Monday, February 25th, 2008

Hello everyone! I hope this Monday finds you all bright eyed and feeling perky! I’m in-between. Last night Bryce and I slept on the floor in the living room. Our choice! Right now Tim is high above us, heading to The Lone Start State for three days. He had to be up and out the door by four a.m. Because he slept in Sunday morning, he wasn’t feeling all that tired come 11:00 p.m., so I don’t know what time he eventually fell asleep. I decided to let him have an uninterrupted five or so hours of sleep, that’s why I piled up some sleeping bags and tossed down a couple pillows. Devin appeared about 2 a.m. and climbed in on my other side. Later Hunter admitted that he saw us sleeping on the floor, which means he was awake after 2 but before 4 because Bryce and I relocated to the bedroom when Tim left. If you had been a fly on my wall you would have heard me say: HUNTER JAMES! YOU ARE NOT TO COME OUT OF THAT ROOM ONE MINUTE BEFORE 6:30!

It seems Tim was right. Many of you don’t read thru my Updates. It’s OK. I’ll get over it. Out of the 23 people on my email mailing list, take away Tim as he doesn’t count, only five people responded to the short paragraph buried in my last update that asked you to contact me for a free something or other. Tim says I write too much, it’s too long, that no one has the time; possibly not even the interest to read my rambling’s regarding life in Northeast Ohio. Oh, well. The five of you will be getting a 5x7 picture of the boys eventually.

I actually started this update about 7:30 this morning, thinking I’d get it out to you all by lunch. But no such luck. Devin was crawling around in Hunter’s closet and brought me half of a pirate’s ship. He wanted me to fix the boat so we went back to the closet and pulled out all the pieces in there and we also found some under the bed. We brought it into the living room and I tried to put it together, but Hunter had taken it completely apart; it was hard for me to figure out where the pieces went. So I searched online for a picture of the ship and eventually found it and was able to put it together. I had trouble on my own because I had pieces that were the same color, but they belonged to the castle (which I’m sure Devin will want me to fix later, after he’s done with the ship). It still wasn’t complete though as some of the cannon balls, pirates and the treasure chest were missing, so I spent over an hour cleaning out Hunter’s room to find them and other pieces I recognized went with it. Phew! Now here it is early afternoon and soon Bryce will be needing my attention!

Hunter’s had a pretty easy going week. He’s been very helpful to me in watching Devin with Bryce. Devin has been smacking the baby on top of the head, sometimes for no apparent reason, so has been spending quite a lot of time in Time Out. I’d hear Hunter tell Devin no hit, or if I was elsewhere he’d holler down to me that Devin was hitting again. I had to ask Hunter to do this because he was just ignoring his younger brothers. I’ve been having to remind him to pick up his small toys from the floor and told him that Bryce couldn’t play in Hunter’s bedroom with him unless he picks up all the toys and stuff all over his floor. Hunter just closed his door. (He doesn’t catch on very well.)

The only big news with Hunter this week is that he’ll probably be getting glasses. He’s always sat in the front row near the teacher to help keep him on task so there hasn’t been a problem with him not seeing or understanding the work. Tim was sitting with him in the living room when he relinquished the remote to Hunter and saw Hunter get closer to the TV to see the list of programs. Tim asked him to back up and read what the screen said, but Hunter was unable to do so. Here’s a reminder to me to make him an eye appointment. He did have an evaluation in Kindergarten I believe.

This weekend we needed to get some things in the bigger city, so Tim dropped the boys and I off at the mall to play on the soft, indoor play land they have there. He went and did some of the things on his own and would join us later. There are probably quite a few situations with children that a parent might describe as a nightmare. Devin’s broken arm at 18 months was hard going, but not necessarily bad. What happened at that play land I’d rate in my Top 5 of the worst experiences for parent and child.

