Henry's been unavailable, but after Shane and Hazel hit it off last week I texted the book group. "How about round 2?"
They were game! This time Shane and I drove into town. We met at the brewery.
Shane and Hazel hit the Roblox fast. Hazel had asked if they could play together, so I packed my laptop without telling Shane.....and never got it out. They were so engrossed and commentating on what was going on I didn't volunteer anything!
Mark, Scott, and I sat downstairs, talked, and played The Crew while the kids enjoyed having another kid around. They were in the staff break room and we took turns peeking in on them. Eventually, I brought in snacks for a self-care and electronics break!
Hazel was happy to lead Shane on a tour. "My dad crawls into these!"
The brewery leases space in an office park that used to be a large factory. We walked the back halls and Hazel hit some buttons in the loading dock to show Shane how the shutters worked. He got to close them and then we all jumped on a scale to see how many hundreds of pounds we weighed together.
We picked up Scott when we got back. Mark built an arcade console powered by a Raspberry Pi. It had hundreds of old arcade and SNES games.
Which led to some old fighting games. Mark and Scott are pros. I'd like to think I was a good sport about being beatdown.
The kids ended up playing a little, too.
Hazel's learned a little bit of smack talk from her dad! Shane really wanted to commentate, but he had to be pulled back sometimes from trying to point at the screen and block the players' views!
We spent about 3 hours out. It was a fantastic time. I'd been worried Shane wouldn't have any social outlet for the weekend and I ended up getting to see my friends, too.
And then Landie showed up Sunday night, too! Shane and I were working on school work when I got put on babysitting detail.
Shane was supposed to finish his assignment, but the TV was on.
It didn't matter that Landie was watching PJ Masks. The TV's siren call summoned Shane closer and closer.
Nevermind that the preschooler who the show was intended for couldn't stand still and wanted to run and jump off couches!
Shane was so mesmerized he didn't want to play "the penguin game" with Landie, so I played some.
The kids both bounced around whenever I paused the show, but I left it on after a while. I was tired!
I'd do it all again next weekend, but we've already got big plans: Shane's going to see Nana and Pop! He's talked about it incessantly since he heard, so you know he's looking forward to it, too!
