Sunny Saturday

Today had its ups, downs, and ups.  The weather was absolutely perfect/beautiful.  Joe had to work so I was looking forward to spending the day with Oliver.  I signed us up for Spanish language immersion classes and this morning was our first class.  After that, I had no particular plans.  Things went pretty good this morning even though there was a little protest about wanting to play outside in the sandbox instead of going to our "play date where they speak Spanish" (Oliver has a general aversion to anything I call "class").  Once we left the house all was well.  He did great at the "class."  He did not say much, but was watching everyone and generally involved in the activities.  I parked about a half mile away and during our walk back he looked at me and said, "agua means water."  We then laughed about him being my "poco gato" and used a spattering of new words that he learned.  Since he had not repeated anything in class, it was cool to see him using the words so quickly.  It was also fun for me.  I struggled with Spanish in High School, but I was amazed that some of it came back to me.  Hopefully, it will be a fun activity for us to do together.

Unfortunately, the rest of the early afternoon was a series of not so great moments.  A protest in a store, crying in the car, knocking over toys and general drama once we got home.  He hit the dangerous tired/hungry combo and it was impossible to get him out.  I finally calmed him enough to eat some lunch, and he ended up falling asleep on my lap at the table.  After his nap, he was slow to rally.  But, soon asked to play outside.

One perk of Rittenhouse is our neighbors.  The neighborhood is great in general, but there is one family a couple doors down that we adore.  The parents are about our age and they have 3 kids: 4, 2, and a couple months.  The 4 year old girl, Abby, is great with Oliver and the 2 year old boy and Oliver are starting to have more in common.  Our yards both slope so we can easily see when the other family is out on their deck, which we can choose to ignore or easily yell across a few sentences.  Oliver and Joe were over at their place last night, and today Abby came over to play in the sandbox.  If you ask Oliver to "share" he will pitch a fit and dramatically tell you he does not want to share.  But, if left on his own, he usually plays great and trades and shares like it is no big deal.  After playing outside for awhile, the kids eventually ended up inside building trucks with Oliver's tools and playing cars and trains.  Abby did not want to leave when her parents called for supper.  But, Oliver gave her a big hug good-bye even though she was still pouting.

I know I thought I never wanted to leave the city, but I now cannot imagine raising Oliver downtown.  I love our home, our garden and neighborhood.  This is where we were meant to be.