Tired Tuesday

Tired seems to be a theme this week... fingers crossed for some sleeping in this weekend!

AK had only one minor meltdown this morning when I chastised her for pulling feathers out of her boa. The silly duck doesn't realize she won't have much of a boa if she pulls all the feathers out! I left her at school getting ready to do some sort of craft... she didn't even look up as I left the room. When I picked up AK from school, she ran over and wrapped her arms around me and gave me several kisses and "I love you"s. Lately she's quite the fan of carrying her lunchbag out to the car at the end of the day and carrying it around at home.

AK and I had just gotten settled outside to play when Jess called asking us to pick Hunter up from daycare... she had gotten stuck in traffic and was worried she'd be late to collect him. So off we went, and we all came back here for some outside playtime and wine. The flies were AWFUL tonight and would not leave me alone. Not sure why they liked me so much. Hunter and AK did a pretty good job of taking turns playing with the bubble gun (remember I bought this in NC?).

AK and I joined the Babbs and Forsyths at the Doghouse for pizza and playtime tonight. I laughed out loud at Jake tonight... he was about to walk down a plank on the playstructure, but then he sat down and went down on his bum. It was one of those planks with holes in it that the kid is supposed to climb up, using the holes as footholds, so he went down on his bum bump bump bump bump bump! It was really funny :) and he did a great job.

There were lots of other families out at the playground, AK saw a couple of friends from school and we saw one other little girl with the cutest blond ponytails. There were scooters and little riding toys whizzing around everywhere, and of course the kids ate no pizza (tonight is the buy one, get one free pizza night).

I'm having some issues at work right now... my email is not working properly. Two things are happening - I am sending emails and they're not getting to the recipients, and people are sending me emails and I'm not getting them. The IT guy keeps telling me to let him know what I'm missing and he'll look for it for me... but the point is that I don't know what I'm missing!!! It has been a frustrating process of clients and service providers wondering why I haven't responded to them, or me them, and lots of confusion while I sort things out. Not fun.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. xo

Random thoughts on a Monday

• When I booked our trip to NC, I purposely planned to travel on Thursday May 12 so we wouldn't be flying on a Friday the 13th. On the way there, we sat in row 13 on the plane that was delayed over an hour. On the way back, we left from gate D13 for the plane that was delayed over two hours. And I'm pretty sure our hotel room was something like 413. Probably should have just gone on Friday the 13th after all.
• A lot of times when I look at the clock, it's 6:38, which are three of the digits of the phone number I had growing up.
• Why does the Food Network have commercials for Sunny D, Poptarts and Hamburger Helper? And why do I care?
• This was a typical Monday morning, full of whine and a staff meeting. Sure wish it could be WINE and a staff meeting. That would have gone over much better.
• Whenever I go to yoga, planning to "take it easy" because I'm tired or sore or whatever, I actually end up having a really good class. I did read an article today that talked about a trade-off between flexibility and strength... basically as you get stronger, you tend to lose flexibility. It was like a lightbulb went on over my head... I've been wondering why certain "bendy" poses haven't been as easy as I remember them to be and I guess now that I'm getting stronger, it's harder to be bendy. I'm not sure how to fix that...
• AK and I had a pretty chilled out evening tonight. I think we were both tired - I know I am still dragging a bit and AK slept til 630am this morning after all that excitement last night.
• When I was reading AK a bedtime story, I kept getting annoyed as she had another book in her hands and kept whacking me in the head with it (accidentally but still!). I finally took it away and made her promise to be more careful to not hit me. I gave it back and she was very careful with it but still hit me a few more times. She kissed it better each time, but then accidentally hit herself in the face with the book! I was safe after that... she finally understood that it did hurt a bit when that happened!
  
• AK is still pooping her pants a lot. She never tells anyone when it's time to go potty for a poo. Pee is fine... no accidents there at all. Any ideas from anyone on how to deal with that? Poop accidents stink (pun completely intended).

This tired mama is off to bed soon... yay!

I am SO ready for bed

The stagette yesterday was a great time. We had some games and drinks, and then took a water taxi to Kaibo for a great supper. I think Julie had a really good time and she had a lot of fun with all the girls. I was home by midnight last night, so not a crazy night! Too bad I started waking up at 5am today... AK didn't come home until after 1030am today!

AK waved me happily out the door when I dropped her off... guess she was fine with me going! Christie let me know that AK went down at 9pm last night that "she ate a BIG supper. We had fun tonight. Planted her chives and had Julie and Zach over for supper. AK is an angel. She liked playing with Johnny and Bubba too". AK walked in the door with her newly planted chives and Christie even decorated the plant with a lovely peacock feather! I will have to be sure to water this plant so that we can have chives! Christie told me that AK helped with Johnny while Christie made supper - bringing toys to him and playing with him. I took a really cute photo of the two of them watching cartoons together but am too lazy to get up to find the camera and download the picture. I'll share it tomorrow.

