I hope everyone had a nice, joyful day with their families. Ours has been a day, alright. It feels like a bunch of different days wrapped into one, but here’s how it went . . .
By the time I got the house picked up and the baskets done, it was after midnight. I stumbled into bed, and then up again at 6 a.m. We managed to get everyone up, dressed in their finest and out the door in time for the 8 o’clock service. I think the early service is the key. We didn’t have to get there an hour beforehand to get a seat, no parking issues or crazy full nursery (our church has close to 5000 members, so busy is busy). Elena sat with us and got to enjoy the orchestra and the choir. Beautiful service and we were home by 9:30 to see what the Bunny left:
You can’t really see it, but Elena got a small bird kite in her basket. Later in the morning she was outside trying to fly it. When she came back in she informed me that she had a name for the kite: Freebird. That alone made me snicker, but then she kept running around the house shouting "Freebird! Freebird!" I see her 14 years from now, at a concert . . .
Eli seemed pleased with his basket as well. Contrary to what Mike thinks, this is a BABY toy, not a DOG toy. Even if it does squeak when he chews it.
Everything bears the possibility of being food to Eli these days. I love his face when he can’t figure out if it’s food or non-food. I’m pretty sure he’s chalked paper up to the food category and that he thinks it tastes vastly better than some of the other things we’ve offered.
For the first time since I paid someone to do it for me, I have a good picture of the kids together! Enjoy it, because it will probably be at least another 7 months before this happens again . . .
All of the above took place before 10 a.m. After Eli’s nap we headed over to my sister’s boyfriend’s parent’s house . . . did you get that? They were kind enough to invite us over to their big shindig, since my parents are out of town right now. I don’t know if it was all the sugar, or the fact that she’s been going to bed too late and up too early, but Elena was driving. me. insane. I know I have a pretty low tolerance for general kid misbehavior/antics, but today she was the kid everyone couldn’t wait to go home.
We’re not a spanking family, so I have no idea where this came from, but it got a good laugh. On our way to lunch, I tried my pro-active positive parenting skills. I went through the kinds of behavior that was expected as part of being good guests, yada yada. Elena was informed that if she couldn’t be a good guest, her Easter basket would be put up as soon as we got home. Fast forward to the beginning of the meltdown:
Me: Elena, you’ve been asked to stay out of the garage. What did we say would happen if you couldn’t behave?
Elena: I’d get a time-out?
Me: Nooooo.
Elena: You’d slap me?
Mike was all excited to finally be home on a Sunday evening to play in a big poker tournament they always have on Sundays on FullTilt. He was doing well when out of the blue a nasty stomach bug hit him. So now he’s out for the count. You know he’s feeling really bad when he goes all in on a bad hand just to get out of a $200 tournament. So I’m off the slather myself in germbusters in hopes that I don’t get his cooties.
