A Sit on My Butt Day

Yesterday morning my daughter and my parents went on a train ride to a nearby city.   My parents had the idea to do this with my daughter because it was something involving motion and sound while not being as much of a sight thing.   They picked her up at nine o’clock and my son and I were at home together alone until later in the day when my daughter would return and my husband would get in from his week of skiing.

Earlier in the week my son had asked me if maybe on Saturday or Sunday we could see if his sister would want to go to Biscuitville.   My son and I love breakfast there, but it’s more of a drive than we’d do on a school morning and we reserve it for weekends every now and again.   I was expecting my son to be excited about the idea but when I initially brought it up he wasn’t so sure.   He didn’t want to get dressed and he also said it was farther away and maybe we could just do McDonalds instead?  

I told him that either was fine, it was something he and I would get to do together and he could let me know what he’d decided when his sister had left.   About an hour later my parents and daughter departed and as I was shutting the door from waving goodbye, I turned to my son and asked him what he’d decided and where did he want to go for breakfast?

He sat down on the stairs and said with a tone of despair in his voice, “I don’t want to go anywhere.  I just want to have a sit on my butt day.”

I laughed and told him that was fine with me, we could just stay at home and relax and eat breakfast in.   Where did he hear that phrase?  From me.   I made it up some time ago and I think I say it in about the same tone of voice to my husband when I’ve been going non-stop for too long.   I’ll say, I would just like to have a sit on my butt day and do nothing.”   As parents of young children, especially when one needs lots of help, weekends aren’t really days off and weekdays can be just as busy.   I never realized my son had paid attention to the phrase when I said it—or that I’d even said it in front of him.   It’s my version of “couch potato”.   I don’t watch television much but I’m excellent at sitting around and doing nothing important if I get the chance to have a day off.

The Big Boy Update:  My son told me tonight he wanted new books.  I could tell he wasn’t tired even though it was past bedtime.   I told him to hold on and I’d go get him a book.   I came back with a large paperback book and met him up in his bunk.   When I told him this had been my book when I was younger I got one of those, “ugh, this is going to be boring” sighs from him.   I told him this was a comic book and I knew he liked cartoons.   It was about a boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger named Hobbes who came alive with his imagination.   I read the first few pages to him, explaining what a transmogrifier was (a cardboard box) and how it changed Calvin and Hobbes into anything their imagination came up with.   He was hooked in three pages.   I haven’t heard a sound from him since I left the room.   I loved the Calvin & Hobbes books when I was younger.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and husband went to a Y-Guides event today to see a women’s basketball game.   My husband wasn’t sure she would like it at all since it’s largely a seeing thing.   He was surprised to find her loving it.   There was the popcorn and the cheering and then the chants they were doing to cheer on the team.   She wants to go back and see more games.