I lazed around for the morning, which was nice as I was so tired, but I have to say, I was anxious to have AK home again! We ended up not going to church but went for breakfast with the Babbs instead. We headed back to their place for a short swim which tired the kids out pretty good for their naps. AK slept for nearly 3 hours, which was great for me as I read for a while and rested too.

Angie, Francois, Milanna and the Babbs came over for supper. The kids got along SO well. We broke the ice with some bubbles, always a kid-pleaser. The girls got pretty noisy - there's something about that high-pitched screaming that can drive a parent crazy :S AK loves the attention from the guys - lots of rough-housing and fun stuff.

I got some really sweet hugs and kisses from AK this morning once Christie dropped her off. She is always so good when she is with other people but I think she is happy to be with her mama once again. AK is starting to learn to manipulate me but she is also learning that I'm on to her... after I tucked her in, she started crying for me because she wanted her night light turned off. I told her that I'd turn it off but that she'd better not cry for me to come back in to turn it back on... when I asked her if she still wanted it off, she cried "yes" but she knew I meant what I said!

Tickle Monster!

I just had a tickle fest with AK... giggles and squeals like you've never heard before! She said "more tickles Mommy" and "tickle me HARDER!". It was really sweet!

We had quite the busy morning... AK woke me up by throwing her ballerina outfit onto my bed. It tickled my feet... thank goodness I was starting to wake up already or I would have thought it was a spider. EEEK! As an aside, this outfit fit her when she was 1yo and it still fits at nearly 3yo. We're getting a lot of use out of it! AK put on her tutu and purple sweater and off we went to the grocery store. She got a few admiring glances from those who loved her outfit. We also ran into Deb, Brian and Ewan which was a nice treat, as I had just been thinking about them recently. Ewan is growing quickly and had some great smiles for AK and I. AK helped me pick out some groceries... mostly watermelon, strawberries and blueberries.

When we got home, we headed outside to clean the playhouse and the patio... what a messy job. I'm hoping it will rain tonight and clean the playhouse off a bit more... after a while I felt like I was just pushing the dirt around instead of wiping it off. It's millions times cleaner than it was before so at least that's an improvement. We hopped straight into the bath once we were done outside and got ourselves cleaned up too. AK did a bit of a craft and we had lunch, watched some Dora and she is now down for a nap. She put up a bit of resistance but eventually laid down. I don't think she's ready to give up her nap and as long as she's having it at daycare, there's no reason why she shouldn't be having it at home on weekends.

AK is off to the Mosers after her nap... and I am off to my friend Julie's stagette! Fun times... likely won't be blogging about and sharing pictures from THAT ;)

Party time!

When I picked AK up from daycare today, she managed to fall while she was running and scraped herself up a little bit. She was fine but she sure kept a good pout on for quite a while! I suggested we ask Jenni for bandaids when we got to her house but AK totally forgot to ask... confiming my suspicions that she was just fine!

I offered to bring supper over to Jenni and Kevin's tonight but somehow Jenni ended up cooking for us. Score :) it was a great supper too. We were surprised when we got there as I was expecting only Jenni and her family but Cindy was there with her family too, and Karen showed up later. I feel like I haven't had a good noisy weekend night with all the kids for a while so this totally hit the spot!

Jenni seemed to like the painting we gave them so fingers crossed we see it hanging on the wall next time we go over!

When we got into the truck to come home, AK told me that she was "going to sleep in the truck". What a difference from the past few times she's thrown a fit when I suggest she fall asleep in the truck. Of course when she says she's going to sleep, she stays awake, and when she wants to stay awake, she falls asleep!

AK was upset that I would let her do any yoga when we got home. She whined a bit through the whole teeth flossing and brushing but I got a few tickles on her after and she cheered right up. She hopped right into her pyjamas and we read a couple of good stories before bed. AK picked her farm blanket to use tonight and I'm guessing she was out like a light. I got busy in the kitchen as soon as I put her down so wasn't really paying attention.

I made two big lasagnas today, one for Sunday and one for AK's birthday dinner. I got a few other things organized for tomorrow - big day - my friend Julie's stagette is tomorrow afternoon / evening so I needed to get things together for that. I think AK and I will run to the grocery store tomorrow morning and then spend some time cleaning off our patio and playhouse.

Cool news today - my friend Linda had a baby boy very early this morning, on her older son's second birthday! How neat is that... can't wait to visit her and meet her new guy. xo

Heading home from North Carolina

Now this is where the trip gets interesting...

John got us to the airport right on time and we had no issues checking in or going through security. Once we got inside, I noticed that our time of departure kept getting pushed back more and more and more... eventually the gate attendant announced for all people travelling to different places to come stand in line.

