A Promised Afternoon with S4

After a busy Thursday with much to do, I promised S4 I would play with him all the next day. I would play with him and Jr until GM came to pick him up.

S4 did not let me forget.

I'm not sure how he could have. Every time Jr (8 months) fussed a bit I would say “can you play with him a minute?” and soon they would be laughing together. I had a cake to bake and cupcakes to make and dinner to put together and laundry to hide from guests. And I pulled it off, by ignoring my boys are barking orders.

When the end of the day had come Thursday S4 had asked me what time he should wake up. He wanted to make sure he didn't miss any moment with me. “I have to get up at four,” I told him.
“I'll get up at three so we can cuddle,” he informed me and then he trotted on up to bed.

As it turned out, I did get up at four and he kept sleeping. Certain the six inches of fresh snow outside would at the very least delay school, I did a few odds and ends but then went back to sleep too. And was awoken by S1 saying “should we get ready for school?” twenty minutes before we had to be on the road. We woke up S4 after the suburban was warmed up and everyone else had been loaded in.

When we walked into the house S4 curled up on the couch to watch Bear do the cha cha cha and I began the tedious job of cleaning the dishes from the great get together the night before, thinking of all the laundry I had to fold and all that. Suddenly, S4 was in front of me saying “So, you ready to play blocks.” Almost knowing I would say 'just let me finish taking care of these dishes' he added the “YOU PROMISED, REMEMBER?”

And I did.

So, with a grinning Jr in tow, we built wooden block roads. When Jr continued to break those, we built wooden block towers to knock down. We got a bouncy ball and rolled it back and forth,

which brought huge giggles from Jr. We literally crawled on the floor next to Jr to watch everywhere he went and what things fascinated him...I have much cleaning to do in places I didn't know existed in the house! We watched our tadpoles swimming about. We playing bowling with wooden blocks and bouncy balls. When S4 wanted to watch Spirit with me sitting beside him, I did. Not because I like digging through backets of clean clothes to find socks for my kids, but because I had promised him and this was the MOST important of the day. Jr snuggled up in my arms and fell soundly asleep. It's been a long time since I have had a baby fall asleep in my arms and I found myself wishing GM would be really really late.

She wasn't.

After GM left, I got to work on this and that until Spirit was done and there was S4. “Well,” he said, “it's time to play bouncy balls.” So we did. I have no idea how this was played all I know is that S4 always won and I needed to learn the correct way to throw the bouncy ball every single time. I hope I am not that critical of my boys.

At one thirty in the afternoon S4 cuddled up on the couch to watch a movie while he 'rested his eyes', freeing me of promised obligations. So I wrote this. I haven't showered yet today, my kitchen is a disaster, there are wooden blocks scattered all over the floor and it has been one of the best, funnest days in a long time.

I am so happy S4 held me to my promise. I guess he knew what he was teaching me after all.