Christmas time is here...

Our elf Punky

Evie’s at an age where every day – no every moment – is unpredictable.  I suppose the reality of having children is that you need to expect the unexpected, no matter what their age.  At 2.5 years old, Evie is the most sweet, crabby, happy, grumpy, nice, mean, compliant, obstinate, generous, greedy, loving child ever.  The enthusiam and amazement that she has for things is unmatched and showing her the world can really be a lot of fun.  Except when it’s not.  We’ve had a few incidents when we’re out that have left me slightly scarred and petrified to ever take her out in public again.  I’ve talked to so many people who have made me feel better about it all. They’ve told me that it’s normal for her age and they’ve been through it with their kids too.  Hearing this from other parents helps me because there are so many times that I feel like I must be doing something wrong.  I’m sure there are times when I could handle situations differently, but it helps to know that other people have been there and it’s not just me.  Kids are hard work and sometimes, despite our best efforts, they act up. 

I’ve been feeling kind of bad because I don’t feel like we’ve done enough this Christmas season to really get Evie in the spirit.  So yesterday we decided to cross one major thing off of our list – a visit to Santa.  We figured it would be better to go in the middle of the week than wait til the weekend to avoid some of the crowds.  I’ve learned in my two+ years as a parent that the key to going out is preparation.  Half of the time this works in my favor and things go great.  But sometimes I’m crazed and disorganized and I find myself out with a kid that has dirty diaper, an empty wipe container and only one diaper that happens to be the wrong size.  Often it doesn’t matter what I do – my kids have a mind of their own and leaving the house is an exercise in patience and acceptance that I can’t control everything.   

That said, before we left, we sat down for a nice, early family dinner.  Gotta keep that blood sugar up!  After dinner, I helped Evie with her letter to Santa.  She colored the pictures and I wrote down what she really wants for Christmas.  She helped me fold it up and stick it in an envelope (complete with a sticker stamp).  She was so excited about this letter.  We loaded up the kids in the van, made sure we had plenty of diapers and wipes and headed to Tuttle Mall.  Mitch was bundled in his reindeer coat and Evie clutched the letter in her hand the whole way there.  She marched into Macy’s and proudly put her letter into the giant red mailbox. 

We made our way into the mall to find the longest line to Santa in existence.  It had to be at least a 90 minute wait.  Security guards were setting up additional turnstiles and more and more people continued to get in line.  We stood in this mess for about 5 minutes before I decided that we couldn’t take it.  After attempting to buy some personalized Christmas ornaments from a vendor in the mall (another long line = fail), we left.  Evie looked so disappointed that we were leaving without seeing Santa – “But Mama?  I see Santa?” – but we assured her that she would see Santa.  He was just at another mall.  Lucky for us, she is still too young to question why Santa is two places at once!  We got back in the van and head to the Shoppes of Worthington.  On the way there, Evie and I said a little prayer that Santa wasn’t too busy.  We pulled up, parked right next to the door and walked in to a virtually empty shopping center.  On the way to see Santa, I spotted a personalized ornament booth and was able to get a new 2014 family ornament and a “First Christmas” ornament for Mitchell.  We made it to Santa and, unbelievably, there was no line!  Evie walked right up, chatted with Santa, told him she wanted a pink bicycle, gave him a hug and got a candy cane.  Then she was played for little while on the indoor playground, we saw a toy train, some Christmas displays and a gingerbread village, and  stopped at Panera for hot cocoa and a warm chocolate chip cookie.  On the way home, we drove through some neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights and sing carols.  All of this was done in little over an hour.  It was a small Christmas miracle and we were thankful!

Park time in December

I took advantage of nice afternoon one day last week to take the kids to the park for half hour or so.  We had fun and Mitch loved the swings!

Happy Half Birthday Baby Boy!

Mitchell turned 6 months old one week ago and I can’t quite believe it’s been that long since I first held him in my arms.  Mitchell has secured a place firmly in our family and in our hearts over the past months and I know that none of us can imagine life without him in it.  He’s such a happy, even-tempered, sweet, snuggly little boy most of the time.  He loves to laugh and finds humor in the silliest things.  He started cracking up at Crosby the other day  and all the dog did was sit down in front of him.  Mitch is very ticklish – we love to tickle his belly and listen to him giggle.  Evie in particular gets a kick out of this and delights in showing people that she can make her little brother laugh.  I can already see that my kids have a strong bond and I hope it continues to get stronger throughout their lives. 

