First "Free" Week-end

I finally finished my grading Friday morning before meeting Chris, Kalian and Liam at co-op. Now what? Yes, we had a million things to do to get ready to leave, but it finally felt like a break. So we and some other co-opers headed over to the funky Redbones restaurant, but everyone else had the same idea, and the place was packed, so with 5 hungry kids our lunchtime treat turned into one of those where should we go/do for lunch in Davis Square. This turned out to be our theme for the rest of the week-end. We had spent the year with our routine - Chris watching the kids while I studied that with this new-found time, it initially created a bit of stress at the options before us.

We ended up going for a nice hike in the arboretum that afternoon and then to a K school party that evening in Jamaica Plain, and it was wonderfully unusual that all of the K school parents/friends with kids the same age as ours ended up there as well. I was especially glad when our hosts were able to set up a DVD viewing area for the kids, except a clueless and kidless classmate, when he heard that the kids were going to watch Stuart Little, looked at Liam in the eye, created a scary face and held his hands up and said that the cat tries to eat the mouse. Suddenly, Liam's enthusiasm for the film dwindled to utter fear and terror.

Saturday turned out to be another dilemma. I had a bad tummy ache in the morning, so Chris threw the kids in the bike trailer to head down to earthfest - a music festival on the Charles River, but just as they were about to leave I started to feel better, but we decided they should take off anyway, but once they arrived, Chris called and said it was so nice that I should take the T and go down there, which I did. Unfortunately, I should have trusted my gut - which was that I really just wanted to simplify all of our "free time" and do one thing - go to Susan's and a nearby animal farm. Instead, trying to fit everything in, I called my dear friend Pmla and she later met us down there and we saw a somewhat fun kids band that our kids loved, but I realized on the late side that I still wanted to go to Susan's, so Chris rode the kids home and I took the T to Central Square, where he met me in the car and we headed down for an hour's drive to Hingham. It all turned out OK - it was so wonderfully relaxing at Susan's - she has a gigantic back yard and a tractor to boot, and Theo/Anna and their kids were there, but I have this tendancy of feeling like I have to have everything "perfect" and going to the music festival didn't make it "perfect" - I wonder how much this perfection is my continual source of stress or if it is just a matter of my needing to check in with what I need - and in this case, Chris would have been happy to accomodate (he was just happy to have company with the kids) - this is all a very rambling and awkward way of saying that this drew out a few lessons for me - one, that we need to do "less" with our free time and two, that I want to do more meditation and ways to check in with what my heart is saying....

Sunday, we started packing and then headed up to Aunt Fran's for dinner and then she watched the kids while Chris and I went out for a drink - a date, albeit a 1.5 hour one, but it was still fabulous to be able to have that time. We tried really hard not to talk about the kids or planning for the move - we failed but did manage to connect in a nice way.

Monday, we continued to spend time at home - which Liam especially likes - I think it's less wanting simply to play with stuff at home then to have that mellow free time which we all need. Of course, Chris and I were busy packing, of course, but then we headed to a park for a very impromptu birthday party for Kalian. We had e-mailed co-op and other friends at the last minute and ended up having a great turnout. It was a nice way to say good-bye to folks and celebrate the K-train at the same time. I can't believe she's two!!!

The only downside was that some older kids started making fun of Liam's stuttering - it freaked out both Chris and me. It's gotten really bad lately - and I'm sure he's aware of it. Later in the week, we talked to his social skills teacher about handling situations like this, but I am really stressed about how to help him - and us, with dealing with what is going to continue to happen. Help!