A Week in the Life - Day 7 (oops, posted a little late)

Ella and I went to a baby shower for our friend, Ellen, today (Saturday... Day 7).  Going in to it, she didn't really understand the concept, periodically asking me if she could write "Happy Birthday" on the card for Aunt Ellen.

She helped me wrap the presents, where the wrapping was fortunately done as gift bags and not wrapping paper.  I say "fortunately" because we didn't have any tape... and we didn't have any tape because days before the kids had used it to tape the steps on the playset together, or whatever purpose the tape was to have served. I laid into her a little bit about this and what a waste it was and then moved on.  We had things to do.

We had five items to put into two bags -- Ella wrapped three of them in tissue paper and put them into the smaller bag, and I wrapped two of them and put them into the bigger bag.  And we both added some tissue paper to the tops of each bag, attempting to mae them look a little prettier.

She had just finished asking me if she could write "Happy Birthday" for the last time when she finally heard that it was a baby shower we'd be going to.

"Are we going to go in the baby shower?" she asked.

"No, you don't go in to a baby shower," I told her.  "You go to a baby shower."

She was confused.  "Do we go into the bathroom and in the baby shower," she asked again.

And I proceeded to tell her again that it wasn't that kind of shower, that Aunt Ellen was having a baby and we were going to her baby shower to celebrate that.  I even told her that we'd be showering her with gifts and stopped going down that path about as quickly as I had gotten on it.  To stay on that path was asking for a lot of questions and pain for no gain -- to Ella, to "shower" is to get wet and clean, nothing else.

Mini Me and Me before the shower

Ella chose her black and white chevron striped tank dress with a hot pink tutu on the bottom to wear to the shower, despite my pleas that she wear this adorable, simple gray dress with a purple stripe across the bottom.  I decided to have fun with this and dressed myself in similar colors -- black tank paired with a hot pink skirt.  Me and Mini Me we were.

On the way to the shower, I learned that we would not have to take the kids to Bowling with us that night.  Halleleijah!  One of Cal's former teachers was available to babysit.  Whew.  That (taking the Leatherkids to Bowling) had disaster and pain written all over it.

The shower was really nice.  Well done, Jennifer.  Good, old friends... yummy food... and plenty of booze.  It was possibly the best shower I've ever been to.  And Ella and Courtney (my friend, Jen's daughter) played really well together.

While Ella and I were at the shower, Dan and Cal played some hoops at home and eventually made their way over to Cal's friend's house for a playdate, the drop-off kind. Cal's at the age where that's okay.  It's wonderful, particularly for the dropper offer.

Since it wasn't my dad coming over to babysit, I felt the need to clean our filthy house.   By the time we got home after the shower, I had about 1.5 hours to do so.  Lucky for me, Dan had already started it, having picked up the kitchen and mopped some of the first floor.

I forget exactly how this went down, but Ella threw the tantrum of a lifetime, which landed her in her room... where she very quickly curled up in her bed and fell asleep. I'll be honest, this made for some easier cleaning -- no distractions, whether the offering-to-help-but-really-hindering kind or the needing-constant-attention kind whatsoever.

Ally arrived at our house right on time.  As soon as he heard the doorbell, Cal dropped what he was doing (he was just finishing up early) and darted upstairs, claiming he had to brush his teeth.  I was suspicious, but maybe.  Cal doesn't get that anxious to brush his teeth EVER.  5-10 minutes later, he still hadn't made his way back downstairs, confirming my suspicions that he was just being shy.  We called for him, and he slowly made his way downstairs, heading right for Dan's shadow as soon as his feet left the last stair.  Ally said "hi" to him, and he hid even more.  His face was red.  So cute.  He is his mother's child.

Meanwhile, Ella had snubbed her nose at the dinner that Dan had prepared for her, partly because she may have still be half sleeping, partly because she was still full from all of the chips and cake she ate at the shower.  She had plopped herself on the couch in front of the TV.

We had an easy exit and made our way to Bowling where I proceeded to have another one of those need-to-ramp-up nights, barely breaking 100 the first game and eventually reaching my average the third.  We had moments of greatness highlighted by Joe's 220-ish in game 1 and moments of not-so-greatness highlighted by Dan's trick bowling, releasing the ball between his legs or around his back, by game 3.

Since we were on the babysitting clock, the four of us made our way back to our house instead of to the next-door restaurant after we finished our match, where we found the kids sound asleep and our last-minute babysitter with a good report; and we proceeded to enjoy some double-dough pizza from a nearby pizza joint and a couple of good bottles of wine.

