Hey Becky, I forgot to tell you this story. Yesterday, Alex said to Gavin, "Do you know why Mommy calls Ariel a princess? Because she IS a princess."
7:50 Wake up.
8:00 Cereal
8:15 SS & P. My new acronym for sit, spit and play.
8:45 Down for crib nap. Ariel did not fall right asleep. She lay there humming and kicking with her eyes closed.
9:20 I gave Ariel a bottle in her crib, then she fell asleep.
10:20 Jeremy got home from his bike ride and we went to the library (we being me, Alex, Adam and Ariel). I was going to leave sleeping Ariel with him, but she woke up right as we left. We drove today, both because it was hot and because we didn't have time to walk. Adam left the house yet again without a diaper.
10:30 Storytime. For some reason, it was very crowded today.
11:15 Home from library.
11:20 Ariel ate some banana, mixed berry mush.
11:30 A short video entitled, Will Ariel eat a Cheerio? (answer - no)
Now that my husband is unemployed, I thought I'd better work on my photography so I can support us. Ariel is by far the best model in our house. Alex was not impressed that I was letting her chew on his toy.
And then, Adam pooped. He was still not wearing a diaper, and he sure as heck did not poop in the potty. Sigh.
After I cleaned him up, he took matters into his own hands and got dressed again.
(Did you notice that his shirt is inside out and backwards, and his shorts are in fact not shorts, but his jammie tops? And that he's still not wearing a diaper?)
12:00 Ariel had a bottle
12:15 More sitting and playing, less spitting.
12:45 I changed a big poopy.
12:50 Crib nap.
1:30 Put Adam down for a nap.
1:50 After Adam was asleep, I stayed in the room because Ariel was humming again. I guess I fell asleep, because I woke up with a start certain that I saw a tarantula climbing down the wall. And my first reaction was, "Wow, that's a big spider." Second, "I should catch it" and third, "What is a tarantula doing in here?" It took a minute to realize it was just a vivid dream or hallucination.
2:30 I left Jeremy in charge of the baby monitor while I took Alex to the store to buy dirt. Yes, we have dirt here, but we needed special potting soil to plant our avocado seed.
2:50 Got home. Ariel was awake sitting and playing, Jeremy was on the computer. I gave him a bottle and told him to feed her while Alex and I planted the avocado. He gave me a dirty look and kept typing.
2:55 You may or may not remember that on May 15th, Alex and I started an avocado seed in water. Well, look where it was today:
Alex put the special dirt in the pot:
And then we planted it:
Alex wants to know what we will do when the avocado tree is as high as our ceiling. I told him we would cross that bridge when we came to it.
3:05 Jeremy did not in fact feed Ariel, so I did.
3:30 Ariel hung out with Uncle J, probably sitting and playing, while the boys and I read books. At one point Adam nailed me in the face with a book and I said how much it hurt. Alex got very concerned, then gave me a kiss on my nose. Awwwwww.
4:10 We all went outside to wait for Becky. I pulled weeds.
4:30 Pick up. I asked Becky what she thought of Adam's ensamble, she thought he was wearing a loin cloth. Ha ha ha.
Our first day with Jeremy home went about the way I expected. He rode his bike, tried to ignore us all, monopolized the computer, and didn't like it when the kids used him as a trampoline when he was on the couch. I bet he'll have a new job soon, he is HIGHLY motivated.
So, we'll see y'all Monday. Since Jeremy has suddenly aquired a bunch of "vacation" time, we're heading down to the ranch this weekend. See ya.
I try to follow the motto, the worse my day goes, the better the story it will make. So I hope this is a good, funny story, and not a whiney, boring story. And in honor of Stanely the Raccoon, the subtitle of this entry is:
Wendy's Wrong-side out Day
6:55 I awoke to the sound of Alex alternately calling "Mommy" and scrapping a toy against my door. Darn, I forgot that my dear, wonderful, loving husband had left for work waaaay early so that he could watch the Tour on tv. And for those of you wondering, "what tour?" that would be The Tour de France. Uh, it's a big bike race... Lots of people in Europe care about it... Ok, I don't care about it either. And for those of you wondering why Jeremy didn't watch it at home, that's because we don't have a TV... Well, we have a TV but we don't have reception on it, let alone cable. So where was I? Oh yes, I woke up 5 minutes before Ariel was due and Jeremy was not home.
