Monday, Monday

Z had his first official crappy day at school.  Awww, it broke my heart.  He wasn't sad, so much as annoyed, but he learned a valuable life lesson today.  Turns out he told a girl in his class, whom he said is usually a good secret-keeper, that he liked another girl in his class.  I guess this juicy tidbit was more than good-secret-keeper-girl could stand.  She told EVERYONE in the class, including the object of Z's affections.  

Ouch.

To make matters worse, a group of kids from the class ganged up on him during recess to chant "Z likes blankety-blank" over & over again as they closed in on him.  Running to his defense came Koah, his first friend in the class at the beginning of the year . Koah jumped inbetween the group and my kid, then apparently told them all to back off.  Nicely done!  [high five Koah!]  Z said he was very grateful for Koah, but still wanted to shrink and disappear after all was said & done.  He kept telling me that he didn't understand why good-secret-keeper-girl told everyone, he was so sure she would keep it to herself.  I told him that no one could resist information that juicy, so she probably meant to stay quiet, but couldn't control herself.  He then didn't understand why him liking someone was so interesting to anyone else.  I told him people feed off of this type of information, so remember that down the line.  He made a face like everyone is crazy, then moved on.  Poor kid.  So much to learn about the world.

To make him feel better, I told him a story about how I split my pants wide open on the playground during recess in the 4th grade.  I bent down to grab some sticks from the ground, and RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP.  With that sound, my whole world came crashing in on me.  I can remember feeling the heat rise up in my face from blushing, and how my underpants were hanging out for God & everyone to see.  I, literally, wanted to vanish.  The whole class was pointing and laughing, and I broke into tears from humiliation.  Z was then quick to tell me that he didn't cry today, so I told him he was already better off than I was when it came to embarrassing recess days.  His mouth was wide open by the end of my story, and he had his hands on both sides of his cheeks, as if to hide FOR me as he listened.  After I was done, he said, "today was embarrassing, but at least it wasn't THAT embarrassing!"  We got a good laugh, then sat down at the kitchen table with some cake and a couple glasses of milk.  A few bites of cake later, he had already moved on to talking about an X-Box that Koah has, and how cool they sound.  Since he had endured such a crappy day, I didn't have the heart to tell him he'll never get one.  But, mission accomplished ... he forgot about his ordeal.

He's now outside with Daddy, since Daddy is off today, and they're running around the front yard like wild men before the rain hits.  It's the strangest shade of gray and green outside, as well as eerily calm.   I think we'll keep things low-key tonight, and try to keep his mind off of the drama of the day.  I'm hoping the kids don't razz him tomorrow, but if they do, I've prepared him with several responses to choose from.  Hopefully, they'll forget about it pretty quickly, as they do most things, and life will go on.  He said he has learned not to tell people secrets unless you know you can really trust them.  Poor thing just doesn't realize yet that knowing who you can really trust is the hardest part.

Today was super busy for me at work, so it's nice to be home doing a whole lot of nothing.  Aaron had a relaxing day alone, measured the screens around the house for me (we're going to finally replace them!), and is changing the oil in both our cars.  Aren't we just the portrait of domestic bliss?  Since it's supposed to be rainy later, I'm sure we'll all get cozy & drowsy pretty early tonight.  Getting up at 4:45am was quite tough on me this morning, so I'm not expecting to last very long past dinnertime.      

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and that Monday was kind to you.  I will close this blog with a habit I hope to keep going, even if it ends up being the only thing I write each day.  I heard someone talking about this on a wellness ad today, and it seemed like a good idea.  I want to log three things I am grateful for each day, no matter what my mood.  I can already warn you that my three things will revolve around music or food a lot of the time, but hey, I gotta be me.  Here's my list for today:

1.  Being a Mom.

2.  A healthy family.

3.  My elderly dog.

There, that felt good.  Now I'll always be able to look back and see all the things in life I have to be grateful for, instead of the negativity.  Until next time ...