A Week in the Life - Day 6

It was Purple Day at school today.  Ella wore mostly pink, though she'd tell you that her skirt was purple (it was more pink than purple) and that one of the letters of her shirt was purple (she's wearing her "Birthday Girl" shirt - cracks me up).  She sported her signature "pony braid" with a yellow headband which held her now long bangs back and out of her eyes.  She has a purple headband of the same style as that yellow one but declared she didn't want to wear it.  She just brought it to school for show-and-tell.

All week, there were bags, one per classroom, sitting at the entrance of the school to collect notes that parents would leave for their kids to be handed out to them sometime today, Friday.  There were blank, purple squares and triangles of paper in a basket amid these bags.  I had grabbed two on Monday (one square and one triangle) with the intent of writing each Leatherkid a note sometime during the week.  I wrote them last night and actually remembered to turn them in today.  Once again, that I remembered is nothing short of a miracle.  I really have no idea how I did, with all of the ridiculous clutter and problem-solving constantly running through my brain.  Surely, I've forgotten something else.

As I dropped the cards in the kids' teachers' bags, I had to work around a father who was writing notes for his kids.  I smiled.  I find it comforting to learn that I am not the only last-minute Sally.

Dan and I did catch the "early" train shortly after we dropped off the Leatherkids... barely.  It required my jogging from the car to the pay machine and then to the train.  I don't know that Dan ever ran, but he did walk pretty briskly.

Dan had a couple of big to-dos at work today that kept him pretty busy.  Me, I had several meetings and a couple of minor successes that just made my day.  I also made it outside for lunch with my lunch buddies -- it was 75 degrees, sunny and just not inside.  It was great.  And unusual.  It's rare to take quality time for a lunch break these days.

We picked the kids up and then went out for dinner and not to B-Dubs.  To do so, we had to battle some sadness about not having an i-Pad to entertain them and not watching a movie on Family Fun Friday; but they got over it impressively quickly.  It was nice.  I think it helped that Dan said that we could still watch some hockey when we got home, thinking we'd catch the first period of the Hawks game before sending the kids to bed.

We got home from our day right around 7:30pm, a little over 12 hours after we had left the house to start it.  The kids marched right upstairs, got jammied up and then lay on our bed alongside Dan, who had turned on a hockey playoff game.  Turns out, the Hawks didn't start their game until 8:30pm.  Instead, we watched some of the Capitals-Islanders game, which is almost as good as watching the Hawks in Cal's eyes -- somehow, he's become an Ovechkin fan, which is pretty okay because that guy's legit.  And Ella, I don't know that she even noticed that it wasn't the Hawks -- she's just happy to be a part of the new hockey-at-bedtime routine, which might be surprising coming from the girl who only does things if she wants to and not because everyone else is doing it.

I eventually got jammied up myself and crawled next to them in the corner of the bed where I proceeded to fall asleep.  I remember Dan getting up and putting the kids to bed, but that's about all I remember.  He poked me to move over maybe 25 minutes ago, and it was then that I saw Coach Q was having his post-game press conference.  I guess the Hawks lost 6-2.  Seems that Crawford is having some troubles.

It's been a pretty busy week, one that I think is going to end with our taking the kids with us to Bowling tomorrow.  We just can't find someone to watch the kids.  We even tapped into some former teachers.  That could make for an interesting Day 7 post but hopefully doesn't.

A Week in the Life - Day 5

We dropped Ella off at school today with her dress on forward, meaning, not backwards. It's backwards-day at school.  Shocker.  I wish there were a mismatch day -- she'd kill that one without even trying.

So be it.

Before we got there, I somehow got sucked in to a conversation (if you'd even call it that) about how Duncan Keith likes heath donuts.  "Do you get it Mommy?" Cal asked me.  He's on a big rhyming/play-on-words bit these days.

"Dunkin Donuts... Duncan... Dunkin," he said.  "Only they're not spelled the same way.  Dunkin Donuts is spelled D-U-N-K-I-N.  Duncan Keith is spelled D-U-N-K-E-N."

I was picturing the letters in my head and knew he hadn't spelled it correctly, but I couldn't think of the correct spelling (I'm tired); so I left it uncorrected.  I had to look it up before writing this post.

"Yeah, I get it, Cal," I said.

"And Keith... Heath are spelled the same way," he told me.

"No they're not," I said, "Keith is spelled K-E-I-T-H."  I assumed he knew how to spell heath.

"No, but..." we just continued to argue about it, and I don't even know why or, really, what he was really telling me.  He wasn't necessarily disagreeing with my spelling; he just thought I was missing something, which I clearly was.  I think it's because in between the whole rhyming-spelling thing, Cal went on and on and on about something related, and I just didn't hear what he was saying.  He didn't realize or act like it, but we were in our mad scramble to get out the door.