7:15 Luckily Becky was late so I had a clean face and clothes on when Ariel was dropped off.
7:25 Ariel looked too tired to eat breakfast, so I put her down in the crib hoping that she could get in a nap before I had to take Alex to school.
7:40 Apparently I mis-judged Ariel. She did not want to nap, but I did change a small hard poopy.
7:50 I gave her some cereal and she ate an average amount.
8:00 I scrambled to get Alex ready to take to summer camp. Normally Jeremy would take him, but as I said earlier, Jeremy was not home.
8:25 Finally ready to leave. About 15 minutes ago, I had asked Alex, "Do you want to go to school in your clothes or jammies?" Alex had not responded, and I had not asked again. So we left with him in his jammies. And as soon as he realized that, he freaked out screaming, "They will not want to see me in my jammies. I don't want them to see me in my jammies!" Hopefully this turned out to be a good Love and Logic lesson.
Adam left the house in comando and in a pair of Alex's shorts that he had found, coordinated with his jammie top. He refused to put a diaper on.
8:30 We got to the grocery store so I could drop off Alex's disposible camera. I also let him change into his clothes in the car.
8:40 We stopped back at the house so I could grab my walking shoes that I forgot.
8:55 Three blocks from the school, I got a call. The preschool was closed because the building had no water supple. Uhhhh... bummer. So we turned around and Alex joined Crissy and I on our Super-sized Fabulous Adventure™.
9:05 I arrived at Crissy's house. She would like the record to state that she DID NOT answer the door naked, she was wearing her bra and underwear. But with her tan colored bra, it may have been difficult to tell from the street. I guess we loose all modesty in the delivery room.
9:20 Crissy and I drove to the predetermined trailhead so we could go on our Starbucks pilgramage. But that parking lot was full, so we had to drive down to one 1/4 mile farther away.
9:30 We were finally ready to walk. I carried Ariel and pushed Adam. Crissy pushed Gavin and Alex and Marcus rode his bike.
9:45 We were walking on the path with Marcus riding ahead and I suddenly heard a man yelling. I thought he was shouting at his dog, but he was yelling at Marcus, "There are no bikes allowed on this trail!" Now that was true, but we had forgotten, and plus Marcus isn't really a "bike" yet. The man went on his diatribe, "Your tires will make tracks and the trail will erode." Never mind that Marcus weighs 60lbs and Crissy was pushing an 85lbs stroller, or that the path was bone dry. I graciously apologized and got Marcus moving (I decided that the man was too old and too grumpy to argue with) before Crissy's momma-bear reaction came into full effect. And good for Marcus for not dissolving into a pool of tears, I know I would if a stranger ever spoke to me like that.
9:55 This walk turned out to be longer than we expected. Here's the day, hot and dry:
Coming up this bridge, I got a call from Jeremy. He had a meeting at work at 1:00 to determine his future at the company and given who was invited, it looked like his future was in hours, not days. I promised not to buy a car or new hot tub.
10:00 Gavin and Alex were messing with the stroller visor and Crissy told them to stop. Alex started into one of his, "But we...." and I said, "No buts Alex, Crissy said no." Alex paused, then in a very good Beavus immitation said, "Mommy, you said butt. That's bathroom talk." Crissy could barely keep pushing the stroller with a straight face.
Speaking of kids saying the darndest things, yesterday as I was getting dressed, sweet Adam said, "I have a baby bottom. Mommy, you have a big bottom." Jeremy thought that was hi-lar-i-ous.
10:25 We were almost to Starbucks when we saw a bizarre sight. A souped-up VW drove by, apparently driven by a boy who was 10, no more than 12 years old, with 3 other boys. Crissy and I didn't know what to do. I thought about calling the police, but I didn't have a non-emergency number and it didn't seem like a 911 situation. We ended up doing nothing, but it felt wrong.
10:30 FINALLY get to Starbucks. We each had a drink, and as a special treat we all got donuts. The boys all picked out one with pink and yellow sprinkles. Ariel had a bottle.
