Sunday, after church, all the kids came over to Mom and Dad's for a dinner of taco salad and a party for Mom and Isaac's birthday. It was raining so we couldn't play kickball as planned, but we had fun playing with the kids and chatting. With so many very different schedules we don't actually get to spend much time together, all together, so it's really nice when we finally get the opportunity.
Ezra spent a good half hour setting the table. It was so cute to watch him carefully fold napkins and line them up on the table. But then Isaac came along and tried to "help" and of course really just messed up Ezra's napkins, frustrating Ezra.
Ruth made the best cake ever. Ezra talks about his "George cake for his two birthday" and his "snake cake for his three birthday" all of the time, so several months ago he decided Isaac needed a Batman cake for his "two birthday" (and that he would have a Superman cake for his "four birthday") and Ruth sure delivered.
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On Monday our new six week session of classes at the YMCA and Ezra is taking a baseball skills class, so Monday afternoon we got to go to the Y and he learned how to field grounders and run from base to base. It was so adorable and I am so excited to someday get to watch my boys play baseball.
Tuesday was a full, full day of swimming at the Y, piano lessons, and then making it to the second game of TBS v. Life Christian's double header at Cirque. Whew! It was very cold, but so fun to watch a real game of baseball.
Wednesday morning we skipped BSF and Dad took Isaac for a few hours so that Ezra and I (and Joel and Tiffany) could visit the Tacoma CC community's open house. It was really good to finally get to see CC in action. I've been doing so much reading and talking about it, but nothing beats actually visiting a class.
After learning their new material for the week and reviewing the material from the last week(s), each of the kids got to stand up in front of the class and give a presentation. For these little kids, it's really just show and tell (but the older kids have assigned presentation topics), and one by one they stood up and said "Hello, my name is ____ and I will be presenting on ____" and after presenting they asked the class if they had any questions. It was adorable and about halfway through Ezra got really concerned about what his presentation would be on. I kept trying to hush him and tell him he wouldn't be presenting, but he found a Batman book in my purse and made his desire to present known to the teacher ("tutor") so after everyone else was done, she offered Ezra the chance to present.
I was so surprised that he wanted to, and then so surprised and proud with his presentation. He was perfectly self-assured and spoke clearly and confidently. It was amazing.
I had a bunch of piano lessons that afternoon, plus some of my students had to stay extra long after lessons until their mom could pick them up, and another boy, Drew, came over and played for a while. Ezra definitely got lots of social interaction this week. I was needlessly a bit worried for him and how he would handle this, because he definitely needs time to recharge, alone, anyway but especially so when he's around a lot of people. Sometimes he just rises to the occasion and makes me so grateful for his ability to adapt.
Wednesday was my grandpa's birthday, and even though I had to work, my parents offered to take the boys up to Shoreline with them so they could celebrate with Great Grandpa. I was sorry to miss the party, but it did allow Seth and I the opportunity to go out to dinner and talk without interruption for a long time. We've been having a difficult time of it lately and have really needed extra time to talk.
On Friday I was laying on the couch, writing invoices for Seth (and therefore focusing on the computer screen) while Seth was laying on the ground playing with the kids. Isaac has these wooden stacking toys and one of the pieces is a wooded sphere that definitely has some heft to it. Even though he knows he isn't to throw anything (besides his soft balls) in the house, I guess he thought it was a ball and chucked it. Right into my eye. I didn't see it coming and he threw it hard! It hurt and I was really surprised, so I was crying (probably too dramatically) and the boys freaked out. Poor Isaac felt terrible.
The next few days I couldn't believe how much my cheek hurt. The kid is two! It legitimately did hurt, but it was probably more the shock of it that I couldn't get over.
Ezra kept praying for me, which was really sweet. After a few days of telling him that, yes, my "eye" still hurt, when I finally said it was feeling better he was so excited. He came running across the room and hugged me and said: "Oh, Mommy! I just knew our Holy God would heal you! I was praying and praying and He healed you!"
It was one of those sweet moments I'll never forget, both because he is so transparent with his great love for me and because he so unquestionably believes God is Holy and that He Heals.
Seth is about to take over the drama class at TBS, as the current drama teacher (who goes to our church, actually) is going on maternity leave. The class is performing the second of their two big plays on March 27th and then Seth takes over. He has a big event to plan for (on April 30th) and is going to give them a big final project, but at least doesn't have to direct a play. Anyway, on Thursday we went to dinner at the Meyers' house so that Seth and Jennifer could discuss his lesson plans and learn more about what the class has done. The Meyers have a ten year old son, Calvin, who is so gracious to play with my kids anyway, but as we were at their house this week, he and Ezra discovered that they both love Superheroes and they happily spent three hours playing with all of Calvin's superhero action figures and Legos.
We had to meet Seth at TBS, though, before we all drove up to Federal Way together, and since the boys and I had time to kill, we went to the park across the street and admired the "flower trees" and played at the park.
Friday we had two gymnastics classes at the Y and then went grocery shopping. It's getting easier and easier to take the boys shopping (well, anywhere, really). Perhaps it's even getting to be an enjoyable prospect. They then got to watch a show while I super cleaned the bathroom and generally tidied up. I have been working really hard to keep the house well-cleaned. A clean house has always been very important to me, but it's been hard to meet my most minimal standards these last few years. And a dirty house just makes everything worse (to me).
I've done a good deal of purging these last few months, though, and a lot of reorganizing, so it's been easier to put things in their correct places, but I've also made myself wash all of the dishes every night before tumbling into bed. For a while I tried to justify washing dishes in the morning, because I had more energy (so weird, but true... thanks a lot for those 6:30am wake ups, Isaac), but even though I do feel more up to it in the morning these days, it's demoralizing to wake up to a counter full of dirty dishes.
All of that is to say that, on Friday, it didn't take too long to whip the house into shape. It took the length of a twenty minute TV show, actually. And then I gave Isaac a butter knife and, after much convincing on his part, I gave Ezra a paring knife and he helped me chop zucchini and green onions and peppers for my lasanga and lemons for iced tea (well, he also added a slice of zucchini and proudly announced it was zucchini lemonade). Isaac was so happy to "do knifing" and Ezra was a legitimate help, so before I knew it I had most of dinner ready. It was amazing!
Seth got home to play with them (and distract them) while I finished cleaning up our mess and then my Mom came and whisked the boys away for an evening of grocery shopping and dinner at Farelli's. It just was a great few hours, but that six people were about to come to dinner (for our monthly dinner of eight we participate in with people from church) and I had to have a clean house and dinner ready? It really wasn't stressful or overwhelming. And that is a significant enough occurrence to write about, paragraph after paragraph.
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