Wilmington Weekend Update #11

You might think it would be hard for our family to transition to the routine of school and work after almost three weeks of travel. You’d be right.

No one was ready to go to bed and wake up on time last week, least of all Julian, who had grown accustomed to sleeping between his siblings. He wanted water, then a kiss, then his penguin (his new favorite toy thanks to Granne), then another kiss, more water, “cover me up,” etc. until we decided we were being played like a pinball machine. We let him cry it out all week, but even that took repeatedly returning him bodily to his bed. Finally tonight he went down without a peep, right on time. Whew!

Whatever gave Julian his fever last weekend invaded Margaret’s head this week, making her feel like someone had stuffed a comforter up her nose. In the meantime, Abby and Sellers decided they were sick, too. They introduced themselves to the school nurse (who, I fear, remembers Abby quite well) and complained of symptoms of everything from Dengue fever to the plague. Their punishment was to be bored to tears for four hours in my office. On the way home I introduced a new vocabulary word: “crock.” I didn’t delve into the word’s origin (a porcelain chamber pot, full), but I did explain next time the school nurse calls I had better hear sirens in the background. Both kids made startling recoveries.

Thursday was Abby’s and Sellers’s first soccer practice. Sellers decided he was too hot and tired after school and SOLA and kept coming to the sidelines arms outstretched. I turned him back toward the field, but with some concern we were not off to a good start.

Abby was more enthusiastic, but a cleat to the calf took her down, after which she limped like her leg was broken. We revisited our new vocabulary word, but her pain remained incapacitating until three seconds after practice ended, at which point her limp evaporated. With their first games Saturday I was a little worried.

Of course I didn’t have to worry about watching the slaughter, since I was on call. Margaret single-handedly got everyone to their games and corralled Julian for two and a half hours of thrilling soccer excitement. Sellers had confided the night before he was afraid he’d be goalie, a position he fears based on a better-than-average understanding of the laws of physics. Indeed his coach approached him with the goalie’s jersey, which he accepted with a shrug, taking his position in the goal for the first time in a real game. Sellers went on to block every shot, and his team won 1-0!

Abby stayed on the field for her game, uninjured, and indeed assisted a shot to help her team win as well. I’d like to make some sort of joke here, but I’m just proud of them and bummed I wasn’t there to see it.

Saturday was also "Tropical Storm Gabrielle," which we renamed, "Hey, is that a cloud?". Of course there's still plenty of time for hurricanes this year, so we'll just be grateful, drought or none.

Sunday we managed to get everyone together in time to make Sunday school, if not church. This is kind of like skipping dinner and going straight to dessert, but we haven’t made it near the building since Easter, so we’ll take baby steps. The kids enjoyed it more than they expected to (not too hard), and we may try again next week, perhaps tacking on the service. Maybe we could start with just the last ten minutes and work our way up slowly so the kids don’t even notice!

From there I had to return to the hospital for circumcisions. Margaret was behind on charts, laundry, pretty much everything, so she was grateful when I finally got back and accepted Karen Vogel’s invitation to bring the kids across the street to play with Izzy and Megan. We ended up there for hours; Margaret eventually worked her way over with beers, and we sat on the porch in the dusk admiring the moon flowers while the kids ran around.

They went on a backyard safari, finding a few anole lizards, giant yellow and black writing spiders, and even bigger brown and black golden silk spiders.

We even opened a spider egg case:

Finally we took our leave and got everyone bathed and put to bed on time for the first time in, oh, three weeks.

This week is so routine I don’t even know if there will be anything to blog about, but we’ll see. Thanks again for checking in, and have a great week.

David

PS: The egg sac has generated a lot of interest. For more photos and information relating to the golden silk spider and its reproductive life click here: http://www.sdnhm.org/fieldguide/inverts/argi-aur.html