May 22, 2007

Happy Birthday Mom!

7:08 Drop off.

7:30 Breakfast - oatmeal and a waffle or two.

8:15 Changed a poopy.

8:30 Down for a nap.

9:00 Ellen dropped Ted off while she went to a baby shower.

10:00 I had to wake Ariel so we could ride our bikes to the library.

10:20 A bit late for story time, but it was still ok. Ariel flirted with a couple of the preschool boys, which they seemed to like.

11:00 After the library we stopped by the park on the way home. Everyone played for a bit (Ariel did the swing and the slides) and then the boys rode their bikes on the tennis court and I tried to keep Ariel from getting run over.

12:00 Got home, had lunch. Ariel had mac & cheese, the boys had hot dogs and apples. Except Ted, he decided he didn't like hot dogs or buns. And, at lunch, I introduced pepper words, Ellen's idea. At Ted's house, a few words like stupid, hate and poop are pepper words. If an offender says them, s/he gets a bit of pepper on the tongue. Alex said something about "hate" so I announced we would start pepper words too. And immediately after my speech, Adam announced, "I hate Ariel." So we tried the pepper and it was very sad for Adam. But I think it helped, by the end of lunch he declared, "I don't like Ariel." Sigh.

1:00 Ellen came back to get Ted. She had the fabulous idea of driving to South Denver to pick up a tag-a-long bike off of Craig's List. And this woman just happened to be selling two of them so it seemed like a good idea for us all to go.

1:30 I drove to South Denver in the rain. Adam fell asleep early on and even Alex and Ted had nodded off by the end. Ariel did not and kvetched a while because I couldn't find her pacifier when we left. After many tries, Ellen finally found a pacifier substitution, a tylenol bottle. I made a bet that it would only last 3 minutes, but it ended up lasting much of the trip.

2:30 Get to South Denver to pick up tag-a-longs and Ellen realized that she left her purse and money in Boulder. And the tag-a-long woman was adamant that she couldn't take a check (though I assured her I was very responsible unlike Ms. Ellen). The woman suggested that we go to an ATM but I don't have an ATM card and even if I did I don't know my PIN anymore. So then we drove out a mile again and went to Safeway. We bought some cookies for a snack and I overwrote a check for $50. And then there was some problem that the cashier needed an override and that took another 10 minutes. So then we drove back to the house and bought the two tag-a-longs and managed to stuff them both in the minivan.

(And Ellen, I zillowed her house, it was $493k but the most expensive in her Covenant "Protected" neighborhood.)

3:30 Started back to Boulder in the pouring rain. We hit a lot of traffic on I-25 and it took a while.

4:15 Stopped off at Ellen's house to pick up Mae so Paul could continue to work from home. Sadly, there wasn't enough time for Ted to go to Tae kwon do, which started at 4:15.

4:35 I got home after Becky.

So, here's our tag-a-log. The long handle in front attaches to an adult bike.