Marcus amazed us by figuring out 15% of $300 with only a little guidence. That kid is a mathmatical genius!
10:45 Adam's pants were still dry, but Crissy couldn't get him to go potty.
After the boys terrorized Starbucks (we were the parents with the kids that everyone hates but we were too tired to care)
we...
11:30 Walked to the park.
12:05 Crissy gave Ariel a bottle, then Ariel fell asleep on Crissy:
Ariel then took a nap in the stroller.
12:25 Adam finally had an accident, and I was able to change him AND get a diaper on. 'Cause I didn't have another set of clothes.
1:00 We walked back to CiCi's for the $5 pizza special.
1:30 We had pizza, Ariel had prunes and apples. We'll see if that cures her hard poopy issue.
Crissy wanted to play with my camera and Ariel. She took this:
Crissy seemed oblivious to the mayhem that the other four children were creating, I finally convinced her it was time to put down the camera and leave.
2:20 Started walking back to the car. For most of the morning, Crissy had been trying to convince me how fun it would be for the blog for us to take the bus back. Wouldn't it be comical to load 2 strollers and a bike while handling five kids? As funny as that sounded, I talked her into walking back a shorter way and saving $4.50 in bus fairs for a 2 mile ride.
2:25 I told Crissy we are only good mothers if our kids learned something new everyday. So far, it didn't seem like they had. Then Alex said, "What are those plants" and everyone learned about cattails and marshes. High-five!
2:35 Jeremy called back. His meeting was over. The whole company was laid off. He is on adminstrive leave until Aug 18th, then has a month of severence. This is the first time he's been laid off (though it's common enough in the computer programming industry) and he doesn't have anything else lined up. It wasn't completely unexpected, his job has been iffy all this year. But we were hoping for a better outcome. Poor Jeremy :(
3:00 Adam fell asleep in the stroller. Ariel was asleep in the bjorn.
3:10 Got back to the car. Adam transfered to the car without waking up.
3:20 Stopped at Crissy's house. The boys had push-pops while Ariel had a bottle while we played outside. Adam stayed asleep in the car.
3:50 Finally went home.
4:00 As we pulled into the driveway, Adam woke up and he was not happy. And when Adam wakes up like this, there is nothing I can do. He's crabby and irrational and just has to work it out. This is what the next half hour looked/sounded like (but I was holding him most of the time). Thankfully Ariel sat and played with toys while this was going on:
7:50 I hung my laundry out on the line (this will become important by 4:25). The boys played in the backyard. Our shadeless backyard is only pleasant from about dawn to 9:30am.
8:10 I called Crissy with my idea for a Fabulous Plan™ today. It's been 100 degrees here for the past 4 days and I wanted to get out of town and up where it's cooler. I proposed going up to the mountains, but Crissy was too busy to join me today. Wah!!! But once I had the idea in my head, I was doing it anyway.
9:00 Ariel woke up. She played while I finished getting things ready for our adventure.
9:15 I fed her the rest of her cereal bottle, about 3 oz.
9:45 Finally, we were ready to leave.
9:50 With all the driving I had to do today, I needed to stop by Starbucks for fortification.
10:00 And we were on our way! Up up up Boulder Canyon (we learned about canyons today, "But why does water cut through the rock?") all the way to Nederland.
10:40 Our plan had been to go to the mining museum. I couldn't find their hours online, nor did either of the phone numbers I found for them work. So we just winged it. Of course we found out once we got there that they are only open on the weekends, but they have some cool trucks to look out outside:
See how big this one is? See the kids in the right hand corner?
We looked at the trucks and some of the other outside equipment, then we decided to poke around Nederland a bit.
I didn't know this restaurant was here, but I'll be taking my internet friends here if they come and visit :)
We found a rock shop and Alex was very interested in the amethyst geodes. I let them each pick out 2 polished rocks.
We walked around a bit, finding an old train that had been converted to a coffee shop and a bike store. Then Adam said he was ready for lunch, so we walked back to the car.
Here's scenic Nederland:
11:40 They boys sat down in the mining museum parking lot for a picnic lunch:
11:50 Alex announced he had to go poopy, so we walked across the street to the gas station.
12:00 Ariel woke up from a short bjorn nap and we went back to the parking lot for her lunch, apple/strawberry/banana mush.
