A "Yes Day" With a Black Eye

 The kids begged to have a yes day the day before school started so they could soak in their last hours of freedom. They came up with a list that I approved and we made it happen. First, they asked to stay up until 10:00 pm one night to play games, then the next night they wanted to have a sleep out in the living room and watch a movie on the air mattress with lots of treats. We watched The Adventures of Huck Finn. They asked for waffles for breakfast, they didn't have to do any chores, they got to play video games all day, and they wanted to go out for snow cones but they got to get a size large. Their demands were pretty simple and easy to accommodate. They even got to order off the secret menu at the snow cone place, so that was also exciting.

Hannah has been begging me to braid her hair with three braids so I could then braid the braids. It took me an hour to do her hair, but she loved it.

Lucas was invited to his friend's house for a water party with a few friends that afternoon. When I went to pick him up I noticed his eye was a little swollen. The mom explained that the boys were jumping on the trampoline and doing tricks when the back of his friend's head landed on Lucas' eye. We went to get snow cone after picking him up and by the time we were ready to go home, like within an hour, his eye had tripled in size and was swelling a lot with some bruising on his forehead. By the end of the night the swelling had traveled from his forehead to his eyelid preventing him from opening his eye.

School started the next day and Lucas really didn't want to go. He was really embarrassed by his eye and didn't want anyone to see it. But he had a brown bag he was supposed to put some items in as show and tell so his class could get to know one another better. I suggested he show his eye and tell the story of how he got it as part of his show and tell. That way he can just tell everyone at once and be done with it. I didn't know if he would do it or not, but I sent him to school anyway. I was nervous for him all day wondering how his first day of school went. Then he came home in the afternoon grinning from ear to ear with a dark purple shiner. He said he had a great day and his eye didn't bother him anymore. The swelling had almost disappeared and the color had started to show more. I got an email from his teacher saying Lucas shied away and tried to hide his eye all day until it was his turn for show and tell. He showed his eye and told his story and then he was fine with it. I'm proud of Lucas for being brave and doing something hard.