Tuesday Tales: A Little Visitor

 

Right after Christmas, Ryan and I went out for dinner with our godson and his mama. We had the best time, and he cried when we left because he wanted to come home with us. Over the last year, we haven’t had the chance to have him in our home as often as we’d like, so we came home that Christmas-gathering night and made plans to have him overnight in January.

                I wanted to share with you a bit about his visit today!

                When we picked him up, we were in the middle of our grocery shopping, so we hyped up the idea of shopping, and he was actually very excited to join us. He wanted to go to the “shoppin’ store” and help us…and help, he did! He sat in the cart, and we handed our purchases to him for his arrangement skills. Then when we arrived at checkout, he handed each one to us for scanning. We did make a stop in the Hot Wheels section of “War Mart” (which is now 100% what I will be calling it) to get a blue car for him, since he did such a great job in two shoppin’ stores!

                We stopped at Wendy’s for lunch, and he ate almost his entire meal. He generously donated one of his nuggets to Ryan. Sneaky way to get out of eating your lunch, there, little man.

                Ryan had pulled out the tub of toys, and he dove in when we got home. He found the puzzles and immediately started putting them together.

                He found my snowball decorations and had a proper snowball fight with Ryan. (Have you ever put away a grocery haul with snowballs slinging around your head the entire time? It’s interesting!) Even Lexi got in on that game.

                He wanted to play Uno with us, which he did, but the rules he used were slightly (entirely) different from the game. We basically counted out our cards, and he won every round. I wish I had thought to play more games this way myself!

                Meanwhile, Lexi played with her new toy Ryan got her at the shoppin’ store.

                After some games and playing, it was time for me to put together the salad for small group. We washed our hands thoroughly and he hopped on the kitchen stool to help me! I chopped and he assembled, and he was so proud of that salad. He wanted nothing to do with eating it, but he had a lot of fun helping to assemble. He even asked to stick around and help make the dressing!

                Then it was time to build a bridge and color a picture.

                When we arrived at small group, there was so much to see and explore. The piano held a lot of interest. He played with much gusto.

                After dinner, he dove into building a train track, and the end result was quite impressive. He also spent time in the fort Julie helped him build and enjoyed sitting in her lap while she read some books.

                He was so tired from a full, full day of play, so we came home, read a story, and went to bed.

                He slept until…are you ready for it? 4:30 a.m. I heard him moving around in his room, so I went in to check on him, and he said, “Good morning, Bekah! Is it time for church?” Oh sweet boy. Indeed it is not. He never did go back to sleep, and eventually he was so hungry that we got up to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some blueberries. He watched some cartoons while he ate, and Lexi watched him, just in case anything fell. (It did not.)

                He rested on the couch while we got ready, and then we dressed him up in his new outfit for church! He helped me do my pre-church chores, devoured a donut, and was beside himself with joy when I said it was time to go to his classroom. He’d been waiting for hours.

                Our children’s director sent me a picture of him partway through Sunday School. He was “reading” to the class from a tiny New Testament he found on the bookshelf. She said he had everyone’s attention!

                Our church had a fundraiser lunch, so we stayed for that, and then he went to play basketball with the kids.

                As you might imagine, pulling him away from that went…terribly. We are the meanest people in the whole world. He didn’t WANT to go home. He didn’t WANT to go to our house. He didn’t WANT to go to church. Because he WANTED to go home and he WANTED to go to our house and he WANTED to go to church. 

                Can you tell someone was so tired??? (4:30 a.m. will do that to you by noon!)

                He slept all the way to meet his mama and then cried all the way home because he missed us.

                It was a joy to have him and we’re making plans for the next visit!