Oh man, I'm tired!

It was a busy busy busy weekend.

Saturday morning, our plans to play with Sue and Kylie were cancelled as Kylie was not well. We decided to do some shopping instead. We hit up a boutique called Funky Monkey where I got a dress and AK got a pretty bathing suit! The owners of the store were captivated by AK and gave her a fake tattoo of a funky monkey. We put it on right away and AK was pretty pleased that it matched her dress! It was a bit of a challenge changing in a dressing room with just a sheet as a door, as AK wanted to go in and out and in and out, which doesn't work too well for me when I'm half disrobed! AK loved shopping for clothing... she walked around touching everything, and I kept telling her to stop touching everything, then realized that she was only copying me flipping through the racks of clothing. She picked out her new bathing suit all by herself... a lovely bikini of pink ruffles and gingham. Pretty!

We headed over to the fountains to play with Molly and Jake. AK put her new bathing suit right away - I had bought a size up for AK to grow into - she definitely has some growing to do. I had to put a swim diaper on her to help keep the bottoms up. We ran to the bathroom in the midst of the fountain play as she had to pee. It was the same bathroom we had used Friday night when we were out for ice cream and - I can't recall exactly what she said but she said something about either ice cream or Matthew when we were leaving the bathroom, which made me realize she remembered it from the previous night. I think maybe she wondered where Matthew was. It just amazes me to see her memory go back a day or two.

When we were playing at the fountains, Jake kept wandering off. I would ask AK to go get Jake and the first time she ran up to him and said "JAKE COME BACK!" Of course that wasn't very effective so I asked her to take his hand and walk him back to where we were. She did that a few times :) and was very gentle and caring with Jake.

I wanted to go the pet store after the fountains but AK very adamantly said "GO HOME" so we did. She had some lunch (the great eating continues through to Sunday night) and she had a wonderful nap. So wonderful that I had to wake her over 2.5 hours later to head over to Molly and Jake's. Cindy and Brent were going to a wedding so I said I'd babysit. Thankfully Jess and Ben came over with Hunter after a couple of hours to give me a hand with supper and bedtime and for adult company! There was only one gong show moment before they showed up - Jake pooped so I needed all the kids to come inside so I could change him. Molly said no and laid down on the grass. I carried her kicking and screaming into the house. After I changed Jake, I convinced Molly to come out from under the table, where she'd been screaming the whole time, and we started to have a chat about why we had to come inside... when Jake came running at me, crying. He'd fallen and hit himself and was okay but startled. I got everyone all sorted out and we went back outside, at which point AK melted down as she didn't want to go back out without a suitcase, which I said had to stay inside. Thank goodness Cindy and Brent had some wine for me to drink :)

Jake went to bed quite easily and we put Peter Pan on for the big kids. It's not as much of a kid movie as I remember it to be... definitely some scary stuff in there! Molly went to bed really well and the Babbs left... unfortunately for me, AK had it in her head that she wanted to go home too, but of course we couldn't go as Cindy and Brent were still out. She was so upset that I couldn't get her to sleep until midnight! Yikes! We watched another movie and some Dora, and she was still upset when I put her down but she was so tired that she finally fell asleep at that point. Thankfully she slept til about 8 today. I think she was up for a bit before she let me know, as the doors to the hallway closet were open, and the stepstool was pushed up to the closet. She was trying to get a juice but wasn't successful and only came to wake me when she needed help. So much for everyone who told me that the first thing AK would do when she woke up was wake me up! I'm debating getting a baby gate for the entrance to the hallway, which would contain AK to the bedrooms and bathrooms at night, and keeping those areas as child-proof as possible. Thoughts? Remember I can't hear anything without my hearing aids - I certainly didn't hear the stepstool being dragged all the way from the kitchen!

Anyway... it was clear that AK was a bit tired today. I reminded myself to have loads of patience for her (I was tired too but I guess I don't have licence to act like a child despite that, ha!) and the day went quite well. There were a few meltdowns, and a few timeouts (both for AK, not me!), but we both came out in one piece!

I made an egg for breakfast and AK could see that it was hot. She was quite concerned about it and wanted me to let her sit on the counter so that she could "blow on your egg" to cool it off. What a great helper. She wouldn't even take a bite of it though.

AK was playing with her St. Patrick's Day stickers from Grandma and Grandpa and wanted me to take one off to put on her finger. She wrapped it right around like a BandAid and that was somehow the most hilarious thing ever (I told you she was tired today!). We went off to church with no problem, I was worried AK may not want me to leave her in the childcare room but she let me go without so much as a peep. AK did have one accident while we were at church but I figure maybe being tired had something to do with that. She made a beautiful butterfly with paint and sparkles on it as the craft today.

I nearly forgot - when I was dressing AK this morning, she was trying to put her panties on backwards. I took them from her and told her that. She turned around and put her feet in the panties that way, instead of just turning the panties around. That was pretty silly but smart! Later on, she was putting some flip flops on the wrong feet... I told her but she wouldn't listen to me. She worked for about a couple of minutes to jam the shoes onto the wrong feet, and kept stopping to pull at the shoes as we walked to the truck. It took all I had to not burst out laughing - mean, I know - but she was being so stubborn and would not give in!

We both had a good rest after church. I was about to take AK to the playground when Jenni called to say I could come to Jon and Erin's for a swim and BBQ. It was perfect and I wish I had just had the foresight to bring a salmon burger with me for the BBQ. According to Jenni and Kevin, I get Sundays as a "day off" during Lent but I have so psyched myself up to not eat meat for Lent that I didn't even want to give in today and have a burger. I was surprised with myself as I did enjoy the smell of the meat cooking and my mouth was watering but my cheese bunwich hit the spot quite nicely.

The kids had a great time playing and swimming. You could tell AK was still tired though as she would get upset at times over the smallest things. She had a great supper, which was good, as she normally doesn't care for hotdogs. She wanted to go home before supper even, but I convinced her to stay by promising she could watch some TV. AK had a good bath and went off to bed a bit early. I was supposed to go to bed early too but here it is nearly 10pm and I'm almost done typing this up!

I'm sure there are other stories I could think of but I think my brain is about ready for bed, and so I will sign off now. Sweet dreams xo