satisfied

Yeah, every post now comes with the "It's been too long since I posted." note.  Bah.

I'm on vacation, sort of.  I took the week off from work while Lori and Rachel are at VBS because last year Ben did not do well in the nursery for three hours while I was at VBS in a role that didn't have much to do except during the opening and closing. (Attempts to find or make work didn't really amount to much.)

So this year, I decided I would take the time off, spend it with Ben and do therapy-type stuff.  I always say I wish I had more time to do that, so this was the perfect opportunity to do it.

And what a great day it was.  I got up and did my Bible study and got some walking in and then I showered and got Ben up.  I wanted to work on stairs with him because he always jumps but in trying to work with him, realized that he's still too short.  Its difficult for him to keep his balance and walk down stairs, it's much easier for him to jump or scoot.  That's one I'm not going to work on again.  There was also several trips to the potty, one of them seeing results, none of them causing him too much frustration.  We did some therapy toys to work on coordination and that was a bit frustrating for him.  We also did his colors and shapes book.  He didn't want to sit still for it and I had to keep getting him to come back.  When we got to the shapes, he did do some on his own (finger tracing) but they were haphazard, a sort of "this is dumb" sort of approach.  So that was interesting, that he did some on his own, while simultaneously dismissing the exercise by phoning it in.  

Meal times were great - for breakfast I even got him to eat applesauce with a spoon, even feeding himself a few bites.  It did involve a fight and me restraining his hands, but as soon as I successfully got some in his mouth, he couldn't get enough.  There may have also been some mini-chocolate chip bribes.  Lunch included eating big pieces of pizza without as much cutting up (sometimes he'll only eat food it it's in pieces that are 3-4 bites at most).

We had a few breaks (where I started laundry or loaded the dishwasher), some time jumping on the bed, and we even watched Jack's Big Music show.  I had to take his booster seat into the living room for that and buckle him in, but he liked the musical parts and fussed through the non-musical parts, except when Mel tackled Jack - Ben actually laughed at that.

We also went outside for awhile where I mostly trailed behind him telling him to take rocks out of his mouth (and pulling weeds as I went) and he ran around a bunch and I swung with him a little bit but he didn't like that.  And we taped some paper to the kitchen table, borrowed some of his sister's crayons and colored.  And he also got a bath after getting messy outside.  And I sang a bunch of songs to him.

I think the key was that I stayed with him, except when he needed some time to himself during those breaks.  I didn't play on my iPhone or Lori's laptop or do other chores, I stayed with him, sitting next to him at meals or in a chair right next to him when the TV was on.  It was all about close connection and it was really a wonderful time.  We packed all that into about 3-1/2 hours.

Then he went down for a nap. Lori and Rachel were running errands, so I had a few hours to myself. I did some more exercising and finished all the laundry in the house.

I had so many calories that I had a root beer float after dinner.  And then I ran and did more wii fit after that, so I am going to end the day with an insane amount of calories.  I wish there was a direct translation to weight loss because I've kinda slacked and these last 10 are taking way too long and I need to get there so I can go replace some clothes.  

I will be able to do similar stuff with him each day and get more stuff done around the house that I've been putting off, all while relaxing and getting some reading in and just having some nice time with family in the comfort of my own home.  Now that's a vacation.