Despite initially thinking it would be a quiet weekend with Zachary, it’s turned out to be anything but!
The action started at 5am Saturday with me settling into the first real freelance work I’ve done in months. I was able to get a good few hours done before Zachary surfaced. Then, during breakfast the phone went and we were invited swimming with Vinny and Keanu – a boy just a week younger than Zachary.
After messing around in the pool for an hour or so we wandered into the Glades to wait for Tristen, Vinny’s wife, and their new baby before grabbing lunch.
While waiting, Zachary and Keanu were running around and eventually Z sat down near the customer service desk; I watched from about 10 metres away. The CS rep look down and spoke briefly to him and she then looked at me:
her: Is he your son?
me: No, I just like staring at kids in shopping centres.
I wish I could have recorded the reaction, it was fantastic. I’m not sure she saw the funny side, even though Vinny and I were laughing hard.
We spent the rest of the day shopping and pottering around. When bedtime came I was relieved, and didn’t even manage 15 of the 30 minutes I allocate for reading before crashing out!
Today was a similar start, up at 6am (5am in body-clock terms) to work for a few hours and when Zachary woke we ate and headed towards the Buzz Zone for some very energetic exercise!
After a hearty lunch, we went to my sister’s for another couple of hours. While we caught up – I haven’t seen her in a month or so, despite living just round the corner! – Zachary played with her youngest daughter, Emily.
The evening has been filled with dinner, A Bug’s Life, Where’s Wally and eventually (for him) bed.
Tomorrow I take Zachary to school – a rare treat! He was delighted when I told him; the memories of past are fading quickly, to be replaced with ones like this.
Now, I’m exhausted, but happy. It’s been challenging at times – Zachary likes to push his boundaries – but rewarding. I’m having fantastic progress in a number of areas with him and his intellect is astounding; watching him develop his skills makes me an incredibly proud Daddy.