Day 81

Wednesday was a great day. Probably a combination of having a good couple days at work, and the absolutely gorgeous weather, had something to do with it.

First of all, the work stuff. As I said, this was the week of 6am meetings, but the meetings were productive, and I felt I got a lot done. One of the girls who works with me actually told me "Thanks so much for always being so calm. You help me stay calm." That was a shocker for me. I always feel like a chicken with my head cut off :-) She then said "I can't believe you only work 3 days a week..I always feel like you are here." Now, that can be good or bad...but since I'm definitely NOT there 5 days a week, yet she feels I'm always there for her, that feels really good. Honestly, I think she just has very easily adapted to my schedule, but I also think going back to my Mon, Tues, Thurs schedule has helped. I don't think people realize how important Tuesday seems to be during the week :-) Anyway, it was nice to hear that I appeared calm and she felt I was always there for her when needed. On the other hand, I had another guy tell me "You've certainly introduced me to a new definition of fast...my energy level is so high right now that I feel I can move forward without having to have everything perfect." I'm sure I'm not hearing from the people who think I'm pushing too hard...but fast and calm are two attributes I don't mind having tossed around when describing me :-)

Wednesday started off with our normal leisurely breakfast, then we headed up to the rec center. Finally we are all feeling pretty much 100%, so I did a small run, then let Monika do her workout, while Zak and I played in the game room. We played for 30 minutes with the cars he brought in his backpack...making up stories and acting them out. Then he wanted to play some pool, so I had him go out and ask the receptionist for the pool balls. He's so cute...he gets so nervous, asks very quickly for the balls, then says "Thanks" and walks away. We played some pool but then back to the cars. He's just a freak about these cars right now.

We came home, I went for lunch with a good friend of mine who just had a baby (Tyler!)...Zak wanted to go, but he seemed a little bit too anxious to sit still in a restaurant. When I got home, it was 57 degrees! So I took him out to the park and we played for 2 hours! He brought all his cars of course, and we ended up sliding them one by one down the sliding board. I would catch them at the end and throw them back up to him. At one point, we did play house, where he likes to make me "Macaroni and cheese and chocolate milk in a sponge bob cup." Whenever he hands me the macaroni and cheese he says "Careful, it's VERY hot!" Then some other kids came over, both of them his age. He walked right up to them, handed each of them 2 of his cars, and the 3 of them started playing sliding the cars down the sliding board. It was really nice to see. He's very giving with his things, at least for now.

Later we came home and were watching "Mater's Tales." It's these little 5 minute clips of some of the Cars characters. There is one clip where Mater is in a heavy metal band...and I always say I don't like that one, because I don't like seeing Mater all dressed up in leather and stuff. This time, Zak told me "Ooohh...this one's not for you Mommy! Let's fast forward it." Then he said, "I like that one, but the UFO one is not for me!" So we skipped through Heavy Metal Mater, and UFO Mater...but watched all the others. I was kind of impressed that he actually thought of my feelings like that.

We ended the day with a grill out on the patio and hanging out with Aunt Katie. It was just a really nice day.

Now, tonight (Thursday), he did shock me...today after work I picked him up from school and Kuba's mom wanted to go for fitness...so I said sure, Zak and I will just go to the game room. But Thursdays after school the game room is a much different place! There were lots of teenage boys there playing ping pong, pool, and one was on the arcade games. Zak wanted to play on the second arcade game...which was fine. Normally we both play, but this time only he could, with the teenage boy on the other one. He was entranced with what the teenage boy was doing. First, he showed the boy the 2 cars he had brought with thim...the boy was nice and actually acknowledged him. Then Zak would look at whatever game he was playing, and select the same game to play (ie, Frogger, PacMan, Asteroids, etc) At some point, I was trying to help Zak because he wasn't really using the controls right, and he pushed me away and said "No! WE'RE playing! You go over there!" WHAT!!! HE'S 3 YEARS OLD! I can't believe I was so easily replaced with this teenage boy. It was so clear he wanted me to leave him alone so he could play with the big boys. My beautiful time where I'm the center of his world is already coming to an end. *Sniff, sniff* Only reenforces for me that I'm doing the right thing getting a few extra days with him while it lasts!!!