Roller Coaster Weekend

We’re just wrapping up a roller-coaster weekend, one that had some tremendous ups and white-knuckled downs. Fortunately, it ends on a high note!

I woke up at my usual time Saturday to take my (stupid) driving class. I got to the building five minutes before class started but was dismayed to find the door was locked. Two other students waited with me almost a full hour before another student wandered up, called a number on his cellphone, and then led us back to the other door behind the building!

I felt like the kid in Gary Larson’s famous Midvale School for the Gifted cartoon. Driving school may be stupid, but what does it say about me if I can’t even find the right door?! To my credit, neither door was marked with a suite number or business name, and the side I was the only one with building numbers on it, so it was clearly the front. But no one told us where to go once we made it that far.

The class was predictable. It was pretty much like a flashback to high school drivers education, but without the gory drinking and driving films. Wandering in an hour late didn’t seem to affect us much, as the other students (there were 8 in all) were in the middle of watching a video. We watched a half-dozen of those videos throughout the day, each one taking the material of the prior one and retelling it. At least the fresh faces and the stunt car crashes made them interesting.

One was hosted by the late Christopher Reeve (“This is old!” one student quipped). Chris seemed so at ease in front of the camera. Very, very genuine. And not pretentious at all, the way I had once imagined him to be. He seemed like a regular guy. Watching him on tape made me sad again about his recent death.

I left class and arrived home at 3 PM, where I was met by a house full of sleeping family members. Kelly whispered how she’d had a trying day before I let her sleep again, stepping out to take the recycling out.

The rest of the evening was a bit challenging, too. Hallie didn’t want to spend much time with me, preferring that Kelly wake her up. For his part, Travis spent much of the night demanding to be held, screaming relentlessly when he’d put him down. At least he held off while we had dinner, though.

Towards bedtime, Hallie’s attitude deteriorated. She became whiny and didn’t want to clean up or get ready for bed. Travis began to get restless, too, and no amount of movement seemed to satisfy him. Kelly needed to break away and do some chores, which left me with two kids pleading for my attention. I went to bed on the couch in an effort to get some better sleep, taking a splitting headache with me.

At 2 AM, I awoke with what felt for all the world like a hangover, though I’d only had a glass and a half of wine with dinner. I drank water and rummaged around in our master bathroom for an ibuprofin, noting how Kelly and Travis were sleeping soundly next to me. After chasing the cat down from the kitchen counter, I fell back asleep until 8 AM.

Today has been a winner from the get-go. Hallie woke up in a fantastic mood, Kelly, Travis and I (in spite of my early morning headache) got more sleep last night than we had for weeks. Also, the weather was shaping up to be absolutely gorgeous, with highs in the mid-70s.

Travis had plenty of alert time during breakfast, after which we took advantage of the day and set out for a walk on the greenway. I wore Travis in the Baby Bjorn. Kelly and Hallie took turns pushing the stroller, with Hallie sometimes riding during Mommy’s turn. That hour of walking felt so relaxing. Just what we all needed!

While we were walking, Kelly and I were amazed to hear Hallie quietly reciting the alphabet! We were so proud to hear that that we both burst out in applause. We’ve worked with her on letters and we’ve sung the Alphabet Song, but neither one of us expected her to pick it up so quickly. Just when we think we’ve seen it all, Hallie finds yet another way to blow us away. She is a genius!

I took Travis from Kelly to give her a break and was delighted to have him fall fast asleep in my arms. All too often he would bawl when Kelly would hand him to me, but not today. The time he spent riding with me during the morning walk had softened him up and made him a champion napper, at least for today. I spent some quality time moving sprinklers around the yard with him, cleaning up around the house, or just sitting on the couch with him snoozing on my chest. It was unbelievably fun to see him so comfortable with me. I was a very proud dad.

While Hallie was napping, Kelly wandered out to find me and Travis moving sprinklers around the yard. As we were standing there, two separate neighbors stopped us to either deliver gifts for Travis or promise to deliver them! We stood talking with them for a half-hour over the neighborhood and other things. Afterward, Kelly and I agreed at how cool our neighborhood really is. The people are just so friendly!

After dinner, Hallie followed me out to the back porch as I took the trash out. We stood there for fifteen minutes as I showed her the moon, pointed at some planes flying by, and talked about one day seeing the stars through a telescope. Hallie became enchanted with the dark, and begged to play some on the porch. When she walked over to look at Kelly, who was inside nursing Travis, I formed a little halo over Hallie’s head with my hands. Kelly knew exactly what I meant.

When Kelly brought Travis out to join us in the dark, Hallie had begun to entertain herself over at the corner of the porch. As we watched, she began to twirl around, singing a song and holding her hands out in front of her. We both watched as she spun around and tried to make out her mumbled words.

She was singing something along the lines of “bees, byes, bows, bears” over and over, and holding her hands out at each word. It looked like a twist on “eenie, meanie, miney, moe.” She learned it in preschool and was obviously happy to be showing it off. It was a priceless moment.

The fun continued before her bath. Kelly brought her her solar-powered calculator and showed Hallie how to “use” it. Hallie spent the rest of the night pushing buttons on it and pretending to calculate numbers. Then, the calculator became a phone, and Hallie made numerous pretend calls to relatives and friends. I raced to videotape as much as I could of her antics, and managed to get a good bit of them captured on film. She was in rare form tonight.

I had Hallie settled on my lap for storytime when Kelly was telling her goodnight. As she closed the door, I told her how I wished every night would be this good.

“Every night? Try every day!” she said, and she was right. This day has been one of the best.