Weekend Report

We had a very busy Saturday. Max had his first flag football games - two in a row because his team played a double header. Max is currently the quarterback (supposedly there will be more kids who learn the position, but for now he's it) and also plays well on defense, so he was out there almost the whole time for both games. He enjoyed it and it was fun to watch him, even though it was very, very windy and we had to be there at 8:30 - early for us on a weekend.

We have some concerns about his coach, though. He was very focused on winning and put kids in who played well more than kids that didn't. It's through the YMCA and that's not supposed to be the deal. At the end of every other Y sporting event we've gone to, the kids from one team have all cheered the kids on the other team, but Max's coach had them cheering their own name and drove home to them that they'd won. Hmmm.

After the games, we took Max to meet the cousins to go on a field trip to the air reserve Air Force Base for a tour. He spent the rest of the day and the night with them, going to a sock hop at their school in the evening, before heading to bed. He came home this morning after going to church with them. More about that later.

Davan, Anthony and I took off for Davan's Easter gift, which was a day trip to Corvallis to catch the college regional gymnastics meet. We drove down, did a letterbox thing, had dinner and then went to the meet.

The meet was a lot of fun and we saw some really great gymnastics. Oregon State University pulled out a win over higher ranked University of Michigan with the home crowd cheering like crazy. Those two teams will go on to the national meet. Davan's coach's daughter is the star gymnast for University of Michigan, so we got to cheer for two teams and both teams are going to nationals.

While it was great fun, it was also very late by the time we left. It was nearly midnight when we got home and we were all tired. We came home to a message from Max saying that he was going to go to church with the cousins' the next morning and would be home around noon. So, we got to go to bed without having to worry about being up for Max to come home before church, which was nice.

It was funny about the church thing, as Max had told me he didn't want to go. He wanted to be dropped off before they went. But then, when Angie (SIL) asked him, he said that he was going to church with them. We'd offered to arrange for him to go with them before, but he'd refused.

When he got home, I asked him if he wanted to go again and he said that he did. I said I could set it up for him to go every week. He didn't want that. He then suggested that he could go every other week. We'll see what ends up happening.

Max had to make a tough decision today. He is signed up for both t-ball and flag football this season. We'd hoped that they wouldn't interfere with each other too much. However, both sports have things happening 2-3 times a week and they happen at the same times. Monday evenings, Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. We told him that he had three choices. One: He could quit t-ball. Two: He could quit flag football. Three: We could try to do both, but he'd miss some of each and that meant that he wouldn't be able to remain the primary quarterback for football.

He very sadly chose to quit t-ball, although he tried to then make it not so for a while. I held him while he cried and was sad for a long time. He seemed to feel better, but still sad. Then he started up crying again. And kept crying. And whined. And plea bargained. I have no control over the schedule. It doesn't help to do this in front of me.

I finally retreated to the garage where Anthony was working on his bike and complained to him. He went into a whole song and dance about how Max was just sad, yadda, yadda, yadda. It didn't feel like that to me, though. And, geez, if anyone should give me sympathy about this kid, it'd be the other adult who knows him so well and knows his tricks. I was pissed and told him that if he felt that way, then he needed to get his ass in the house and be the one to listen to the bitching.

However, when I stormed back into the house, Max had stopped crying and was cheerful. This pretty much proved my point in that he stopped when he lost his audience. I told Anthony he didn't have to come in, but I was right. Anthony came in anyway.

The rest of the day involved...giving Max some lunch, doing some dinner prep, Anthony going back out to work on his bike while Max shot some hoops, playing family rotational fun, making cookies (sugar and fat free, but still yummy), finishing dinner, eating, getting Max off to bed, Davan, Anthony and I starting a book to read out loud together while working on our current puzzle and getting Davan off to bed.

It sounds like a nice day on paper, and it was in several respects. However, Max spent the day crying over everything - putting on his shoes, not wanting to shoot hoops, wanting to shoot hoops, his shoes, Davan asking him not to jump on the balance beam when her feet were under it, what other people chose for family rotational fun, his shoes, wanting to help, not wanting to help, his shoes, laying out clothes for tomorrow (oh the drama over this one!), dinner, taking a break from the table in his room, dinner, bedtime, lotion, putting his clothes in the hamper, on and on. It was crazy.

By the clothes for tomorrow, he was also becoming very rude and nasty. He got glares, huffs, yells, snotty remarks, stomping feet and being yelled at that we are "not my mom and dad!!!!" Yeah. Nice.

I attribute it to being very tired. He was so tired that when he was waiting his turn for the add on game on the trampoline and was sitting down, he couldn't stay sitting. He slumped over big time.

It could also be from separation, but he certainly didn't sound like it. He was very pleased with the activities he got to do and the food he got to eat.

We'd bought him tickets for the sock hop and he'd gotten a hot dog, chips, a Mug root beer, nachos, two airheads, two cookies, won the cake walk and received a dozen muffins for it (which he shared with the cousins) and...there was something else....some other sort of candy....but I don't remember what. Obviously, we'd gotten too many tickets for him! Geez. He must have had a sore tummy after all that.

This morning he had pancakes. I'm sure they were traditional fluffy nothing pancakes with lots of butter and fake syrup. That's fine, even though it's not what I'd feed him all the time, but it's the kind of food he loves.

Still, I'm going for tired. He usually goes to bed at home at 7:45. One of us reads to him until 8:00, then, as long as he hasn't lost the privilege, he gets to listen to a CD's worth of book on CD. So, he's not really trying to go to sleep until close to 9:00, but he's relaxing a lot and getting ready for sleep.

What time did the kids get sent to bed last night? 10:00. We don't know what time they got up this morning, but Angie tells us the kids are regularly up at 6:00 on weekends. Eight hours may be enough sleep for most adults, but the ten hours that Max has available (I wake him up just after 7:00), is often not enough. Often I'm actually waking him up and he's still tired.

So there it is. My long, rambling post about the weekend. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. If not, I don't really blame you.