With New Year’s Day on Tuesday, we all experienced a bumpy transition back to work and school on Wednesday. Some of us contained our basket-casiness better than others, but I think that by Friday we all felt that the week had stretched for two, or maybe even three, regular weeks. I know for myself that even though I only worked three days, each day felt exceptionally long and slow.

Fortunately, today made up for so much! Benji started the day off right by finally losing his first top tooth, which has dangled by a mere thread for days.

Then while I went for a ride, Benji and Mom did a playdate with a friend from Mom’s church while Ian had some introvert time. I had a nice ride and my leg didn’t bother me as much as it has on recent rides — more thoughts on that later. It’s really a whole post. But the point is that, despite my getting a flat, the weather held out and I got in some good miles for January.

I arrived home just in time to scarf food and quickly whisk off Ian and Benji to the pool at McMenamin’s, where our church organized a play time. It turns out I don’t even own a swimsuit at the moment, so I couldn’t go in the pool, but Ian and Benji had a super fun time.

By sheer coincidence, a friend of Benji’s from school, Henry, was there with his mother and sister. I chatted with the mom while Benji, Henry, the sister, and a crowd of kids from church played in the water. Benji and Henry were really thrilled to see each other there, and the pool was shallow enough that the kids could safely play without close supervision.

After swimming, we dropped Ian off at his D&D game and came home and drew imaginary Pokemon characters. I know they’re all pretend… but I guess these are even more pretend, because we completely made them up ourselves? Anyway, I drew outlines and Benji colored them in. He found it encouraging to see that I made mistakes while drawing, too.

We created Blinkeon, Flareon, and Blazeon, which all have blinking or glowing antennae and tummies. I got to draw each one three times, one for each evolution, so if we do this again I’ve learned to make them very simple. Slugeon, Wormeon, and Snaileon, here we come!

So it all worked out well in the end. I’m hoping the weekend will help us reset back into a more normal feeling week next week… preferably with each day feeling shorter than 72 hours.