Town Hall Day 2

I had no time to reflect on Lisa's Thanksgiving week plans that have now undermined mine. This morning I had to focus on getting the timing down on me getting a shower first thing, doing the same for Johnnie, getting him prepped and ready for school and dropping him off and getting to our Eagle Rock Health Center by 8:30 AM. We were 2nd in line at the gate we were there so early. And even though I did have to deal with traffic, especially on the 110N downtown, I managed to make it to Eagle Rock before the town hall started. As Town Halls go yesterday was pretty chill, but today's town hall turned out to be difficult only because there was not much energy from the participants. Maybe it was because we were outside(?), maybe this group in particular was more sedate, but I had to turn to exhorting enthusiasm even when I was giving away my prizes. Man was it challenging to get them engaged! But at least we did get through it and as it turned out, the challenge wasn't getting to Eagle Rock, it was getting out of there and getting back home! That's because parts of the freeway were closed. And so I had the added challenge of starting my IS Team Meeting while I was still on the freeway and actually trying to navigate my way back home in unfamiliar streets. Fortunately, it was Nelson and Noriel that knew the area so well, they could verbally navigate me. And I made it back to the familiar parts of the freeway without incident. And I even managed to finish my entire meeting before I even made it back home. Some morning already huh? I reflected on that and reminded myself that if everything was "me pushed out" what was my state that caused all the disruption? Was I still irritated at Lisa's hijack news from last night. Very likely. And so that is what I needed to work on today. I reminded myself that I need not be affected by other people's plans. I simply need to adjust. Ok so we will not be going to Florida. We will be going somewhere and we will have fun and bond together dad and son. I reminded myself that Saturday afternoon was the best bonding experience we could have had. And I did not even plan the thing. It was something that simply came up and we spontaneously did. We will simply have to do more of the same. And so with that I came home and tried to go back to Tuesday routine. I wanted to give Claire a bath really. But I got stuck watching videos LOL. Hey I needed to unwind some didn't I? 

Actually I felt like I was a day off from routine. Even Johnnie recognized it. Told me he wanted chicken noodle penne for dinner. That was usually what he would have on a Monday night. But since Lisa did pizza last night, then it was like Johnnie did a reset and wanted his Monday night chicken noodle tonight. Works for me. In fact I played along and decided to do my El Pollo Loco dinner night tonight too LOL. See? There is absolutely no need to let Lisa's shenanigans and spontaneous swings affect what we do.  Johnnie had played basketball earlier and was very excited to tell me all the stuff he learned about the rules of the game. About playing defense and passing. Perfect! This morning in line one of the parents was surprised to hear that Johnnie knew Newtons Third Law <for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction> and actually knew what that meant in the real world. That's my Smart Little Bug. Look at our picture with him and me and the dog. Just a happy little kid. Even though he scratched me so bad in my arms the scratches did bleed. And so I had to stop him and told him I needed him to understand that THAT is what happened when he gets out of control. Funny that we have to teach our kids not to go full out 1000%. But I also can't have him hurting other kids when he doesn't mean to. I did figure it out that at the expense of my own war wounds, this is how I was going to be able to teach him not to play 100% rough all the time. This is how I teach him to pump the brakes when he gets really really excited. And that A-HA alone made me feel good. No need for yelling and corporal punishment LOL. Just continuous reminders. THIS is how you promote discipline and still be loving and get him to understand he is not at all a bad kid. There is a better way is all. And you can continue to have fun. Of course his smart ass self had to ask afterwards "it's still ok to do it to you dad? Right?". What are you gonna do...