Ouch

This is Mr. T after he fell on the playground, hurt his hands, realized he was embarrassed about falling, realized he was hungry and exhausted and realized Mommy was there to hold him. One sad, snotty, tired little boy at their class party today. The other lady is his teacher - isn't she pretty? She has 4 girls who all have that exact shade of blond hair, it's like she has 4 little mini-me's.

Poor Mr. T. He was so excited today because it was their Stone Soup party at school (if you haven't read that story, be sure to check it out - it's pretty great) and Peter and I were both coming to the party. He even wrote "mom" and "dad" on the invitation they sent home. The m's were wavy lines and the a in dad looked like an e but I knew what it said and was so proud of my little guy.  About three minutes after we showed up though, he fell and this ensued. He only wanted to be held and bury his head in my chest. And again, I was reminded of my parenting differences between children. With Miss E, at 4, I would have really pushed to set her down, have her participate in the party, and basically get over it. With Mr. T, I tried to cheer him up for a few minutes, we sat with the class for a bit and then we just decided to go. There will be other class parties. Looking back, I'm not sure I did Miss E a lot of favors by pushing her so hard. Or maybe I'm not doing Mr. T any favors by letting him off the hook so easily. I guess only time will tell on that one. I'll have their therapists send me a report, or read this blog, when they get older and then we'll see. OK, just kidding on that last one, kind of.

Other than that, today was lovely. I didn't go into work and Peter was home so we were able to go shopping for Christmas presents and clothes this morning (hello huge sale at J. Crew!), hang out and relax this afternoon and watch a movie tonight. So far this week he has worked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and now he is working Saturday and Sunday. These are 24 hour shifts people. Except for Tuesday - he came home at 7 that night. We are having him work a lot now, knowing that as we get closer to the holidays there are more black-out dates where he can't work because of events and to (hopefully) try and avoid the stomach pit sinking feeling of being entirely broke this time of year. We are trying our hardest this year to simplify Christmas, in terms of presents, events, activities, etc. but it is hard with the kids and a large-ish family. My side draws names amongst the adults so that helps a lot but it all still adds up. I keep thinking that some year, it will be easier, the money will just not be such an issue. I hope that is true.

Speaking of money, here's a thought for the day. If childhood obesity is such an epidemic, why don't we make sports for kids more affordable? At  approximately $150 a sport for registration, $20 for pictures, $20 for team party, and another $30 for uniforms/shoes/equipment it gets pretty steep. And that is for kindergarten, it gets much more expensive as they get older. So why, if we all want to keep kids from getting diabetes by 14, are sports not free or at least very low cost? Discuss amongst yourselves.