Weekly Review 86

Hello, my fellow Region Rats. I haven’t called my readers that in a long time. Whether you’re from The Region or you just follow along with the happenings of the life I’m living here, welcome. If you’re not from The Region that’s okay, as I have made you an honorary region rat. 

This week felt like it took forever. It was filled with more storms, illness, a surprise visitor, me considering leaving technology behind and so much more. I hope you’ll stay a while and read about the rest of my week here in northwest Indiana. Sit back, relax, and listen to the ramblings of a 32 year old man.

My week started on Monday at 4 AM. Mr. O came wandering in, and I honestly don’t remember much of it, but I know he was in there. He might have gone to the guest room with Lea to sleep, or he stayed in our bed. I’m not sure, but I do know he was back at 5:30 AM yelling at me to get up: “Dada! Get up! Sleep time is over the sun is coming up!” After he finally got me out of bed, we went downstairs, where I made us bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios. We ate while we watched this pretty cool YouTube video. I’m not being sarcastic either. This man in the video has an entire room of Hot Wheels monster trucks and he filmed a tournament with a few of them. It was really fun to watch with Mr. O, considering Hot Wheels is his current obsession. To make it even more enjoyable, there ended up being a Thomas the Tank Engine truck that was racing. Every time Thomas won, Mr. O and I would cheer and clap. Eventually (thankfully, for my sake), Thomas ended up winning the whole tournament! We cheered so loud.

An hour later I had to go to work. So I locked myself in my office for a few hours before I heard Mr. O shriek louder than I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t a scared shriek, it was an excited one. My cousin was in town from London, and she came over to spend some time with Mr. O, and to bring him a new present: Spiderman boxing gloves. He LOVES them. He was punching everything and everyone. It wasn’t long before they had to get taken away for a bit, Lol. To calm him down, and because Lea and my cousin wanted to, they put Mr. O in the car and drove to Target. 

While they were there I had a mysterious illness come over me the last few hours at work. It was terrible. My stomach hurt, my head hurt, and I was in a lot of pain. I spent the rest of the evening lying in my bed praying for it to go away (it didn’t until around 11 AM…the next morning!). When Mr. O and Lea finally came home (they went out to dinner with our family), it was storming really bad. Loud thunder again and again. I heard little footsteps racing up the stairs: “Dada, Dada! I scared of the thunder”, he yelled as he climbed into my bed and snuggled up next to me. “It’s okay, buddy. Dada’s here, you don’t have to be afraid.”

On Tuesday I slept in a little bit since I had the day off. I had three appointments, almost all in a row. I had one at 10 AM, then one at 12 PM, then one at 3PM. Don’t worry, I’m fine! Your favorite blogger isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It was a long day, though, and by the end of my final appointment I was exhausted. However, that didn’t matter, because Mr. O had come home from daycare about an hour after that, so I had to get in “Dada mode” and muster up some energy to play for a little bit. Thankfully, he didn’t want to run around. We played on the floor for a bit as we watched the recording of American Idol from the night before. Then I gave the little guy a bath and read to him in his bed. When I finished reading, I noticed he was starting to doze off. I gave him a kiss on his forehead and said, “I love you.”  He placed his hand on my shoulder, opened his eyes enough for me to see the baby blues and said, “I love you too, sweetheart.” I audibly laughed, but thankfully he fell asleep and didn’t acknowledge it. I have no clue where he heard that from! I don’t call Lea “sweetheart”. Maybe as a joke every once in a while because I know she doesn’t like the “cheesey” lovey-dovey names like that, but it’s been a while. 

When 3 AM came around on Wednesday morning, Mr. O was snuggled up in our bed. I had to keep pushing him off of me because he kept putting his feet on my head. I don’t know how he sleeps sideways or upside down, but he moves so much! Also, he’s not that small anymore, so it hurts when he’s moving and pushing and kicking me all night. We worked it out, though, and eventually got a few hours of decent sleep. When we woke up for the day and went downstairs, he wanted to watch Bluey. I was making us breakfast, listening to him laugh at a show he barely watches anymore, wondering if he even knows half the things they are saying. He’s so pure, as all children are, and his little laugh was just pure joy in the entertainment he was consuming. Sometimes I wish our adult minds could be as simple as that. No worries, no cares, just pure joy in everything we do. It’d be nice. 

