The Up, the Down, and the Constant

THE UP Last night Johnnie wanted to start making his poster for Star-of-the-Week. That's because I asked him when his turn was instead of looking it up. And so it was on his mind then. And make a poster he did. It almost choked me up. That's because he chose the pic of he and I that was posted on my refridgerator door. I posted the pic because I saw it again on my way out of the door to go to work. By then I had a pretty uneventful morning getting Johnnie ready for school, getting his breakfast done while watching Land Before Time [which is his new favorite now] and putting his lunch together. I expected to stay a bit at Mar Vista School because there was some reading workshop going on in the Library. I thought the whole school was going to be there. Turned out it was only about 20 parents or so and so I just ended up blowing it off. That's ok, reading is not something Johnnie will be behind doing. Nor is math. But it just warmed my heart just to start my day seeing the poster he made with a picture of us. Of course this isn't likely to be the poster Johnnie is going to turn in for real. Lisa would get REAL butt-hurt if she got left out of it, just as I would if i were I suppose. Or not. I don't care now because Johnnie's first instinct was to include me and that means everything in the world to me already.
THE DOWN And then I went in to work and my boss comes into my office and tells me there will be some termination activity at the end of the week. I didn't think anything of it at first, especially after she said not to worry... IS is already operating bare bones. And then she proceeds to tell me 9 people are getting laid off this week and that this was strictly to let me know from an IS standpoint. Uggh. I hate these things. I remember April/May 2013 when I got laid off from USC Stevens. It wasn't pretty. It didn't feel good at all. Maybe I should be thankful I'm not one of the 9? I've long since stopped thinking about the rationale behind these things. Not after the USC Dental School anyway where I was sort of asked to leave. It's up to the people in charge and I remind myself that I am employed at their pleasure. Well I'm thankful anyway. But it sure isn't going to feel good at the end of this week isn't it?

THE CONSTANT With that I simply focused on doing my job and then going home to pick up Johnnie. He was so happy when I picked him up. They made such a big deal that this was his first 100 days in school and they made all kinds of stuff in his class today. And I'm so very glad that they did because Johnnie was all about it. First I took this cool pic of him backgrounded by the school mascot of the surfer on a dolphin. And then I made him pose with all of his loot from class. And sent it to Lisa.  I thought it was pretty amazing myself. And Johnnie thought it was pretty special. I thought it was pretty special. And so with that the "constant" is obviously Tuesday night routine! Johnnie knows he gets his penne pasta aka chicken noodle soup just as we get home. And he wolfed down almost 2 small bowlfuls too! While he did that I barbecued the Italian sausage. It took a little while longer to cook it than the time it took for Johnnie to finish his pasta soup. So much so I had to make him come out to play near the barbecue area so I could keep an eye on him. I didn't want him getting bored before the night even got started. After all we had a lot to do. And so I made him take a soccer ball with him and I made him kick it against the wall right behind the barbecue. I thought I could maybe get him occupied for 5 minutes or so. Jokingly told him to kick it to the wall 100 times, seeing that he knows how to count 100. To my huge surprise, he went ahead and started doing it. No thought of limitation, no thought of being tired, he just started to kick. And kick. and kick. And before you knew it, he got to 100 kicks! And he didn't even stop there! He got to 117 kicks before I had to stop him because I had cooked up the sausage. And when we went back to the apartment, he ate up one entire huge sausage too. And proceeded to tell me he was still hungry afterwards! w-h-a-t?? I had to make him a gnutella sandwich too, made up of Hawaiian bread. And then a couple of rounds of cookies. It was Tuesday night after all. Of course we had to make cookies on cookie night! And he wolfed a couple of those down. Man, where's he putting all this food? He made a comment that his tummy was getting big.  And then he had to poop. Well of course he did considering everything he ate tonight. But I was glad. I know he's feeling great when he eats up like that. Must have been all that exercise I made him do as well. Anyway we watched some videos but really we had a full evening of reading and doing math although I never did get to the touch add thing where I will show him how to do addition and subtraction without using his fingers. We'll do that tomorrow. In the meantime, I did have a nice long sleep last night which meant I was much more recovered from having little sleep the 2 nights before. And I was looking for even more sleep tonight. Bed early is good! And another Tuesday in the books!