I took a personal day yesterday, because the boys had several special things to do that day. I got the boys breakfast, made their lunches, took B1 to a class picture photo shoot, dropped him off to class, then walked B2 down to the grocery store, got groceries. I then took him to his gymnastics final (which was very cute -- he was delighted to have me in the audience, kept waving and saying "Daddy! Hi, Daddy!" and telling his friends in the class "That's my Daddy. His name is [says my name, very emphatically].") Calling it "gymnastics" is probably a stretch at his age -- it's just things like somersaults and skipping, etc. Then I dropped him off at preschool, then had a few minutes to myself for some lunch. I then biked up to B1's school, because they were having a special school spirit parade parents get to walk in, and I took pix of that and walked with B1, until I had to leave and bike back down to B2's preschool and pick him up. Then I took B2 back to the apartment, stowed my bike, and he and I hung out a bit, I gave him a snack, and he and I trekked back to B1's school to pick him up. I use the stroller for the treks to B1's school, just because it's a long way to go for B2's little 4-year-old legs, and he conked out in the stroller. Then we walked down to a salon and I got B1's hair cut, a nice short cut for the summer. Then we went to the grocery store for some ice cream sandwiches and popsicles -- by request of the boys, since is was super-humid and summery, and then home (at last), where I cooked pizza for dinner (Exene brought pizza home), and THEN off to B2's preschool performance show, and then had the boys play in the park a bit to (literally) run off steam. Then home, finally. Whew.
I made like seven trips to B1's school -- I think I logged a little over six miles of foot traffic yesterday! My thighs are a little sore. I was particularly pleased with the bike bit, since I was sweating how I'd get to go with B1 on his parade, and yet cover the distance to get B2, when the bike solution came to me.
My boys are such daddy's boys. It's so apparent. At the evening performance, B2 kept waving to me, saying "Daddy! Hi, Daddy! That's my daddy!" And then he'd remember that Exene was there for that, and would tack on a "Hi, Mommy." and wave to her, and then "Hi, [B1]!" for his brother.
B2 amused me -- like the consummate performer he is, he actually gets a bit of performance anxiety before a gig. For example, before going to his gymnastics, he's like "Daddy! How do I do a somersault? I don't know how!" (he actually does know) I showed him a couple, walked him through'em, and before going to the evening performance, he said "How do you sing? I don't know how to sing!" But he totally does, he sings all the time. So, I made up a song and sang it to him, explaining how to sing with the lyrics. He's very much of a sing-a-long type, so that helped. It did amuse me, however, him getting the lil' jitters or something.
Today I'm taking B1 to his soccer match, with B2 coming along for the ride. I think Exene has a race she's running today, or the usual "Mom In Absentia" kind of stuff she pulls. For somebody who insists on shared/joint custody, I just don't see how she's going to be able to handle it -- like all the stuff I did yesterday, she'd have whined and complained about having to do that, and wouldn't have tacked on grocery-shopping or the hair cut in the mix. Guaranteed.
B2 complimented his brother about something (oh, that reminds me -- it was cute -- B2 saw one of his classmate's shirts at preschool and said "I LIKE that shirt, [Classmate]" -- I loved that he noticed that. He's my lil' fashionista! Anyway, B2 complimented his brother, and B1 was like "Yeah." and Exene said "When someone says something nice to you, or does something nice for you, you should thank them for it." And B1 just watched the show he was watching, didn't react. I said "Wow, he's just like you or your dad. It's been passed down. From him, to you, to [B1]." And Exene said "More like from my grandma, to my dad, to me, to [B1]." And I thought "Ah, four generations of taciturn Teutonic ingratitude." Her grandma was a complete hardass. Seriously. A hard, hard woman. I'm sure Exene picked a lot of that up, honestly. This was a grandma who Exene told me would use an ice cream scoop to pick up dogshit, and then later, Exene saw her using the same scoop to serve her grandchildren ice cream. I'm sure she cleaned it (she was a nurse, after all), but still, Exene commented that she'd not eat the ice cream, and didn't tell her siblings about it until after they ate their ice cream. Now, the visceral reaction to that is "What kind of grandma would DO that to her grandchildren?" and, having met the woman a few times over the years, I can say, without hesitation, that she is exactly the type of grandma who would do that. A hard, hard woman. And Exene most definitely has that, although even she'd not pull Scoopgate on kids, let alone grandkids.
Thankfully, B1's Teutonic lineage is strongly offset by my Celtic ebullience. It sweetens the Sudeten sourness!
