(Not really) Bad Weather Day

Last Thursday, our school district cancelled school due to the threat of ice.  The 'hazardous conditions' never did transpire near us, so we just had a random day off school.  All in all, it was a pretty nice day.  Maybe it was because it was the first we'd seen of sunshine in over a week, or maybe it was because my frame of reference has changed (now a 'bad weather day' is a 'holiday' for me too!), but it was much more enjoyable than any 'bad weather day' we've had so far. 

We did some crafts.

We played some Minecraft.

We hit balloons with fly swatters.

We met Darren for lunch.

We played school.

And we ended the day with some yoga.

Bday Celebration

*Warning-- I am using the Holland extended analogy again in this post. I tried to write this post without it but couldn't capture the true essence of the feeling without it.

To celebrate Matthew's momentous 5th birthday, we took a trip to Dallas to stay at Great Wolf Lodge. 

We spent Thursday at the indoor waterpark.  We swam, splashed, and played. Matthew got annoyed at not being able to ride the big slides with the big kids but he made do and must have gone down the little kid slide dozens of times. It was a great day-- and felt awfully close to being in Italy. It was like being in a museum looking at beautiful art. We totally forgot about being in Holland.

 

Then, on Thursday night a little glimmer of Holland seeped into our celebration as Matthew struggled to sleep. Friday, we were tired, a bit water logged and stuck in Dallas due to the few inches of snow that shut down the city.

We decided to spend the day on a magic scavenger hunt through the hotel. You wave a wand and a treasure chest opens or a picture comes to life. Pretty neat.  I thought for sure Mattie would get into it like the big kids. 

Instead the curtains opened wide to expose the fact that, in fact, we are still in Holland. Our big 5 year old spent 6 hours following the big kids from floor to floor of the hotel-- pushing a luggage cart. That is how he wanted to spend his birthday--just happy to push the cart. Yep-- Holland. Then, now, and likely forever.

It isn't like we are denial about being in Holland.  When your son is born without thumbs, you realize very quickly that you didn't land in Italy.  No sitting on the tarmac for us.  We didn't wonder if we were in Italy, we knew very early that isn't where we landed.  Even now, when the realization of the bilateral absent thumbs and Matthew's diagnosis are both distant memories, we still KNOW we are in Holland.  Our 5 year old has the verbal capabilities of an almost 2 year old.  We get it. 

5 year checklist- Matthew hit 50% of the targets.

...but some moments, some entire days, it feels a lot like Italy.