12:10 A man walked by and asked if I knew there was a park with a playground and picnic tables down the road. I did not. We must have been pretty pathetic sitting in a parking lot.
Wha? I don't have to be sitting here?
12:20 Go to park. It was a pretty nice park, but there was a group of older camp kids that were kinda wild.
12:50 Alex said he was done with the park, so we went back to the car. The boys played in the back while I fed Ariel a bottle.
1:10 Everyone got back in their seats, for phase B of our adventure - driving the Peak to Peak highway to Estes Park. Normally, I'm not a big fan of driving. But driving on a very scenic road with no traffic is almost pleasant. Especially when all three passengers are asleep. Here's some pictures I took from the side of the road.
Mount Meeker:
Mount Meeker again, with a cool church:
Here's Meeker on the left, and the Longs Peak diamond face in the middle. Eight years ago I, due to impetunousness (is that a real word?) and lack of sufficient information, I climbed Longs. It's a serious 14 mile mountain hike, we had to start hiking at 3:00am. Very exposed and sketchy on top, and a thunderstorm coming down. It was an awesome experience, but my legs didn't stop hurting for two weeks.
2:15 We got into Estes Park. Nobody seemed very happy to be awake, but I promised icecream in town.
Here are some nice snapdragons:
Estes Park is a tourist town right by Rocky Mountain National Park. It's probably the first time I heard my parents use the descriptive word "schloky." In other words, I you need postcards, t-shirts, a cheap plastic tomahawk, a lifesized stuffed jackalope or some homemade fudge, this is the place.
2:45 We found an icecream place. Alex picked out mint-chocolate-chip and Adam picked vanilla. I didn't getting anything because I had my PB&J sandwich and was anticipating icecream leftovers. And oh, I found a dollar bill in the store, very exciting!!!
2:50 Ariel had a bottle while the boys enjoyed their icecream. And yes, there were leftovers, but next time I'm not listing vanilla as a choice. What was I thinking?
3:00 Here's a hand chair next to the icecream store:
3:20 Almost back to the car:
And Ariel was making some interesting noises, and I thought something exciting might happen (but mostly Ariel is making interesting noises):
3:30 Drive back to Boulder. I got stuck behind two very slow trucks. Frustrating, and will also be important at 4:25.
4:20 We we about 5 minutes from the house and it started raining. Remember the clothes on the line? Well, now I have to wash them again. Wah!!!!
7:20 Cereal. Ariel liked cereal today, I made her three (small) helpings.
7:45 Ariel sat and played. And spit up. She must know today is 8 month picture day.
I took a little video of her playing and talking about Bob. We don't know who Bob is, but Ariel talks about him all the time. Oh, and at the end you can hear Alex calling me to wipe him.
8:10 Crib nap. While Ariel was asleep, the boys and I went in the backyard. We needed to get some outside time before it became unbarebly hot. And somehow I was motivated to CLEAN the backyard, which very much needed it. I threw away broken toys, cleaned out the sandbox and did a bunch of weeding. It looks MUCH better.
9:50 Ariel woke up.
9:55 2 oz bottle, what was left from the ceral.
10:30 4 oz bottle
11:15 Crissy and I have been talking about this, and today we finally did it. We swapped kids. Crissy dropped off Marcus and took Alex home with her. I hired Marcus for "daycare" for Adam (which ended up costing me $2).
11:30 Ariel went down for another nap. The boys played in Alex's room and I cleaned both bathrooms. Yipee!
12:15 I made the boys lunch, apples and mac & cheese. Marcus didn't seem to care for it.
12:30 I set the pool up for the boys. I put our little slide in and turned on the sprinkler and got a bunch of toys. They boys had lots of fun, especially Adam.
I ate lunch on the patio, and then I did something that I haven't done during the day in a long time. I read a book. And if you must know what I'm reading, I'm reading Anne of Green Gables again because my parents are visiting P. E. Island.
1:45 Ariel woke up, the boys and I came inside, and Ariel had another bottle.
2:15 Picture time! Ariel and I were on today I'm really happy with this set. Becky said that Ariel and Aunt Laura picked out this outfit. Apparently my sisters held up a bunch of outfits and this was the only one Ariel got excited about.