Mitchell is growing up so fast.  Within the span of about two weeks, he figured out to sit up unassisted, crawl backwards, crawl forward and pulling himself up on stuff.  Pat and I are a little bit amazed at how strong he is and how much he is doing at such a young age.  Looks like he’s trying to keep up with his big sister!  With the dawn of crawling came a whole new world for him and Mitch is trying to taste as much of it as possible.  If he sees it on the ground, he’ll go after it and it’ll go straight into his mouth.  It’s been a challenge to keep Evie’s stuff away from him. We keep reminding her to pick up her things, but there is only so much you can expect from a two year old.  Needless to say, we are constantly on our toes trying to keep stuff out of his mouth.  His favorite things to try and eat – cell phones, remote controls, IPads and power cords.  This child is obsessed with remote controls.  And don’t try and fool him with a toy remote – he’s not dumb! Obviously we are baby-proofing daily.  Lucky for us, Mitch seems to enjoy tasting new food as much a non-food items.  We’ve introduced baby food and, so far, it’s a hit.  He’s had green beans, peas, carrots, bananas, pears, applesauce, sweet potatoes, squash, peaches and mango.  Next, we’ll try some of the mixed veggies and fruits and some homemade stuff like mashed avocado and pureed spinach.   He’s still nursing and boy oh boy, does he like to eat!  I think we had Evie on a 3-4 hour nursing schedule by this time, but Mitch still wants to eat about every 2-2.5 hours.  He’s like his mama – give him a snack or he gets grouchy! 

In addition to crawling, Mitch is pulling up a little on things a little bit.  This means that we needed to move him from the co-sleeper to his crib.  I know that most people are probably thinking “What?  He’s still sleeping in your room?  Put him in his crib!”  Easier said than done when you’re me.  I like having him close and I don’t see any reason to have him in another room until we are both ready.  That said, he needed to be in his crib for his own safety when he started to pull up.  So far, he’s still getting up at almost exactly the same time every night – 12:00am and 3:00am.  He hardly ever wakes up crying, but he does when he is in his crib. It’s a scared cry too, which breaks my heart a little, but hopefully it will get better with time.

All in all, Mitchell is fantastic!  The reason I’m not posting this until now is because he didn’t have his 6 month check-up until yesterday and I wanted to include his stats.  Mitch is  19lbs. 3oz. and 27 inches long.  He’s in the 80^th percentile for height and weight – perfectly  proportional!  He blew the doctor away with what he’s doing – she said he’s behaving more like a nine-month old in terms of his gross motor skills.  She did say that sometimes when a baby focuses so much on one set of skills, other areas like fine motor and verbal skills can take a back seat and be slower to advance.  He’s not a huge babbler yet so maybe we will see some verbal progress next!  It’s hard not to compare your children and one difference I’ve noticed is how they react at the doctor’s office.  Evie has never minded going.  She actually loves it and gets excited when I say we are going.  She hops right up on the table.  Mitchell, on the other hand, didn’t trust that doctor at all.  He was tense the whole time we were there.  He screamed when I laid him down on the table to undress him, screamed when I put him on the scale, and wailed during his shots.  It was so out of character for my happy-go-lucky boy and it broke my heart.  Evie looked scared during his shots because he was crying so hard and it upset her.  Lucky, he calmed down quickly and I pointed out to Evie that got 4 Scooby Doo Band-Aids so he would be fine.   Evie and I both showed Mitchell with love last night to make up for his crummy afternoon.

Mitchell is growing and changing every day and he is such a source of joy for our family.  We love you sweet boy!

Our first Christmas party

This past Saturday, we hosted our first ever Christmas party.  We were excited to have the chance to get our families together and Pat was happy to have the chance to be a little more creative with the food.  I never let him do anything too different for Thanksgiving.  We try and keep it traditional.  But Christmas is a different story.  I told him that I didn’t care what he made – especially if I didn’t have to cook anything!  True to form, Pat cooked up some delicious dishes and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Evie and Mitchell both basked in the attention from everyone.  Especially Evie.  She had almost everyone that she loves in the world under one roof and she was on cloud nine. That’s saying a lot considering that 24 hours before, she seemed to have a touch of a stomach virus.  Luckily, she was feeling better by Saturday morning otherwise we might have had to cancel the party.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that nobody else gets sick!  Especially Mitchell.  Poor little guy has been fighting a cold for a few days now and he needs a break.  After everyone went home on Sunday, I put Evie down for a nap, turned on a Christmas movie and rocked him for a few hours.  I feel like I don’t get quiet moments with my baby boy often enough so I really cherish the time that I do have.  He’s growing up so fast already and I want to get as many snuggles as I can before he’s too old to care. 

