trickykitty | Saturday Comics

I started going over to my parents' house to have movie night with the boys on Sundays after my self-defense class. That got me there at around 6pm. It gave just enough time for one, possibly two, movies depending on when we started to watch, whether or not we went out to eat for dinner, etc.

When we started watching Doctor Who, the boys wanted to watch more episodes than there was time for. I also couldn't keep staying up so late on Sunday nights and be so tired at work the next morning. I moved the schedule so that I started coming over on Saturdays, and I started showing up a bit earlier, by around 3-4pm. There were some weekends when we would watch a marathon of episodes, staying up until as late as 1am.

The past few weekends I've been going out and doing errands in the morning and then showing up a bit earlier, closer to noon. Last weekend I got there at about 10am with the intentions of dragging the boys on the errands with me, which culminated in the roller skating excursion.

This morning, Little Bit called me at 9am asking when I would be coming over. Considering I stayed up until 2am last night watching shows and tatting, I wasn't expecting to wake up until closer to 10-11, so his call woke me up. I thought it was a work call. Either way, I'm still pretty tired.

My guess is they are anxious about going roller skating again. He didn't mention it in the voice mail message, but I already had them asking Sunday, the next day, when I briefly stopped by the house to pick something up last weekend, and Mom says they've continuously talked about it during the week. They've probably hatched some sort of plan that involves showering me with hugs and love when I first walk in the door today to coax me into giving in and taking them skating again today. Considering how much they loved it, I was already thinking this will become a semi-regular thing. This way it can be a per-weekend decision versus some sort of every weekend and 1-2 times per week obligation like a team sport would be.

I've decided I'll start taking them skating on the weekends when they have Littlest One so that he can go as well. On the other weekends, we'll see how I feel. When I was their age, Mom took my sister and I to our Saturday morning bowling league. Saturdays were always go bowling, grab lunch either at the bowling alley or the next door Taco Bell, maybe pick up some tasty flavored pop corn across the street, come home and do chores, and then the afternoons were open for whatever.

I'm getting them used to getting out of the house, going to the library, maybe skating, and of course movie night. They're not enthusiastic about the library in general, but so far both boys have had no problem picking out a book each to read. With me getting back into cross-stitching, crocheting, tatting, and potentially trying to learn knitting, I've almost become my mom, as cross-stitch and needlepoint work is what she would do while us girls did our bowling and I did my piano lessons, at least until I could start driving myself to the lessons.

They're turning into well-rounded boys, and I'm proud of that. They still have a little trouble staying on top of getting good grades in school, because they spend a bit too much focus on games when they get home each day, but overall this is a nice, casual direction. I'm grateful that so far none of them have latched on to team sports, because while I have no issue with team sports overall, it's just not my thing, it's more expensive than the fun stuff we are doing, and I'd rather them latch onto things we can share and do together. Even Little Bit is interested in the piano, so I think lessons for him might be in his future.

Eldest is interested in getting The Secret World and playing with me, but that will require a higher-level gaming computer than they currently have, and if Eldest plays, Little Bit will want to join, which means two gaming systems, and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that kind of expense yet. Between their XBox360 and PS3, Mom and Dad buy them most of the newer FPS games as they come out, so it's not like they are lacking by any means in the gaming world. Hell, they've already played through COD: Black Ops, Far Cry 4, and Destiny (and it makes then more interested when they can use XBox Live to play with their friends). They're talking about trading up to the PS4, so I have a feeling Dad will probably get them that come Christmas time. I still remember when I was really young and woke up to Santa leaving behind an Atari in the living room. Those were the days.

My parents have always raised us kids by one unstated rule - let us pursue or hobbies without question, so long as our grades didn't tank for it. That still holds true when it comes to how they are raising the boys.

I find it sad that when I'm out with them they talk about how their mom is going to skip out on showing up or be late or only stay for a short while or be too busy to really do anything with them, versus them looking forward to me coming over. I just called the house to let Little Bit know I got his message and it'll be a couple more hours before I show up, and Mom said he kept asking her if he could call me again, and again, and again - and yeah, he asked about skating this time. It looks like today's outing will include a trip to a sporting goods store to get some good, thick socks for everyone.