Ankle Injury and Ankle Biters

My right ankle has been bothering me since before the Turkey Trot. It's officially swollen and hurts. I am guessing I have a minor strain or sprain or something. I am bummed. I knew I would take a few days off of running but I didn't plan on taking more than a week. I felt good Wednesday, ran 2 miles, and by evening I had a "cankle." Argh! Chasing kids and shopping aggravated it some more also. Any tips other than raising it and icing it?

On the ankle biter note, we were invited to a neighbor kid's birthday party today. We decided why not, let's go. We bought a gift and Miller made a nice card (he wrote Happy Birthday Mario and signed his name and Mason's plus a plethora of stickers were applied). We headed the few houses down the street and stepped into another world.

One, the kids were super into Beyblades. Miller had no idea at first how to operate them and struggled to get in with the experts. These were clearly kids who have been playing them for a while and also knew each other well. For a social kid, he was the one kid playing by himself most of the time. No one wanted to play superheroes or transformers. He was frustrated because he wasn't good at Beyblades. Mason had more luck than Miller!

With over 25 kids there, of course we met a few that were down right mean and the parents were oblivious. I get so frustrated because I want my kid to be nice and fair but near the end I was rooting for my kid to push the other kid down or be nasty to him. Luckily, both Miller and I knew better.

Two, the crew didn't drink. I have been to plenty kid parties in the middle of the day where there was no liquor but this one surprised me. I was dying for a beer and no one was drinking. It made me wonder how they make it through the chaos because believe me, there was chaos with a million little ankle biters running around.

Three, I think I know why the group didn't drink. They had nothing to worry about. The house was a kids house. Every room in the house had minimal furniture, no knick knacks, all kid friendly. It was cool for the kids but for me, I will be darned if I worked this hard to turn my house into a 2500 square foot playroom.

Even with being out of our element, the people we met were fun and nice. I think some of the kids will be in Miller's school next year (kindergarten) based on most living near by. It's nice to know we are making friends in the neighborhood with kids too. Hopefully the kids will have some playdates together in the future.