Well, had a good time with the kids. It's obvious that the four kids have been a part awhile. Ds argued, but Ss got along OK. S5 found a little football helmet, and he went with me to S10's football practice and sat and watched them for a few minutes wearing that little helmet - cutest thing ever!
W called me a couple of times to coordinate, and was very grumpy. She DID come in, and stayed longer than I thought she would. The kids were all eating pizza in the kitchen, and I was in the family room, and she actually walked in and sat in a chair in the room with me; talked mostly small talk, about work and stuff. I just told her what the kids did and stuff. She dyed her hair a darker color, and it looks really good, complimented her on it.
She finally left, and told my kids that they could come over whenever - I had to run grab D10s coat, and when I came back out, W rolled down her window and asked me if I wanted to keep the kids again; said it was fine unless I "made her mad", and grinned at me.
She was very tired,and I told her I could tell, and generally asked about her sleep and stuff. She has gone from basically lying around - to being a full-time single mom, working 4 days a week, sometimes a 10-hour day, taking care of all the cleaning and cooking. I did a lot of that for her before. Also, just in the past 6 weeks, S5 has gotten very mouthy and disrespectful. W told me he has been awful. When I met W, and S5 was barely 2, he was out of control, and it took me a year to get him in line.
Anyway, I used to lie in bed with W and massage her hands - one of her favorite things in the world. When we were talking at the car about her being tired, I said, "You know what you need?" and took her hand and massaged it for about 10 seconds. W didn't pull away, just said, "Ah, yes". Then I dropped her hand and said, "See you next Wednesday" and left.