Turns out, it was a pretty successful morning, except that I skipped my run.  It wasn't that I didn't want to get up early; it's that I just didn't want to run. Before I gave myself that break, I checked the forecast -- cloudy but no rain, near 60.  My plan became to run outside during lunch today.  It was okay to not run in the morning.

Dan and I made it to the earlier train and didn't have to sprint to catch it.  I had another crazy busy day at work that had me (and Dan) catching the latest train that would still allow us to get to the kids' school for pickup before they close at 6:30pm.  I did get my run in at lunch, by the way -- I did my "nostalgia run," which ended up being a little over four miles.  Go me.

Ella was a piece of work just about as soon as we were out the door at school.  She was completely uncooperative, obstinate and declared that she hated us (for making her get in the car).  She suffered some consequences for that and eventually apologized.  "Hate" was added to the list of don't-ever-say words, a list which now includes two words "stupid" and "hate".

There was a lot of parallel tasking going on in the Leatherman house from the moment we got home to the moment the kids hit their beds.  Cal and Dan shot hoops, and Ella eventually made her way out to watch while I fixed dinner.  It was the day 5 meal of the week-of-meals plan I intended to follow this week but only the second meal from it that I fixed.  Dan took the garbage out while I cleared the table and then took the kids upstairs for showers while I put dishes in the dishwasher.  During the second half of showers, I made Cal's bed.  And while Dan got dressed for bed after his shower, I helped the kids brush their teeth.  Finally, while the kids and Dan lay in our bed watching an NHL hockey game (Pittsburg-NY Rangers, maybe?), I put a load of laundry in the washing machine and then eventually got jammied up myself and lay with them in our bed.  Zoe soon joined us, and eventually we each took a Leatherkid to his respective bed and lay with him a little bit more before he fell asleep.  It was maybe an hour and a half to two hours after we arrived home from our days that they were asleep.

A Week in the Life - Day 4

So yesterday I mentioned that we're celebrating a Week of the Young Child at the Leatherkids' school (for Cal, it's his before-and-after-school school).  Every day this week has a theme.  The first day's theme actually escapes me.  That I can't remember could very well be that it didn't really have a theme so much as a thing to remember to bring in -- the kids were asked last week to decorate this outline of a child, and these were due on Monday.  We remembered, which is nothing short of a miracle.  Keeping track of this shit... I mean... stuff is a full-time job in and of itself.

Yesterday's theme was crazy-hair day.  There's not much we could do with Cal's hair; and considering he'd be spending most of his day not at the school where this celebration was happening, it made sense that he not sport some crazy hair.  But Ella... Ella really could have.  The kid wakes up with crazy hair, oftentimes looking like she rubbed the back of her head on a balloon, leaving her hair sticking up all over and ratty.  I had visions of braiding her hair and putting pencils in the braids so they'd stick out... or doing that nutty 5-braid style that she asked me to do a few months ago. Something... anything... crazy, or a little nutty.  But Ella did not want to.

Fair enough.  Today, though... today was wear-your-favorite-sports-team-jersey day.  The Blackhawks would be playing today.  The kids both got Hawks jerseys for Christmas -- Toews for Cal and Sharp for Ella.  It was perfect.  I even announced to them last night that they could wear their Hawks jerseys today.  I said it enthusiastically to instill some buy-in and excitement.  I even hung their jerseys on their bedroom doors.

When Ella told me from her bed that she didn't want to wear hers this AM, I wasn't surprised.  She wanted to wear a dress instead.  I told myself I wouldn't help her get a dress down from her closet rod since she wasn't complying with my one dress-code request, but I helped her anyway.  Pressed for time to get out the door in time to catch my train, I quickly weighed the risks against the principles and quickly concluded that not helping her just wasn't worth the risk.  In the moment, I did not want to deal with any whining or tantrum that might follow should I not get a dress for her.  So I grabbed all of her dresses, threw them on her bed and stormed out of her room, making no point at all.  She got herself dressed.

Meanwhile, Cal showed up in my room in his standard outfit (sweats and a t-shirt).  No jersey.  What?  He gave me some nonsense about saving it for the wear-your-favorite-sports-team-jersey day at his elementary school.

"Wasn't that in March?" I asked him.

"No... I think it's sometime in April," he told me.

I reminded him that we're already halfway through April and that I didn't think he was right; and then that conversation just ended.

Now I was always the consummate participant in school theme days, having participated in many spirit weeks in my junior high and high school days.  That's the only thing I know -- participate... participate... participate.  Be a part of something bigger than me whenever I could.

