growing pains

It's a gloomy kind of Sunday.  The kind that makes you race home from church, put your pjs back on, and jump in bed for a nap.

Also, because your favorite little one woke up screaming with leg pains at 1:27am.  And then you tried to console him, to no avail, for at least twenty minutes until Daddy swooped in and got things under control.  And then at 4:00 he got up for good.  That's right, 4:00 in the morning.

So truthfully, by the time we got home from church and errands we had been up for seven hours.

Despite the early rising it's been a slow and easy kind of weekend here.  Yesterday Lofton ran in my sorority's annual philanthropy race.  Although he occasionally runs, it was his first timed race.  I'm pretty sure he's been bitten by the competitive bug and this won't be his last.  Reese and I had grand plans to walk, but it was so cold at 7:45 that we couldn't feel our toes.  Not my ideal conditions for exercise.  We hung out in the chapter room then booked it to the finish line to welcome our runner in.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the yard {we had some giant trees cut down}, grocery shopping, and spray painting what is going to be a new coffee table.

And actually, Reese and I started our weekend a day early.  In addition to real growing pains, we've been dealing with some emotional ones as well.  Last Sunday night Reese decided he was really upset about the next day being a school day.  And as the week went on he became more upset with each passing day and night.  My mama heart was literally a mess.

We, of course, tried to figure out why our usual school-lover was so unhappy, but he didn't offer much in the way of information.  He didn't nap on Tuesday {always a bad idea} and there was a day that his usual morning teacher wasn't there to greet him.  Other than those few things, though, I was stumped.

I decided after Thursday morning's tear-fest to take Friday off of work to try and give him a little undivided attention.  I am 100% a working mama.  And I work a job that demands a lot of time and attention.  I also think that we've been really busy with weddings, and sickness, and birthday parties, and house chores, and maybe we haven't spent as much time just focusing on Reese as we usually do.

So although lots of people probably think I'm crazy {ha!}, I took the day off to spend with my favorite little person.  I asked him what he wanted to do and all he requested was a trip through Chick Fil A so he could eat it in the buggy at Target.  Done.  He also took a nice, long nap.

I know tomorrow might bring another ocean of tears, but at least I've tried.  It's really important to me that Reese knows, for Lofton and I, nothing is more important than him.  He has always thrived, I believe, because Lofton and I heap love and attention on him.  It's what we feel grows a strong and confident and happy child.

So we shall see what tomorrow brings.  And we shall go to bed early tonight because I am oh so tired.