NO! No bedtime!

Today is the first day this week that Rhys and I have not had something to do after school. This is his first week of four days of pre-school. His first week riding the bus every day. His first week of Occupational Therapy (OT). Monday was swimming. He is holding up well, but it takes a toll on the little dude, as you will soon see.

Yesterday was OT. He did very well considering he had been going for about nine hours without a break by that point. It lasts for 50 minutes and is every Tuesday. Day care, pre-school, then OT. Long days.

Today I picked him up at school and he was in a great mood. We went to "Daddy and Rhys's store" and he had his M&M's. I bought him a Cars comic book. Tim, the owner, thinks Rhys is quite the charming little fellow. He was less impressed when Rhys got behind the counter and knocked over the glass shelves in the display cabinet. Tim was very good about it, and seemed to be more concerned that Rhys was hurt than anything else, but it did not please Daddy at all.

Once we got home it was time to make dinner. We had red beans and rice. We have been planning this for at least a week. My aunt and uncle live in New Orleans so we thought we would ask them for a recipe. No dice on getting their email in time so we made it up.

Rhys and I cut up an onion, three cloves of garlic and six cajun sausages and fried them in olive oil. At the same time we made two cups of chicken broth in a pot and added a tsp of cajun seasoning (two or three would be better). To this we added two cans of beans (three would be better), slime and all. Once the frying was done we dumped that into the pot as well and let the whole thing simmer for an hour. We added rice until the mixture looked right and let it cook for another fifteen minutes. Quite yummy.

Rhys did not make it to dinner though. We snacked a bit while we cooked, then we sat down and watched some Rhys shows. Daddy fell asleep until Mama and Owyn got home (ten minutes), then Rhys promptly went down. We laid him out on the couch while we got dinner going.

After twenty minutes he woke up screaming. There was no consoling him, so off to bed. "No, No bed!". He hates to go to bed before his brother. I took him up and he cried and cried. He cried as I got him dressed. He cried as we fed fish. We laid down and he fell asleep. Every couple of minutes he woke up, looked for me, and went back to sleep. When I finally left, he cried.

After ten minutes of him crying I went back up. He was ready for stories. I read him his two stories and we laid down together. I got up to leave and he said, "No, Daddy stay". "I'll stay for a little while". We do this every night. After "a little while" I got up and left and he was happy. Now, thirty minutes later, he is crying again.

This has the makings of a long night.