Today - Babbling On

It's been a fine day today. Max was cooperative this morning. He had to go to the principal's office again today, but I think this will be his last time. The regular principal doesn't seem concerned about him doing so, but the substitute principal was back today.

Anyway, I have no particular reason to be concerned about when he comes home today, but somehow, the day seems to be just rushing forward to him coming home and I'm not looking forward to it. I wish I didn't dread him coming home. I wish I didn't dread him being off school.

There are times I want a break from Davan, too, but it's different, yet again, like so many other things.

Historically, Friday afternoons are tough. Max seems to be tired and out of sorts. But, still. It's not just that it's Friday. It's most days, to be honest.

I was so proud of myself last Friday. I actually went and sprung him early from the institution to take him swimming, rather than figuring out how to maximize the time I had away.

Davan and I were going to go skiing today, but it's dumping snow up on Mt Hood. The last time that happened and we went anyway, we were an hour late getting home to met Max after school. It was a huge drama. I can't even remember if I wrote about it here. I think it was before I started blogging again. Yup, it was. I went and checked. So, with no further adieu, the day Max came home to an empty house!

It was a Tuesday. Davan and I went skiing. It was snowing, but not, it seemed, horribly so. After all, we were most of the way to the ski area before we had to chain up. However, when we got up there, there was so much powder that skiing was a challenge. We had fun with it, but it was definitely a challenge.

We left with plenty of time, so we thought, to get home. It takes about an hour when the roads are in decent shape and maybe an hour and a half when we have to have chains for part of the trip. Max gets home around 2:45. We were at the car before 1:00.

Sadly, things did not go as planned. The snow was so bad that part of the stretch of road that we use to come home was closed. We had to go in the opposite direction and come around the mountain. We were chained up for about half of the trip. Also for a little more than half of the trip, my cell phone service was out.

We finally got to where there was a pay phone at 2:40. The pay phone was not the sort you could use a credit card on, however, the deal was that for two quarters, you could call anywhere in the US for 2 minutes. I had exactly 2 quarters on my person. I called Anthony at work. Now, Anthony is about an hour away from home himself via bike or public transportation, which is what he uses to commute.

I gave Anthony a list of possible people who could go get Max and their phone numbers. Then my time was up. We started driving again in hopes we'd get to cell phone service. We did about 20 minutes later. Anthony had left work, but had left a message saying that Katie (a nearby friend) had gone to get Max. Whew.

Max ended up with something like 5-10 minutes that he was at loose ends. He ran back and forth between home and the bus stop several times. When Katie first showed up, he thought someone was coming to kidnap him, until he recognized Katie.

By the time we got to Katie's house at 3:45, Max was asking if he could go over there after school again. He'd gotten cookies and got to watch cartoons. I traded Davan for Max (Katie is also one of Davan's best friend's moms) and we went on with life. It was exciting, though.

Now if it's snowing more than a little bit, Davan and I don't go skiing. We don't want a repeat.

So, instead today, Davan and I went to open gym, where we got to stay an extra 1/2 hour today due to them being in the process of changing open gym times. Friends were there, which was fun. Then we ran errands. Davan needed a new swim suit and we needed to go the library.

I also picked up some Easter stuff. We've decided not to do candy at all for Easter this year. We've always done a "welcome to spring" gift in addition to hiding plastic eggs with candy (mostly) in them. We're still doing a spring gift. The general idea of a spring gift is something to enjoy outside as the weather is getting nicer. Max is getting a football helmet. Davan....well, we don't know yet. But, we do know what we're doing for the eggs. Davan is getting a puzzle split amongst her eggs. We do color coded eggs so that we can give the appropriate level of challenge to each child. Max is getting a Lego set split up the same way.

Now, the whole Lego thing is a whole issue in itself. When Max first moved in, he told us, as did his foster parents, that he was a Lego lover. We spread the word and Legos came pouring in for welcome gifts and Christmas gifts and such. Max had a heck of a time with them. He didn't have the patients to build them. He hated waiting while Anthony or I or Davan built them. It was frustrating to him to play with the built things because they fell apart easily and he couldn't fix them. It was a mess.

We finally put the Legos up for a while. Years maybe. It was devastating to him. Earlier this week, he bought himself a Lego set. It was a small one. I told him he could, but that he had to know that if it got to be too intense, we'd have to put them up with the rest of the Legos. He agreed. He did pretty well with building it. He did it all by himself and was very proud.

So, we're considering this Lego set to be a sort of test set. It's still small, but more involved than the car he got for himself. And it will fit in plastic Easter eggs. So there it is.