Busy Day

Once in a while you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and that's just what happened to me yesterday. One of the few sunny days this week, I was looking forward to a bike ride to the gym with Alton so that we could go swimming, some berry-picking in the afternoon, and our weekly Tuesday night dinner of pizza. But I got stuck in a funk and it seemed like every little blip just dragged me down more. Alton was in an argumentative mood for most of the day and was just not paying attention to me or doing the things I asked him to do. I checked my email and found that the swimsuit I'd ordered online was not even going to be shipped until after we had already departed for our beach vacation. Alton told me that he didn't want to ride the bike (And in an attempt to ascertain why, I asked him, "Do you get too cold on the bike?" "Yes." Suspicious, I continued my line of questioning: "Do you get too hot on the bike?" "Yes." Aaah. Problem solved.) and I had to promise a muffin reward once we got to the gym to ensure that I got my workout in by biking there instead of driving. The swim went very well, but Alton wanted to trot around the shower afterward and when I told him to stop so that he didn't fall, he cried. No Diet Coke in the fridge at lunchtime. He went down for his nap, but woke up sobbing as if from a nightmare after only an hour and a half of sleep. (He usually sleeps for two-and-a-half or three hours. Yes, I know I'm lucky, but that sure didn't help pull me out of my foul mood!) We went to pick strawberries and the field was muddy and the berries were mushy. When Alton fell on his bottom in the mud, he cried (are we seeing a pattern here?). The takeout pizza burned in the oven and set off our smoke alarm. Andy came home and started cleaning the garage to make sure that I wasn't abandoned for the evening with Mr. Whineypants while his Daddy worked on bigger projects. We had our dinner (and some red wine for Mommy) and we were all exhausted.
After a very good night's sleep (Alton inexplicably let me sleep in today--I'm not sure if he was sleeping himself, or just very very quiet all morning.), I woke up in a better mood today and so far things have been great. We went to the roller rink this morning, excited to try out their "Tiny Tot" skate hour, but they were closed for a school party. Undaunted, we invited the two friends who were joining us to come over to our house to play instead. Upon arrival, one of the other moms exclaimed at how nice our house looked, and how she could never invite people over on a whim because her house is always such a disaster. It's a fact that the cleanliness and orderliness of the house is always a tender point with me, so the sincerity of her compliment really made me glow. The three kids played well together and upon their departure, UPS was pulling up to deliver a new computer desk that we'd ordered. Alton and I eagerly ripped into the boxes and while I was reading the assembly instructions, Alton did what any small child would do:
Inside the box.

Messing with little Styrofoam bits.

This is the back of a computer cabinet, with a hole for cords...or is it?

Alton thinks the hole is a home to something else.

A monster truck, naturally.

I jubilantly sent Andy an email to let him know our packages had arrived. Hours went by with no response, and I glanced at our shared online calendar to see what he had on his plate--I can view where he is blocked off, but not the titles of his work events. Andy's schedule for today looks like this:
8a.m.-9a.m. Meeting
9a.m.-10a.m. Meeting
10a.m.-10:30a.m. Meeting
10:30a.m.-11:30a.m. Meeting
11:30a.m.-1p.m. Meeting
1p.m.-2p.m. Meeting
2p.m.-3p.m. Meeting
3p.m.-3:30p.m. Meeting
Wow. I sure hope one of those included lunch! Looks like poor Daddy is the one who's going to need the red wine tonight.
The rain started coming down last night and continues today and tomorrow. We are working on an estimated schedule for giving Andy time to complete Alton's playset. So far he's finished with all the cutting, routing, and pre-drilling of the wood, and will move on there to sanding, staining, and...assembling! We elected to purchase blueprints for a playset online, because it allowed the builder (Andy) to modify the plans according to how much space was available. While the set can include a side arm with spots for one, two, or three swings, ours will be a simpler fort with rock climbing wall and slide, plus a small trapeze on one side for swinging and room for Alton's sandbox underneath. The rainy weather can't get us down too much, because the sooner it starts to get sunny, the sooner we are going to want to blast through this project and have it up and running! For now, we'll relish those wet days to spend hours inside painstakingly applying stain to the lumber. (Okay, Andy will be. I will be wrestling with this new desk and wrestling the user of the playset.)