So far, we’re making some pretty wonderful holiday memories!

Going up....

A Hot Mess....

...but they sure are cute!

She thought my concealer was chapstick...

I changed his clothes 5 minutes before this picture was taken.  What a boy!

The Elf

The Elf on the Shelf made his debut at our house.  Evie wasn’t as impressed as I’d hoped.  Maybe that will change once she sees him move around the house.

As per the book’s instructions, we named him and we let Evie choose his name.  At first she wanted to name him Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but I vetoed that since it’s already taken by another holiday character.  So she decided on Punky.  Punky the Elf.  I have no idea where she came up with that.

Later, she was being rotten and I told her that Punky was watching so she’d better be good because he’s tell Santa.  Her response – ‘Mama – You’re freaking me out’.

That child….

Happy Thanksgiving

This year we stayed in Columbus and had Thanksgiving with Grandpa Tim, Grandma Katharine and her family.  We ate at the Worthington Inn.  That was a first for me - eating out on Thanksgiving - but we all enjoyed it.  The food was delicious and the company wonderful! 
We saw everyone for Thanksgiving, but not on the same day.  We had Thanksgiving brunch with Kiki, Pops, Aunt Sha-Sha and Uncle Adam the weekend before in KY - yum!! We also had a homemade Ramen (courtesy of Chef Patrick) Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma Rita on Friday.
It's wonderful to get to spend time with family no matter the occasion!

We can't hold him back

Happenings

Life has been so busy lately that it's been hard to find time to blog.  We try and find time eat day to have some fun.  We play princesses and have tea parties, read countless stories, visit family, bake cookies and do art projects.  Evie is getting more and more outspoken and articulate each day.  She's got a mind of her own and she's not afraid to share it!  Pat and I are simultaneously proud and frustrated parents.  2.5 years is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun!  Mitch is a joy, learning and growing each day.  He's such a sweet baby and we all adore him. 

Snip Snip

Just a few pics...

Just a few pictures of the past few weeks...

5 months old already!!

I can’t believe 5 whole months have gone by since our sweet baby boy’s birth.  It just doesn’t seem possible!  Mitchell is growing by leaps and bounds and learning new things every day.  He’s reaching for toys and putting everything in his mouth, including his toes.  He can roll from back to front and front to back, but he spends most of the time on his stomach.  He actually prefers to sleep on his stomach as well.  At first, it made me pretty nervous since all the experts say that ‘back is best’, but as soon as he learned to roll, it was clear that he preferred his tummy and I can’t spend all night flipping him back over.  He’s got amazing head control and can push himself all the way up on his arms.  He’s actually pushed up on his knees for a few seconds as well.  He can also sit up all by himself!  He’s still a little wobbly, but he’s gaining more balance every day and sat unassisted for almost ten minutes over the weekend.   I keep telling him that he can slow down a little bit, but he’s going on full steam ahead!

He eats cereal twice a day now.  I’d like to hold off on the fruits and veggies until he is 6 months.  The majority of his nutrition should still come from nursing/bottles and I don’t want to fill him up on other stuff.  I was hoping that eating cereal at night would help him sleep longer, but that hasn’t really been the case.  He usually gets up at about once a night to eat, but goes right back to sleep.  But our little cat napper is sleeping in longer stretches occasionally and I think we are inching our way towards a more regular nap schedule.  One thing that we have really tried to help Mitch learn is how to fall asleep by himself.  With Evie, we were constantly rocking her and feeding her to sleep and she’d wake up as soon as we laid her down.  We could rarely lay her down awake at night.  I’ll lay Mitch down, he’ll flip right over onto his belly, fuss for a second or two (maybe), stick his thumb in his mouth and go to sleep.  It is AWESOME!

