Yesterday Was Quite the Experiment...

My co-worker R had asked me a while ago to help her out on 12/1. She wanted me to kind of supervise her 3yr old son, AJ, while she supervised the moving box and furniture distribution as they moved into their new home. I had a brainwave and asked if J2 and her son TJ (my pseudonephew) could come. R said she'd been hoping I'd suggest that and J2 said she'd come with all sorts of toys as well as the big excavator that TJ has that is the same as AJ's.

I wake up early and get ready, trying to have no expectations on how the day was going to go and it's a good thing. J2 called me while I was waiting for her to tell me that they have not left yet due to her having a migraine from the day before and into yesterday and TJ not sleeping thru the night. I told her if she decided not to come that it'd be fine.

I get to R's new house about 7 minutes early, ate my bagel while the fiercely cold wind rocked my car, and when R arrived, with AJ and cat in tow, I got a tour of the house. After about half and hour, J2 called for directions as she was on her way. R suddenly remembered she left AJ's excavator at the apartment so she called her husband to bring it. The three of us watched the PODS get picked up - what an interesting concept, that inventor must be rolling in dough.

J2 and TJ arrived and after some initial shyness on TJ's part, the boys acted like they've known each other forever. Running down the hallway, playing in the empty closets, jumping on the bean bag and couch, "hallooing" down to R through the woodstove heat register, going pee at the same time (one after the other, like toilet training encouragement), and generally following safety directions from the adults.

R's husband showed up with the excavator and both boys "dug" to China in the living room while the men emptied the U-haul. About 11:30, J2 and I asked if we should take the boys bowling. TJ was very excited, AJ had been while it was in the talking stages but when he realized he was not going in his "momma's car" and she wouldn't be going, he wasn't happy. I had a feeling this would happen, after all, he'd only met me three times prior to this and J2/TJ just this day, and he's not gone anywhere without one of his parents. But kudos to R, she stuck to the plan, put him in his car seat, gave him "Blue Blanket", and kissed him while reassuring him he'd be fine and coming back soon.

AJ cried for a while, TJ would comment to us that he was still crying and then let AJ know "it'll be okay". He stopped crying but let us know he was still not completely in agreement by saying "mommy... daddy... mommy... daddy" at intervals. We got to see someone get pulled over for speeding, the sun was shining, and we were listening to Christmas carols on the radio.

At the bowling alley, he cried getting out of the car, but stopped inside. TJ was the bowling maniac and AJ sat on the chair with his hat, coat, mittens, sneakers, and "Blue Blanket" on. I was finally able to get the bowling shoes on him by giving him a time limit to wear them, but oops I forgot to take them off and he forgot as well. He started out by not looking at anything, then TJ's excitement induced him to watch him bowl, then the alley dimmed the lights and lit the place up with disco ball lights and streams of coordinated lights down the alleys so he watched those. I finally got him interested in how many pins TJ may knock down and when TJ went to the bathroom I asked him if he could pick a bowling ball, what color. He surprised me by picking one out - the fluorescent pink 14 pounder no less. I brought it over and with J2's help, I got him on the alley where we had the ramp set up and had Blue "push" the ball down the ramp. We did this for 3 frames and he finally, last frame, pushed the ball with his own hand.

Mission accomplished!

We left around 1:00 and AJ came up with the plan to get lunch at McD's and "bring it to the new house." We did exactly that! AJ talked the entire way home. TJ was having a hard time accepting that his mom was driving and was not going to hand him his shake and AJ told us that we should offer TJ choices and that TJ needed to make a choice. After listening to AJ, TJ was able to make a choice to have me hand him his shake. Wow. And these boys just met!

At the new house, TJ and AJ discovered the cat was out, so they spent some time searching and chasing her. Then lunchtime, then more racing thru the hallways and jumping on the couches.

Overall, it was a great experiment. Turned out to be a pretty fantabulous day. And when I got home, this was the greeting I got from Mr. Moomie Pants... (see below). He jumped in my arms and draped himself on my shoulders.

Then I opened my Advent calendar. Mom got me this at Target and I had her fill it with ornaments I'd made so I'd be surprised each day with what I get to put on my mini tree.

Yesterday was lollipops. I haven't opened today yet. I just rolled out of bed about an hour and a half ago. Waking up at 3am and discovering you've rubbed your eye into a swollen gelatinous mass is not a good thing. So I stayed in bed to "fix" the mess I'd made. Seems to be fine now.