All To Himself

Andy spent the night at Grandma's. Mostly because he loves being at Grandma's/ Partly so he could avoid cleaning his room. But you know how that goes. No, I didn't touch it.

Joey came home to find no Andy.

"Where's Andy?" he demanded.
"He's at Grandma's," I told him with a smile. Joey hasn't been able to stay at Grandma's since he started bolting, because Grandma can't chase him down, so he's been getting a bit grumpy about it. Therefore, I added, "Since its just us, we can do anything we want! What would you like to do?"

"Go pick up Andy."

****

Artiste at work

But what this meant was Joey had me all to himself all afternoon. So we went to lunch at his favorite spot, and picked up some more paints and some tiny canvasses he saw at the craft store, and spent a good amount of time painting and mixing colors. All this time, we mostly scripted Blues Clues episodes, to his great delight.

Then he looked at me and said, "Let's go to D's". I called up D's mom, and they were delighted, so off we went. He got to spend a few hours with his buddy down the street, who isn't in ESY this year for reasons unknown.

To end this perfect Boy Afternoon, we played some Joey's Clues to find out what Joey wanted after playing at his friend's house, and it was Take A Nap. So I tucked him into bed. He asked me to read him two books- one was Goodnight Moon- and sing. I haven't been asked to sing in ages. He wanted the ones he liked best when he was small: Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, and The Fox, and Shoo Fly, and Wheels on the Bus, complete with our own special silly verses. If he didn't take up the whole bed, I would swear he was 5 again.

Summers are hard. The schedule is up in the air, even if you are actually liking school for the first time in a long time and getting to indulge in your new art interest. Now having your constant playmate at home is hard. Having long afternoons to fill is hard.

Sometimes, its nice to have a Mommy break, and be little again-- when things weren't so hard, and they were familiar and happy and simple to process (at least it seems so now, when you have already processed them). So we spent the afternoon having a break, with plenty of hugs and kisses and Mommy all to ourselves.

Now, its time for me to go get Andy, and see if I can get him to pick up the trash in his room.