the joy of ordinary things

This has been a good week. Busy, but good.

Since Dan has been doing research up north but I wanted Andrew to be able to go to *some* of his last month of preschool, I took the kids back home for the middle of the week. This brief flirtation with single-parenthood makes me all the more grateful for Dan (and all the more impressed with women who don't just do this on a voluntary basis). On Wednesday, as you know, we went down to SG for an interview.

I don't know about Evelyn, but Andrew enjoyed it. He got to run around with Saren's twin five-year-olds and then we went to Pirate Island for lunch (our first time). I think both kids enjoyed that, so it may be a repeat some day.

We did have a not-so-enjoyable moment midweek. On Thursday, after getting Andrew home from preschool, I was trying to unload the car. (I'd had an unsuccessful attempt to take some recyclable material to a place that *used* to have bins for recycling but apparently no longer does). The kids wanted to be outside, so I told them okay, as long as Andrew kept an eye on Evelyn--I didn't want her in the street. (In retrospect, this was clearly not a good idea, but Andrew promised that he could do it.) Anyway, I'd just taken a load inside when I heard some yelling--I dashed outside and saw something that literally made my heart stop. There was my two-year-old, standing placidly in the middle of the street. I ran out, grabbed her, turned around, and made to ran back up to the safety of our driveway and yard when I overbalanced (or tripped--honestly, my memory is a little hazy at this point) and fell. While holding Evelyn. Not surprisingly, she cried loudly. Our neighbor across the street (who had witnessed the whole thing) offered to let Andrew go over to their house while I placated Evelyn. Shortly after she stopped crying she fell asleep, so I put her in her crib for a nap. (And then worried, playing over in my head all the things I knew about traumatic head injuries). Luckily, nothing much seems to be wrong with her, aside from a lovely goose-egg. But we won't be repeating that scenario (Andrew watching Evelyn--even if just for a minute) anytime soon.

It was a relief to be reunited with Dan--I think a little absence is good for everybody. (Andrew told me while we were gone that it wasn't good to just have a mom. He missed his dad.) Friday afternoon we had a chance to hang out and play together in the backyard--all four of us. We played tag, lawn darts (nerf, of course), hide-and-seek (Evelyn is the worst--she doesn't know how to stay hidden and if she's seen where anyone else hid she'll unerringly guide "it" to their hiding place), etc. I'd forgotten how nice it was to just play together like that. Dan even challenged me to some hoops, and I realized, taking the ball in my hands, that I even enjoyed that. While I'm not exactly good at basketball, I remembered that I'd spent some time as a kid shooting hoops with my brothers--at least I knew how to hold the ball and how to aim. It was funny that I'd forgotten all of that until I held the ball in my hands and smelled the leather.

Not as much to report from the weekend--Dan took the kids to visit Sarah yesterday morning while I worked on my conference presentation for next week. While that wasn't exactly fun, I'm glad I had the time to do it, as I'm much less worried now than I was before I had anything on paper.

Some pictures from the week. Andrew wanted "ponies" in his hair after I did Evelyn's this morning. They didn't last long (this was before church, and there was no way he was wearing them to church), but he was sure pleased to have them.

Dan introduced the kids to the joys of dunking oreos in milk. Evelyn enjoyed it a little too much, I think. (She started dipping her hands after she finished her oreo).
Earlier in the week I encountered my daughter making this fashion statement. (She's wearing my sports bra.) Thank goodness we're still years away from needing this for real (I'm not ready for her to grow up!)