Towers and the Tuesday after that is, you guessed it, Return of the King.) Cydney and Justin came to babysit. When we got home, we learned that a game of Trouble had gotten heated and Landen got so angry (he was losing) that he tried to flip the board over. Justin caught it and the game continued. Landen did not learn sportsmanship in Pre-K, and his dad has thrown him out of more board games than he's ever finished. Anyway, they were already asleep when we got home and learned of The Incident, so it was not until this morning that he learned his punishment for unsportsmanlike conduct would be cleaning the toilets.
Why?
Because nobody wants to clean toilets, and nobody wants to play games with Landen. Corey put gloves on him and sprayed the toilets with Kaboom! and sent him to scrub all three of them.
And dammit if he didn't say he liked doing it. He is wearing the bottom part of a Star Wars costume and a Chicago Bulls t-shirt. I have glimpses into the fights I will endure trying to get them to dress appropriately in junior high and high school.
Today I got up early in the morning and headed to New Orleans for Tobacco-Free Living meetings, which ended at 2:30. There are a couple of us leaving, so we had cake and everybody signed a card for me. I could do good-byes - this was the last time we would all be together before I'm outie on June 30th - so I hope they all forgive me for just sneaking out. I headed over to City Hall to start on my paperwork and meet with my almost-boss and left there at 6:45. I'm trying to hold out until the boys go to sleep before I crash. These two New Orleans days per week are going to take some adjusting to, because my ass is dragging.
Corey fared well holding down the fort all by himself, though Landen told me he had a headache and Dad wasn't a very good nurse. Jake asked of my whereabouts three times all day. Corey said Landen asked where I was and when I was coming home every time the thought in his head changed, to the point where Corey forbade him to ask it again. Landen is in a stage where he does not like when one of us is not here. He fights sleep with claims of various ailments - stomachache, headache - but miraculously falls asleep fine when we're both home. Tonight was the first night this week we've both been home at bedtime, and we didn't hear a peep from him after we tucked them in.
On Monday, they leave for two weeks on the East Coast with their grandparents, so this weekend I'm going to soak in as much of them as I can. Two weeks is a long time to go without children and only your husband and dog for company. Whatever will become of me?
.....
(You knew I would chime in, didn't you...)
ReplyDeleteRe: their attire. The good thing about Catholic school is they can't "express themselves" through their clothing at school. So go with it! It's quite a style the boy's got going there!! You'll have much bigger battles to fight. Choose them wisley.