I'll be honest -- that my kids are choosing not to paricipate in these types of events is disappointing.  On the one hand, I'm proud of them for exercising their free will, for making their own, independent choices that may not be popular.  On the other hand, I think there's something to be said for choosing to participate... for sharing in the celebration of something they have in common with a small group of people in this big world.  I think that's important.  I wonder if they'll be making the same choices 5 or 10 years from now.

Offhand, I don't know the theme for tomorrow.  It's 9:29pm, and I'm on my way home from work.  I stayed late for a happy hour and even later to get some work done but didn't get enough done.  The kids are probably asleep after a long day at school which was topped off with a game night with Dan joining in the fun.  I'll bet they left game night early, went home, got in their jammies, turned the Hawks game on and then lay together on mine and Dan's bed watching the game... falling asleep to the game.

Me, I can't seem to shut my mind off.  It's constantly working through things to do, to analyze or to get answers to at work. So far, I feel like I'm managing it okay and not letting it mix or overlap too much with my family, but nothing is ever done.  And I don't know that sacrificing hours of sleep to try to get work done but to never be done is a good idea.  I think it's my only choice.  I'm happy to do it.  It's a cost of being a part of something big at work.  But I am tired... really tired.

A Week in the Life - Day 3

We left the house at 7:11am today, two minutes later than my target time, a target that reflects my comfort level with catching my target train without having to drive too much like a maniac and without having to make a mad sprint from my car parked in the boonies to the platform to actually get on the train.

As we turned out of the subdivision, I declared, "Okay, we need an efficient drop-off, Leatherkids," and then added, "because Mommy's solo today."  I was solo.  Dan had an audit up in Wisconsin and had already left to get there, not in time, but without having to sit in too much traffic.

My use of the term "solo" threw the kids for a loop.  They bombarded me with questions about it.  "What did you say, Mommy?"  "What does that mean, Mommy?"  "Are you dropping us off by yourself, Mommy?"

"Alone," I responded, now at school and scrambling to get myself and my kids out of the car.  "Solo means alone.  By myself.  Without Daddy's help."

It turned out to be an efficient drop-off.  Cal raced in with a friend of his (Mahima), and this made for a quick reaching of his drop-off classroom.  Ella took her jacket off as we walked and hung it up right when we got to her cubby in her classroom; and then she and I headed to the drop-off classroom where Cal was.  I gave them each a kiss and Ella a hug; and then moved out the door where I turned toward the window to give Ella a "high five in the window."

We started this high-five-in-the-window thing at school.  It's now rampant.  Everyone's doing it.  Unfortunately, we can't not do it -- Ella insists.

I raced to train via the route that we've found is the most reliable -- low traffic and good, responsive lights.  Up the 6-lane highway and turn into the mall before hitting the construction that's been wreaking havoc on commutes for the past couple of years.   It involves a shopping mall, a plaza, a townhome subdivision, some ignored speed limits and a u-turn and is topped off by a back-in-the-spot parking spot in the boonies of a massive commuter parking lot.  I made it in time.

Work was no less busy today than it was yesterday.  I swear, it has been the perfect storm of things to do and think about this week.  At work, there's... well... a crapload of work to figure out how to get done between/during/after back-to-back meetings, topped with 8 interviews to fill positions on our associates' board and goals to construct on which my year-end review will be based.  Outside of work, our school is celebrating the Week of the Young Child, where every day is a theme day that involves something to do and/or remember.  Then there's this art appreciation thing that I volunteered to do for Cal's class, one that requires I do some studying of impressionism and prepare a 20- to 30-minute presentation/activity to teach the kids about it.  It's not this week; but it's top of mind, and I do need to contact Cal's teacher and set up a day to do this before the month ends.  I have to exercise every day, a commitment I made to myself a couple of weeks ago when I was feeling not so good about myself. I have to write a blog post every day this week only because I said I would.  And could the kids possibly bring home any more paper through which to sort?!

I had the kids home in just enough time for Cal to take a few shots at the basketball hoop, change into his swimming trunks, and down a bowl of cereal (yes, cereal for dinner tonight -- I did not make any nof the meals on the week-of-meals plan) before he needed to head back out for his swimming lesson.  It was Dan's turn to take him, so that meant Ella and I would have some quality Mommy-and-Ella time together.

Going into it, I expected to watch Ninjago and fall asleep with Ella in my bed.  (Yes, Ninjago -- I told Cal that he has the coolest sister since she watches Ninjago.)  That's not how it turned out.  Instead, Ella asked me if I'd shoot hoops while she, wearing her flip-flops, watched me. We have a rule that one wear running shoes while shooting hoops, a rule born this past weekend after she tore up the skin between her toes while shooting hoops while wearing her flip-flops. It was a painful shower that night as the water ran over the blistered skin.

