A Quiet Day At Last?

It is almost 2:30 am and I just put a sleeping Paddy in bed, since my back was beginning to ache from holding him in my arms and sitting at the computer. He half-woke and asked sleepily, “Are you Mama?” Yes, my little one, who else would be nursing you in the dead of night in your parents’ bedroom? “Are you Paddy?” I asked him and he murmured “Uh huh,” and was peacefully asleep.

Kieron’s baseball team lost their fourth game which means they are out of the playoffs. I know Kieron is rather relieved, though he has not said so. His middle name is Thomas, like the saint and scholar, and it has always seemed to suit him very well…. he is generally placid, a bit on the portly side, slow-moving. The intense reflex movements of baseball don’t quite suit his style and he was parked in right field for most of the season. He has a judicial turn of mind and if he was motivated he could become one of those strategic, grand-slamming type baseballers but I don’t think he’s very competitive at heart. His preferred activities are making himself meals, reading (widely and generally, science and fairy tales and everything in between), playing on the computer, and joking. His sense of humor is like an undercurrent that bubbles up quickly and regularly to the surface in turns of phrase and laughter. Since he is just 10, he finds that his jokes are often rather looked down at by his teenage siblings, and the younger ones see his sense of humor as an irritation since he often can’t resist teasing them, in a bothersome though not cruel way. It’s been rather lonely for him this year, in some ways, and he looks forward to our homeschool group meetings where there are usually 2 to 4 kids his own age.

Aidan was in a fair amount of pain this afternoon, and I sat with him and watched Pokemon movies with him and put my hand over his stomach; the pressure seemed to soothe him. It was sort of odd spending most of the day with just the two youngest. Sort of like going back 15 years in time. They seemed to get along better when we were all together like that. I will have to remember that for the future. They played a jumping game (off a footrest onto my lap in turns) and even cuddled together for a while, which Aidan usually would not tolerate.

Today is Sunday so we can relax and make pizza for the first time in several weeks. And Liam will not be calling on the phone, because he is HOME!! I think I will make waffles, too… it’s grey and a bit cooller outside today, too, which is a nice change.