Once inside the horseshoe shaped enclosure, the open area of the shoe being the only entrance/exit, I took Devin's shoes off and away he went. I've shown pictures while at this playground before. It's a shiny, squishy place where everything is soft although slippery in just socks. He headed to a boat where a wave was at the back in the shape of a slide. I put Bryce at my feet where he started to crawl toward a colorful lady bug. I saw Devin go down the slide and back into the boat to do it again. Hunter had brought a book but decided he wanted to take a video of Devin. I asked him not to drain the battery and take pictures instead. I saw Devin climb up the little tree house and down the slide and back up again. Hunter said something was wrong with the camera so I put it to the right setting and then brought Bryce back to play in front of where I had chosen to sit, which was about half way around the shoe. There were quite a few other parents and children.

Hunter asked where Devin went and I said he was by the tree. He didn't see him over there and I said to look under it because there was a house there. Hunter went inside, but said Devin wasn't there. I looked at the boat and then the motorcycle, which is Devin's second favorite after the boat. Then I started to look more closely at everything and everybody. But Devin wasn't there. I picked up Bryce and headed around the enclosure, behind the tree house because you can't see about a five foot space from where I was sitting. But he wasn't there either. I called Hunter to me and as I turned back the way I'd come, a lady calls from outside the play area and said, "Is anyone missing a little boy?" I went to her and said, "I am. Is he out there?" She said that he was running toward Target.

I ordered Hunter to sit down and put Bryce in his lap and told him not to move an inch while dropping baby toys at their feet. That isn’t a lot to ask of Hunter, he is quite capable of doing what I needed. He heard what the lady said about Devin. I took off toward Target faster then I ever have since my childhood. About 50 feet from the entrance a group of young adults said he had run inside. I got in there and looked in the three directions the store allowed; into the clothing area, straight in front of the check out aisles and toward the exit to outside. I didn't see him anywhere and I was really beginning to panic. An older gentleman recognized that and asked if I was looking for a little boy. I gasped yes and he said he saw him run that way, and pointed straight, past the registers. As my eyes clung to his finger and search frantically in the direction it indicated, I first saw the welcomed sight of a security officer and walking with him was a woman and she was holding a crying Devin.

Oh, my God, I was so relieved. I felt like I hadn’t been in my own body that entire time, but when I saw my son I snapped back into myself and the horror of having lost him sunk temporarily below the belt. When he saw me he started to cry louder and reached for me. The warmth of his body seemed to renew me.

They were both very considerate as I was feeling like the worse mom in all the world. The security officer said they were headed toward the playland because Devin wasn’t wearing any shoes. I thanked them so much and left the store, clutching Devin like there was no tomorrow.

The walk back to the play land was long indeed. The feeling that had fallen away from me when I first laid eyes on Devin returned in full force and I was attacked by What If’s? As I sat back down with him on my lap, I could feel the other parents staring at me. I'm sure everyone had heard the woman ask if someone was missing a child. I buried my face in his shoulder and told him how scared I was. He had scared himself pretty good, so a lesson learned for both of us.

When Tim arrived I told him what happened. He was positive about it, and went in to play with both the younger boys as Hunter was taking their pictures (and later read a book) like it had never happened. I’m relieved he didn’t bite my head off, but also a bit perturbed he didn’t make a bigger deal of it. So maybe I wanted to get yelled at? He knows already the worse punishment I can get is what I deal out to myself. I’m going to be sensitive about this for a long time.

Bryce wants to eat my every meal and just wants to go and go and go like the Energizer Bunny! I think he’s even dreaming of crawling in his sleep! This week he realized that there’s a whole new world to explore down the hallway! He discovered the bathroom, which he was promptly shut out of, and then Devin’s room where he slobbered all over Devin’s train. Then he discovered the clean toy room (be sure to see the pictures back on the web site!), which will eventually become his bedroom, making him forget the rest of the world and just focus on all his little hands could get hold of and gnaw on. He is such a happy baby; his smile takes up his entire chubby face! I have a little concern over his two front teeth though. I didn’t take a picture of them, but they both have half circles missing from them, in almost the same position as each tooth. Hmm. I’m going to have to look into that.

I hope you all have a great week!

Yo