Mitchell is the sweetest, most personable little baby.  He loves to smile and will light up when you talk to him.  He started going through a little bit of separation anxiety this past month and could be a little fussy if someone other than Pat or I (or his babysitter) held him.  I think it’s a lot worse if he can see me or hear my voice so when I hand him off to someone, I try to keep my distance.  If he gets really fussy and isn’t able to be comforted at all by the person holding him, I’ll take him back.  I want him to be secure in the fact that I will always be there for him, but that also know that he’s safe with other people.  It seems to be working because he was a lot better over the weekend!  Mitch wakes up happy almost every day and seeing his little grin makes getting up for work a little bit easier.  He can be a stoic little guy, though, and he will scrunch up his little face in concentration like he’s trying to figure stuff out at times.  He coos and ‘talks’ to us often and definitely makes himself heard.  He’s a very laid back most of the time, but if Mitchell needs something (sleep, a diaper change, or just to be held), he will let you know!  He loves his sister and will follow her actions around the room.  And speaking of Evie, she is so, so sweet to him.  Honestly, she is the best big sister.  She speaks to him in soft tones, and is just so gentle and loving towards him.  She sometimes gets upset and frustrated with him if he spits up or puts one of her toys in his mouth.  I’ve been telling her that he’s just a baby and that he doesn’t know any better, and it’s our job to teach him.  The other day, he grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled, and I mimicked Evie and said “Mitchell why you doing that?!”  Evie looked over and said “Mama – it’s cause he’s just a baby”.  So she does listen to me sometimes!  Like I said, it’s obvious that Mitch loves Evie.  She will talk to him and he will smile and coo.  This will only encourage her to do it more – she’ll say “Look Mama!  He’s happy with me!”

At 5 months old, Mitchell Joseph had definitely won all of our hearts!

Rock the vote

I picked the kids up from the sitter’s yesterday and decided to go vote.  Admittedly, I didn’t know much about what we were voting on this year.  I probably should make myself more aware of what’s going on in the political world, but right now, I’m slightly uninformed.  Even so, I’m the mother of a daughter and I want to set a good example.  Women in the past fought for our right to vote and I don’t want to take what they did for granted.  I’m not really much of a feminist, but most days, I don’t have to be.  I enjoy certain freedoms that came about because women in the past fought for them.  There are many, many women in the world who do not have even half of the freedoms and opportunities that we do in this country.  Is it perfect?  No.  Do we still have a way to go before there is true equality?  Of course.  We probably always will.  That’s why it’s important to take advantage of the times that we do have to make a difference, however small it may be.  That’s something I want to show my children.

Anyway, I got Evie and Mitchell and went vote.  As usual, Evie kept it interesting.

Here’s what happened…

Me:        Evie do you want to go vote with me?

Evie:     Yes!  I want to go on a boat!

Me:        No, not a boat.  Vote.  We are going to V-V-Vote.

E:            B-B-Boat!  Row, Row, Row your boat gently down the stream…!

Me:        No.  Vote.  Like vest and violet.

E:            Oh.  What’s violet?

Me:        Violet is like purple.

E:            I like purple.

Me          That’s great.  Now let’s go vote.

We get in the car and start driving

E:            Mama – We are we going?

Me:        To Vote.  We have to go to the church.

E:            To the church?!  Yah! I like church.  Mama- what’s voting?

Me:        It’s when we get to pick our leaders.

E:            What’s a leader?

Me:        A leader is the person in charge.  You know the song “We’re following the leader…”.  The leader is the person in front who is in charge.

E:            I like that song!  (sings the song).  Mama - What’s ‘in charge’?

Me:        “In charge” means you are the boss.

E:            What’s a boss?

Me:        I’m a boss.  Daddy is a boss.  We can tell you the rules and what to do.

E:            Oh.

We go into the gymnasium at St. Peter’s, me carrying Mitch and Evie holding my hand.

E:            Mama – what are we doing?

Me:        Voting. (Mitch proceeds to spit up all over my shoulder as I’m signing the voting registry)

E:            Ah! Mama he spit up!  Ah!  Yuck!  Mitchell stop!  Why you doing that?!

I clean us up and we make our way to voting booth.

E:            Mama – what’s that?

Me:        It’s what you use to vote.  You push the buttons on the screen like on the IPad

E:            Oh.  Mama – I do it too?

Me:        You can help me if you promise to do what I tell you to do

E:            (emphatically) I promise!

I try and read what on the screen in front of me

E:            Mama is it my turn?  I do it now? (4000 times)

I let her press the screen a few times

E:            Mama – what’s this button?  It’s purple!  I press it?  I vote?

Me:        No!  Don’t press that button! 

E:            Why?

Me:        I don’t want you to press it.  I’m trying to read.

E:            Why?

Me:        I don’t know what it does.

E:            I want to do it!  I want to press the button!

Me:        Don’t press that button! 

We finally hit ‘Confirm” and leave. We got stickers too.

E:            Mama – you have a sticker and I have a sticker.

Me:        Yes we both have stickers.

E:            Cause we voted?

Me:        Yes Evie.  Because we voted.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun this year. 

