Today was a simple day. The boy woke up at his normal time of around 6:30 am. He told me it was morning time so we got out of bed, picked out some clothes for ourselves, got dressed and headed down stairs. We both had our bowls of cinnamon cereal. We had a little time to kill so we played with a funny little iphone app called Talking Tom. We made strange noises into the phone to have them repeated back to us by a funny sounding cat. It’s amazing how much time you can kill doing silly things like that.

J showed up right on time again and told me that she wanted to take Leif to the Orchid farm here in Kaneohe. I agreed and so it was. I packed Leif a little lunch to take with hime and hustled off to work while Leif and J headed off to the Orchid farm.

I came home for lunch once again to make sure all was well. They weren’t back yet from their excursion, so I decided to transfer my Hefeweizen to the secondary. Halfway through, Leif and J returned home and Leif showed me his cool new toy that he got while they were out. He was very excited and had a good time. During all the excitement, I lost concentration and hosed the living room down with beer. Oops. All was well though. Most of it made it’s way to the secondary. I did my reading, cleaned up my mess, put the secondary back in the mini fridge and snuggled with Leif just a bit before having to return to work.

It was a busy day at work today and in the middle of it all, I took a break to head over to the observatory to check out Venus passing in front of the sun. I got to see a glimpse of it before the sky blanketed itself in clouds. So I turned my attention to a 3D radar view of Venus and headed back to the office.

Soon enough, I was back home again. It was dinner time and spaghetti and meatballs was on the menu. You think an almost 4 year old would love this, but dinner proved to be difficult. He had his first lets-test-dad routine at dinner and played with his food, ignored anything I said (or even did the opposite), and flat out refused to eat his dinner. He received a time out. It wasn’t long before he apologized and was released so he could finish his dinner. A few minutes later, he was in time out. He apologized again, told me he loved me and didn’t like being sad, and came out of time out to finish his dinner. A few minutes later he was crying because I took his plate away due to his lack of eating. He cried again. 🙁 Poor kid. We worked it out though. He got a glass of water and that was that. Dinner was done and he didn’t need desert.

So we played. First with is train set, then with the iPhone, then with crayons. We colored a little, but mostly made a long row of crayons that was apparently a boat. Then the boat crashed. Time to put away the boat says I.

Once again, it was time for the bedtime routine; bathtub, pajamas, brush teeth, 3 books, lights out, and goodnight. Once again, he didn’t make it to the end of the 3rd book.

It was a simple day, but that’s ok. It’s only Tuesday. We have a long weekend coming up, and it’s going to be awesome. I feel a trip to the zoo coming on.

J showed up right on time. Always a good sign. Leif decided he was going to sleep in and didn’t wake up until almost 8 am. He picked out some clothes (which I put in a set of drawers for him so he doesn’t have to live out of a backpack), changed, and went downstairs. He did his bathroom thing while I got him a bowl of his cinnamon cereal. While he ate, I got ready for work. He asked me what I was doing. “I have to go to work”, I told him. “Can’t I come with you?” said he. “Sorry sweetie. You can’t come with me to work” said I. “Can you stay and watch me?”, replied Leif. “Daddy has to work today. I can’t stay home” replied me. So Leif looked at me hard and said, “Oh. Ok. Well you go to work and I’ll stay here and play. Then later you come home and we play together”. And thus I put on my gear, gave a few last reminders and suggestions and tips to J and headed out the door. I miss him already. I’m sad I can’t spend every moment with him, but I’m so glad he’s here.

On my lunch break I went back home to make sure that Leif wasn’t tied to a chair while the sitter was emptying our house of all it’s goodies. That wasn’t the case. Leif was playing with his toys and being happy and J was happily playing with him. He gave me a big hug and told me he was happy. All was well. I spent my lunch there playing with him and eating a ham sandwich. Then I went back to work a little less worried then before.

So I forgot to tell J that she should use the deadbolts to lock the doors and not the knobs. So when they headed out to Temple Valley, she sort of locked themselves out of the house. Luckily, it was close to the end of the day and I was able to head home to break in unlock the doors. Leif told me of his adventures and showed me a coloring book and Toy Story book that J had bought him. That was very nice. He was in a good mood and said that he like J. We said our goodbyes to J and thought about food. After all that shopping, I forgot to thaw out any meat. Instead of waiting, we headed up to the Drive In to grab us some chicken and rice. After playing with his toy truck, eating some chicken and broccoli stir-fry, and picking flowers for mom, we headed back home to play in the yard until it got dark. Leif collected an impressive pile of sticks that he will, no doubt, toss down the hill at a later time.

