A Post About Daniel

Things are a bit crazy lately. Daniel's been taking so much of my time keeping promises that I haven't had time to keep, or have been afraid to do with his brother and sister around. The biggest one was bowling. Daniel LOVES bowling, thanks to the Wii. Then he went DuckPin Bowling for a birthday party at the beginning of the year, and ever since then he's been talking about going back there. But can you imagine taking Simon (especially) to a bowling alley, with all that noise? Or keeping Rachel from running down the lanes and trying to knock down all the pins with her hands rather than the ball? But since he's done with school and the twins aren't, this was the perfect week to do that. So, on Tuesday, I made it a MOMS Club activity and also invited some of the boys from his preschool. Overall, we had 10 kids (age 18mo to 5.5 yrs) and they all seemed to have a good time, especially when we ended the activity at a nearby McDonalds with a play area. So fun was had by all, and we were home in plenty of time for Simon's bus.

And on Wednesday, Daniel finally got a chance to take the Metro. He was born in the DC area, but never went on the Metro before. Again, this is something I just can't figure out how I'd do with Rachel and Simon. They're nearly 3.5 years old -- I hate to keep them in a stroller for that type of outing, but I really don't know if I can contain them any other way. We didn't do anything all that fancy -- Kevin's office is only a few blocks from a Metro station so we took the train to his office, he walked around a bit and Kevin was able to show him off (he hasn't been there in over 2 years) and go to lunch before we had to head back to the train and headed back home. One would think we were heading to Disney World -- he was just so excited. By the halfway point of the return trip, he was starting to get bored with the tunnels, but then we were back in the open and his fascination returned. It's amazing how, sometimes, the simplest thing, can make a 5-year old boy so happy.

So, this week, Daniel has gotten a lot of my positive energy. Next week, life will go back to normal and he will have to share my attention. He won't be happy about it, but his camps will begin soon after. And hopefully we'll be able to find some activities that will suit all 3 of them, specifically park playdates.

But it's nice to be able to focus on one child for a few days. I just need to be able to figure out how to make things like that work for the other 2.