Weekly Review 91

Hello, readers! This week brought lots of cuddles, a tornado to the region, a Greek festival, and much more. Let’s explore this week’s edition of my Weekly Review, where I share my previous week with you. 

Monday morning was business as usual, so let’s skip ahead to the evening. After work, Mr. O and I played catch, while Lea attempted to watch one of her shows. Our boy has a great arm and he’s recently enjoyed playing catch with me, so we’ve started throwing around this foam baseball and/or tennis ball until Lea tells us to stop (usually when one of us hits the light or fan, Lol. While we continued playing, Lea started making dinner. While she made spaghetti and garlic bread, Mr. O and I went up into his playroom until it was done. 

We ran around and played with his toys. Mostly, he really liked hanging one of his stuffed monkeys from the ceiling fan and watching it spin around until it was flung off. Now he wants to do it all the time! When dinner was finished, we sat down to eat and watched Toy Story 4 in preparation for Toy Story 5 that’s coming to theaters soon. We’re taking Mr. O to see it and it will be his first movie at the theaters. We’re all so excited! Mr. O did NOT like the ending to Toy Story 4: “NO! NO! NO! Why Woody no stay with Buzz?”. Hopefully, the new movie makes him happier. 

When the movie ended, I took him upstairs for a bath and bedtime. After I finished reading Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book, Mr. O turned his back to me and started falling asleep, but before he actually passed out, he reached his hand back towards me and grabbed my hand. He held it until he fell asleep. I love the little moments like these.

On Tuesday morning, Mr. O and I woke up at the same time. We watched his Spiderman show and ate breakfast. Then we went upstairs and I helped get him ready for daycare. Lea took him this time and he was so excited to go and see his friends. In the evening, Lea and I were watching Psych, until Mr. O decided it was time to turn on his Toniebox and play his stories and music. Every time I turned the TV volume up, he would turn his music volume up. Eventually, I had to pause the show so he could listen to his songs. A few minutes after I paused it, I admitted defeat and turned the TV off completely. It was close to bath and bed time anyways.

Early Wednesday morning, Mr. O wandered into our room. “Dadaaaaa”, he whined. I patted the spot next to me and he climbed up with his blanket. We slept for two more hours before I had to wake up and get ready for work. After work I grilled in the light rain that was starting. I cooked some chicken that Lea had marinated earlier, while Mr. O played in the garage with his cars. Thankfully, I was able to finish cooking before the rest of the storm came through. After dinner, my aunt came over to visit. She is in town from Florida for a while and wanted to see us and spend time with Mr. O (of course). Before we knew it, it was time for bed. I took Mr. O upstairs and began to read him a few books, but before I started I said, “Are you ready dawg?”. He popped up from his pillow and responded, “No call me dog, I’m person.” 

On Thursday morning I helped get Mr. O ready for daycare again. Lea took him on her way to work and as I helped get him in the car, I noticed how gloomy it was outside. Throughout the day it was hot and continued to be gloomy. There was a big storm headed our way, but I thought nothing of it. This is how it is in the region/midwest this time of year. Oh boy was I wrong. In the evening, when Mr. O came home, he ran into my office as I was about to log off for the day and gave me a big hug and yelled, “I love you!!!”. He’s so sweet. As I was making dinner, I had Lea go upstairs to take a nap because I knew she was exhausted. After Mr. O and I ate, we played hide-and-seek, wrestled, and rocket league on the playstation.

Then, it was time for me to log into Baldur’s Gate 3 to play with my friends. It’s been weeks since we’ve been able to play together. However, the weather had other plans. I quickly had to log off before we even started because we had a tornado warning along with a severe thunderstorm terrorizing the region. We quickly ran into the basement, grabbing Mr. O’s diaper bag, some water, a flashlight, and my iPad. The power was turning off and on continuously for 5 minutes, and a tornado touched down ten minutes from our house. Read about how it tore through the region HERE: https://abc7chicago.com/post/merrillville-indiana-tornado-damage-ef-2-wind-speed-destroys-homes-illinois-tornadoes-cause-storm/19288319/

I thank the Lord for keeping us safe. It was one of the few times I was actually nervous about a storm. One thing that kept my mind off of my fears was Mr. O. Whether he was being cute hiding under his blanket, or calling tornados “tomatoes”, he was making me laugh and forget all about the threat that was lurking close to home. The other thing that was comforting was watching the Region Weather Facebook/YouTube channel. The host is great at keeping everyone informed about what’s going on outside, and he is typically very calming, but he also tells you exactly what he’s seeing. I appreciated it on this night because there was a lot going on and he didn’t beat around the bush. 

