Breaker, breaker

Lily got some walkie-talkies for her birthday from Grandma Judy. She had wanted them for a while and we're having fun with them. One thing we've done is play hide-and-seek, but each person has one. We played outside the other night and I hid behind the house, which is somewhere Lily would never look. I was able to give her hints to find me.

Lily's hide-and-seek skills have improved considerably in the past year. I've even got her to hide in a room without turning the lights on. The problem is that I'm running out of good places to hide in the house. Our yard isn't very good either. However, I need to remember that kids like repetition, so even if I hide under her bed a dozen times she probably won't get tired of it.

Mowing!

I actually mowed the lawn today. I was a bit thrown off by how it looked. I'm used to a bunch of stiff bermuda grass with the occasional tuft of fescue. However, as a new lawn I have a fairly dense group of blades that lean over when mower wheels go over them. It kind of looked like what happens when you run your finger over a really soft plush toy.

I am told that mowing promotes horizontal growth. I sure hope so!

A Big Whoops

I had class yesterday during the Indians game, but did manage to get in the car before the pivotal fifth inning. Fortunately, you can get 1100 on the radio here once the sun goes down. Once I got home I got the Gameday Audio feed going as quickly as possible. I was too late to hear the Victor Martinez HR, but did get to hear the other damage the Indians did.

Amanda had quesadillas for dinner, and the salsa didn't agree with Noah. He was fussy and spitting up a lot, so of course I grabbed him to take him downstairs. I came up for a glass of water and decided to use my Indians mug instead of one of the A's mugs I have. As I was filling it at the tap on the fridge Noah started to spit up. I don't know what I was thinking, but I dropped the class to catch his spitup.

To make matter worse, I tried to catch the falling mug with my foot. So in the end I had a smashed big toe on my right foot which hurt so much I couldn't sleep well last night, a broken mug, and Noah with spitup on him anyway. The good news is that the Indians kept piling on runs.

I'm really not looking forward to limping around all weekend.

A Big Weekend

We've got a lot going on this weekend. Grandma Judy arrives tomorrow and will be staying until Monday. The Indians are playing the Yankees in the ALDS, and we're going to want to catch those games. Hopefully the Indians will take care of business in 3 games, but stuff happens. Lily has a birthday party to attend on Saturday morning. Of course, there will be church on Sunday as well. Mix in a few activities with Grandma Judy and we've got ourselves a busy weekend!

The good news is that I have a week off from classes. It feels good to be able to catch my breath a little bit.

Getting Braver

Lily had a watershed moment yesterday. We were out grocery shopping yesterday evening and she announced that she had to go potty. I asked her if she could hold it because of the bathroom situation. Lily has always been afraid of public toilets. She doesn't like how the seat is split in the middle and she doesn't like how loudly they flush. Don't get me started on port-a-potties.

She decided that she could hold it. I quickly got our last two items and then went to the self checkout. Lily likes to help and Food Lion has carts with one low basket, so she was helping unload that. The problem was that she was squatting while she did that. Suddenly she exclaimed that she really had to go potty and I smelled something foul. Something crept out a little bit. I asked her if she could make it back home or if she could go on the potty there. She decided to go for it there at the store.

It wasn't the worst grocery store bathroom I've seen, but it wasn't the nicest either. I put Noah down in his bucket on the floor of the handicapped stall and held Lily on the potty. She bravely sat on the edge and let out a very long poo. She took care of business and we were done.

This was a big moment for Lily. Hopefully we're getting past the bathroom phobias. Of course, desperate times call for desperate measures. Keep in mind that this is the girl who held her bladder from about 11 AM until about 7 PM the day we went to the air show.

Bedtime

Lily woke up in kind of a funk yesterday. We were afraid that she was getting sick because she was just acting strangely. I guess this is one of those things where parental instincts kick in and we know when something is amiss. She was also yawning quite a bit, which is unusual for her.

Amanda wanted to have a nap yesterday afternoon, which meant that Lily had to nap. Lily refused to go down for her nap and ended up getting spanked three times for leaving her room. In fact, Amanda had to lock the bedroom door so Lily wouldn't come in. Not good. One of her consequences was an early bedtime.

Through it all we ended up with the best of both worlds. Lily ended up having a very good and much-needed nap, plus I put her to bed around 7:00. She has gone to bed at around 8:00 lately, so this was a good thing for us. What's amazing is that she didn't fight it and she stayed in her room until 7:00 this morning.

Today seems to be going much better. However, Tuesdays are tough for Amanda with dropping Lily off at preschool, getting over to Hope for her small group, getting back to preschool to get Lily, eating lunch, then getting Lily to ballet class. Everyone is ready for a good nap on Tuesdays!

Back in the Groove

It's good to have Amanda home. Lily made it to preschool today and is talking about colors. Amanda and Noah enjoyed a walk in Bond Park and then Amanda did her Bible study lesson for tomorrow. I'm still stuck working from home every day. It is nice in many ways, but kind of a distraction in others.

It's good to have life as usual back.