Gordon is doing much better at school - I think the chaos of the travel to Florida in November, having company, and the whole excitement of the holidays was probably not the ideal time to have him adjusting to his "new" class - he wasn't doing badly, just was not happy about going and it was starting to concern me. But now he's doing even better than before - loving school again (although he does have to be convinced to stop playing with his trains to go to school - but once I promise they will still be here when he comes home, he's game!)
- We've started a new habit - organized his room to make room for a chair beside his bed that I can sit in to read to him. He LOVES getting to pick out the books and then sitting in bed during story time. He gets very excited about the story now - before in the living room he would often get distracted by things in the room if the story was a little long, now he hangs on every word, frequently interrupting with questions or comments. Then we fold our hands and we say our prayers together and he quite happily snuggles down into his bed, waits for a kiss, and then says "good night mommy, I love you" while I turn on the cd and then shut the door - bedtime has never been so sweet :)
- Tonight Daddy is out of town - actually is for most of the week, again. So I picked Gordon up and decided we were going out on a date. I announced this to him as he was climbing into the carseat at school. He said "but I don't want to go on a date" LOL...nice. We went anyway - to Applebees so I could have a big salad. On the way we passed a horrible car accident, the kind where a large crowd of people are standing around, with 8 emergency vehicles assisting - there were 4 vehicles involved in the crash - the jaws of life were being used on an upside down SUV, which had another car on top of it and a third one was smashed into its side, the fourth one was into a wall. It is one of the worst I've seen in a while. I get very emotional when I see things like that - I feel for those poor people involved, no matter who was to blame - and I just pray to God I never have to be in another accident in my lifetime - and that Gordon is never in one. Having a child is the most amazing experience in life - and also the scariest - every fear I've ever had for myself or a loved one is multiplied when I think of something happening to him. I try not to think of such things, but I can't help it when I see such carnage on a street that I use every day to and from school with Gordon. Boy that was a tangent...of a tangent. Where was I, oh yeah, the date. So we went to Applebees - my little boy was such a perfect date - he held my hand, he sat next to me in the booth, we had great conversation - he was so polite to the waitress, every time she gave us something - drinks, napkins, dinner - she was treated to a quite loud and jolly "THANK YOU!!" She laughed every time. Then he got a balloon on our way out, he was over the moon.
- I had been wanting to stop at Target, so I asked my little date if we could make one more stop before going home to play with trains. He said we could stop at Nar-get. No one warned me that there was a huge clearance sale on toys. I was sucked into the Thomas the Train aisle. I thought I would like to see if they had any people to go with the train set - as in Sir Topham Hat. Gordon likes to pretend and I thought he might like that to go with the trains. No figurines. But momma fell in love with the trains that actually run - we have the "Take Along Thomas" - which I'm not loving. We have several of the trains which is why I got this system, I didn't want to have to buy all the trains when we have so many. But the 'take along' tracks aren't great - I'm just not impressed. But I fell in love with the Thomas Trackmaster trains & tracks! They fit together much better and the trains actually moving just thrilled Gordon. So I bought Duck, the train, and a package of Trackmaster tracks. Gordon was so excited he could hardly speak. From the toy aisle to the register and then to the car he clutched Duck to his chest with his arms and repeated how much he wanted to thank mommy for buying duck. I am such a sucker I know. I am spoiling him. I know. But it was soooo much fun! We opened up the track and popped a battery in Duck and Gordon's face was just pure joy when Duck whirred to life and whipped around the oval track. He loved it. And he was so thankful (so how can he be truly spoiled??) And - he still went to bed on time when I told him it was time to go. We'll keep the Take Along Set and this Trackmaster set and use both - he won't get any more train toys for a good while - I promise.
