Coming and going

As I sit here, I am skipping walking in the President's Day Parade with my women's organization. The parking, the waiting...it all sounded more like work than fun, despite it being a beautiful day.

Here are some human bagpipers to help celebrate anyway.



I hope J isn't too disappointed when he gets home in a bit, but we do plenty of parades. Not going also allowed him a bit more time with his dad, who was home for the weekend. Ex has orders for last week and next to stay at a post a few hours from here. It is exceedingly lame in that the retraining he is receiving uses the same slides he first saw 20 years ago. Our military is truly sad. He is due to ship out to some version of the great beyond in a week or so.

I don't know if they are considering this weekend to have been their last together for a while, but I am hoping so. After J saw his dad last weekend, I had a devil child Monday and Tuesday. Ex was appalled with what he heard by phone; J's doesn't act up for him that way. Aren't I blessed with such attachment by my son to me? (Yes, I am blessed and I am sarcastic.) I am gearing up for the same nonsense for this week. My therapist says sometimes it is harder on the child and the attached parent when the other comes back than when they leave. It was amazingly easy when ex left. We had no behavioral issues for two weeks. All I can say is I hope this coming back was less hard on him this go around.

A week ago when ex came home, J grabbed him, hauled him off to his room, locked the door, and staged a forced viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean, J's gift for good grades from ex's new wife that week. Ex was complimented. J declared a time he would not share. He's really good at wrangling to get what he needs, a mature personality trait I appreciate.

He's really a good kid. I just hope I can stifle my laughter in the coming days when he is acting the three year old and wailing under my bed. It is so painful seeing him act so stupid, yet knowing how much he hurts.