Fetch the Comfy Chair

Wednesday was an unusually chilly day for May. It was cold, rainy and showed no sign of stopping. I'm still a little shell shocked from my pneumonia, so I didn't relish the idea of walking to Alex's music class in Harrison. I was satisfied that I could bring him to a make-up class in Larchmont on some future Tuesday (after Nature Class ends, of course!). I decided to skip it.

Alex surprised me by being disappointed. Although, I think he was more disappointed that he couldn't show his new, red binoculars to Miss Jennifer and his classmate George.

After some oatmeal and play time in the morning, I still felt really chilly. I came up with an idea that I hadn't tried since Alex was 1 year old and safely stuck in his play yard. I thought that perhaps Alex can handle being out in the living room while I ran a fire in the fireplace. "Let's have Story time in front of the fire today.", I said.

Alex was well intrigued. "A fire? You're gonna put a fire on? In that fireplace?? Here??"

I took all of the necessary preschooler preparations and repeatedly warned him about staying away from the fire. I closed the wire gate in the well and we sat in front of the fireplace. I grabbed one of his new Little Einstein books and suggested that he grab his comfy chair (the denim armchair). He was delighted with the whole scene. He grabbed the book and told me that he would read it to me. When we got through the book, I put on his Music Class CD and we sang almost all of the songs on it, while Alex told me the "stories" that are in his music class book. (They're the sheet music for the songs with illustrations).
When it came time for nap time, there was some convincing that had to go on. But as I was covering the gel cans, I promised him that once he was done with his nap, we would light the fire again. That was a sure fire set up for no nap. I still took my break.

As promised though, I lit the fire again and asked him what new book he'd like to read. He pulled out his other Little Einsteins book (Hansel & Gretel) and I went to read it.

"Wait!" Alex exclaimed, "I need my comfy chair!"

He got up and went to his denim chair to pull it over to the fireplace. He also needed some help with it.

OK, so fire - check. Little Einsteins book - check. Comfy Chair - check. All is well. We spent the next hour just chatting in front of the fire. He had LOTS of questions about it.
While the fire continued (and warming up the living room), we did arts and crafts with his new craft kits that he got for his birthday. Then we also played some NickJr.com games. We also noted the growth of the sprouts from the seeds we'd planted two weeks ago. He happily suggested that we keep the plant journal in "his" kitchen instead of "my" kitchen.

Later that night over dinner while I was getting Alex to tell Daddy about our day. I asked Alex what his favorite part was - fully expecting it to have been either the spin art or the Max & Ruby game on NickJr.com.

"The FIRE!" he exclaimed!

Too bad it's going back to the 70s this week.

Thursday, May 13