After we ate, I let him “drive” my car before we took off for daycare. On the way there, he demanded I put on his songs: “Dada, I no want to listen to your songs. Put on mine.” So, I put on his favorite playlist and he sang the song Real Gone from the movie Cars. He sang the whole time, saying the words he knew, mumbling the rest. It was great. When we walked in to daycare his little friends were happy to see him. There were no issues this time! He took his shoes and jacket off and went to go play, then he suddenly ran back to me at the door and gave me the biggest hug before I left. Before I walked out I was also informed by “Rara” (the woman who runs daycare), that Mr. O and another little boy were saying “What the heck” the other day (he’s not allowed to say that). I looked at Mr. O and he had a little smirk on his face. She then told me she said, “I don’t think you’re supposed to say that…”, to which Mr. O replied, “Ohhhhh yeah! I can say What the Hey! What the hey! What the hey!” She said it was funny, and I’m glad he corrected himself, Lol. 

In the evening, I grilled us some steak while Lea made her delicious diced potatoes. Then I gave Mr. O an early bath so he would have time to play in his playroom before bed. When we were in there, he was playing with his “Little People” toys (it’s the brand name, leave me alone). He was pretending they were shopping at Target, Lol. Later on, after I finally got him to go to sleep, I laid down in our bed. I wanted to call it a night but my brain and body had other plans. I wasn’t tired! I scrolled on my phone, hoping it would make me drowsy like it usually does, but that didn’t help. I tried reading this book that I’ve been trying to get through for 3 years now (It’s over 500 pages, okay?! I’m a slow reader and my interest comes and goes, but I will finish it eventually!). That didn’t help much either. Around 1 AM I finally passed out. 

On Thursday morning, after 4 or 5 hours of sleep, I woke up hating Apple and technology all together. Ever since my Iphone updated, I’ve had to restart it every single day because it heats up so fast, drains my battery, and logs me out of all of my apps. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to log back in to Facebook, Instagram, add my blog account back to my personal Instagram, and log into Tiktok. It’s so frustrating! Then, to top it all of, my phone decided to delete my entire apple calendar (I eventually restored it). After all of that, I went online shopping for a flip phone that only had call and text on it. I was, and still am, so done with all of this technology. Call me old, or crazy, whatever. There’s too much tech now and it never works properly. Why do we have to update so much? Why can’t they just leave it alone? I’m very content with my Iphone 13, and I know what Apple is trying to do (this is just a theory, no facts): They’re trying to get me to upgrade to a newer version of the Iphone because my phone is almost paid off. It’s all too coincidental, is it not? Anyways, I turned off auto updates so I don’t anticipate having these issues again, Lol. 

In the afternoon, my mom sent me a message on Facebook. It was a post from TEN YEARS AGO, when I graduated college. I cannot believe it’s been 10 years since I graduated. So much has happened in the last decade and it feels like it’s gone by so fast. A lot of life has been lived, lost, and created. It’s so wild. Maybe I’ll write about this last decade of my life one day.

Eventually, Lea and Mr. O left for my in-laws. They were going to see our nieces talent show and Mr. O was so excited. Since I was on my own, I grilled a couple hot dogs and hopped online to play Baldurs Gate 3 with my friends. We were actually able to make significant progress in our campaign and finally made it to Act 3 (the final Act!). When we finished playing, I did the dishes and went to bed. 