So we shot hoops until 7pm and headed inside where I gave her a treat before heading upstairs to get ready for bed.  At this point, I knew Ninjago was out of the picture; but I didn't tell her.  She took a shower -- solo -- as I made the kids' beds.  Ella had pulled the sheets off of hers this AM when she saw that her Frozen sheets were clean; and Cal's... let's just say they needed to be changed... again... ugh.

As she showered, Ella sang Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off."  It was great.  I peeked in on her occasionally, and she was always doing something productive in the shower.  First, I saw her rinsing the shampoo out of her hair.  Second, I saw her lathering up the soap on the rag.  If only Cal did this -- he just likes to stand in the shower and let the smoking hot water roll down his body as he flings it at the shower walls (and over, which annoys me to no end).

She took the no-Ninjago news pretty well.  By now, Cal and Dan were home; so I told Ella I'd put her to bed solo to finish Mommy-and-Ella time while Dan put Cal to bed solo.  Ella chose two books, one for her to "read" and one for me to read... which we did.  And then I lay with her in her bed where we proceeded to fall asleep together.  Thankfully, I woke up 45-ish minutes in and got up to finish this and prepare for tomorrow.

It was another good, albeit crazy busy day.

A Week in the Life - Day 2

We had two potty accidents in the middle of the night last night.  I say "we" because it affects all of us, some of us less than others.  Somehow, I'm the chosen one to deal with them as Dan's sleep just gets interrupted.

"Mommy, I'm wet," said the little voice at the side of my bed.  I don't know how long she was standing there before I heard her.  My eyes found the clock.  1:58am.  I did the calculation -- I had only been asleep for an hour and a half.

I felt her.  She wasn't wet.  I thought maybe there's a chance she caught herself peeing and made it to the bathroom with only some slightly wet undies.  "Did you change?" I asked her.  She nodded.  Bless her heart.  Ella has very vew accidents in the middle of the night and always does what she can to clean up before waking me for help.

We made our way to her room where I felt her bed.  It was soaking wet.  Bummer.  So I stripped her bed, wiped it up and put new bedding on it as she quietly watched me, eager to climb back in and get back to sleep.  Blue Blankie was wet, and she took the news that she'd have to sleep with Pink Blankie instead pretty well.

Bed made, she climbed back in and almost went right back to sleep.  She didn't like the bigger "rainbow blanket" I had put over her, so I yanked it off and threw (yes, threw) another pink baby blanket on top of her.  It barely covered her toddler body.

I took her bedding downstairs to the laundry room, threw it in the washing maching and started it up.  I headed back upstairs where I saw Cal's light still on.  I went in to turn it off when I noticed a circle of pee under his buns (yes, we call butts "buns").  The debate in my head about whether or not to wake him to get this cleaned up didn't last long; so I woke him and told him he needed to change while I changed his bed.  He complied without a struggle.  Bless his heart.  This went pretty quickly, and a couple of minutes later, I was heading down with more bedding to throw in with that which was already being washed.

I didn't wake up with my alarm a few hours later, but I did wake up with just enough time to get my workout in before having to get ready for work.  Really, it wasn't enough time; but the thought of saving the workout for later just didn't thrill me.

Cal came down the stairs, fully dressed and ready for school shortly after I had made my way back up to the kitchen.  Good sign.  Dan followed shortly after and told me that he had hopes of catching the earlier train, leaving me 17 minutes to shower and get ready for work.  I honestly thought I could do it. I'd blame it on Ella asking me to quickly braid her hair (a "pony braid"), but I've gotten pretty good at that and can whip that up in less than a minute.  Needless to say, we probably missed our early train by 5 minutes, really, because I just couldn't get myself up with the first blast of the alarm.  The Leatherkids were great, cooperating fully and complying with our declaration that "we needed an efficient drop-off, Leatherkids," a phrase used often as we barrel down the streets of our subdivision, after a harried departure and with less than a reasonable amount of time to complete the drop-off and catch the train.

Once 9:30am arrived, I found myself in back-to-back meetings at work until 4pm, necessitating that I multi-task during these meetings in order to be productive. I did manage to get some analysis done but need to use some time tonight to finish a few more things up before I start another meeting-filled day tomorrow.  And so it goes.

