Thursdays Are My Favorite

Thursdays are my favorite.

1) MOPS is over.  Don’t get me wrong – I love MOPS.  But sometimes I get a little overwhelmed prepping for it.  It always feels good to make it to Thursday and know that I have some time before the next one.

2) There’s good tv on Thursday nights.  And by good, I mean I watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (or whatever version of the RH franchise is on) and follow that with some Watch What Happens Live.  Love me some Andy Cohen!

3)  The next day is Friday.  As much as I love Thursdays, I love the universal exhale of the weekend, and knowing it’s just around the corner feels great.

But the real reason Thursday is my favorite?  I get to go to school with Gabe.  {5} I love it!  I love the fact that he’s young enough to like to hold my hand while we walk into the building.  I love seeing him interact with his teacher and classmates.  I love helping all the children learn something during center time.  Today was math.  We played with garishly colored counting bears to practice simple addition facts.  The range of ability fascinates me – almost as much as watching their little minds solve problems.  Regardless of how much they do or don’t know, their problem-solving abilities and tactics never cease to amaze me, and its exciting to watch them figure out answers.

Good grief… after gushing like that you’d think I was a teacher or something!  😉

I have no pictures of that experience because… well, it’s school and I’d be a little more than annoyed if another parent was photographing my child during school and then posting the photos online.  So.  No photos.

But my second favorite moment today happened at school, too.  I thought my heart was going to burst with pride!

At the end of center time, Gabe rushed up to me and pulled me close.  “Mommy,” he whispered, “Do we have enough money to buy another Nintendo DS?  M really, really wants one for her birthday and I want to get her one.”  Ack!  Be still my heart!  {6} Gabe has never tended to be overly aware of other people’s feelings, and he has also never been horridly eager to give away anything that might enable him to get more toys.  lol  He got a DS for his birthday last week, and after dropping it 5 times (not kidding) we discussed how it was an expensive toy and if it broke because of carelessness we wouldn’t be able to replace it. So he knows they’re pricey and he tried to be generous instead of stingy.  He’s definitely maturing!

I couldn’t buy him a DS to give to his friend, but I could donate some warm winter clothes to his classroom.  I overheard the teacher talking to some students about wearing warm coats.  Apparently several of them have jackets but not heavy coats.  With the turn our weather has taken, they’re very cold at recess.

I don’t say this to toot my own horn.  On the contrary – I’ve been hoarding every single piece of Gabe’s clothing since he was born.  This has led to an impressive accumulation of children’s clothing in all sizes from 0-5.  My basement is literally overrun by tubs and boxes of clothing that are serving absolutely no good purpose.  I’ve been afraid of getting rid of them – partly because I tell myself we save them in case we have another child, but mostly because I’m just attached.  However, it was a tremendous joy today to know I could meet a little child’s need by sharing something we don’t even need anymore {7} and it warmed my heart.

When we got home from school this afternoon, I convinced Gabe that it was time to start decorating for Christmas.  I. Can’t. Wait!!! for Christmas! {8} This plain white, ruffled tablecloth is part of my Christmas decorating plan, along with an old beat-up chalkboard whose frame I hacked at with a hammer and a tomato cage.  Tahd is so going to cringe when he reads this!

This is also the photo I took when I decided to experiment with shooting in raw mode rather than shooting jpg files.    Can anyone tell me why I didn’t do this sooner?  Amazing!  I mean, the photo’s nothing special but the control it gives you over the results is really cool.

And this… I noticed that a car in front of our house was being towed this evening, and Gabe promptly created a viewing gallery so he could catch every last second of the action.  It was like he had never seen a car being towed before.  And then I realized – it’s entirely possible that he never has seen a car getting towed before, not that close.  Getting to watch him experience something for the first time is so fun – one of the best parts about being a parent.  Freshness replaces the stale, gray monotony that develops once things don’t seem so new and exciting.  I like being able to relive that sense of wonder.  {9}

Happy December 2!

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Comments

  1. What a happy and upbeat post! I had to laugh at the last part about never seeing a car towed…due to the nature of Remodel Man’s love of all cars old and beat up, Builder Boy has not only seen other cars being towed, we are more often than not the ones being towed. 😉

  2. Great shot and YEAH for decorating!

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