Don Called and Help Arrived

Yesterday Don called at 7:30 a.m.! I handed the phone to Benjamin so he could talk to Daddy-O first. He was really excited and had so much to say to Daddy. It was really cute to hear him telling him all about "SSSSSSSforts Bounce" (Sports Bounce) and everything else going on in his lil world. And then he said "How is your work, Daddy?" I was rather surprised he piped up with this on his own. It was really cute. I suppose he hears a lot of people asking me how his Daddy is doing so I guess he thought he needed to ask him too. Don told him "Daddy works a lot."

Then I talked to Don for awhile. He sounded good. He had gone home early on Sunday (which is why he didn't call). With the difference in time zones, if he goes home at a decent hour then it is too early here for him to call us. (I think he is 8 hours ahead of us).

He has been working on some course work for a military correspondence course he's been trying to tackle for some time now. He finally is finishing up on Phase 1 of the 3 Phase course and is feeling pretty good about that.

Once we got off the phone I had to rush around a bit so we could get Benjamin to school on time but we made it there. The teacher's said he had a good day. But he had an issue with insisting on sitting on a "blue chair" at one point. The kids chairs in the classroom are different primary colors and apparently it was really important to Benjamin that he had a blue one. (We will have a talk about this before he returns to school on Wednesday). Overall, he loves school and it sounds like he is doing great. He loves learning new letters and always comes home with new and exciting facts. On Monday he learned about groundhogs (something we haven't talked about so he was pretty enthusiastic about his groundhog pop up puppet he made at school. Although he kept asking "What is he again, Mommy?").

Benjamin had a few meltdowns yesterday about some little things so I figured he had to be exhuasted. But after laying upstairs and playing in his room quietly for about 2 hours I finally caved and let him come out. ugh. Another napless day for Benjamin. But Samuel managed to take a decent nap.

And my helper arrived yesterday shortly after 4 p.m. The boys had a blast with her. Samuel was laughing hysterically (seriously, he was belly laughing). And she and Benjamin were trying to out "roar" each other. He loved that! (She's a good "roarer"). I, on the other hand, was able to go through some of Samuel's clothes that he has out grown and pack them away in bins (without interuption! ahhhh. Finally got something accomplished). I folded some laundry, took the dogs for a walk, picked up the back yard a bit, then got ready to go out to eat. We all went to Moe's. Benjamin loves Moe's and it had been awhile since we had been. My helper seemed glad to be joining us and was a tremendous help with both boys. Phew. Success. I dropped her off after dinner around 7 p.m. then took the boys home for baths and then bedtime.

She will be back next Monday. Benjamin had a blast with her and will be looking forward to her coming back to play with him again. I am already dreaming about the things I will accomplish next Monday during my couple hours of "free time".