Well, AK and I got in line... second in line... yet she called up individual people to help them and we were the LAST people she helped. And her help? It was to tell us that we would be getting on the 2-hours-delayed plane to Charlotte. (what was unsaid is that at that point was that I would then be the problem of the airline staff in Charlotte and no longer HER problem). The flight from Charlotte to GCM was also delayed but not enough... the plane took off about 10 mins after we landed in Charlotte. The US Airways people were quite sorry that there was no way they could get me back to GCM on that day... so they rebooked AK and I on the same flight next day. I asked about the luggage and was told that they could retrieve it but it would be an hour's wait... no way was I going to do that with AK needing lunch and a nap. So we took off with just our carry-on bags.

When we had landed in Charlotte, the couple behind us mentioned that they thought AK was the best singer on the plane (she had spent about half of the flight singing to herself). I answered that she was probably the ONLY singer on the plane :) but they really did enjoy hearing it! AK is such a charmer and people on planes seem to just adore her. Me included!

The hotel was perfect, the only thing I wished was different was that we'd had our swimsuits. But there was an atrium with lots of little paths and stairs, plants and fountains for us to wander through. AK threw many a penny (and other coins) into the fountains! There was a restaurant attached which I was able to get lunch and supper from. The lobby had a very small store which I was able to purchase a few things from plus the hotel had complimentary toiletries. We were set... except for pullups. Fun times. Especially seeing AK had an upset stomach and pooped in her panties twice as it was just too much for her. Luckily I had lots of spare pairs of panties... but man was that messy.

The hotel also had a complimentary happy hour - sangria for mom and OJ for AK. The complimentary breakfast was the full spread - your usual continental breakfast plus your eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, french toast, etc.

AK and I enjoyed watching TV while we ate our room service supper and she even said a few things to Grandma Z when we called her, including her new favorite phrase "holy moly macaroni!". AK had a great bath (much needed after all those poops!) and settled down to bed easily. I washed out AK's pants while she bathed and hung them to dry - they were still wet in the morning but I finished the job with the hairdryer.

Thinking back over this makes me so grateful that AK is such a wonderful traveler. There were times I was grumpier than her and all I had to do was get a hug or a smile from her and the grumpies were gone. She adapted well to sleeping both at Anna's house and at the hotel. As long as she has a familiar stuffed animal and a good book to read before bed, she's fine.

When we headed back to the airport the next morning, my first order of business after clearing security was to buy AK a new t-shirt. I had seen some M&M shirts the day before and knew AK would love one. The one I bought is far too large on her, but all the better to cover up how filthy her outfit was! I learned a lesson - do not dress a child in pastel colors for a trip! I was tempted to burn her outfit when we got home. Even washing it didn't take some of the dirt out.

The flight home was uneventful and I think AK may even have napped for a bit, not long but enough. It felt so good to get home. Christie and Chris picked us up at the airport and we were able to go straight home. It felt good to go pick up some groceries to stock the fridge, then we met the Babbs for a play and supper at the Doghouse.

Anna has said we need to come back for another visit when their house is done and they're all moved in... it's on the list! xo

North Carolina - Part 6 - Sunday

Sorry I've not updated lately, this week has been busy with yoga, movies, dinners and great friends!

Sunday in Raleigh was a fun day. Anna took me to a yoga class first thing (when I came out of the bedroom wearing my yoga clothing, AK looked at me and said "Mommy's going to yoga?" like it was totally expected) and then we came back home and picked up the rest of the family and went back to the gym to go swimming!

I believe it may have been Baby Liam's first time swimming and he did great but seemed to get cold quite quickly. The kiddie pool was perfect for the girls as it sloped down gradually from all sides so they had lots of room to play in shallow water.

We got showered up and changed after swimming and the girls sat on the counter while John blow-dried their hair :) it was really cute! We had some lunch at the gym cafe and then headed home for naps for the girls and shopping for me!

I walked over to the big box stores and spent some time in Old Navy and Marshall's (like a Winners). I got a few things for me, for AK and some picture frames. AK was still sleeping when I got back and so I had to wake her up in order to get her ready for the birthday party!

Sofia was invited to her buddy Yash's birthday party and Anna asked if we could come along as well. It was held at a museum, can't remember the name of it but it was science-based. The party was held in a room off to the side and our time there was jam-packed!

First we had pizza, snacks and cake

Miss AK always on the go

Waiting for the animal show to start

Doing a craft - decorating animal masks

The finished product!

Hope these pictures give you a bit of a glimpse at the party - the video was put together very nicely but it cycled through the pictures quickly and it's hard to get a good look at any one scene.

The goody bags were pretty wicked too and kept the girls quite occupied on the way home. It's amazing how the dumbest and simplest things can provide so much entertainment!

The rest of the day passed quickly - Anna made a lovely shepherd's pie for supper and once the girls were in bed, I had to pack... Anna took a look at all my bags of shopping and admitted afterward that she had serious doubts that I'd be able to pack it all! But I got it all in!