Once he gave us the “all clear”, we went upstairs. Lea went into the guest room to sleep, while Mr. O and I had a sleepover in our room. We watched the movie Lightyear on my iPad, and twenty minutes later Mr. O was passed out.

When I woke up Friday my back felt all twisted up. Sleeping with Mr. O will do that to you. We have a whole king bed, but he has to be on top of me the whole night. It felt so tight when I stood up, and hurt like crazy. I eventually stretched it out, but it didn’t feel better until later in the day. I quickly checked Facebook for updates on the storm damage and was sad to see what it had done to northwest Indiana. Thankfully, as far as I know, there were no casualties. Just lot’s and lot’s of damage to the areas around our home. Again, you can read about it all HERE: https://abc7chicago.com/post/merrillville-indiana-tornado-damage-ef-2-wind-speed-destroys-homes-illinois-tornadoes-cause-storm/19288319/

One of the high schools was also damaged significantly, but one thing that stood throughout all the wind and debris flying everywhere was a giant cross that stands right out front. It was a pretty incredible image. I can’t find it right now, but it was beautiful to see. After work I played with Mr. O upstairs while Lea tried on dresses for a wedding coming up. Once again, we wrestled, threw balls from his ball pit at each other, and ran around. Later in the evening, my friends and I were finally able to play BG3 together. At the same time, I was watching the US men’s national team, Team USA, play their first game of the World Cup. They won 4-1! Which surprised me because they aren’t usually great compared to the other nations. I was excited nonetheless. 

Early on Saturday morning, Mr. O came to sleep with me again. We cuddled and slept for a few more hours before going downstairs to hang out. When Lea came down, I grabbed a few things and then headed to the BMV to renew my license and registration. It was such a beautiful morning! I had the windows down, my music up, and the cool wind blowing in my face. The drive there and back was awesome. When I came home, Lea went to the store, so Mr. O and I pulled out my old Nintendo 64 that we found. Thankfully, it turned on. We played Mario Kart for a couple of minutes, but it was too advanced for Mr. O and I felt bad crushing him in the race, so we turned it off and put in Super Mario. He got a kick out of that game. He thought it was hilarious grabbing Bowser by the tail and throwing him around, Lol. 

When Lea came home it was time to get ready for our church’s Greek festival. We had a great time, as we do every summer, and ate delicious food. We also were able to spend time with our friends and family who joined us. Mr. O had a couple of his little friends come and hang out too, and they spend most of the time dancing and playing. By the time we came home, we were all exhausted. Mr. O and I wrestled before bed because he had a sudden burst of energy, and then he fell asleep as I read to him. Once I was able to sneak out of his room, I went downstairs to watch the rest of the NBA finals game. Congratulations to the New York Knicks on their first title in a thousand years. I hope the Bulls can do the same in my lifetime!

On Sunday morning, around 4 or 5 I think,  Mr O came in terrified of the thunder storm. We cuddled and went back to sleep for a few more hours. Then, we all went downstairs for breakfast and a movie. This time Mr O wanted to watch the Paw Patrol Movie. It was alright, but I spent most of it writing this post. When the movie was over, Lea went to nap because she woke up not feeling well, and Mr O and I played on the Nintendo again and then with his toys. Soon after, I gave him a bath and finally got him to take a nap. Currently, I just had lunch and I’m watching one of the World Cup games. It’s going to be a chill Sunday and I’m totally fine with that!

A Moment I’m Still Thinking About

The moment that has stuck with me this week is the storm from Thursday. It was scarier than normal but we made it through, thank God. I hope everyone who was affected by it gets the help they need. 

I hope you enjoyed this weeks edition of my Weekly Review.

Peter