Stomp

I had a late evening at work yesterday that kept me from getting home until 7:00. When I got home I found Lily and Amanda watching "Stomp" thanks to the Roku. There's nothing quite like watching one of your children laugh hysterically. She thought it was really great. Of course, some of the humor went over her head, but that's OK.

She was very upset when it was 8:10 and she had to go to bed with no card-playing. She still doesn't quite have a good sense of time, but instead things in terms of activities. I think in her mind she watched a video, should be able to get ready for bed, and then do what she normally does before bed. We got through it though. We still deal with the occasional hysterics, but usually we just get a scowl and some whining before she is resigned to whatever fate she has been assigned.

It seems that our years of not backing down are starting to pay off. As I watch how some folks at my office deal with news I think learning to accept unpleasant decisions is a life-skill she will very much appreciate someday.

Fundraiser

Lily's school had a fundraiser at Chick-Fil-A tonight. I'm not sure what the cut was, but we filled out a little card with her information and some portion of the take from tonight will go to her school. Her gym teacher was there serving drinks when we got there. He spoke very well of Lily.

We had our usual high-quality Chick-Fil-A meal, but the atmosphere was lacking. I have to think that we were breaking some fire codes in that restaurant. Noah had a meltdown while I was waiting in line to get dessert. Lily got upset at the end because she saw some of her friends in the play area and wanted to play with them. We realized that we had to get out of there both for the common courtesy of freeing a table and because Amanda and I were ready to freak out.

I've been in Lily's cafeteria and that is way more orderly than what we experienced tonight. No matter what we got a good meal out of it and Northwoods made some money. The fact that Chick-Fil-A sponsors these events is reason #859 to eat there, I think.

Spa Treatment

I had a little bit of a surprise when I came to bed Tuesday night. My side of the bed smelled very strongly of Bath & Body Works lotion. It seems that Lily and Amanda gave each other spa treatments. Lily likes having her feet massaged. She also likes the little wood "happy massager," but she doesn't like having it pressed on her too hard. She'll work up to it.

Amanda is a very proud mommy.

Playing Cars

Noah did something kind of funny yesterday. Amanda usually plays with him for a few minutes between the end of lunch and his nap time. He decided that he wanted to play cars. While she may not enjoy it quite like the tea parties with Lily, she was happy to play cars with Noah. Noah led her downstairs and she figured that he had some cars down here that they could play with.

It turns out that he wanted for her to play some Burnout. That was definitely not going to happen. It does warm my heart that Noah enjoys it so much. When I restart a race or a crash event Noah always asks, "We try again?" It's very cute to see him sitting on the couch in rapt attention holding a PS2 remote that isn't plugged in.

Block Party

We hosted a fairly informal block party yesterday. Our church encouraged us to do something to get to know our neighbors since it is impossible to love those you do not know. We had maybe a third of the houses in our street represented. Many folks were out of town. Two households dropped by when they got back from their trips just to say hi. It was good to talk to some people that we have lived near for 6 1/2 years, but never really got to know.

Amanda came up with the theme of a chili cookoff. We had a total of 4 pots of chili, including ours. As you might expect, some were better than others. Nevertheless, it was a good time. I think it's something we may try to do next year as well. We need to recover from this one first though.

Noah did have a little bit of a rough patch in the middle. He somehow found his way into the backyard and got stuck. Amanda had to rescue him. It still amazes me at how quickly he recovers from small traumas like that compared to Lily. The boy is resilient.

Long Night

Thursday night was a very long one. Noah kept waking up crying. I got up a couple of times and Amanda did as well. She ended up bringing him into the bed with us. It wasn't a big deal for me, but he kept snuggling up to her and kind of pinching at her to make sure she was still there. He slept for a couple of hours.

We knew when he woke up because he started crawling around our pillows. He saw us sleeping and asked, "Are you feeling sick, daddy?" and, "Are you feeling sick, mommy?" I put him back in his crib and he cried yet again. This time we gave him a few minutes and he settled down.

The strange thing is that he wasn't sick yesterday. We're not sure what happened, but it wasn't a good night. Fortunately last night was much better.

Day Off

I apologize for the lack of updates this week. My morning schedule has been disrupted and if I don't blog before work it generally doesn't happen.

We all had the day off for Veterans' Day yesterday. I took a jog in Hurricane Ida, which was an interesting experience. Afterwards I got cleaned up and took the kids out shopping. We went to Big Lots and got some stuff for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Then we went to Crabtree Valley Mall to look around and do some tea shopping at the Teavana store.

Noah is just adorable at the mall, though he is also kind of a pill. He doesn't like to have his hand held. But if I don't hold his hand he gets very easily distracted and doesn't keep up. He can be pretty high-maintenance at times, but I'm still very glad to bring him. Lily seemed to have fun too.

Lily's friend Ruby came over in the late afternoon. Amanda baked them some scones that she had in the freezer and they had a little tea party. The two of them get pretty rambunctious together. It's not so much that they fight (though that happens), but that they just work themselves up into a frenzy as they play. I do think that they both had good times though.

Back to work for me today. It's a little strange having Wednesday off, but I'll take it.