A Long Johnnie Saturday

So I listened to Lisa complaining about how she wanted to spend more time with Johnnie and be a mom, one of many rants she had last night. I hope she wasn't thinking that I'd give up a day, which by itself is moot since Johnnie is in school on weekdays. She complained that she only has an hour with him last night, likely an hour with him tonight. That is what happens when you work all the time was what I was thinking and really I'm no different. When I have him I really only see him after school and evenings and what I hope Lisa realizes is what I focus on when I have him. Maximize whatever time you have with him. Today would be an exception for me since I have him pretty much the entire day. Something I get to do only once every couple of weeks.  I was at Lisa's early actually since she had an early start for today and when I got there Johnnie was still asleep. I got in his bed and closed my eyes for a bit, no rush to wake him up obviously since it IS Saturday. He can sleep in as long as he wanted. He woke up just in time to say goodbye to his mom. And then I got a glimpse of what mommy and son do on a weekend morning. He read a cartoon with me, did some stickers and then I got him dressed and ready to go to my apartment for the day. I told him we had a lot to do today since I did see his homework sheet for next week about putting an information sheet together on an animal of his choosing. He would choose a pangolin, which i didn't even know what it was. It reminds you of an armadillo actually and so I told Johnnie we had to look for pictures and make his sheet readable for his homework. Anyway my goal was simply to do at least one activity with him that he could focus on.  Before that we had to get my car washed, dirty because of all the time I spent in the last couple of weeks parking outdoors. And then of course there was breakfast at McDonald's. We didn't go to Elysee because I am trying to stick to my new eating patterns. And we did stop at Whole Foods to pick me up a celery/apple/carrot juice. That would be my breakfast. Johnnie did his usual pancakes and sausage. I actually wanted to make a trip to Target this morning, but I somehow got to Westwood, where upon getting there Johnnie reminded me that we wanted to go to the one in Culver City instead. That was when I somehow made it to Sprouts on Westwood Blvd. I remembered that they sold nuts and other assorted plant stuff in bulk. And I decided to load up on my vegetables and other stuff I could eat in this new "vegetarian" mode that I'm in. I bought some daal and lentils and soup at least enough for the rest of this weekend. And so what did I end up eating for lunch? I had some of the Indian spicy lentil dish that I got but i supplemented it also. I supplemented it with a fish filet. Ok, it was just the fish and lettuce part of the fish sandwich I got at Jack-in-the-Box. We were there because I was getting Johnnie chicken strips for lunch of course. And I'm trying to widen my horizon of choices for where to get some thing healthy to eat. Yes I know that that fried fish isn't exactly at the top of the list when it comes to choosing healthy food to eat.  But it's likely the only one I can eat at Jack-in-the-box. So usually I knock off for a nap even while Johnnie is with me on a Saturday. But today I was evergized. I got Johnnie to work on his pangolin homework. I found at least 6 pictures and later on we would print them at Staples. Got us out of the house anyway. And then I made him re-write the sheet he created for his class. I made him do this because I could barely read what he wrote. The words were there, but with the combination of mis-spellings for some of the big words, and the fact that he was missing spaces between words, I had to have him clean it up. Sadly I did not exhibit the patience that a good teacher would. Rather I was pretty bossy and found myself yelling at him. What was I expecting? Writing is the skill he needs to work on Lisa and I know that. But it's not like he's behind with that either. He simply needs to get reminded of the writing rules like punctuation and when to capitalize, and definitely the space between words. Anyway when we got done with that exercise, Johnnie got antsy. Yeah I'm a real bossy dad for making him work on his Saturday. I'm trying to get him to learn work ethic. He proceeded to mix in his own play. Look at him inventing air bowling with a soccer ball and pylons inside the house. Of course, he kept on trying to dribble the ball, which got on my nerves after a while. And out came my grumpy, bossy, yelling self again. I yelled at Johnnie to stop driblling the ball and making noise. Seeing his face with that disappointed look because I yelled at him just jarred me into realizing how unnecessary that was. Besides, do i really want him associating me with some of Lisa's own antics? <yelling> He's just letting off steam and before long he and i were wrestling on the couch like we always used to do.  Perhaps I need to do a better job of lining up activities for him too. Can't just have him watch Dragon Rescue Riders all day long could I? By the time Lisa called to let us know she was done at her office it was nearly 7 PM. I made Johnnie a pizza for dinner. The Boboli special. And I made myself mahi mahi and stir fried some veggies to go with it. A nice healthy dinner for me. And then it was already time to drop off Johnnie and Claire. He had been with me all day, all of 12 hours. Generally a pretty good day except for my bouts of impatience and grumpiness with Johnnie. I have to work on that still don't I?