We picked the Leatherkids up from school at around 6pm. I was on the receiving end of a good report from Ella's teacher.  This seems to be happening on a daily basis now, a complete 180 from a month or two ago when it seemed that every day involved a "Carla, I need to talk to you about Ella," followed by something that Ella had done which was not so terrible but not so good, either.  Moving Ella up to pre-school a few months early is

Ella drew this today!

proving to be exactly what she needed.  She's more involved in classroom activities.  She's applying what she's learning at school at home.  She's interested in letters and cooperating at "mental "exercises, whereas before being in pre-school, she just didn't seem to care.  I told her current teacher that I feel like she's exploding into so many new abilities.  "She's drawing pictures of people... and a cat... and writing words."  I am genuinely excited about this. Her teacher then showed me Ella's list of four words, written by Ella, that describe herself:

"Sharing"

"Cycler"

"Movie"

"Pretty"

And at the the bottom of the paper was Ella's name, written by her in mixed case and with her signature lowercase "a" at the tail.  It's a circle with a hook coming out of it.  And just by the way, she nailed it.  Those words do describe her!  She's a great sharer, loves to ride bikes (whether attached to mine or on her own), enjoys watching movies and is super pretty.

Once home, the kids and Dan went outside to shoot some hoops (again!) while I fixed dinner.  This was the first of the meals on this week-of-meals plan that I had found and for which I had bought groceries yesterday; and it didn't go so well.  First, I chose to make the Thursday meal first, which, it turns out you're supposed to do the meals in order -- my tomatoes were supposed to have been roasted during the making of meal one and saved for meal five.  Second, both my food processor and blender leaked homemade tomato soup as I tried to puree it.  It was messy and took longer than it should have; and we were finally eating our tomato soup and toasted baguettes with cheddar cheese and proscuitto at 7pm.

The kids actually ate the soup and had half of the last donut each for dessert before heading upstairs for showers, books and bedtime.  We're still doing the routine recommended by our pediatrician to help make Ella's bedtimes better.  The routine is working.  So we read to Ella first (we each read one book to her), said our goodnights and headed over to Cal's room where I read one book to him.  I can count on one hand (maybe two fingers) how many times he questioned Ella's getting two books while he only gets one since we started this.  Someday, I'll thank him for that.

Despite its messy start, today ended up being a pretty good day.

A Week In the Life - Day 1

So I thought I'd try a "week-in-the-life" bit this week.  I think it might be foolish.  The primary reason I haven't been writing as much is because the time I might spend writing is spent working more (for work, not for home).  I just checked my calendar, and it's pretty awful through Wednesday.  So be it.  Perhaps I'll just make that part of my week in the life.  I just hope the secondary reason -- writer's block -- doesn't rear it's ugly head.

It's 10:47pm on Sunday, day one of A Week in the Life, and I'm just starting to write this. Great.  Once again, I'll be starting the week off low on sleep with a lot to get done.  I'm going to try to make this quick.

It was my turn to take Ella to her swimming lesson today, the usual first thing that we do on Sundays now.  The "before" and "during" part of that was fantastic. Watching my kid love what she's doing and act like she's just killing it gave me so much pleasure that it didn't seem possible that I'd leave that swimming facility without a smile on my face.  Oh, but I did.  I don't even remember what triggered it, but I took a verbal bashing from Ella in the changing room that left me sad and announcing I'd be grocery shopping today without my usual grocery shopping partner.

While we were gone, Dan and Cal shot hoops.  I love that I can say that now.  Just yesterday, we finally finished putting up our new basketball hoop in the driveway.  Dan worked pretty hard on this periodically throughout the week, calling me in to assist when two hands just weren't enough.  A lot of muscle, head scratching, problem solving and patience went into this.  A lot.

Once we were home, Dan and Cal made a trip to Dunkin Donuts for a dozen and returned pretty quickly.  Since it's Sunday, I ate mine guilt-free.  I decided last week it was time to do my diet-and-exercise program again, and Sunday is my free day to eat whatever I want.  So I do. 

I really don't enjoy shopping and just couldn't get myself to make a plan for dinners and the grocery list that supports it.  So I found a week-of-dinners plan in some "Parent and Child" magazine that Cal brought home from school and just bought what was needed for those.  The list was already made for me, so all I need to do now is follow those recipes.  They seemed reasonable at a glance   And they must be healthy -- the check-out lady at Trader Joe's commented about how healthy my purchase was.  "Right?!" I responded, genuinely excited about it, still not sure exactly what I'd be making.  Later, I saw that I'd be making tomato soup with those 8 roma tomatoes -- oops.

Once I was home, I brought in the groceries and put them away alone while Dan and Ella enjoyed some time at the hoop while Cal hit me up to use the computer.  I told him to get outside instead.  It was too nice not to be outside.

