Feb. 24

Last Saturday, I joined my friend Christa and a bunch of her friends for a ladies night out. We caught a matinee of Rent at The Lab Theater in Minneapolis and enjoyed dinner and drinks at The News Room afterward. It was refreshing to take off the mom hat for a night, and I can't remember the last time I'd been out to see a play.

It kind of made me wonder what all I might be doing if I lived near the Cities. There are so many theaters, museums, lakes to jog around (real lakes, not just man-made ones -- ahem, Rochester), and such diversity for people watching. Maybe I'd learn to speak French, take up cardio-kickboxing, try my hand at ceramics, and see whether I am coordinated enough to dance. Maybe jazz, swing, contemporary or salsa? Mmm, maybe not salsa. I don't think I'm quite sassy enough. Then again ...

Oh well. Realistically, I'd probably only take the time to explore those interests if I didn't have a little one at home, and if I wasn't married. And then I'd most likely be wishing I was married and had kids. Even single and focused on myself, I might enjoy it wholeheartedly for a month and then be fed up with the traffic and dream about the wide horizon of the country again. I guess we can't have it all. (Still, I wish someone would offer cardio kickboxing in Lake City.)

While I was enjoying my excursion, Jonathan hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Klein, because Chris and his brothers, Tom and Jerry, were putting new cabinets in their kitchen. Jonathan usually gets excited about going to Grandpa's farm, so I imagine he did pretty well there. He even told me he saw some cows. What a highlight! I didn't get back until after he was asleep, though, and while he didn't give Chris a hard time about going to bed, he did wake up about a half hour after I got home and was out of sorts for nearly three hours. Yikes! None of us got much sleep that night.

With Carol being gone on vacation now, Jonathan gets to spend all week with Jean, which I suspect he's thrilled about. He asks to go to "aunt Jean's house" so often, I'm starting to think he'd rather live there. Yesterday she sent some toy tents back with him to use here today. He wanted to play with them right away when we got home, and immediately after supper, and then didn't want to go to bed because he was having too much fun.

We've often told Jonathan to use his words (e.g., "stop") rather than scream or hit when someone is bothering him. When we told him it was time for bed last night, he looked at us and firmly said, "Stop!" and then remembered his manners and continued, "Please. Stop. Please. Stop. All done bed! Play tents. Please. Stop." He didn't use a begging "please," though. He had the same tone as I do when I tell him not to bang his cup on the table -- with an expectation that of course the request will be honored.

But he signed "please" and "stop" as he said them, which he does sometimes when he feels like he's not being understood.  I had to turn away to face Chris so Jonathan wouldn't see me swallowing my laughter.

Once I got my composure, I tried to coax him out of the tent again. "Jonathan, it's time for bed." But he persisted to sign and say, "Please. Stop. Please. Stop." He had such an authoritative expression on his face, too. He suddenly reminded me a lot of my dad! We did get him out and off to bed, but not without a hearty protest on his part.