Daily Grind
I’m so exhausted tonight. I woke up with a sore throat and the sniffle, so I guess a cold is contributing to my exhaustion. Wonderful! It’s going to be a long weekend with illness and snow.
At least we managed to get out of the house today. We went to Playtime at the Plex, which was really annoying. It was a totally different crowd today–mainly a bunch of little brats and jerky moms. Several of the kids had play swords which they were fighting with. Erik found different items to use as a sword so I was constantly telling him no hitting and getting looks from the moms who were allowing their kids to hit. I almost wouldn’t have a problem with it if it was just a group of kids who all knew each other and the moms all knew each other and there were not random little tiny kids everywhere. Things escalate too fast and get out of control in such a setting. I find play sword really inappropriate at this particular venue.
There was one little asshole kid who had it out for Erik. Everywhere Erik went, he followed. He kept hitting Erik with anything he could find, then when Erik would fight back (usually by trying to take the toy away), the mom would get really pissy at Erik and not say a word to her poor little snowflake.
I usually love Playtime at the Plex because I can sit on the bleachers and watch Erik play with minimum parental duties for two hours. Today I had to be right there with him the whole time to keep things under control. Ugh.
He had his very first swim class this afternoon and prepping him for that was also exhausting. He decided he didn’t want to go because he didn’t want to get his face wet. He kept claiming he wasn’t going to get dressed, he wasn’t going to leave the house, he wasn’t going to get in the car. So on and on and on. It took a lot of psychology, willpower and sheer stubbornness to get him out the door.
My friend has been telling me about these swim lessons for the last year, so I had an idea of how they would go. I tried to prepare him as best I could, which is why he was freaking out. They have to jump in the water, roll over onto their backs and float for 10 seconds as their first main goal. My friend has a tendency to exaggerate things, so I didn’t know how traumatic this would really be. I knew another friend pulled her kid from the class because she thought it was way too traumatic. I didn’t want it all to be a total shock.
Anyway, I shouldn’t have worried. They did make him jump in the water, but it was not traumatic in the least. I have a feeling the friend who pulled her kid out of the class didn’t like the fact that they discipline the kids. Her child is pretty obnoxious and she never has a clue what to do about it. They have some very specific rules and are not afraid to hold the children’s feet or hands if they are kicking or splashing when they aren’t supposed to be. They sat one boy in time out because he was goofing off. Basically, they act like teachers and authority figures and expect the kids to behave. I’m all for that!
Erik decided the swim class was the most fun thing he’s ever done in his whole life and he wants to do it every day. As you can imagine, I was very relieved. I didn’t know what I was going to do if he was screaming and throwing a tantrum with his teacher and refusing to get in the water. He actually did really well and will probably be able to do the first goal in just a couple of sessions. Once he figures out to stick his legs straight out and relax I think he’ll be able to float.
I did make a major mistake. My friend showed me where to put our bags down, but I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the surroundings. I ended up putting my bag down right next to the shower drain, so when class was over I pulled out Erik’s clothes and found his pants, underwear and socks were soaked. At least it was in the mid-40s instead of the mid-20s, but I still felt pretty bad. Obviously I left the socks and underwear off, but he had to have pants on.
The class is held at a gym with a swimming pool. For awhile I was considering switching to the gym just for the pool, but now I’m glad I didn’t. It costs waaaaaaay more than my current gym. It looks a lot nicer and feels a lot fancier, but they don’t have much in the way of equipment. I was looking at their group exercise schedule and was shocked. I’m used to choosing between 3 or 4 different classes each morning–usually yoga or pilates, a cardio class, a weight lifting class and maybe an abs class. That’s not counting the spin classes. This gym had one class at 9:30 every day. That’s it! Well, they had early morning and evening classes, but again just one per day. So would I really want to pay triple my current monthly fee and have less options just because the building is prettier?
Now it’s time to hunker down and expect to be home for the next three days. I hate being home bound. At least Mike might possibly maybe be able to work from home tomorrow, but I’m not betting on it. I don’t think the snow is supposed to start until 10 am.