This is probably going to be the longest and most complex blog post I’ve written in a long time. I took a bunch of 30-second videos and posted them in 90-second increments on Flickr, and I wanted to share them with you here, to help you live through the Story of Thursday.
I work from home Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Scott had asked me a day or two earlier if the kids could stay with me while I worked from home this Thursday. I said sure! I’ll take any minute I can to spend time with the kids. So Thursday morning he dropped them off, and I gave them each the biggest squeeziest hugs. It was so good to see them!
My work-from-home location on Thursday was the kitchen table. I set up my laptop and got logged in, starting my morning routine, while the kids helped themselves to a couple of Pop Tarts and some milk. I didn’t have an official schedule worked out or anything, but I had in my head a dozen things that the kids could do by themselves while I worked. One of them was putting away their laundry. 
You would think they’d argue or try to get out of it, but they really didn’t–each just heaved their basket up the stairs and quietly put their clothes away in their room.
Magic noodles were next on the kids’ entertainment agenda. They’re these colored styrofoam peanuts… you get them just a little bit wet, and then they stick together–and you can make them into all kinds of cool creations. The kids spread newspaper out on the table, got out some paper plates, and started to make different creations with their noodles. I turned on the radio in the kitchen while we worked–it has an ipod dock in it–and we sang along to a couple of our favorite songs while I worked and they worked. Dylan gave up on the noodles and asked if he could go to his friend’s house, and I said fine–if you can find your walkie talkie. We looked briefly in the garage, and then I just asked Rain if he could take her cell phone with him. She let him, and off he ran to his friend’s house. A little while later, he was back–none of his friends were home, assumingly in daycare for the day since it’s summertime.
I really didn’t want the kids to be playing video games all day, so I tried to think of constructive things they could get done while I did work on my laptop. I had found two collage frames I had bought years ago and never filled, and I pulled out a package of 4×6s I had developed at Walgreens recently. We spread everything out on the table, and I showed them how to trim photos and put them in the frames. That gave me another hour or so of work while they dug through the photos and taped them to the mats.
After a while it was lunch time, and we spent my lunch hour at the local outdoor-mall running some errands. I had a build-a-bear made just for me–he’s a blonde, stitched-together-looking bear with blue jean shorts. I had each kid record a little voice thing that says “I love you mommy,” and the stuffer-lady put one in each paw. When you press each of the bear’s paws now, he says “I love you mommy”–and both sound almost completely identical. I’m probably the only one who can tell them apart. 
We had a quick bite to eat at San Francisco Oven, and then it was off to Libby Lu. I had a 25% off coupon, and I had a coupon for a free girly-door-sign with a $25 purchase… we spent $25.60 Dylan got a toucan build-a-bear (that flies online, he was so excited), and Rain got a tiny sleeping bag and pajamas for her little Libby Lu doggie… and, of course, her free door-sign license plate. It says “fabulus” (don’t ask–I don’t get the spelling either. Apparently it’s a high school musical thing.)
After lunch, I set the kids up with some Home Depot projects so I could get some more work done. We had picked up some first-Saturday wooden projects on days when we couldn’t stay and work on them, and the kids put them together. Dylan made a bird house, and Rainlin made me a pencil-box-flower-stand. I took both kids outside, one at a time, and they each helped me mount their bird houses (Rain still had hers from a few months ago) just on the other side of our fence. On Friday, I brought Rainlin’s little wooden flower box to my work and set it on top of my locker. It’s perfect for my black, red, and blue pens.
Once the kids were done with their Home Depot wooden projects, I finally gave in and let them play video games for a while. Rain begged Dylan to pull out the DDR (Dance Dance Revolution, for you laymen), and he said okay. They each did about two songs, which is how long it usually lasts–and I’m not sure why. We have DDR on the PS2 upstairs, and they used to love to play that for hours (BOOM BOOM BOOM through the ceiling/floor), but for some reason they don’t seem to get into the Wii version, even though it has a lot more songs they know. Oh well. Dylan put the mat away (it’s like folding a map–he’s not very good at it) and put the Wii remote into the steering wheel for a little Mario Kart action. He likes to play against kids all over the world on the Wii Internet connection–and he’s pretty good at it, too.
Dylan cut the tag off his new Webkinz toucan and asked me if he could go online with him. I said he could, and I set him up on my home laptop. I’m not sure if the kids are outgrowing the Webkinz website, or are just sick of it–but it’s good for about an hour or two’s worth of entertainment before they give up on it. Dylan asked me to play a quick game of checkers with him… and I’m really not good at checkers… so I’m completely convinced that he let me win.
Rainlin retired to my bedroom for a while to vedge for a while. I swear, she watches the Apple TV at least four times as much as I do, which is fine with me… but interesting. She picked Aeon Flux to watch. With her in there, and Dylan on my other laptop, I had another couple hours to quietly finish up my work day.
When I finished up my work around 5 or so, it was time for a trip to Wal-Mart. We were out of dog food, and I planned on letting the kids each pick out a cheap movie. Both kids had, on their own, decided to wear their Heelys, and they hung onto the carriage like Michael J. Fox on the back of a car with his skateboard in Back to the Future. We came home from Wal-Mart with a humongous bag of dog food, Terminator 2, and Harry and the Hendersons.
I made the suggestion to the kids that we watch Terminator 2 first. It’s kind of a little scary, I told them, and I don’t want to have to worry about nightmares. Boy, I had nothing to worry about. What terrified us fifteen years ago was a joke to my kids. At one scene, where the “liquid-metal-cop” turns his arm into a long sword piece of metal and slams it through a security guard’s skull, Rainlin said, “That’s so fake. That’s obviously a guy’s head made out of rubber.” As I looked at it, I saw she was right. When I was fifteen, though, squinting through my fingers, you could have never convinced me of that, though.
It was about 8pm when T2 wound down, and it was finally decent enough to play outside. Take today, for example–it was supposed to hit a high of 103. In the sun, it’s just completely unbearable. So when the sun went down, it was perfect to play one of the games that Grammy and Popop taught the kids–play catch, as a team, counting every time someone catches it, until it gets dropped. This little Mickey ball that we got from Disney World is an odd size, though… I think next time we need to play with a beach ball or football instead.
Our last exciting event of the evening was watching Harry and the Hendersons, a movie I probably watched more than a dozen times as a kid. I’ve been trying to think of more movies lately that the kids haven’t seen yet… like Grease, or Smokey and the Bandit, or Annie… and introducing them to these old classics. I guess it wasn’t an “exciting event” for me though, because the next thing I remembered, after Dylan and Rain’s wonderful rendition of the Universal Trademark Song, was Rain waking me up on the couch, telling me it was over. We all migrated to the bedroom, taking up our little spots on my bed. The kids like to sleep in there with me, especially when they’re only home for one night, and I’m very happy to have them nearby. I cuddled up with my new build-a-bear, Patch, and off we all snoozed.
It was an absolutely perfect wonderful day.
