At the park, and other details

I was going to write this in my journal tonight (which I probably still will).

But I thought it was also blog-worthy, so I thought I'd share...

Today is our fourth day at the new place. I should be taking pictures and sharing all the move-in mess, but... well, you can imagine the boxes everywhere, the toys and food and bedding all jumbled into piles in the middle of rooms, etc. (Samantha's made some killer blanket/box forts in almost every room, lovely).We're making progress and feeling more at home here, but we still have a ways to go. Today I spent some time spending money. Fun!!At Costco I spent $170, and at Wal-mart I spent $200. Here's some of what I bought...

At Costco:

-- Darling, BIG living room rug. It was a hundred buckaroos, and already worth it! I walked in tonight and saw it there covering my immense, old hardwood floor, and it filled me with happiness. Now, I'd like to spend another $50 and put a big cushy pad under it. But just having it there is a new joy in our new house!

-- Also bought a fluffy accent rug (technically a bathmat, but shhh,) for my side of the bed. This may sound weird, but my feet are bruised on the bottoms, after just two and a half weeks of this "hardwood" stuff! Ouch!! I need something soothing to step onto when I first hit the floor!

-- Lots of good eats -- ravioli, fish sticks that are "all natural" (the sample lady even told us), delicious green beans, etc. And also some fun sand & surf toys for the kids for the beach this summer.

(Side note -- this Costco is on two levels, with a moving ramp/walkway connecting the two. The kids LOVED getting to ride the ramp, with our cart and everything!)

(Second side note -- people at Costco were soooo nice to me! A man and his wife saw me wrestling that big ol rug into my cart, and the man just picked it up for me and got it all situated. Then another man saw me in the parking lot and asked if he could put it in the car for me. And these are just the customers, mind you! I'm getting a nice impression of New York, so far.)

At Wal-mart: the more practical necessities:

-- Microwave, only $44.95. Steal! I just hope it does the job right, for such a low price.

-- Floor lamps, lots of them, since none of our bedrooms have overhead lights. They're all rigged to turn on one of the outlets with the light switches. Sammie thinks that's some great magic!

-- A new razor, finally. My legs will thank me in the morning.

-- Another new dustpan. I actually bought one there a few days ago, but it was a piece of junk. Worst dollar I ever spent. So, I paid $3.98 for this new dandy. I sure hope it does the trick or I WILL drive back specifically to return it!

-- Surge protectors and computer paper, for Brian's "home office" -- so he can occasionally come home, we hope.

-- Hand soap for the kitchen. Ah, my hands feel so much cleaner, just thinking about it. And two phillips screwdrivers, because we have a billion flatheads and no phillips. Isn't that always the case?!

In other news, I changed 10 diapers today, and 10 yesterday, and 10 the day before. Torture. Especially when most of Spencer's are, well, they're nasty. Almost all of them, almost all the time. Let's just say the kid fears #2, and it's a problem. Sigh.

And, the sweet story of the day...

It was a lovely spring day today, so I took the kids to the park this afternoon (between conference sessions). There's a park about half a block away, which is perfect. It even has TREES, amazing! (Something I was missing, living in Idaho -- trees at parks, trees that actually will shade the playground and equipment and my pasty white kids on those hot summer days.) Oh, but I get sidetracked. What I wanted to tell, was about Spencer...

Those of you who know our Spencer very well will remember that he is a very tender little guy. He's pretty shy and kind of clingy a lot of the time. It usually takes him a long time to warm up to people. He's the one who told me "I don't like kids" when I tried to take him to the child-watch center at the Y a few months ago. Remember? Well, all those tendencies have seemed to get worse with the move. It's been a big transition for him, probably bigger than my patience has tolerated. He follows me around constantly, insists on me doing almost everything for him (get him dressed, find his blanket/toys, even sometimes feed him bites at dinner or at least hound him to sit down and eat every bite), and whines and cries so much it almost brings ME to tears on a hourly basis. It's been rough.

Well, so we went to the park today. And, as usual, Spencer was following Samantha, doing exactly what she did, acting nervous if she or I were more than two feet from him. He was having fun, but was as clinging as always. Then, as he was about to go down the slide, a little boy came up to him. The boy said, "Hi, do you want to play with me?"

Spencer looked down at me, then looked off and away, like he was totally ignoring the kid. Then he went down the slide and kind of walked off by himself, but eyed the boy suspiciously. The kid stood at the top of the slide and looked down at me, as if he wanted some explanation for Spencer's rude behavior. I shrugged a little and said, "Sorry. He's sort of shy."

This sweet little boy, named Logan, nodded his head, then slid down the slide and trotted after Spencer. I was ready for Spence to come running to me, to make me shoo this "intruder" away from him. But instead, the boy repeated his request, and added, "Do you want to play with my trucks?"

To my surprise, Spencer walked off with him. They went over to a little pavilion, where the boy's mom was sitting, and started playing with some big Tonka trucks the boy had brought to the park. Spencer looked back at me just once, to make sure I knew where he was -- and I was half the park away from him. Then he sat down and played with this boy. They played with the trucks, then went and rolled down a little hill together, then slid down the slides, then dug in the dirt, then chased each other, etc. For the whole rest of the time we were at the park, Spencer played happily with his new friend!

It was AMAZING! It was soooo unlike my scared, clingy, whiny little boy who says, "Mom, I don't like kids."

Seriously, I teared up a couple of times, just watching him go! It was like a whole new independent little boy came out to play. Thank you, little Logan, for drawing him out! I needed to see that, to remember that this unsettled, timid little Spencer is just going through some serious adjusting -- as we all are. And that he's going to grow into himself, just give him some time and patience. It was a very sweet moment, and it gave me a little bit more patience for those last few hours before another too-late-bedtime night.

That's all for now. A real journal entry of sorts. Hope you enjoyed! (And I hope Brian's finally done working, so we can go to sleep!)