this is what good days are like at our house

We've been having a fun summer so far. I've been a lot more relaxed than usual, Nick is getting along with Rich and I better than he had been the last few months, and in general it's obvious that our stress levels have been way down lately. The downside of all this is that at the end of every day, I feel like I haven't gotten a thing done. I clearly have no idea how to have fun AND do the chores.

We had absolutely nothing planned for Saturday. Rich was delighted. A quiet day at home! Just what he'd been wanting! Naturally, by early afternoon he was bored out of his skull. I managed to talk him out of his initial idea (family togetherness through shopping - not my idea of a good time) and we went to a movie instead. I was a little nervous about seeing Up! in 3D, because of a strong suspicion that one or both of my children would freak out. Because, well, these are my children. But I was happily and completely wrong. We even managed to forget Nick's earmuffs and he was still fine. He loved it, in fact. Zoe was transfixed by the movie for maybe twenty minutes, then she spent the rest of the time hopping on and off my lap, wandering in little circles, or climbing on and off the empty seat next to us. In other words, she was fine. Except for that one time she managed to fall over the edge of our row and crash down a foot and a half onto the concrete floor of the next row down. But, hey, a little wailing, some tears, but no serious damage; no one paid attention during a matinee of a kiddie movie and she totally shook it off. Yeah, we're awesome parents.

Oh yeah, the movie. I liked it a lot. The 3D effects were subtle and realistic, the characters didn't need those special glasses to be well-rounded, and as always with Pixar movies, there was an intelligent, exciting plot with plenty for me to think about. The physics were fantastic, by which I mean they had internal but not real world logic. But seriously: if you can't tell that from the ads, you are too stupid to notice the science doesn't make sense. So, basically, I think you should go see this movie. It's a true all-ages film.

Today I took the kids to Baton Rouge. We ate donuts, ice cream, and McDonald's hamburgers.  We surprised Rich with a stop by his office. And we went to Barnes&Noble so I could buy birthday presents. (Oh no! I totally gave away what I bought my siblings. Now they won't be surprised that I'm giving them books.  Because they never would have guessed otherwise. Whatever shall I do?) Anyway, Zoe fell asleep in the stroller so we stayed awhile; Nick looked at kids' books and played with the train set, and I sat nearby reading a novel I'd picked up for myself. It was fun. 

The real reason we went to the city, though, was to start the process of having Nick evaluated for learning disabilities. We decided to go to a private psychologist for the evaluation, for various reasons mainly coming down to it's easier than dealing with the school district right now. It was just talking this time; he had a lot of questions for both Nick and I. And at the end, he said there were a lot of red flags for dyslexia. We'll be coming back for formal testing and a formal report, but what he said agreed with what I feel; I have no doubt of what the diagnosis will be at this point. 

I think, right now, I'm just glad to have an explanation. Knowing what the problem is will let us give Nick the help he needs. I don't know what, exactly, we'll do, but we're not flailing in the dark anymore.