Beautiful Weekend

I had a great weekend. I realized this time that we ARE a family unit in every major sense of the word (me, Alex, the kids). Alex acts as their father, and the kids treat him as a spare dad too. I had these visions when I had children that we'd be able to do activities like a family and have some sort of cohesion, but that only happened briefly with Ariana, and then when I became pregnant with Jared, it all fell apart. The children never had mealtime together, and activities were not usually fun due to either dad being absent or dad and mom squabbling. Then we did the single mom thing...sure, the three of us did some fun stuff, but again, it wasn't the whole two-parent plus kids setup I had dreamed of both times when I was pregnant.

Well, now we're a family. Alex doesn't care about what people think just like me. I could SO get a chiquita banana sticker on his nose! We went to see Wallace and Gromit: Attack of the Wererabbit with Ariana and Jared on Saturday (it was fantastic by the way), and all four of us acted like we took stupid pills. That means, of course, that all four of us had a wonderful time. We danced around in the car and sang to MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This"--the version on the Shark Tales bonus cd--and then walked single file, Jared-Ari-Me-Alex, hands on each other's shoulders chanting, hup two three four! hup two three four! and marching from the parking lot into the theatre. Ari baked dessert for us in her Easy Bake Oven. Alex played with the kids on the PS2 while I fixed dinner. We went shopping together and laughed and joked while doing so. Alex bathed Jared and cleaned up after dinner; I did laundry and helped Ari with her Easy Bake cake (and that's only AFTER Alex had creatively used a knife to open up the little oven and insert the light bulb we had bought for it that day). When it was time for bed, Alex read to them as I folded laundry, and I could hear his voice clearly. At peace, I was. Like Yoda, I just sounded.

I have always wanted this situation. I really, really have. I know it's hard on me AND the kids to only have it on weekends, and I know that somewhere of course they would have wanted/preferred this situation with their father, but at least we have it now regardless.

So, to further illustrate my daughter's insane perceptions for a seven year old, let me tell you what happened at lunch on Saturday. We were at Laura's Favorite Place (IE, Panera bread) and I mentioned a troubling dream I had the night before. All I said was, in a neutral voice, "I had an unpleasant dream last night. (Alex's boss), of all people, came to tell me that I wasn't treating you like you deserve, and he listed off all the ways I wasn't being great to you," I told Alex. Ariana listened intently, and then watched Alex immediately pat my right hand and state, "Kira, listen to me, you TOTALLY deserve this relationship and me! Completely!" He looked very concerned, and he was obviously certain that he had interpreted the dream correctly. Then ARIANA added in her two cents' worth! I shit you not...my little girl then mirrored Alex's look of concern and patted my left hand and said....no really, this is it, word for word, and Alex can back me up...

"Mommy! Listen to me! Alex loves you very, very much and NOTHING will EVER change that, ok?"

Holy cow! I actually started laughing at that point because my daughter's obvservation had bowled me over. I see she has an option of being a good therapist one day if she wanted it! I guess maybe they were both right in some sense. I keep wondering when this will all go away. When it's good, it doesn't stay this good, right? But it has. For a while. Amazing.

All right, this time change is sending me for a loop. I think I will nap before grading. Man, I HATE grading. Have I mentioned that yet?