On Friday I slept in. My family was gone, why not?! I went downstairs and made myself three over easy eggs with three pieces of toast. Maybe that was a little much, but it filled me up enough that I didn’t snack all day, so that’s good. In the afternoon, I was able to get off work an hour early, so I got started on Lea’s list of chores she left for me to do. First, I went to pick up Mother’s Day cards. That wasn’t on her list, but it was on mine and needed to be done. Then, I went to pick up four bags of salt for our water softener (I’m documenting all of this so she can see that I did it). After that, and since I was out, I checked off another thing on my list: Go to Yiayia’s. I went to pay my grandmother a visit. It was nice being able to sit there and actually talk without Mr. O running around screaming his head off while he’s playing, Lol. We were watching Judge Judy and my Yiayia was telling me about Greece and how beautiful it is. She was also telling me about how her home is still standing and in the family and how she wants us to go see it. I really want to go too, but it’s so expensive and we have so much going on right now. Also, I’m scared that if I go I’ll never come back. 

Her house is in a little village in the country. It sounds and looks so peaceful. It appears to have that “simple life” thing going for it that I love so much. It’s always nice hearing about Greece. Also, apparently, according to my grandmother, we are descendants of the Byzantine Empire from her grandmother’s side (??). I’ll have to check up on that somehow, Lol. If I’m royalty I’d like to know. 

An hour-and-a-half later it was time for me to leave. I said goodbye and drove home, where I unloaded the bags of salt from my car. Then I made myself more hot dogs to eat for dinner while I watched My Adventures with Superman on HBO before folding laundry. Currently, I’m writing most of this post. I didn’t want to have to do it on Mother’s Day, so I will either write the rest of it after tomorrow’s events, or while/if Mr. O is napping on Sunday! See you then…

Hello again! It’s time to wrap up this Weekly Review. On Saturday, Lea and Mr. O made their way home from her parents house, while I met up with my mom for a nice Mother’s Day breakfast at the one and only Omelette House Restaurant. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was out, a slight breeze in the air, but it wasn’t a cold breeze. It was more of a refreshing smack in the face whenever the sun became too hot. One you’d expect if you were at the beach or on a boat. When my mom arrived we went to our table and had a fun breakfast. I ordered two eggs – over easy – with 4 sausage links, hash browns, and two pancakes. I was hungry! I almost ate it all. I just had a few bites of pancakes left but decided to leave them. For some reason it helps me mentally to not eat it all, even if it’s just a little bit. That way when I’m still full later I can tell myself, “Hey, I didn’t eat that much. I didn’t even finish all of my food.” It’s weird, but it helps me not feel as bad about it, Lol.

When I came home, Lea and Mr. O were there. He was so excited to see me! He played outside with Lea for a little bit, while I cut the grass. When I finished up and cleaned off, we all became couch potatoes for a few hours. We sat on the couch and watched Curious George while Mr. O almost fell asleep. In the evening, Lea had plans with her friends, and much needed time away (since she was with Mr. O by herself for the last two days), so it was just me and my boy. I made him dinner, we watched The Incredibles and I gave him a bath. Then, we read a few books and he fell asleep. I finished the night by starting the show Home Improvement. I’ve never actually watched it, just bits and pieces throughout my life when my dad would have it on. 

On Sunday I woke up at midnight to Mr. O climbing over me to get into my bed. I’m not sure why he was up and wanting to sleep with me, but I covered him, Krypto, and Spiderman up with my comforter and we all fell back asleep. Hours later, we went downstairs, ate breakfast, and watched train videos on YouTube until it was time to go to church. When we came home, we made sandwiches and had our annual Mother’s Day picnic with Lea by the lake. Mr. O played at the park for a bit, we got ice cream from Dairy Queen, and now he is digging in the dirt in the backyard while I finish up this post, and Lea is baking. All in all, it’s been a great week, and I hope Lea is having a fantastic Mother’s Day, because she is the best mom in the world! Mr. O and I love you so much, Lea, and we’re so thankful for everything you do for us. I couldn’t’ have picked a better partner to start this life with. 

A Moment I’m Still Thinking About

The moment from this week I’m still thinking about is, well, today. Mother’s Day. I have many amazing women in my life. My mom, my grandmothers, my aunts, and of course, my wife, Lea. I’m so thankful for all of them and everything they’ve done and continue to do for me and our families. I’m so blessed! 

I hope all the mothers out there are having a great Mother’s Day. You deserve it!

Peter

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