Riding a Bike

Tuesday March 10th neither of us really wanted to go home. He asks every day if we can go someplace. He's also been asking how to get to the mountains.  So, I took him to Red Rock. He loved the ride up. We parked at the top and walked around. He wanted to see the museum but it was closed. The amphitheater was cool, but it was a million and two stairs down and I refused to go. From the top, you could see so far in every direction. "You can see all the way to Denver!!"

Wednesday morning, super early, the electricity kept blinking and waking us all up. It was very warm in the house too. Andrew gets hot when he sleeps anyway, but he felt exceptionally hot and complained of a headache. We took one of his blankets off the bed. When it was time to get up, he laid on the floor crying because of his headache, the lights made it worse. My kid had his first migraine! He'd start to feel better after laying down and sleeping, but as soon as he'd try to sit up, it all got worse. I think it was the altitude getting to him. I tried to rehydrate as long as I could get him to drink, but he mostly slept all day.
Thursday he was much better, but the teacher said that when he came back in from recess he was looking a little pale. They don't get to drink all day long, I dont know how they expect the kids to stay hydrated!!

Saturday was a nice morning for service. After service, a new young friend named Kevin came over to help daddy take down the handrail "wall" in the living room so we can build a real wall. Andrew was a big helper in cleaning up the debris on the ground as they took out some sheetrock to put up frames. We went out for burgers that night and Andrew could hardly stay awake he was so tired.

Sunday the 15th, we went to IKEA when it opened. The play area was full so Andrew had to stay with us. He started getting upset and cranky so we stopped at a table/chairs section and asked if he'd like to talk. He picked a place to sit and we chatted a bit to get an understanding of how he was feeling. Then about every 3 minutes he wanted to stop wherever we were to chat some more. I told him we were on a time limit and needed to get out of here, we couldn't keep stopping.  We got some great ideas for making the kitchen, baths, and closets functional. We were gonna get a quick bite and check out and buy Andrew a cute little snack box when Ted discovered he'd lost his wallet. Long story short - I found it in the car, it had fallen between the console and passenger seat. But by this point, we were too late to catch our KH meeting either. So we decided to stay, eat our food more leisurely, and browse a little more at IKEA and let Andrew play in the playplace for an hour. In the clearance section we found a cheap shelving unit that would fit all the games perfectly since we dont have a closet to store them in. So we loaded that in the car and headed home.
We were invited to join in feeding the speaker so met up with them at a mexican restaurant. Andrew enjoyed getting the attention from those around him.  In the bathroom the faucet handles were installed backwards so you had to bring them toward you to turn them off. I was drying my hands and Andrew had been washing his but when i look back there is steam coming from his. He scalded his hand trying to figure out what was wrong with the faucet and started screaming. I ran it under cold water for a bit and hugged him.

Monday when I picked him up from school he was very upset that he needed to wear green on Tuesday or everyone would have to pinch him. "Why do they have to pinch me??"  I tried to explain that it's a dumb tradition where people believed the leprechauns would come out and pinch people - but they'd be invisible to the leprechauns if they wore green. People who pinch are just being mean, and they don't "have" to, they choose to.  It's just become yet another holiday.
He slipped on some loose gravel in the parking lot and skinned his knee - which apparently rendered his arms useless and he no longer could buckle himself in, nor could he walk on his own. When we got home, I told him "wait til you see the downstairs!"  I had unpacked all of his toys and had everything nicely arranged and easy to access. "Well, I guess I could walk on my own."  But when we got inside, Cara had pulled all the fluff out of a boxing glove (that he doesn't even use) and he burst into tears and decided all his toys are ugly and he hates them.  So all my hard work went unappreciated.
Tuesday morning I didn't say anything about wearing green. Instead I got him excited that he was officially 5 and a half!  I had found more of his clothes the day before and put them in his closet. He was so excited to discover a new (hand-me-down) t-shirt with a Lego character on it and chose to wear it to school. Of course, it was green. Oh well.  When we got to school - green was everywhere. Right as we got to his classroom door is when he remembered. He unzipped his jacket a little and saw his green shirt and breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't going to get pinched all day.
After school he asked if we could go to the park to ride his bike. I said sure. We had a quick snack and loaded up the car to head to the neighborhood park. When we moved, friends removed the training wheels to help the bike fit in the pod. We haven't put them back on yet. I noticed here in Colorado - no one uses them anyway. Kids just use their feet and stride. So he tip-toed and glided down to the vacant basketball court, then all of a sudden he just took off riding! I think he was as surprised as I was!!  He rode around with a huge smile on his face, stopping to check on me periodically. On one lap I heard him say, "Five and a half guys can do this! This is easy!" (he turned 5-1/2 today!) He rode for a little over half an hour gaining speed with each lap around. He tried going uphill on the sidewalk and that proved more challenging than he expected. He only fell three times and they were hardly anything. On the way back to the car I tried to give him a little boost since it was all uphill but then he rode off into the grass which didn't work out. I tried to pick up his bike and carry it and he yanked on it to try again. So I let him, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to really get going. He tried, failed, and then got angry at me that he didn't succeed. He said, "You're so hateful! You were supposed to hold me up!"  I picked up the bike and told him to get in the car. He threw his helmet in the car and hit it a few times and fussed at me. I reminded him that I don't even like going to the park - that I go for HIM to have fun. I don't sit and play games on my phone or ipad either - I watch him - the entire time. There isn't even a place to sit and rest my back there - the benches have no backs. The park is all about him because I love him and do things for him.  That is not being hateful.  He just stared up at the ceiling of the car when I spoke to him.  *sigh* 