Evie so excited to go and could not wait to put on her costume.  Our neighborhood always has a little get-together before trick-or-treating.  The kids have a little costume parade and then one of our neighbors has hot dogs and snacks for everyone.  It’s a good chance to meet new neighbors and catch up and we had fun.

This was Evie’s 3^rd Halloween, but it was the first time we’ve ever let her go trick-or-treating.  We only went to a few houses, but Evie was in heaven.  She just could not believe that she could go up to people’s houses and they would give her candy.  She always said “Thank you!” and “Happy Halloween!” too.  We sat outside for a while and gave out candy.  Evie enjoyed this almost as much as getting the candy. She was very generous too, scooping handfuls of candy into the kids’ pails.  Pat and I decided to let her indulge in her candy since it was Halloween and took full advantage.  Later, in a sugar-induced haze, she danced around her room in her nightgown singing “It’s the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!  Come inside!  It’s fun inside!” before passing out in bed around 8.

Having kids can be crazy, but we sure do appreciate fun times like these!

 

Daddy and his kiddos

Adventures in Temporary Single Parenthood

From Sunday morning to Wednesday evening of this week, it was just me and the kids.  Pat jetted off to Portland to soak of the food scene and experience the city’s unique culture.  For the most part, the kiddos and I did fine.  Sure, we missed Daddy, but we muddled through and had some fun while doing it.  Don’t get me wrong – I really missed having a partner in this parenting gig.  I have a new respect for all the single parents out there.  I don’t know how they do it all and still find time to sleep and stay sane.  I also have even more respect for the stay-at-home parents out there.  I have no problem being home alone with my children all day, but that doesn’t mean it’s not exhausting.  I was actually looking forward (just a teensy-tiny bit) to going to work on Monday after dealing with the kids all day Sunday by myself. I got to decompress a little, have an adult conversation, drink my morning coffee before it got cold and eat a meal sitting down without having to jump up every 2 seconds to rock a baby, replace a paci, clean up a spill and dislodge a bean that got stuck up a nose.  I got a little peace.

