Why I Love Breaks....

I know that normally on this blog I talk about my other kids (that is- my students), but today I want to talk about mine.

Today was my first official day of Spring Break. I love being on breaks from school because I get to spend time with my precious, amazing, wonderful son, Vinny. He is just this amazing person, and I love spending time with him. Especially lately.

Yesterday morning, I was laying on the couch with him in the morning before church, and when I had to get ready he begged me to come lay back down. I did have to get ready, but promised him I would spend every morning this week on the couch with him in the morning. He held me to it today.

Vinny is just like me- not a morning person- so when we were both ready to get dressed this morning we wandered out and spent the day at Universal Studios. Hooray to them for doing "Salute to Teachers" and letting me in for FREE. It was a relatively inexpensive fun day. We went on the studio tour, which was interesting trying to explain to a three-year old. He totally loved it but only sort of got that none of it was real. Explaining that it was "the movies" didn't help much, considering that he still thinks that movies are real. After that, we saw a couple of shows (Vinny liked the Shrek show), ate some lunch, and then he played on this giant, 3 part, Curious George playground for a very, very long time... that wore me out! I followed him all around this thing (it was very twisty and I don't feel comfortable letting him out of my sight) until I couldn't handle it any more. Then we saw one more show and then went home.

Of course while I am trying to be frugal, Vinny is going through a growth spurt or something and is hungry constantly, which doesn't work out so well at an amusement park. You would be shocked if you saw how much this small kid ate today. He just kept saying, "I'm still hungry." It did get a little expensive. At dinner tonight, I sat him down with his bowl of chili and the bag of grated cheese, which I intended to give him some of once we all sat down, and then turned around to finish grabbing things. When I returned to the table, he had one hand full of cheese and in his mouth and the other hand grabbing another handful. I picked up the bag and it was half gone. He literally ate like half a bag of grated cheese in a matter of like 60 seconds. He cracks me up.

Later tonight, in the bath, he tells me, "Mommy, I want one of the covers (translation: blankets) you used to wrap me up in when I were a baby. I want it on my bed tonight." Hmmm..... "Which one?" I ask, trying to figure out what he is talking about. "I don't know," he replies, "I think they are in the garage." He is right; all of his baby stuff is in the garage. I am thinking that this desire to have some of his baby stuff is stemming from a fear that the new baby will make him less my baby, so I did what I thought was best and dug out the box of baby blankets. I spent time talking about how much I loved holding him in those blankets, and I cradled him in the blanket again, which he laughed about and said, "I not a baby!" I let him pick one, which he excitedly did, to put on his bed. He then declared that he did not want the rest of his covers tonight, just that one. I had encouraged him to choose one of the larger blankets, but nonetheless, it barely just covered from his neck to his toes and doesn't wrap around him much. I still didn't think it was right to fight him on this, so I let it be and did my best to cover him up.

Not five minutes later there was a call from his room, "Mommy! Help!" I go in and turn on the light to find a frustrated preschooler tangled in a baby blanket. "I don't want this!" he declared. "Do you want me to put it next to you to cuddle with?" I ask, but he didn't even want it near his bed. "I'm not a baby," he resolved, and allowed me to tuck him in with all his blankets. What a relief.... If there was any worry that he will want to revert when the baby comes, it is gone. If he does, it certainly will not last long.

So, anyhow... there are 4 days left of my break, and I do have a lot of catching up on school work to do, but I am so excited to be able to pour time into Vinny. I guess I just feel like I am so busy during the school year, this time is so precious and I do my best to spoil him like crazy with time, attention, and special outings when I do have this time.

Being a mommy makes me happy. You know, I didn't really think I was ready to be starting over again so soon, but now I am starting to get excited. It really can only bring me more of this joy.