weee-oooo, weee-oooo

DS1 did this little finger puppet play at the breakfast table this morning, and for some reason it is sticking in my head. He was using both his hands to do various things:
"Four little monkeys jumping on the bed..." (four fingers bouncing up and down on the back of his other hand, which made the bed)
"One fell off and bumped his head..." (the index finger crashes off "the bed", curls up, DS1 says "ow ow I bumped my head")
"Mama called the doctor..." (now, the bed hand transforms into an ambulance, and DS1 makes a "weeee-ooooo, weeee-ooooo" siren sound, "drives" the ambulance up to the injured finger, puts it inside the ambulance, and drives off, again with the "weeee-oooo, weeee-oooo" siren.)
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed! Then...
Three little monkeys jumping on the bed..."

I don't know, for some reason, the whole thing just cracked me up, especially the little ambulance with the "weee-oooo, weee-oooo" sound. It was all so clever and cute. I should've video'd it, but who knows what I would've got then? And now I have a perfect memory of it. DD and DS2 were in stitches laughing, it was just so adorable.

Anyway, right now, I'm thinking that little "weeee-oooo, weee-oooo" ambulance should be driving up and carting me off, because I'm exhausted. It was a great day, but draining.

DH was gone from 8 to about 3 at his RCIA retreat. That wasn't so bad. I made the kids egg & cheese sandwiches for breakfast and got them to eat them by saying I would take them out for lunch if they ate them without hassling me. So they did, for the most part. Then I switched out the dishes, so we're starting the "Christmasing up" around here, I suppose. Then spent an hour with DS1 on his Penance homework, and about 40 minutes with DD reading two "My Little Pony" book with her, helping her sound out the words. She's coming along fine.

By the time all that was done and everyone was dressed it was after 12, and I took them off to Chili's where we had a really delightful lunch. They were so good and ate so well that I was happy to order the big gooey dessert for us all to share. It was really nice, even if there was a bratty toddler in the booth right behind me. Didn't matter, because my own were so well-behaved. I realized that before my surgery the depth of my "bad feeling about this" extended to not knowing whether or not I would ever be able to do that again, and I was just so appreciative that I could, and that it was such a nice time.

Then we went to Target so the kids could spend their dollars from Gramma, and they all got stuff they liked and I found some pants for DS2 to try on at home (the mediums just fit, so that's no good, but I'll keep the larges and hem them; they were inexpensive, too). Then, although I would've loved to go on down to Border's, I showed some restraint and came home.

All 3 kids bought Slinky jr's, and I wanted to show them how they walk down stairs, but of course the regular stairs are much too tall for Slinky jr's, so I built a pyramid out of the cardboard blocks for the Slinkies to walk down, and it actually worked pretty well. DH came home in the middle of that.

Then, before I knew it, it was time for snack and then 4:30 Mass, and off I went with DS1. Mass itself was quite short as the priest's English was labored, but after Mass there was a Eucharistic Procession which was beautiful but soooo long, poor DS1 has never spent so much time kneeling -- at that point I was ready to drop, myself, and I kept welling up with tears from being overwhelmed by so many emotions at Mass. Fortunately, I never broke down completely, and DS1 was his typical self and didn't notice anything. He is either extremely observant or in his own world, and he was in his own world which was a good thing, I suppose...

On the way home from Mass I realized that I was done for the day, as DS1 was chatting away as he usually does, asking all sorts of questions. I had to say, "I'm sorry, I can't talk anymore right now, I'm just exhausted... just until we get home, OK? I'm not mad at you, you haven't done anything wrong, I just don't have anything at all left to give you... I'm sorry." I think he understood because he was quiet until we got home. I walked in and told DH, "I'm done... I'm leaving dinner in your capable hands," and he told me my sister called, so I grabbed my cellphone, went upstairs, and called her.

We talked for over 2 hours!! That was awesome... it had been so long since we had talked, it was a vacation. And since I was upstairs in the bedroom no one pestered me and I didn't have to deal with anything at all. DH is a saint. I only got off the phone when he hustled them upstairs to get them ready for bed, and then I helped a bit in the pajama-ing process, and we all said prayers together and then tucked them in, and here I am.

Oops, forgot dinner. Don't really feel like eating but I'll go grab something. I told my sister, I never was as sick as if I had the flu, but I feel like I'm just getting over it. That same been-through-the-wringer feeling. Plus the whole emotional tides thing is brutal, too. I took a bunch of tissues into Mass with me because I knew I would need them, and I was right. On the upside, though, I sang easily today... that was so lovely! I'm very grateful for being able to sing... and so many, many other things.

It was a good day.