A Really Good Day

Xander has been very challenging lately - lots of attitude, bad behavior at school - which made yesterday all the more sweet. It was like the perfect day. In the morning Xander helped me make pancakes. He mixed the batter, spooned it into the pan, put in the chocolate chips, and even flipped them over! But his helperness didn't stop there. While I washed dishes, he volunteered to clean the bathroom sink (between Xander and Joe, it's usually a wreck). And he did a bang-up job using just a few Lysol wipes to get everything clean and shiny. More chores followed, as I helped him sort and match his socks.

After the chores, we headed outside. It was snowing, but it wasn't very cold. And the snow was perfect packing snow. Xander showed me how to make a snowman, probably the first one I've done since I was a kid myself, and then we had a big snowball fight. Xander's favorite part was getting buried in the snow, and then busting out like the Hulk!

Nothing goes better after some snow play than hot cocoa, so that was next on our list. One of my co-workers had given me a gift set for Christmas, with two mugs, to packs of cocoa, and s'mores fixings. While we waited for the water to boil, Xander constructed uncooked s'mores for us to share with Daddy. He handed out the hot cocoa and we all had a snack and watched some Scooby Doo.

After dinner, Xander got the stool out and helped me make banana smoothies. He'd been begging for them all day. We read an Iron Man story at bed time and he slept through the night - no bad dreams! It was nice having my formerly-nice son back, even if it was only for one day. (He told me this morning that Bad Xander is back from vacation.) What am I going to do with this kid??