The Week of Inconveniences

Micah's been going through a new phase where he either forgets what we've told him to do, or outright refuses to do it. He's also started deliberately....doing....things....as....slowly....as....possible. It's maddening, especially when you're trying to get out the door in the morning.

Aerin has been learning several new words. This week she started saying "mommy" which I'm pretty sure is the only reason we decided to keep her. She's been incredibly irritable and whiny, to the point I had the doctor check for an ear infection on Wednesday at her 18-month checkup. We think maybe she's starting on her two-year molars? Anyway, she's totally unpredictable. One minute she's laughing, the next she's crying. Bipolar baby is bipolar.

Tuesday night our downstairs heater blew a fuse. Fortunately, it was fairly warm and we didn't freeze. But that meant someone had to be home the next day to meet the repair guy, because we didn't already have enough stuff scheduled for Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, my stress level hit maximum and I lost my shit with everyone in the family and screamed at each one in turn. It was definitely one of my finer parenting moments.

Thursday, the daycare called to tell me that Aerin has pinkeye again.  I posted about it on Facebook, and a few minutes later, my sister (who had watched Aerin for me the evening before) texted me. I was still in full-on YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME mode.



Thursday was also the last day of one of my favorite teachers at the daycare. She took care of Micah when he was a baby and has also taken care of Aerin. Her husband retired on December 30 and they'd planned to move back to Louisiana this weekend to be with her family and be closer to their children. I used to go every day at lunch to nurse, and she and I would chat while I was there. It's been a while since I've been over just to hang out, so on Wednesday I bought the teachers in Aerin's room lunch and stuck around to eat with them and catch up a bit. Yesterday, as I was picking Aerin up to take her BACK to the doctor, I gave the teacher our gift and told her goodbye, and there were tears. I'll miss her an awful lot.

This morning was actually a perfect morning.  Todd had hockey, but everything just went so well and the kids were ready to go by 7:45.  I left them playing happily upstairs while I went to load the car and...wait...where are my keys?

Turns out, my keys were in Todd's car.  Which was in Huntsville, where he had just sat down to have a nice breakfast with some friends.  So he had to ditch them and drive the 30-minute trip back to our house, just so I could get Micah to his class on time.

I was supposed to get a spare key made today, but realized upon arriving at the daycare that my phone and wallet were still in the diaper bag at home.  So I decided that, really, this week should just be scrapped before something bad happened.  And I gave up.

The end.

Perfect!

They climbed in here all by themselves. When I saw them, I did what any loving parent would do.

I locked the cage door and told my husband we were going out for dinner without the kids.

Christmasy Things

There was the counting down...



...and the neighborhood luminaries.



We decorated things...







...and people.





There was outdoor ice skating. In Alabama.





We had family come to visit, some as late as Christmas Eve...



...and we made cookies for Santa.



Reindeer food was made and scattered in the yard, Christmas movies were watched, cookies were put out, and Christmas stories were read.



Then two tired children were put to bed so the equally tired parents, grandparents, and great-grandparent could assemble the everliving shit out of some seriously complicated toys.



Then Santa stopped by and left a bunch of really cool things.



Seven hours later, the adults got tired of waiting for the kids and went upstairs to wake them up to see what Santa had brought.



(As soon as Micah saw the trains, he was done. Turns out Santa could've stopped with those, and Micah would have been just fine, thank you.)



(Aerin was equally enamored of her cat. It doesn't try to bite or growl when she squishes it.)



Then many toys were played with, many presents were opened, and much fun was had.





And that was December!