Leif let me know when it got dark and that it was almost bed time. But before bed could come, we had some chocolate and watched a small bit of Ponyo to wind down. Such a pretty movie. Before long, it was time to take a bath, brush teeth, and put on his new jammies. Then, of course, we read his three selected books (which included his new Toy Story book) and hunkered down for the night. He was out in no time. Another successful day.

Sunday was an easy day. We only had three things on the agenda; talk to Gavin, go grocery shopping and introduce Leif to the baby sitter. And that is what we did. We spent 2 hours on FaceTime with Gavin and Mary. He told me all about the train and the bunnies and being sick. Then he talked a bunch about Dragonvale and how good it is to have internet again. He’s having a good time and that makes me happy. Afterwards, I made me a shopping list while Lief watched an episode of My Little Pony. With that out of the way, we headed out to Wal Mart where we stocked up on all kinds of goodies. It was kind of nice. I haven’t actually been shopping like that in months. And I certainly haven’t payed for a large load like that in month. It was good. Anyway, Leif was happy. He was able to get all kinds of snacks and treats. I was happy. I stocked up on things like coconut milk, garlic, shoyu, and M&M’s. The only thing that would have complete my list was some sort of booze. Maybe a good bottle of scotch or some good gin. Anyway, it was good. Leif picked out some new pajamas since his Spongebob ones we deemed too small. We both walked out happy people.

Leif napped on the way home, but quickly perked up when we arrived and I fed him a ham sandwich and a snack back of cookies (courtesy of our shopping adventure). We played and hung out for a few hours before the baby sitter came over. I was in a particularly good mood  so I made us some chocolate ice cream. I actually planned ahead a bit and bought some cream, sugar and eggs to make real ice cream, not the frozen yogurt I made previously. For dinner we had simple shoyu chicken and rice and beans.

The sitter (J) came over and Leif took to her pretty quickly. She was real good with him and he showed her all the things. They sat and played with Micro Machines (remember those?) for a bit. All the black or dark colored cars were bad guys (they were stealing cars from buildings) and the light colored cars with flames on them were good guys (they put the bad guys in jail). It was really cute. All went well though. I think they’ll get along great.

J hung around for a bit and played with Leif and had a good time. Then it was time for her to go, and time for Lief and I to spend more time together. He really is loving having me around and wants me to sit next to him, play with him, watch him, be with him, and just plain be attached to him whatever he’s doing. And every 20 minutes or so he gives me a big hug and tells me he’s happy and he loves me. I’m so glad to have him back for a bit (in case I didn’t mention that before).

When bedtime came near, we sat and watched a little Wall•E. He laughed his deep belly laugh and told me how funny it was. After about 20 or 30 minutes, we put Wall•E on hold to start bedtime routine; take a bath, read 3 books (“That’s how many books mom says we can read at bedtime”), turn the lights out, and go to sleep. Sweet child.

I got one of my boys! I flew to Maui bright and early to pick Leif up. Holly and I needed some time, so I spent the day in Kahului with her and Leif at the mall. Leif was really good. He loves being out and about. Especially when he knows he gets to go on a plane with dad. 🙂 But while he waited, he got to eat a fudge brownie sundae while mom and dad had a few beers and tapped around uncomfortable conversations and talked about other various things. Can’t go wrong there.

Later in the afternoon, we finally made it to the airport and took our small journey back to Oahu. Leif is a good passenger. He reads the manuals and listens to the attendants tell him how to use an oxygen mask. Good boy.

Back on Oahu, I had to attend an RSCDS function that included a board meeting, food, a video, and some dancing. It was a really long day and neither Leif nor myself really wanted to stay long. We ate some food (I coerced Lief to stay just a bit longer with a peanut butter cookie), sat through a meeting and watched a video of daddy dancing. Leif was very interested in that. That was it though. It was late and we had both had it. So we ditched out. Time to go home. Leif naturally fell asleep shortly after getting in the car. I had a short text conversation with Holly. Indeed, it was a long day. Well worth it though. Yes, the moon was beautiful that night. The below picture does it no justice. I felt it worthy of documenting though.

Upon entering the house, Leif looked around and exclaimed, “Wow. It look nice in here”. That made me feel good after all the cleaning I’ve been doing. Then Leif got a second (or third?) wind and wanted to play with all the toys. I apologized, but told him it was bed time. I offered him a bath instead. He was in agreement with that, so bathe he did. Quickly he realized how tired he was and hopped out of his bath, put on his Spongebob pajamas, laid down, played a little Lego Ninjago, turned the lights out, and went to sleep. Such a sweet boy. I’m glad to have him back for a bit.