I eventually joined in the hoop shooting, and Dan eventually made his way inside.  Jordan Speith was still in the lead at the Masters, something he had started on Thursday with round 1.  He wanted to see it.

Eventually, Ella declared that she wanted to ride in "this," pointing to the Burley bike seat that we're borrowing from my friend, Jen.  This was exactly what I wanted to hear.  I love riding my bike, and I love riding my bike with my kid(s) in tow.

"Do you want Cal to go, too?" I asked her.  She did and somehow managed to get Cal to want to ride in this thing, too.  (He was still on his computer kick but said he wanted to go.)

So we filled up the tires in my bike and the Burley, assembled it and hooked it up to my bike.  The kids hopped in, and we proceeded to head to the prairie path near our home.

Crammed in the Burley

So, together, they weigh about 100 pounds.  I think that's pushing the limits of this Burley. That and Cal's height -- his head was rubbing on the flap hanging over it.  We may very well have set a record for oldest/biggest kid in a Burley.  Most kids his age are probably more likely to ride their own bikes.

I think I enjoyed the ride.  I was outside, on my bike, spending quality time with my kids.  The "think" part of that is important only because I spent the first 3/4 of the ride listening to them point out all of the dog poop we were either riding over or around.  I corrected them once when we rode around some horse poop, and I asked them a few times why they don't look for birds or dogs or COYOTES.  It was risky that I said that there are coyotes on the path -- I fully expected Cal to overreact and be incredibly scared that we'd actually encounter one.  I don't even think that Ella knows what a coyote is.  But it went over okay, and they were unaffected, still pointing out all of the poop on the path.

There were a lot of potty words and some spitting (I didn't mention that yet) exchanged during our ride; but this ride reinforced the fact that the Leatherkids are friends. Crammed in that Burley, they didn't complain once, laughed a lot and were really just little assholes together.  I'll take that... mostly.

Less than an hour later, we were home; and they were shooting hoops again.  I wished I could have simply watched, but I needed to get involved to do some rule-setting -- they needed to share that... I can hardly stand that we actually have this ball because I really can't stand Calipari, Kentucky and what they're doing to college basketball... mini Kentucky basketball that Ella's former teacher gave to Cal when she heard he... I can hardly stand saying this... told her that Kentucky is his favorite team... bleh.  I've spent many a time at a basketball hoop shooting and passing balls that I'm rebounding -- I don't remember anyone telling me to share them, but I needed to today. A lot.

Jordan Speith did eventually win the Masters. Tied with Tiger for the lowest 4-day score in Masters history.  We all watched his finish, Dan watching intently, Cal and Ella asking questions as he finished.

I eventually fixed dinner while Cal and Dan got some more hoops time in.  Did I say I love that we have that hoop now?  Ella played a bit with them but came back in and set the table for me.  We actually had a pleasant dinner together where the Leatherkids ate all of their food without obnoxiously spewing potty words despite our pleas that they stop, their latest thing to nip in the bud.

We took showers and then lay down as a family on mine and Dan's bed and watched the Yankees-Red Sox game.  (I love that it's baseball season!)  Ella, Cal and Dan fell asleep; and I eventually got up and moved the kids to their respective beds.  It was the perfect way to put them to bed -- no attitudes, no rules, no special requests.  They didn't even wake up.  I think that's a sign that it was a good day.

Dan transitioned his way to his side of the bed, and I made my way downstairs to get some stuff done.  I needed to do some work and to prepare for the week.  It's now 11:42pm.  I think I'll call this one quits for today.

The Park

I'm not going to lie -- I rarely sincerely enjoy our trips to the park. It probably doesn't help that I have a running mental checklist of things yet to get done which naturally adds time constraints to our trips which rarely... strike that... never actually get hit which then oftentimes... strike that... always eats away at my patience.  Actually, I know it doesn't help.  Without that mental checklist and the stress factors accompanying it, a trip to the park might simply be a nice time spent outdoors with some genuinely content and very active Leatherkids.

These were the to-be logistics of this afternoon's trip: walk to the park, play for 15 minutes, walk home.  I still had hopes of getting a run in, and Dan wanted to finish putting up the basketball hoop that we bought last week.  Honestly, so did I.

I got full agreement from the Leatherkids that they'd comply with these guidelines.  But of course I did.

The walk there went exactly as I had expected.  Early on, Cal was looking for a stick to use as his cane for the walk, and Ella couldn't make up her mind whether she wanted to ride in the wagon with her baby or just pull her baby in the wagon herself with no help from me.  She started in the wagon with me pulling (as Cal looked for his stick); and after 17 steps, she was clamoring to get out to walk and pull the wagon herself.

