In an effort to get my kids out of the house as much as possible this summer, I've signed them up for a few things. Once again, they are going to PDO on Wednesdays and Fridays. The class is much smaller than during the school year and they are getting to spend a bit more time together during the day. The teachers got smart, though. They separated out the three Little Brothers (there are three sets of siblings there, of which Teddy and Pete are one) into one room for naptime. I know from experience that if Teddy and Pete were in the same room at nap time, very little napping would occur.
The other thing that I've done is sign Teddy up for a couple Vacation Bible Schools. (Which I still find odd... me, the agnostic, is the one pushing to make sure my boys are learning about God.) This week, he has the one being sponsored by our church. From 5:30 to 8:30, he gets to have fun with kids his age while learning about God and Jesus. It started last night and lasts through the whole week. They even feed him quick and easy foods. He's absolutely loving it.
Pete, however, is hating it. VBS is for ages 3 to... sometime older than 3. (I haven't had to worry about the upper limit yet, so it isn't sticking in my brain.) Pete is 2 years, 8 months, 3 weeks old. Which means he's not old enough to go. Last night, he was pretty upset when Teddy and I left and he had to stay home with Daddy. (Then he was upset again when Daddy left to pick up Teddy and he had to stay home with me.) Tonight was worse, because Daddy wasn't home to watch him. So he got to go into the church and see all the fun happening. And then cruel, cruel Mommy carried him back out to the car, leaving Teddy behind to enjoy the fun.
My poor boy cried all the way out to the van, broken-hearted because he couldn't be with Big Brother and have fun. And I wish I could have let him stay, in part because it would make him feel better and in part because I'd have some Me time. But he won't be able to until next year.
To make it up to him, though, I took him to McDonald's for dinner. (Rich is going to be home pretty late tonight.) And that seemed to make things better, at least for a little while. But I highly suspect that we're going to have a repeat for the rest of the week as we go to bring Teddy for his Peter-less fun.
And I suspect it will be more of the same next month when Teddy goes to the VBS at the church they have PDO at.
I'm going to do my best to make it fun for Pete at home, though. And maybe, just maybe, he'll learn to be ok with it.
And a lot less fun than the other options.
