a boy on the road to sickhood did result in an early nap today which did result in our ability to get out the door on time for william's first non-birthday play date at someone else's house. a boy in his class, a boy who always runs up and hugs and kisses william hello in the morning and goodbye in the afternoon, whose birthday party he attended just a few weeks ago, texted me, via his mom, to ask if william wanted to come over and play today at two o'clock. which is really exciting, because william has been wanting to have a play date with someone, anyone, who is not a parent or sibling, since pretty much the day we got here. and though he did have a few when we lived at the old school, things have not panned out since moving a block over. as in the u.s., words and good intentions do not always translate into actions and busy schedules do not always include coming over to the american's house and playing translator between your child and your child's friend's parent. so while there is a 90% chance that on any given day henry is sleeping at 2 p.m., there was a 0% chance we were saying no to this invitation. it would just take a little mental exercise of how to get the timing right. and this, my dear readers, depends on so many factors-- what time did henry nap yesterday? what time did he go to bed last night? (and how much did he stay asleep for?) what time did he wake up this morning? what kind of mood would william be in to put his shoes and coat on... would it take two minutes? would it take five? would he want to ride his bike or go in the burley? when they say 2:00, does that mean 1:55 is okay or is it presumed no earlier than 2:05? my original plan had been to try to keep henry up. i'd had such a difficult time getting him down for a nap yesterday, i figured there was simply no way i could have him napped and ready to go before 1:30 (the time i figured we needed to leave if william was going to ride his bike, which was almost a given). so, instead, we'd do lunch, take our time getting out the door, and then stop at a park and play until it was time to go over to his friend's house. by that point, i figured, henry would be completely wiped out, and fall asleep in the burley and get a short nap at least.
instead, henry, on his way to sicktown, fell asleep early... around 11:30... so that by the time 1:00 rolled around, i felt okay opening his door and chatting loudly with william to nudge him out of sleep and into a new diaper and his winter coat. which worked. and we were early enough that we still got to stop at the park on the way, and play for ten minutes, because i remembered my old danish teacher telling us, 'if you're running early, drive around the block for five minutes' and the new-to-denmark conference speaker telling us that danes expect you to be on time. i figured these two put together gave me somewhere between a 60 to 180 second window, though i wasn't entirely sure either applied to play dates. by the time we got back on our bikes, and up a couple minor hills, i think we were pushing 240 seconds past two, but they seemed completely happy to see us and william was soon whisked away by his pal.
henry and i rode back home, in this lovely weather...
though i'm not even sure it lasted our entire trip home.
we read books. he ate. we played with blocks. he seemed mostly like himself, though looking back, i suppose it could have been a warning sign that he did not immediately run and knock over the castle william had built during his nap.
after picking william up and coming home to start dinner it became more obvious that his tummy troubles were more than just that. he was a tired bug and needing someone to hold him, so i put him in the ergo on my back until greg got home so i could keep working on dinner, and i must say, it is times like these that every parent should own an ergo. once greg got home, he sat with him on the couch and promptly fell asleep and has been asleep until right now as i type these words. so now i must go.
goodnight!
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