this weekend

Blogging up a storm tonight, aren't I?

Yesterday was "Strides for Africa," a charity walk.  Last year's walk funded a water well in Ethiopia, and this one is to do the same, through an outstanding charity.  (Check them out:  http://www.aglimmerofhope.org/)   Elias and I came in dead last in the 5k walk last year, and upheld our winning streak by coming in a distant last place in the 1k walk.  This photo pretty much sums up Elias's opinion of long walks:

Like the difficult Friday the day before, it was a difficult morning, with him constantly demanding to go home and refusing to walk.  Finally we had a long time out where I explained that sometimes we got to do what Mommy wants, even if it's not what Elias wants, and he's got to learn to share and take turns.  That made him calm and resigned, at least, so we went on to check out AfricaFest.  A big strawberry ice cream mad it a little more bearable, and then, being able to play in a real police car and see police horses finally made it worthwhile for him.  The rest of the day was much better.  With some prompting he even made a flyswitch craft at the kids tent.

 I got him to bed before 8pm and started canning my first batch of tomatoes this season. Then the steam made the fire alarm right outside his bedroom start blaring, and it went on for about a minute before I ripped the whole thing off the ceiling, but he didn't wake up!  That's pretty amazing.  Scary, too.  There's no way *I* could sleep through that, though.

Today, Sunday, he had a good day at church.   I had quite a struggle getting him to nap, but it finally happened.  He fights it so much, but then sleeps so long and deeply!  I had to wake him to go to the play gym with families from our church adoption group.  Upon arriving, he stubbornly refused to join the others to play, or even take off his shoes, even when I did.  After about 10 minute I took his shoes off despite protests, and dragged him in...at which point he had a blast.  He bounce, tumbled, climbed, and ran himself silly the whole time.  His stubborness took on a constructive quality when he decided he was going to learn how to do a running sumersault down an incline:  he practiced again and again, spending about a third of his time there, carefully heeding my few instructions and with alternating looks of determination then elation as he approached and completed each run.  Afterwards they had cupcakes and took a great group photo.