Ancient history: part 3

It's actually not so ancient history right now, because I am only 1.5 weeks behind.  And all that needs to be done to be totally caught up is a journey through an incredibly hum-ho and boring week.   This week is also very heavy on Elliott.  It's pretty obvious who I spend most of my time with during the week.

 

We begin on Sunday, August 17th.  All of our company left in the morning and we spent the day doing laundry and just generally recovering.

 

I think we finally got dressed around 4 pm.

 

We also got a visit from my parents.

On Monday Elliott and I went to the library to return books and then took an unplanned trip to the park.  He ended up playing on the splash pad even though I had no dry clothes for him to change into afterwards.

That afternoon we went to pick Spencer up from the bus stop and Elliott was being very crabby.  I have a kid mode on my phone so I will turn that on and let him play on it when we are waiting for the bus and during aikido class.  Unfortunately the kid mode has a kid camera that I can not remove.

 

During our 5 minute wait he took 33 pictures like this:

 

and 3 pictures like this.  That's my face behind the seat, BTW.

On Tuesday we started potty training.  It did not go well and I gave up on it the next day.  He has no opposition to going on the toilet but he is completely unable to tell me before he needs to go.  And I refuse to "parent train" in which I have to put him on the toilet every 20 minutes and not be able to do anything but watch him in order to prevent an accident.  He's close, but not quite there. We're going to try again in 2 weeks.

 

That afternoon in aikido Elliott took 14 pictures like this.

On Wednesday we had to go to Target for actual household necessities (as opposed to just household wants), including toilet paper.  Elliott found it to be a good place for a break.

 

When we got home he spelled "Quaint" on the refrigerator.  He's a genius!

 

At the bus stop that afternoon he took 18 pictures of this,

 

and 7 like this

 

But he mixed in up once we were back at home with an artistic selfie,

 

and some decent shots of Ginger.

I worked on Thursday and Friday and when I work pictures do not get taken.  Take it up with Michael.

 

I made blueberry pancakes for dinner that night.  Elliott ate 5 of them.

And that is it.  I didn't actually take any pictures on Saturday, mostly because I spent the whole day trying to get the motivation to do something or anything, but mostly just spent all my time bumming around and doing not much of anything.   It was great.

Ancient history: part 2

I am still 2 weeks behind in my blogging.  But last week was a dud as far as activities and picture taking, so I should be caught up lickety split.  Yes, I just said lickety split.

 

This post is about the week of August 10th to the 16th.  I had been home from my trip for 5 days and I was still majorly behind on everything, including sleep.

 

Michael's parents spent the night with us on Saturday (they had watched the kids while we were at the pink flamingo party) so on Sunday morning we went to IKEA for breakfast and shopping.

 

The kids like sitting on the couches, laying on the beds and playing with the office accessories. 

Later on that day we went to the mall to look for a shirt for Spencer for school pictures.  We were all totally into the leather biker vest, but ultimately it was a no. 

On Monday the 11th Spencer wore this shirt that we had bought from the mall.  We didn't buy it for school pictures, but we couldn't resist.

 

He took a selfie too. 

 

Later on that day Elliott followed Ginger around the house trying to cuddle her.

On Tuesday the 12th Elliott and I had brunch with my friend Shannon.  Shannon and I worked with each other when I was in college.  She still lives in Tucson, but I hadn't seen her for 13 years. 

That night I had a really bad headache and the kids joined me in bed to make me feel better.   They didn't help. 

On Wednesday the 13th I made shaving cream paint so Elliott could have a fun project to do while I tried to get dishes and laundry and cooking done.  

 

He also took a selfie that day. 

 

The painting wore him out because he took a beautiful nap that day. 

 

On Wednesday night I got my finished cookie platter back. 

 

I worked on Thursday the 14th and when I got home we had a big rain storm. 

I also worked on Friday the 15th and there are actually no pictures from the day.

 

On Saturday the 16th our friends from Tucson came up for a pool party.  We had 3 families (including ours) and 12 people total staying in our house overnight.

 

The first thing we did was take the kids to the Museum for Youth so they could burn some energy.

 

We wanted to get Elliott's 2 year 8 month picture at the museum because we figured he would be in a really good mood (he wasn't).  He was also wearing the same shirt that  Spencer was wearing for his 2 year 8 month picture (it wasn't an accident). 

 

Spencer

 

Elliott's official 

 

And all the less than official 

 

We also tried in the jungle room, after taking a picture of Spencer in his gear first. 

 

Later on that afternoon everyone went in the pool and played in the backyard. 

 

And ate dinner. 

After the kids went to bed and the grown-ups drank all of the sangria I had the best idea of the day.  We added all of the leftover fruit to the blender, 

 

and made sangria smoothies!

And that is week 2 of my major catch-up!  Week 3 was nowhere near as busy and has about 4 pictures total.