Notes on the weekend. And some pictures.

So I am aware of what day it is today, but only because it’s Monday.  I know I don’t leave the house to work anymore, but Mondays still punch me in the gut.  Maybe it’s because the weekends are usually harried and crazy or maybe it’s because in those two days I lose my routine and somehow get used to having another person to help wrangle children so I’m not outnumbered.  Whatever it is, Monday always comes along and knocks me down.

I think it does the same thing to the children, which would explain their behavior today.

But luckily they are both in their beds now and at least one of them is sleeping.

This weekend we house sat for Chris’ parents and took care of their dogs.  I don’t do well out of my own space for extended periods of time and this was no different.  All I wanted was my own bed, no matter how lumpy and lopsided it was. 

They were nice enough to buy us some food and wine to have while we were there, which was great.  I think we all especially enjoyed the ice cream. 

But the days were too stagnant.  It wasn’t my house so I couldn’t go organize something whenever I had some free time (Ha!  Because I do that all the time at home!)  Though I’m sure Chris’ mom would have let me organize whatever I wanted to. 

The worse part happened about 1:30 Friday evening (or morning, I guess.)  I had yet to fall asleep in spite going to bed hours earlier.  It was just one of those things, I guess.  Unfortunately sometimes that happens to me. 

And also, apparently, to Adele.  She woke up mad.  I tried nursing and laying her down in a bed with me, singing, everything!  There was no rocking chair so I couldn’t rock her, not that it would have helped anyway.  After an hour of that I woke up Chris because I was about to lose my mind.  But even though he took her I still couldn’t go to sleep and ended up just getting back out of bed to help. 

And eventually, EVENTUALLY AT 4 A.M., he convinced me to just lay her in bed and let her cry. 

And so I did.

She was asleep in about 20 minutes.  So that means that I finally went to sleep for the night around 4:30.  Luckily, thanks to Chris, I was able to sleep in until 8:30.  But holy crap that was awful.  And I don’t think either Chris or myself have recovered fully yet.  The whole situation brought back memories of just a few short months ago when Adele was doing that about every night.  So when she started crying Saturday night around 9:30 I didn’t even go into the room and she stopped after about 15 minutes.  Me trying to comfort her just seems to draw out the entire process.    So I think I give up.

Chris’ parents do have this awesome outside pizza/bread oven that we used on Saturday.  You have to build a fire in it.  We loaded the first two pizzas down a little too much and so we couldn’t get them off the paddle and onto the hot stone in the oven so we had to cook them on a pan.  But after that I made a calzone and it worked perfectly.  It tasted so good, much better than the pizza.  And the kids loved it, too.  But like anything detail-oriented that you try to do with two kids, it was stressful.

Chris was building and watching the fire, so he couldn’t manage children that well.  Adele was crying and whining because she was tired and hungry, and I was making pizza dough and layering ingredients.  Sebastian was okay, I think, just wandering around checking on both of us.

That little boy did fantastic there.  He spent most of his time outside, which was so great because we can just let him go and not worry about him, just maybe check up on him every once in awhile.  They have a swingset that he loves and he taught himself to swing on the big swing, the two-seater one.  He had lots of little toys that kept him occupied for long stretches of time, much more so than at home. 

Yes, today we were back to him following me around, not being able to play in his room without me right by his side, wanting to be right by me every single second of the day, not wanting to go outside unless I go with him. 

I’m trying to be patient and enjoy this time that he wants his mom to hang out with him.  But man, GIVE ME SOME SPACE, SON.

(Weekend pictures)