I tried to keep Evie busy while Pat was gone.  Sunday, we went to church, ran home, packed a quick picnic and went to the zoo for a few hours.  I didn’t know it ahead of time, but it was Boo at the Zoo.  Everything was all decked out for Halloween and the kids came in costume and were able to trick-or-treat at treat stations set up around the zoo.  Since I didn’t know about it, Evie wasn’t in costume, but she didn’t seem to mind.  I avoided the treat stations because I didn’t want Evie to have the extra sugar, but she did manage to score a Cheryl’s Cookie!  I asked if I could have a little bit and she, after taking a big lick of the icing, she said “Sure Mama!”.  Uh…never mind Ev – it’s all yours.  Later, after her nap, we took a walk and collected leaves and did an art project.  Evie got to use a glue stick and glue the leaves to paper.  She was in heaven getting to use a glue stick.   Monday is always a somewhat grumpy day for us.  We’re all tired after having to get up and start a new week and we generally lay low and veg out.  After eating some delicious chicken noodle soup that Pat prepared ahead of time, Evie and I snuggled up in our pajamas and watched Garfield’s Halloween.  I’d forgotten that it’s just a little bit scary, but Evie refused to let me turn it off so we followed it with Garfield’s Thanksgiving and Garfield’s Christmas in my attempt to banish any bad dreams she might have.  On Tuesday, I decided to get out of the house for a bit and take Evie to the library for the Pajama Storytime.  We went on an adventure to the Old Worthington branch instead of the one we normally visit.  In the beginning of the evening, we were doing really well.  Everyone had dinner, baths and pajamas on before we headed out around 6:30.  Storytime started at 7 so Evie and I were able to explore the children’s section a little and pick out some good books.  Storytime started and I immediately noticed that this storytime was a little bit more rowdy than the one we normally go to at Northwest.  I’ve tried hard to instill good listening skills in Evie.  She knows that she needs listen to the ‘library lady” and sit down when everyone else does.  Last night, some kids were standing up constantly, ignoring the stories and not listening to anything.  Evie was good for a while, but pretty soon I could see that she was distracted and wanting to get up and play too.  I also noticed about halfway through that she had a dirty diaper.  This was unfortunate for several reasons.  1 – It smelled.   2 – She wouldn’t come near me because she knew I’d make her leave so I knew I wouldn’t be able to get her out of the room without a scene.  3. – She wouldn’t sit on her bottom and could not sit still  and 4. – I had just used the last of the wipes from the diaper bag to change Mitchell’s diaper right before storytime started.  Luckily, it wasn’t a blowout so I waited another 15 minutes for storytime to end and hightailed it out of the room.  Or at least I tried to do that.  Evie normally gets the chance to play with the blocks and toys after the storytime, but today I didn’t feel like we needed to subject the rest of the children to Evie and her stinky diaper.  Evie, however, disagreed.  She proceeded to throw one of the most awful, most epic, most mortifying temper tantrums that she has ever thrown.  Even now, I cringe.  Evie absolutely refused to walk.  She would not get up off the ground and when I tried to make her stand up, she hit me and tried to bite my hand.  I’m always kind of at a loss about how to deal with situations like this in public.  At home, I would drop everything and she would sit in timeout no matter how much she screamed and then we would talk about the right way to behave.  But we were in the middle of a quiet library, surrounded by other children and their parents.  I had Mitch in the baby carrier and was also carrying the diaper bag and library books.  I tried to speak calmly and quietly to her, but you can’t reason with a 2 year old.  She just got mad and yelled louder.  I couldn’t pick her up and carry the baby at the same time so I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the nearest exit.  She picked up her feet and refused to walk so I was basically dragging her while she was trying to bite my hand.  I realized too late that I hadn’t checked our books out yet.  I should have just put them all back because Evie didn’t deserve new books, but I was frazzled and not thinking straight.  A kind librarian offered to help me check out and the entire time she scanned the books, Evie was yelling “I don’t like you!  I’m going bite you and hit you!”  I was so embarrassed and I apologized several times to the librarian for her behavior and told Evie that she was not supposed to talk that way, it was mean and it made me sad.  The librarian was so nice and looked so sympathetic.  She even piped in when Evie was yelling and said “Sometimes we fell like doing those things, but we can’t because that wouldn’t be nice”.  Such a simple thing, but I appreciate it.  She didn’t look at Evie like she was a demon child, just a child having a bad moment.  I managed to get us out the door  - Evie was still refusing to walk – and once we got outside, I let go of her hand and told her she needed to get up and walk to the car.  She refused so I kept walking, knowing she would follow because it was dark and she is scared of the dark.  Sure enough, I had only managed a step or two before she got up and caught up to me.  She then  decided that she would run away from me which was awesome (not) because we were in a parking lot.  I managed to grab the hood of her raincoat to keep her from running in front of a car and then we finally, finally made it to the car.  Once both kids were safely buckled in, I took several deep breaths, told Evie again how upset her behavior made me…and then I called my mom.  I was practically in tears and I just needed to talk to her.  I needed her to tell me what to do and of course, she couldn’t.  She won’t tell me how to parent.  She listens and she’ll offer advice once in a while, but she has never overstepped and told me what I should be doing.  Even when I’ve asked.  She respects me as the parent and backs up my decisions.  She told me that I handled it as best I could and she offered to talk to Evie via Facetime when we got home.  We called her and she told Evie how sad she was to hear about how Evie acted and how Evie needs to be a good girl.  Evie listened and promised to be good.  I’m grateful my mom talked to her.  I’ll have all of her grandparents talk to her if it will made a difference and keep incidences like the one last night a minimum.  I found out later from the sitter that Evie refused to sleep during her nap that day so that explains a lot.  I know that tantrums can happen anytime, but Evie with no sleep = child terror.  I would never have left the house if I’d known.  From now on, I won’t forget to ask!  I’m sad that Evie got upset and I got upset.  But we’ll learn from it and hopefully deal better next time.  That’s all we can do.  Yesterday is over and tomorrow is another day!

I’m grateful that my husband is home.  The support that we offer each other is essential and I know that now more than ever!

Time at home

After being out of town the past few weekends, it's been nice to be home for this one.  Of course, we are totally missing Pops, Kiki, Uncle Adam and Aunt Sha-Sha - and not just because they keep an eye on the kids!  I do hate that we're missing out on family time - we are missing a wedding reception and a wedding shower for my cousins.  It's hard to not be a part of those times, especially since I don't get to see my extended family nearly enough.  I really wanted to be there, but Pat is going out of town for a few days tomorrow and I just didn't want to add to the stress of it all by driving 4 hours and having to deal with the kids by myself, on top of having to get everything ready for the start of the week.
To get my mind off of what we are missing, we tried to fill up the time with fun stuff.
We went for walks and Evie looked for Easter eggs in October...

We went to the store to buy paint and ended up looking at Christmas decorations...

We decorated pumpkins...

Mitchell bounced for the first time...

Daddy and his boys watched some football...

And Mitch tried out some new food!