Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

We had a really nice and enjoyable long weekend.  It is always great to have Matt home for an extra day, and we had a couple of opportunities to hang out with friends which was nice.

Tuesday afternoon my friend L called and said her church group had a couple of extra tickets to see our local Minor League baseball team in action on Thursday night if we were interested in going with them.  Little enjoys watching “throw-ball,” as she calls it, so we jumped at the chance.  After Matt got home from work Thursday we loaded up the kids and headed downtown to the ballpark.  We really enjoyed the game, there just isn’t anything like the atmosphere of a professional sporting event.  The kids did well, and we enjoyed spending time with friends.  We even left saying that we would like to go again sometime; although, it would be nice to go when it is cooler than 95 degrees.

Friday we just hung out around the house and enjoyed being together.  We made a couple of trips to Target and Best Buy to get accessories for Matt’s new toy – an XBox 360 – but otherwise it was a pretty low-key holiday.

Saturday evening a couple of families from church came over to cookout.  The kids loved playing Wii, and the adults enjoyed some time to chat and catch up.  It was pretty crazy around here, with seven kids 10 years old and under, and quite noisy, but I think everyone had fun.

It was a pretty busy weekend (by our standards), but a good one.  And best of all?  Boo has given up his second nighttime feeding – one down, one to go!

Enjoy the day with family and friends.  Enjoy the cookouts and swimming and fireworks.  Enjoy celebrating our country and our freedom.

Have a great weekend!

So, as I related in my last post, we had a wonderful time last weekend with family.  It was not, however, all smiles and giggles. When you have two parents who prefer to be close to home, you end up with two children who prefer to be in their usual environment.

The kids travelled remarkably well.  Boo slept most of the trip, and Little sat in her carseat and talked and played the whole time.  Yep, you read that right, she talked the whole trip.  She is her mother’s daughter.  They made the trip home nicely, too.

The problem arose from being out of routine for four days and being with strange people people we don’t see often.  I’m not a strict scheduler (although, sometimes with Boo I wish I was), but we do have a definite pattern and rhythm to our days.  The kids know when we’ll eat, when it’s naptime, who we’ll play with, etc.  I also have two children who sleep in their own beds, in their own rooms, and in the dark.

All of this was thrown out of whack while we were travelling.  Because of the number of people involved, mealtimes were somewhat sporadic.  Because of the laid back nature of our visit, naptime would sneak up on us.  And because of space issues, Little slept in the room with us.

She was totally thrown off by the fact that Boo and the sun rise before 6 o’clock a.m.  Waking up at 5 one morning, 5:30 the next, and 5:45 the last made for one irritable girl well before her normal naptime.  Add to the mix that there were 4 children age 3 and under and 10 adults living under one roof with another child (age 5) and several other adults coming in and out, and Little was having a tough time with overstimulation.  She did wonderfully the first couple of days, but by Sunday she was definitely ready to be in her home with only her Mommy, Daddy, and brother.

Then there was Boo.  His tummy trouble that was aggravated by something(s) I ate; the poor guy was crying in pain on Saturday, and there wasn’t much we could do to comfort him between doses of medicine.  He also decided that it was a good time to attempt learning to suck his thumb, so I don’t think he slept as well as usual because he was knocking his paci out of his mouth and waking himself up.

Overall, the children behaved well and were in good spirits, but there was enough crankiness to make me glad we don’t travel again for awhile.  Or, maybe I was the one who was overstimulated and cranky; I know I was happy to get home Sunday as well.

For the last 20 or so years, Matt’s grandparents have lived on about 50 acres of land outside of Nashville.  Several months ago, they decided that the house and land were too much for them to handle any longer and put the place up for sale.  This is bittersweet for all of us.  We understand that this is the right thing for them to do, but we will miss the place; it holds lots of memories for everyone.

Fast forward to last weekend.  Matt and I wanted to take the kids and visit his grandparent’s again before they move.  Matt’s brother and sister-in-law wanted to visit too, so we decided to try to be there at the same time.  As it ended up, Lu and her family were able to come to town as well, so we had a bit of a family reunion.

We spent the weekend relaxing, chatting, and laughing. Sitting on the screened porch (in the comfy swing, of course) was bliss.  Catching up with family that we don’t get to see nearly as often as we would like was wonderful.  Having the opportunity to meet our newest nephew before he’s a year old was great.  And, of course, it was nice to make a few more memories (and pictures) at the “old homestead”.