Day Week 2011

Once again, it is Day Week…the week before school starts when each kid gets their own day. For those unfamiliar with the tradition of Day Week, it started when Orville had to go off to school, so he got a day just with Mommy. (Back then, Mommy was the center of the universe. Now, it’s Daddy who Orville wants to spend his time with. It is so delightful to see the kids progress.)

Well, then the Cherubim went to school and had his own day, then Juss, and finally Ping-Ping joined us. Now each child gets their own day.

Last year, we could not go to Six Flags for Ping-Ping’s day because it was closed. So this year, she had her day two weeks early. The Cherubim went with her, but I decided to do his and my traditional outing this week after all–because it is my favorite part of Day Week.

The Cherubim and I go down to the Manassas Railway Station. We have lunch at Foster’s, walk around town to find a dessert, sometimes investigate what is going on in the Downtown Manassas Pavilion, visit the tiniest train museum on Earth, and then walk on the track. Walking on the track in the sun, arms outstretched, with the smell of the hot wood and tar is my very favorite part of Day Week. It always seems so magical and far away from everything normal…like something out of another era (like, perhaps, my childhood, when we’d walk on the tracks near my grandmother’s house.)

Later, I took The Cherubim shopping. He refused to allow me to push the cart to the end of the checkout counter with the watermellon in it, even though the cheerful clerk suggested that we didn’t need to put the watermellon on the counter, because he knew the system. Everything goes on the counter before it gets into the cart! Eventually, the clerk kindly took the watermellon from me and handed it around the cash register to the far side, so that the Cherubim would be satisfied.

Then, when we got home, I went in with a few bags. A few minutes later, he came in, loaded down and carrying the watermellow. Apparently, he has adopted John and Uncle Bill’s axiom that all bags need to be carried in in one trip.

It was a delightful Cherubimmy day.

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