Friday after school we went to a different neighborhood's park. It had taller slides with more twists, more to do, benches with backs. When we first got there, only a 3.5 year old girl and her daddy were there, and very happy to see us. They rode bikes together on the basketball court, we bounced on the seesaws, they rode the swings, and Andrew showed off his skills zipping through the monkey bars, and he tried to teach the little girl how to go down the firepole without help. At one point, Andrew said he could throw her ball through the hoop and she let him try. He missed completely the first time, but hit the backboard the others. So he decided he'd get a running start from the opposite goal and as the ball missed and rolled down the hill, the little girl was jumping up and down cheering him on at what a good job he was doing.  If only we all had a little cheerleader like her follow us around!
We got home shortly after daddy, ate some dinner, and dropped Andrew off at Kevin's house for the evening. We went to IKEA to buy some closets. We arrived around 9pm to pick him up. He was eating a sandwich on the couch and watching a movie. We stayed and finished the movie with them... leaving after 11pm!  He was up in no time saying he was having bad dreams about a character in the movie.

Saturday morning we were still offering memorial invitations. I asked Andrew if he'd like a turn at the door and he said no. But then the next door I went to he got mad and said I wasn't listening to him - that was supposed to be his door. I spent the next 45 minutes in service asking him at every single door if he was ready for a turn. We could tell he wanted to but he'd just sulk and shake his head. If I said it was such a pretty day for service, he disagreed. If I said the waterfall feature was nice, he said it was dirty and stinky. We pressed on. He finally told me that he wanted a turn but couldn't decide on what to say (I'd given him three choices.)  I told him he could at least knock and if he got flustered I promised I would step in and take over.  He knocked and ran from the door. No one was home so he tried folding the invitation and sticking it in the door.  We rehearsed options again between then and the next door. He refused to tell me what he wanted to say. He knocked and a lady came out greeting us kindly. He said, "My name is Andrew. Here is your gift." So I told her what the invitation was for and we left. He seemed relieved and opted to walk with daddy to move the car instead of continue with me and the group. He enjoyed discussing French and Spanish at break.
We had a nap at home and then he wanted to help daddy work on the living room wall - running electrical and drilling screws to hold the sheetrock in place. He had trouble changing out a battery and got all upset again. Took another hour or more to pull him out of that funk. He decided to ride his bike to the mailbox with me while I walked Charlie. We went again without Charlie so I could carry the mail home. He got upset that he couldn't really get going on his bike. Daddy moved the cars out of the driveway so he'd have space to ride his scooters and bike around freely. Still not as fun as riding at the park apparently.  He found a tree limb that was about the same height as himself - and banged up a thorn bush (roses I think) in the yard and messed with the tree, and twirled the limb around a bit. Then went back to his bike while I was studying the Watchtower lesson.  Then he played in the backyard for a while with more sticks and the dogs.
He discovered he does like Chicken Tortilla soup from Costco.