WHY DELAY THE INEVITABLE
The day was full of excitement. The children were back to their old selves again after not having spent time at my place for the past four weeks. Two weeks I spent traveling to be with their sister in Germany, one week I spent in Ireland visiting my friend, and another week I spent at home recovering from all the travel.
In an attempt to return to 'normal', I made polenta for us this morning as Enigma played in the background. Absent-mindedly, I somehow remembered the ratio to be 1:2 (as is the case with the 5-grain cereal I make) instead of 1:4. As a result, I ended up having to add more milk to the pot but the result was not as creamy as usual. Despite my mistake, the children ate every last bit of the polenta with maple syrup.
After breakfast, we headed out to Central Market for a few items for next week's lunches and tomorrow's brownies. Cinnamon was a bit impossible when it came to not letting her climb into the cart. 'Why does Sage get to sit there?' she bemoaned. She claimed she was tired and cold but had refused to wear socks. Instead, she put on her white summer sandals which looked a bit odd when paired with a black turtleneck, black leggings, and a puffy winter coat. My buttons she continued to push for most of the time we spent in the store. At one point, I pulled her off to the side of the baking supplies aisle and let her know we would leave the groceries in the cart and go home if she kept insisting on sitting in the cart.
Back in the minivan, I continued to play Nickelback songs via YouTube on my iPhone which played through the van speakers through the aux cable. Never would I have imagined anything such as this decades ago as I recalled having listened to songs on eight-track tapes as a child in our Oldsmobile. The children enjoyed the songs and tried to sing along. Cinnamon kept asking me the names of songs she liked which she wrote on a piece of paper as soon as we returned home.
Upon our return home, the children wanted to explore the area under the stairs which they call 'the magic door'. Sage especially was excited about the magic door. A moment later, I heard his cries of 'Mama, you lied!', followed by tears of frustration and disappointment. He truly believed there was a door on the inside where the wall would magically open up and take him to another place.
But Sage was no longer sad as he was yesterday. Instead, I heard 'I'm bored'. My boy is never bored. All but a handful of their toys reside at their father's home so the children are left with few choices at my home. Understandable and something I will remedy in time. I decided to give Sage the logging truck Lego set I purchased for him before my trip. With 228 pieces, I figured he would spend most of the weekend putting it together. In less than two hours, the logging truck was complete. Sage was most proud of his accomplishment, as was I.
Cinnamon also worked on her new Lego Friends set - Mia's Lemonade Stand. At 112 pieces, she completed the set in little time. For some reason she had several 'extra' pieces, but she did not seem to mind. The children were happy and busy which is what matters most.
Later in the evening I was finally able to speak with my friend via Skype after his return home from work. With the children playing together downstairs, I was free to speak with him without interruption. Initially, I had thought to introduce the kids to him on Skype tomorrow - on his day off - but that day came today when the children came upstairs to get some books from their bookshelf. They wandered over to me and looked on the screen of my iPad. At first, Sage thought I was talking to their papa. 'No. That's not Papa', I said. 'This is my friend.'
The introduction was casual, brief, and in a relaxed setting. The children were being children, jumping all over me in front of the screen. At one point, Sage's hard head met my nose with a loud smack. I heard a crackling sound in my nose before the blood appeared. I feared a broken nose, but thankfully it was not so bad. Sage and his sister returned to the room under the stairs and I called my friend back shortly thereafter. We both agreed this was a better way to meet the children rather than having a structured meeting which might be awkward for all. After all why delay the inevitable.
