Mommy and Nicholas Day

Today was officially "Mommy and Nicholas Day." I say "officially" because I wrote it on his calendar, which is the benchmark around here. I instituted this official day of fun because I needed something to offer Nicholas to offset his worries about Daddy not being here, but it really did turn into a delightful day, mostly because Nicholas was sweet and helpful, enabling us to have fun together and me to somehow feel like I got a little break even while on solo parenting duty. Astounding.

Joe went to New York for a memorial service for his aunt and even though he was only actually going to be out of the state for 27 hours, Nicholas would be going about 48 hours without him, and Nicholas was really anxious about it. The kid may not be permanently scarred by our fall living situation, but he does not take it as lightly as he used to when one of us goes somewhere. (In fact, every Tuesday night when Joe leaves after dinner for choir we have to reassure the worried little boy that Daddy will be back when he wakes up.) So in addition to reminding Nicholas repeatedly that Daddy would be here when he woke up on Sunday (and making a big deal about the fun Superbowl party they are going to have), I decided to turn Joe not being here today into a special thing in and of itself.

Anyway, Mommy and Nicholas Day started with 2 episodes of Little Einsteins after breakfast because Mommy was tired and after dozing on the couch off and on during the first episode, I put on another one and fell sound asleep. We then finished getting ready for the day and Nicholas was a huge help, gathering up his library books and getting them loaded into the bag. He did stop to read one for a bit, but we weren't in an actual rush for once and he was so careful with the book!

From 2012 Feb

We then hit the library soon after it opened. This is always one of Nicholas' favorite Saturday activities, but today I had promised him something extra special . . . that we'd look for a movie. I may regret having spilled the beans that you can check out things other than books from the library, but I really wanted a movie for us to watch in the afternoon. Have I mentioned that I'm tired?

After the library we did the grocery shopping and because he was being well behaved and asked very nicely, I let him get down and walk when he asked 2/3 of the way through. We had a delightful time and accomplished one of our weekend errands at the same time. Golden.

As we got out of the car at home our friends from the next building were coming out and so we stopped to talk to them for a few minutes, which Nicholas always loves because he is completely infatuated with their 6-month-old daughter. In fact, we now have a song about her. Very creatively, it goes: "It was fun, fun, fun, to see Lei-la-la." He loves Leila!

Two trips with a "helper" to get the groceries up, then we made lunch together, and by the time we were eating Nicholas was leaning his head on his hand. He was too tired to eat much so I let him get down to play while I finished my lunch. And he was playing alone so nicely that I was able to eat lunch while reading a novel! Amazing!

Then we both napped. Heavenly. He even went back to sleep after waking the first time, ending up with over 2 hours. I read, I napped, I read some more. It was like a vacation.

At the library I had promised him the movie after his nap, but he woke up and wanted to play with a puzzle instead. I thought it would be too hard for him because each of these pieces was so discrete and told its own story, but he was much more attuned to subtle visual clues to match pieces than I was.

From 2012 Feb

Once again he played mostly by himself and I was able to do some work in the kitchen.

After a bit he either got bored or suddenly remembered the movie. And the special movie treat I had promised him to go along with it. And so we spent the afternoon curled up on the couch together watching Ratatouille and eating soft pretzels. Really, can it get much better?

We then did 3 loads of laundry and Nicholas was actually a huge help. I despise the front-load machines because clothes are constantly falling out and onto the gross basement floor, but it does mean that Nicholas can load and unload the machines. So since we have two sets of machines in our building, I left him to load one or transfer clothes from the washer to dryer in one while I did the other. Teamwork.

We made dinner together (omelets because the "mouse" in Ratatouille made them), had a delightful dinner, Nicholas did some jumping jacks to burn off energy, and then it was time to get ready for bed.

From 2012 Feb

The wheels came off the wagon a little bit in getting ready for bed. He had been doing so well all day that I sent him to his room with instructions to get undressed while I went and loaded the dishwasher but when I returned to his room to find that he had gotten as far as taking one sock off before he got distracted with playing with the velcro on the shoes on his floor. We had a couple other minor conflicts at bedtime, but nothing big. And he is only 2 1/2, which we sometimes forget.

And, to top it all off, three successful potty trips today! Still less than 50% on the day, but better than the last couple weeks.

Overall, we somehow managed to have a day that was both relaxing and productive and I really felt like we had lots of good quality time. Part of it was luck of the draw that he was in a good mood. Part of it was that he is getting old enough to both play independently and be helpful. And part of it I think was that I wrote off any possibility of doing schoolwork today and so napped while he napped, did housework while he played, and watched the movie with him instead of going off to work. I'll pay for it next week, but I'm beginning to think it was worth it.