(I'm not sure if this is the final collage or not)
Becky - all the pictures with their numbers are on my flickr site...
And a small miracle happened, Ariel managed not to spit up during our photo session. Which is remarkable because she spit up all day long today.
2:40 I started proofing pictures while Ariel sat and played with toys.
3:00 Ariel went down for another nap.
3:50 Wake up, another bottle
4:00 Crissy came back with Alex. Marcus and Adam did really well up until the last hour. They did crafts, and Marcus made Adam a pop-up book. But then Marcus was getting bored, and I was busy proofing pictures.
4:35 Pick up.
PS - Ariel didn't have lunch today because I didn't want to be cleaning up colored spit up during pictures.
7:15 Cereal. Ariel wasn't very enthusiastic again.
7:45 Crib nap. While Ariel was napping, Alex asked Adam if he needed to go poopy. They both went in the bathroom and sat on their potties and let out a stream of preschool profanities for about 15 minutes. I kept going in and asking if Alex was ready to wipe and he would say that they were "still talking potty talk." In the end, Adam only peed, but I'm sure his vocabulary was greatly expanded.
8:15 Ariel woke up, and I changed a small poopy. I gave her a bottle, then put her in the exosaucer while I got ready for our Wednesday Fabulous Adventure™.
9:05 We finally got out the door to walk to the library. Alex walked too, Ariel and Adam rode in the stroller. On the way, we saw the fox in the meadow again. Speaking of animals, last night as I was falling asleep, I heard an animal shuffling outside. I went outside and saw a big raccoon and 3 little raccoons. Of course I tried to take a picture, but by the time I got my camera, they were gone and it was too dark anyway. I told Alex about it this morning, and now he's interested in raccoons. We read the Stanley books while Ariel slept.
10:10 Got to Starbucks. I got a java chip frap and Alex got his soymilk. I tried to set a new low an my change search. I found two pennies, but they were right under a woman's feet. So what did I do? I sent Alex to get them. For some reason it's much more socially acceptable for a 4 year old to do that than a grown woman.
10:20 Got to the library, but it was CLOSED. You would have thought that they would have mentioned the closure to us last week. There were a lot of moms sitting around trying to figure out what to do next.
10:25 Crissy and the boys got to the library and were similarly dismayed. Luckily, I had a plan B. First, I took Adam and Marcus to mail some packages. Then we got Marcus some ice water from Starbucks. And then...
10:55 Plan B. We walked up to the park. In the library parking lot, Alex spilled his milk. There's no use telling him not to cry over spilt milk, he sobbed all the way to the park.
11:15 Got to park. For the most part, Crissy, Ariel and I sat in the shade:
(Did you ever think Ariel would look this chunky?)
And the boys played nicely in the sandbox:
11:30 Ariel fell asleep in the bjorn.
11:45 After a rock throwing incident involving all 4 boys, we had to leave the park. Alex rode in the stroller.
12:20 Home, Ariel had some sweet potatoes and an ounce of water for lunch.
After the boys finished lunch (peanut butter sandwiches with NO jelly, banana and yogurt) they went outside to check on the garden. For the most part, our backyard is dry and weedy, but we do have one corner for Alex's garden. I tried to label it...
While the boys were outside, Ariel sat and played by herself. Adam had given her a snake, I thought Crissy might like this picture:
1:15 Ariel had a bottle
1:20 I put her down for a nap.
1:30 I came in and put Adam down for a nap. Adam went right to sleep, but Ariel was still awake, sucking her paci and kicking.
1:50 I finally decided that Ariel was not going to sleep, so I took her out of the crib and let her sit and play some more. Alex had some frozen yogurt (and I don't know where he got the black eye, last week he came to me and said he bumped it):
and I put together my Turkey Toe proof book (my lastest mpix order had just arrived in the mail.)
2:25 Apparently Ariel wasn't ready to sleep yet because she needed to poop.
2:30 Put Ariel down again, she went right to sleep.
3:45 I think Ariel woke up first, but Adam was up soon after.
3:55 bottle
4:15 Another group potty session. Alex may be on the one to potty train Adam, but I'll be left with a potty-going-sailor-talking toddler.
