good nap/bad nap

Every night, I go to sleep at 11:00. Around 1:30 David calls for me and only me. I get him a drink of water, tell him one George story in the chair, one George story in the crib, and lie down and go to sleep on the floor next to his crib. A couple hours later I wake up and stumble back to my bed. At 6:30, David calls for me and only me. At 7:30 John takes over and I have nap #1 of the day. (My sister says no wonder you are so tired.)

This morning John let me sleep 1.5 hours. I had lots of dreams. I loved it. Unfortunately, my afternoon nap was miserably aborted by screaming children.

The Mommy/Daddy beauty salon

Rose was reading a book on the potty (hurrah for the reading by herself!) and decided she wanted to do her nails and her hair just like the girls in her story. Usually, nail polishing is a grandma job, but I took it on. David, Rose, and I set up on the porch. David wanted hot pink on his toes and sparkly purple on his fingernails. Rose wanted an alternating pattern. I did a better job than usual, and David did a so/so job not wiping went paint all over himself. We managed to keep him on the porch until his nails dried, so at least the furniture was spared.

John was on hair duty. I emerged from my nap to find Rose in two adorable braids. I think David had a do, but by the time I showed up, he had misplaced his ponytail holders.

whining and crying

David was a wreck 75% of the day and out of control the other 25%. John and I have no idea what was going on. Hungry? Tired? In need of exercise? It was grim. When he wasn't somersaulting off the couch, he was flailing at his sister or us. When he starts running his banana over the table like a glue stick, you've got to take it away, but then he's hungry and out of sorts.

getting hurt

Being grumpy leads to getting hurt and much agony over the banged fingers, toes, and tushies.

books

I read books at 6:30 in the morning when I was half asleep. I read books when the screaming downstairs prevented me from napping and I snuggled everyone on the couch to learn what Dora wore to a Halloween party. I refused to read books when I thought I would fall over from exhaustion, so John had to take over. And then I read the bedtime books.

a walk in the rain

When I couldn't stand the rattling around the house with no plan, I insisted the kids go on an errand walk with me. Unfortunately, it was pouring. Rose was thrilled because she got to wear her brand new rain coat. Nothing was thrilling David. It was pretty much constant whining from the card store where we bought thank you notes, to the children's clothing store where we were going to buy David a raincoat but they were unexpectedly closed, to the used bookstore which was going out of business and we bought 7 kids' books for 1.64.

thank you notes

Rose loved writing her thank you notes, and she could pretty much do it independently. I told how to spell her friends' names, and she could handle most of the gift words. Who knew she could spell horse, coloring book, and magnet? As a special surprise, she wrote one to us. (For the grandparents reading right now, she's only gotten to the party cards; family cards are coming.)

defrosting the freezer

Defrosting the freezer has been on my to do list for months. (Since I've only done it once in the past 10 years, it probably should have been on my list for years.) Every time I opened the freezer, the clutter and ice build up just drove me nuts. John was not over eager to tackle this project, but I jumped in and he graciously helped me decide what food from 05 we could throw out and chipped away at the ice. We found brownies, berries, and a delicious spicy pasta sauce. The rest of stocks were woefully low. Our next big project is to start cooking for the freezer.