Nerves, Convention, Baseball, Cranky Kid

It’s been a very busy few weeks since the surgery. I have been back and forth a half-dozen times on whether I feel better, the same, or worse than before. I finally hit a milestone Tuesday night when I slept through the night without arm or deep shoulder pain, and have since had four more good nights of sleep. I’m not back to full health. I still have some nerve discomfort and tingling, but if this is where things stay long-term, I can live with it. The discomforts are minor and annoying but no longer debilitating. I had quite a few people checking in asking, so I reluctantly took to Facebook to share the news that I was feeling better. I didn’t want to do that for fear of jinxing it.

This weekend Lauren is in NYC for a candy convention. A neighbor saw me the other day a few houses down and, shouting across the street, asked how things were going. I said “Lauren’s at a candy convention!” He said “What?”! I said “A candy convention!” “What?!” “LAUREN’S AT A CANDY CONVENTION!” Never thought much more of it. The next day I saw him again, this time face-to-face, and he asked “So I gotta know, what’s this now about Lauren’s panties invention?” “No! I said ‘candy convention’, not ‘panties invention.” We had a good laugh.

I’ve been solo parenting since Friday morning, and we’ve had some fun, but I’ve pretty much worn him out. After work Friday we went to the Round Rock Express baseball game vs Colorado Springs. We sat in the grass hill GA seats in left field—a steal for $8 total! I promised Johnny one special treat, and he cashed that in for a sno-cone. And when that melted faster than expected, I got suckered into buying him popcorn too. Johnny was handed a ball by Colorado Springs pitcher Tristan Archer, the second straight time he’s gotten a ball at a game! We stayed around after the game for the huge Disney fireworks display. Johnny found the loud noises scary. We got home very late and he wasn’t in bed until 11:00, which I felt was no big deal. Lately we’ve considered pushing his bed times back; he is never tired at 8 anymore.

The next morning we got up and had a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast, and sausage, then went to the Alamo Drafthouse for the 11:15am showing of The Incredibles 2. It was Hi-C and more popcorn for the dude at the movie. We came home and spent the afternoon swimming in his inflatable pool on the deck in 101º heat. Johnny insisted we keep playing the exact same “game” over and over, where I held Spiderman and Batman and made them fart in the water (put them under and bubbles come up), then ask each other who did it, and then Johnny came in with Hulk and smashed the shit out of both of them for arguing. Over and over and over. Then over and over and over again. I figured for sure between the late bedtime, early rise, staring at a screen, and roasting in the scorching sun he’d be worn out. Nope. He didn’t go down until after 9pm Saturday night, scurrying back and forth between his own bed and ours. He finally slept in Lauren’s spot and I just left him.

And then Sunday morning he was up at the crack of dawn again, 6:03am. He had soccer practice at the local soccer dome, but was a complete jerk! He wouldn’t stay on the court, was snotty towards the coaches, and accused a teammate of “bad smelling skin.” When I finally coaxed him back onto the court with the promise of a single marshmallow afterwards, he knocked over the orange cones the coaches had set up for a drill before coming back off the court and collapsing onto a couch. I forbade him from watching any videos the rest of the day if he didn’t go back on the court, and he said that was fine with him and stormed out the door. I hoped he would burn off some steam at the local mall, even though none of the stores were open. We went to a little indoor playland and he played for a while and seemed in better spirits. But at home he looked absolutely exhausted, crawling around the floor yawning, or sitting and staring into space. Yet he refused many attempts at naps. Finally I put him in the van and drove around the neighborhood to get him to sleep. The problem was I’m still not supposed to lift more than 5 lbs. as my neck heals, but I very carefully hoisted him using my legs and got him into bed for a 2:00 nap, which is where we are now.