7:20 More Jeremy drama. His interview was rescheduled for today, which presented a problem. He only has one short-sleeved business casual shirt. He would not even consider long sleeves, and tried to convince me that a few of his t-shirts were suitable. I finally got him to agree to go to Target on his way to work and pick something up. Sacrifices have to be made for the family. I would have felt better about him leaving if he hadn't put on his pirate-monkey-robot t-shirt, one of the ones he tried to pass off as business casual. (Update, he didn't find anything at Target, but did find a nice $7 3 button polo shirt at Walmart. And he thinks his interview went well.)
7:55 Adam took off all his clothes (he has a George Costanza thing going on) and went potty on his own initiative. He's toying with me. I put his diaper back on.
8:10 Ariel woke up, had some cereal. She didn't like it as much today.
8:20 Got everything ready to take Alex to summer camp (normally Jeremy would take him on the way to work, but his interview was scheduled for 8:30)
8:45 Left for summer camp.
9:00 Arrive at summer camp. I dropped Alex off, then fed Ariel a bottle in the car.
9:20 We took a walk on the bike path by the school. We found a park to play at. Ariel really likes the swings:
Adam likes things to bounce on:
10:05 Left the park. Storm's a brewin':
On the way back, I checked the soccer field coke machine for change. I found a quarter under the machine, but it was just out of reach. I had to take a pen out of the trash to get it. Have I reached a new low? (Update - found $.37 today, brings me up to $1.40.) For the record, Jeremy would like to tell everyone how much he hates this new change game, and he thinks I'm a bit? no a lot crazy.
10:30 Got back to the car, we went to Safeway for Jamba Juice. I was trying to kill time, Crissy's train was supposed to get in at 7:30 this morning, and she said we could come over when she got home. We got our Jamba Juice, then walked around Safeway for a bit. I finally called Crissy and found out her train hadn't even gotten it yet, it was delayed 4 hours. At some point I looked out the window and saw it was raining. (See, I said a storm was a-brewin')
11:30 Left Safeway for the toy store.
11:40 Got to toy store. Fed Ariel in the bjorn.
11:50 Adam announced he had a poopy, and could I please change it. Back to the car.
11:55 Back to the toy store. I came to buy two birthday presents but also ended up with a pink horse lovey for Ariel. And if she doesn't want it, I'll take it. It's made of The Softest Fleece Ever™. I thought it would be perfet for Ariel, since she likes her rags to sleep with.
12:45 Left toy store to go pick up Alex from summer camp.
1:00 Pick up Alex, then headed over to Crissy's.
1:20 Crissy's house. Good to see Crissy, but her kids were wound up and Alex was still acting exhausted. Alex was having trouble keeping his hands to himself. Crissy was excited to see Ariel, but not so excited to see that I hadn't changed her diaper yet and she had soaked her pants and carseat. Whoops.
1:40 Fed Ariel her prunes and apples.
Ariel does love her lovey!
2:15 We decided the kids would do better at a park. We got to the park first, as Crissy had volunteered to pick up our $5 pizza. I fed Ariel a bottle, then she fell asleep in the bjorn.
2:30 Much pizza was eaten.
3:30 Becky picked Ariel up at the park.
3:40 We had to leave the park because Adam is not for hitting. Alex really must have been tired, 15 minutes after we got home he fell asleep until 7:00pm. That does not bode well for tonight.
Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you had a good weekend. I did something exciting, for the first time in nearly a year, I got my hair cut.
Here's before. I'm sad because my hair looks so bad:
And here's after. Now I'm happy and sassy:
7:10 Drop off. Not asleep.
7:15 Crissy called. She'll be home tomorrow. Yipee!
7:20 Jeremy left for work. Poor Jeremy. Due to his company being bought, not only does he have to re-interview for his current job today, but he also has to wear business casual. The horror! (And I didn't get a picture of his blue tennis shoes, which I assured him were NOT business casual, but that he refused to change).
7:45 We all ate breakfast. Ariel was excited because she likes food:
Until she realized she was getting cereal:
I made the cereal thinner than I did on Friday. Once she got over the inital shock, she ate quite a bit. I mixed it with formula, she had enough cereal to use 2 oz.
