This past weekend was a camping weekend for us – sort of. The Professor’s family, in years past, made a tradition of a Memorial Day weekend campout. We skipped last year, probably in large part because of our own personal upheaval (what with the move and storing our stuff and the bar exam and what not). This year, we made the decision to fast forward the campout to a more mild weekend in mid-March – and it was a glorious one for sleeping out-of-doors.
(Unless you’re Liam, in which case, sleeping anywhere but your own bed is an exercise in futility.)
Ugh. He made the first night just awful – an absolute nightmare. He woke literally every ten minutes or so – tossing and turning, whimpering, at points just out and out sobbing hysterically. So I ended up taking him home the next day, both for nap and for nighttime sleeping. Since the campground was only a few miles from our house, this was not too inconvenient, but it kind of killed my camping mojo – as did my utter exhaustion and totally wrecked nerves after that first night of misery.
My misery aside, the boys had a great time. We were set up near a mid-sized field that was a constant scene of kid-play the whole time we were there. Most of the other kids were older than our boys, but we sent them out there to fend for themselves anyway, and the older kids were quite good with them. They kicked balls, threw frisbees, played chase, shared flashlights – it was really fun to see my kids running in a pack of other kids. It made them so old, in a way. But also so young – to see short little Liam trooping around a bunch of bigger kids, marching straight into the thick of them, made him both impossibly big and grown, and also impossibly wee and vulnerable.
Everyone returned to our house for Saint Patrick’s day on Sunday evening. I planned an Irish-ish meal – twice baked red potatoes, sausage and cabbage, and (per my husband’s request), burgers. We also had Guinness, Harp, and a coconut cake with green frosting, all eaten while we listened to an Irish band on CD. It was low key but felt festive, and we all enjoyed it very much.
Liam and I contracted a cold over the weekend – luckily the others appear to have been spared. Liam had the worst of it on Sunday, but for me Monday was rough – I almost stayed home. I ended up sucking it up and heading in. I made it through the day at work, billing a steady and quiet 9 hours. I’m so grateful I soldiered on – now I don’t have to make up that time! Today I’m still stuffy but felt well enough to go to the gym (I’ve been doing some major classes lately, including Crossfit, power weightlifting, and today’s class, which was a sort of weights/cardio mix). Tomorrow should be even better, which is good since I have plans to run a fast 3 miles with a friend.
I have to bill a couple more hours tonight – I had a board meeting for a volunteer thing today, and it ate up 1.7 hours exactly. I’m not feeling it, but better now than the weekend. So here I go.