Cal never did find that walking stick and decided he wanted to ride.  Ella was just grabbing the handle of the wagon when Cal stepped in it; and as he was turning to situate himself on the back seat, she pulled.  And he fell out the back, not entirely, just enough to scrape his hands, which, apparently was extremely painful because he exploded into tears.  Ella felt terrible and apologized profusely, shedding some tears herself. I brushed off his hands, where I saw no blood and the smallest of scrapes.  It really could have been worse.

They both got over it pretty quickly, and Ella proceeded to pull the wagon with Cal in it.  He's 50+ pounds now, so this wasn't easy for her (heck, it's not easy for me).  I watched her zig-zag her way down the sidewalk like a drunken sailor.  At what point does one step in and help?  For me, at least during the first couple of minutes, it was when she zagged her way into the grass.  Clearly, she wouldn't be able to get the wagon moving forward again should one of its wheels fall off the sidewalk and on the grass. I needed to push it out.  After a couple of minutes of this, with that mental checklist of things yet to do still going strong, I could barely deal with even the zigs on the sidewalk.  And then I thought to myself, "who's the parent here?  Make up some rules.  Get some control of this." And I made a move to grab the handle.

This was risky -- ordinarily, this might result in a total meltdown.  Not let Ella pull the wagon with Cal in it all the way to the park when she wants to despite the fact that she really can't? How could I even suggest this?

The risk paid off -- without any resistence, Ella hopped into the wagon with Cal, and I pulled them the rest of the way to the park... all 100-ish pounds of them in that plastic wagon.

There were a lot of kids already at the park, which Cal made it a point to announce as we got there. Earlier, I had tried repeatedly to use the excuse that it would be too wet there, that we'd go to the park tomorrow.  It actually had rained a lot recently... two days ago. Surely it still had to be wet.  They didn't buy it. Anyway, once we were there, I reminded them they have 15 minutes and that I'd be timing it.  Yeah, right.  I mean, I was timing it, but... you'll see...

For the most part, the kids are pretty independent at the park, only occasionally needing my help or attention.  Ella needed help with the monkey bars (she can't do them at all), sliding down the fireman's pole (she's just a little too short to reach out to it on her own) and swinging (we are so close to not having to push her).  And Cal only needed help with the... I don't know what it is... handle from which one hangs and slides down a long track from side to side. So every once in awhile I had to cater to their needs; otherwise, I was planted on a bench facing away from the sun, a perfect spot to watch Cal do the monkey bars on his own, which I do truly enjoy.  I especially enjoyed watching him try to one-up the slightly older girls who were also doing the monkey bars.  I don't know if he realized it, but he lost the battle.  Afterall, they could skip bars.

At one point, a couple of other kids hopped into our wagon, the thrilling ride that it is.  Each of the Leatherkids had different reactions -- I watched Ella hand her doll and our frisbee to one of the kids in the wagon before walking away and then Cal taking that same doll and frisbee from the kid and proceeding to push the wagon backwards, I'm hoping not attempting to spill the kids from the wagon.  And then I tried to reason in my head why it is that Ella's so much of a better sharer than Cal is, not unlike how my sister, Erin, and I were (I was not a good sharer).  I concluded that, as the second child, nothing is ever just hers -- she either inherits stuff from Cal or has always had a second person around to use her stuff.

Anyway, as expected, 15 minutes (actually, 15:33 by my timer -- I have my own quirks) became 31 despite my weak attempts at adhering to it.  Oh, I gave a 2-minute warning at 13-ish minutes, which was ignored.  When I announced it was time to go, Ella insisted they have more time.

"Okay, 2 more minutes," I said.

"4 minutes," she came back with.

"Okay, 4 minutes," I agreed, as if she even has any concept of what 4 minutes is.

Disapponted that I had agreed so quickly, she tried, "6 minutes."

"4 minutes," I insisted.  And that was the end of that.

16 minutes later, I announced again it was time to leave and chased them down this time.  I meant it.  This could have gone much worse than it did, and we were at the wagon fairly quickly.  Maybe a half hour is the right amount of park time.

Cal quickly got situated on his seat in the wagon, and Ella insisted she pull him again. Goodness.  My mental checklist was flashing red at this point, as was my patience.  But I let her try.  It didn't take long for her to want to just ride herself; so I pulled them most of the way home from the park, my preference over either one of them doing so for sure, but... they're heavy.  And I was tired.  And I had things to do.

Looking back, I'm glad we went.  It was too nice a day not to be outside and active, and the Leatherkids owned that park.  They really do love it.  And maybe I enjoyed it more than I can even recognize due to it not being on that mental checklist (which happens to have a couple more things checked off of it now).