Adam had Grape-Nuts for breakfast. When I went to the store on Saturday (yes, I went!) I bought Grape-Nuts and Cheerios. On Sunday, Adam wanted to eat out of my cereal bowl. I was definately surprised, Grape-Nuts are pretty darn crunchy, especially for someone who is still missing 8 teeth.
8:15 I gave Ariel the rest of her bottle.
8:30 Crib nap
9:15 While I was folding Alex's laundry, Adam started putting on Alex's underwear. All of it.
Since he was showing interest in underwear, I asked if he wanted to wear them today, and then told him he would have to go potty first. Adam went pee-pee, then we got him dressed in underwear:
10:00 I got to clean up Adam's poopy out of his underwear. Then he sat on the potty again and peed and we put underwear on again. Hmmm, this could be interesting.
10:55 Miss Ariel woke up
11:00 Bottle
11:10 Adam peed in his pants again. I was going to take him to the bathroom just as soon as Ariel got done with her bottle.
11:20 Walked to the photo store.
11:35 Arrive at photo store. Find out pictures aren't done yet, but will be ready in 20 minutes.
11:40 Go to grocery store. I got Adam a cookie and I bought a box of Tricuits for lunch.
11:50 Adam peed in his pants again. *sigh* This is not going as well as I thought it would.
12:15 Get home. In the interest of Alex having some underwear by the time he gets home tonight, I took off Adam's wet clothes and didn't replace them with dry.
The Bare Bottom Bandit makes his return - in my shoes, no less.
12:30 Ariel ate bananas and orange medley.
12:35 Adam took himself to the potty. An upswing?
1:00 Ariel went down for nap.
1:15 I couldn't get Adam to sit on the potty again, so I gave up and put a diaper on. When Alex trained, it was not nearly this hard, so I'm giving up for a while. It's frustrating because Adam can and will go, just not all the time.
1:20 Adam took a nap on my bed. Isn't he sweet when he's sleeping?
1:45 Ariel woke up, bottle
2:15 I got the car loaded, then had to wake Adam to load him in the car. He went right back to sleep.
2:35 Arrive at mall. Adam wasn't too grumpy when I transfered him to the stroller.
2:45 Stopped by Starbucks and got a decaf java chip frappachino. Mmmmmm.
3:00 I had an appointment at the market research place, and this time I couldn't bring children. Grammie and Alex met us there, then the whole gang went for icecream and then played outside.
I signed a confidentiality form so I can't say much about my survey, other than it involved diapers, shopping, took 20 minutes to complete and paid $30.
3:25 I met Grammie and the kiddos outside. Ariel was looking tired so I put her in the bjorn and walked around the mall with her. Looking for change, of course.
3:45 During my walk, I noticed an older gentleman who appeared to be on the same quest as I. He was walking very fast, looking down, and detouring into corners. I let him go down a department store dead end while I cut across, to get ahead of him. But since I was carrying a baby and wearing flip-flops, he caught up again. I witnessed him checking the coke machine change pocket while I checked the telephone. I gave him a friendly smile and then said, "I see we are competing." He just gruffed at me. Ah-ha, nothing like a little competition to fire me up!
Since he was scouring the downstairs thoroughly, I went upstairs and then outside. I had better luck out there and it was nice and overcast too. At some point Ariel did fall asleep, but I'm not sure when. I wasn't really paying attention to her.
My afternoon paid well, I found $.27, including a Canadian penny and a penny so corroded that I had to use a toothbrush and jewelry cleaner to even tell it was a penny (thanks for the idea, Becky). That brings my total since last Thursday to $1.07. Can you believe it? It helped that I found a quarter and 3 dimes over the weekend. I'll have this free latte in no time!
4:30 I met Becky at the sandbox.
4:50 Becky had changed and fed Ariel, we decided to all go to the California Pizza kitchen. I told Alex we had to go to eat dinner and he started sobbing because he didn't want to leave his new friend Madeline. He cried all the way to the car and then all the way to the restaurant. I see this as a sign that he may have had too much fun with Grammie this weekend.
I'm a stay at home mom to Alex (8 1/2 years old) and Adam (6 years old) and a middle of the pack triathlete. I completed my first Ironman in Wisconsin in 2010.
