Whirlwind

So I actually worked from home today, while taking care of the kiddies, and I can say that it was no easy feat to actually be productive, and if it weren't for a 3 hour window where Bella was playing and Isaac was napping... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was a gorgeous day - warm but not too hot, sunny, a light breeze. Isaac woke at 6:20 after graciously sleeping through the night for me. We played for an hour before Bella joined us downstairs. A hearty breakfast and a shower and we were off to take Bella to her church camp. While she learned about God and the Rainforest, Isaac and I got caught up on email, played in the sink, wrassled, giggled, ate, and so on. By 11:15, it was time to go see Bella's final "project" at the camp.

The final project was 4 musical numbers (Bella was only in the last one) and a movie of the week (thank goodness for Macs - the movie was turned around so quickly!) Isaac was fascinated, and ran RIGHT up to join the chorus. In the first number he stood right in front of Jenny and danced. For the second number, it was a smaller group, and he tried to climb right on stage, so I had to distract him... By the movie, he was back up in front sitting with all of the other kids.

The church leader said of Isaac "I'd heard about him, but had never really believed it until now... wow, what a kid!"

Bella was a full participant, singing and moving along with the other kids (though giving off full shy vibes at the same time). After the program it was cupcakes and punch in the basement, where Isaac played for another 30 minutes: I almost got whiplash keeping track of him - fortunately the other kids also kept tabs on him. I'd turn my back, and then hear the piano playing - ISAAC. I'd hear a kid yelling because someone stole his artwork-in-progress - ISAAC. I'd hear a grownup wondering if that kid is supposed to be in the kitchen - ISAAC. What a guy.

We came home and Bella immediately went off to play with the neighbor kids... and Isaac went right to sleep - for almost 4 hours. Naturally I checked in on Bella's progress through the day (I need to make sure she remains welcome wherever she's playing every hour or so - it's just polite).

During this window, I generated a proposal for a new client, worked on a new opportunity for an existing one, worked through some hiring issues we're having, and got some feedback and next steps on my data warehouse thing. Oh, I wanted to nap, make no mistake. But I didn't take today as PTO, so I needed something to show for the day...

Later we congregated at the neighborhood pool: I showed up with Isaac and the neighbor kids were thrilled to have him in the water... and Bella was a great helper. Unfortunately, while the other kids had a good hour of pool time, Isaac and I only got 15 minutes before the sky opened with a summer shower. We ran home and got some pizza, which both Isaac and Bella devoured. Then it was BACK to the neighbor's post-rainstorm for 90 more minutes of kids running around and grownups keeping one eye on them and catching up on the doings.

I finally got those kids extracted and started toward bed at 8, but no sleeping happened before 9 - those were some EXCITED CHILDREN. So now having done a few loads of laundry, a good bit of work-work, and a whole lot of kid-work, I'm looking at that clock and thinking "yep - good time for bedtime". I'll leave those movies, manuals, and language lessons for another day.