Tuesday started off perfectly normal. Bo dropped a happy Oliver off at daycare, and I made it to work early for the second day in a row. The downside to these mornings is that Oliver keeps sleeping in so I don't get to see him before I leave for work, which totally sucks. I'm almost ashamed to admit this though...it's easier. It's easier on me when Oliver doesn't wake up before I leave for work. When he does and it's happy it's excruciatingly difficult for me to tear myself away and out the door. When he cries when he sees me leaving it's only worse, and I end up fighting tears of remorse for half of my drive because I HATE that I have to go to work every day and can't just be a fun stay at home mom.
I was out of work on time (when am I not), and I picked Oliver up from daycare. He saw me from down the hall as soon as Kris opened the door and was all smiles. Nothing in this world is better. According to Kris he had a great day at daycare, was all smiles and enjoyed playing with the other kids, and he even took a two hour nap. Awesome!
What wasn't awesome was what Kris told me about the other Mom there when I arrived. Her nephew was killed in Afghanistan. It's been all over the news the past week, but it's especially present in our town, a small town on the edge where the city meets the country, full of old time values and a sense of community that's rare today. The entire town has been mourning, all flags at half mast, all signs dedicated to our soldier Brian, only 24 years old. There's one house in our subdivision with big yellow ribbons on their porch, and I kept praying that it wasn't their son (it wasn't). I realized today though that it doesn't matter who's son it was...because he was everyones in this small community. I'm not a supporter of the war, but this also isn't a political issue. It's just a loss.
I had hoped that I wouldn't run into the family for selfish reasons. I do not handle death well, especially because of a few very personal deaths that have left me riddled with guilt. I've been known to say the wrong thing at the worst possible time, and to muddle my words. I didn't want to embarrass myself to a family that deserved the utmost respect. I'll slowing been writing a letter to them in my head over the last day, since Kris explained everything to me. I think I'll try to write it here later, then copy it to a letter to send to them once the emotion of this week (the viewing is tonight) has passed.
Ok, after that it's hard to get back into the swing of the night, but I'll try.
I'm making a fantastic dinner tonight (a roast of pemeal bacon with orange glaze, garlic mashed potatoes and honey boiled carrots), but it takes a bit of prep, so I cut out or early play time and sat Oliver in his high chair right away. He was fantastic drinking his milk and eating some goldfish crackers while I emptied the dishwasher and prepped everything for dinner. I threw the meat in the oven and had the carrots and potatoes ready to go on the cook top so I took Oliver up for a bath. Straight from the bath I put him in his bouncer with his bottle where he immediately passed out. Poor tired little guy.
While Oliver napped I got his laundry going, then cleaned the tub in the guest bath (there was still grout in it from tiling), and cut off all the excess orange stuff peaking out from the yet unfinished edge of the time. Bo got home just as I was finishing that and Oliver was waking up. Perfect timing! Because Oliver was in a fairly good mood we put him in his crib while we installed the new mirror in his bathroom. I had cranked on the potatoes and carrots before we started this mirror, but it went so well we had time to put the two new mirrors up in the master bath as well. Oliver quite enjoyed being able to play in Mommy and Daddy's bathtub while we did that.
Bad news of the night (and disgusting): When Bo went down to the basement to get the tools, he was confronted my a tray of vegetables and half a watermelon...remnants of Oliver's birthday three weeks ago. SO GROSS. Even worse, our main floor powder room toilet has been leaking. This is especially bad because it means that the guest bath is probably leaking as well because they were both installed the same way. Because the builder didn't install the tile the height is kinda all screwed up and it's just a mess for us now. I'm not sure what we're going to do.
Anyway, with the mirrors installed dinner was ready and it was absolutely fantastic. Oliver really liked it too, so now we're two for two when it comes to flavourful dinners! After dinner I cleaned up the kitchen then headed upstairs to watch tv with Bo while I folded Oliver's clothes. By 10 I could barely keep my eyes open, and Oliver was already asleep so we all packed it in. Well, Bo had a bath first, but I was asleep before it made it to bed so I don't know how much later he was.
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