absence makes the heart...

... relax a little and get to do lots of things that you can't do when you have a toddler at home. And yes, grow fonder.  

So, Maximus and Karl went to the mainland.  Karl had some work stuff and while Maximus still flies free it's a good chance for him to visit the burn center for some follow up stuff.  They say his hands look great but his leg is scarring pretty bad.  It itches so bad that he scratches so much it blisters and bleeds.  Poor guy.  They ordered him some special shorts that hopefully will help with that.  But overall, things are going the way they should.  That's always a good thing.  

It was a vacation in so many ways.  The kids didn't have school for the first half so every day we had some sort of learning "extravaganza."  It wasn't really huge.  But it was all in the marketing.  By calling it Math Extravaganza, you wouldn't believe how excited they were to play some math games.  Karl's mom retired from teaching this last year and I asked her for some of her math manipulatives that she hadn't already passed on to fellow teachers.  I know that they make better toys than anything you can buy at a big box store.  We pulled a few of them out and worked with them and the kids loved it.  And every day they were asking if we were going to do "Extraveganza."  So funny.  I feel like I tricked them into being excited to do educational activities.  

Um.  So I use a lot of words to say that we played fun math games.  So, here I am going to try  to use less words.

In the week that my sweet toddler was gone we...

Had a treasure hunt. 

Got library cards for the kids.

Climbed palm trees.  Well, just Samuel did.

Took a tour of our local chocolate shop where they were insanely kind and now I swear their chocolates taste even better because I know how sweet they are. Doh!  Too many words!

Made yummy food like frozen hot chocolate and garden tomato and watermelon salad with feta (both kids LOVED it and I was kind of bummed because that meant less for me :))

Had a picnic at the beach and then played cards until I noticed that the nearby angry dudes was turning in to angry violent dudes and a cop had to come and wrestle them and by the time I whisked my kids to the car another cop arrived and then the paramedics and then the fire truck.  And my heart was beating fast for a long long time because we were right there and I made the kids hold my hands and we had to take a detour over a short rock wall because the fight was blocking the exit of the park.  Oh man, even more words.

Met a cute new friend for Eva and swam at the pool where the kids did silly things like arm wrestle and pretend like they were seals and Samuel fed them chips.  

Had a lunch date, just Eva and I.  Where she ate shrimp spring rolls for lunch and loved that she got the whole order to herself because we usually share the whole order.  And I loved that is a mini foodie. 

Went to Costco where the kids think the 3-D tv is amazing and I think it's hilarious the way the go straight for the tvs when we walk in and are totally not embarrassed about sitting down and making themselves comfortable.

The second half of the time that Karl and Maximus were gone, the kids were in school.  And on one of those days I did my best to stay off my feet the whole time they were gone.  Just because I could.  I don't think I even ate lunch.  Because that would have meant I had to go down and fix something.  I relaxed to my heart's content.  It felt amazing.  

I ran errands by myself and got  ton of organizing and cleaning done.  

I couldn't believe how clean the house was.  I would clean a room.  I would turn around 5 minutes later and it was still clean!  It was like I was running on pavement instead of a treadmill.  It was awesome.

I think this little break made me realize why things have felt so heavy.  Taking care of burns is a heavy job.  Taking care of a toddler is a busy job.  I am glad I identified that.  I know that might seem like an obvious thing but as humans, we adapt to our situation and get used to it.  But we don't always recognize the toll it takes.  The first day back, I started his stretches and blood started seeping through his gloves.  He heals in one spot and then his skin gets irritated in another spot and the healing process gets that much longer.  I take his glove off and he looks at his own hand and says, "Ew" and my heart sinks.  So, of course, after I cause pain on my baby and he's grossed out by his own hands, I dread the next session of stretches scheduled for four hours later.  Then I dread the next.  That is a lot of hours of dreading.  

I am grateful that I got to spend some special time with Eva and Samuel.  And some time all by myself.  I am grateful that we are all healthy.  This summer when we were in the height of the chaos my shoulder and neck were feeling the stress big time and I started getting all dramatic and imagining myself never being able to move my neck again.  But it's all better now.  No drama necessary :).  

I am also grateful that Maximus got to spend some time with my family and Karl's family.  He is a loved kid and he loves his family.  On their way back, Karl texted me and said that one of our friends was on their flight and she bought Maximus a Happy Meal.  Then later he told me that Maximus made friends with another lady and before he knew it she was feeding him Swedish fish.  He is just that kind of kid.  I want that trait.  Where I have this look that I don't even have to say anything, I just look at people and they want to feed me yummy food.  Wouldn't that be awesome? 

So much for not using as many words...