2014 :: week 43

October 19

Anthony left for a week in DC immediately after church on Sunday. Off all the travel Anthony does, Sunday travel is by far the worst. TJ travels a fair amount, luckily travel on Sunday rarely happens. The kids and I walked down to the park to pass the time outdoors. We've had some unseasonably warm days recently. The kids swung for quite awhile and I enjoyed the warm sunshine. Lauren likes to (loudly) sing while she's in the swing and sometimes Will joins in.

October 20

We've missed story time at the library for the past three weeks. Monday we finally made it and it was the perfect theme for our kids--"Be Royal." Will loves the Royals and Lauren thinks she's a princess. There were a few stories about royalty and a few stories about baseball. They loved the crowns they made that they decorated with Royals logos. I feel like this picture also demonstrates the personality differences of these two. Lauren walked right in and sat down between two kids she didn't know. Will sat by me for the first 15 minutes until he finally started to edge his way over to the group and even then he stayed on the periphery.

October 21

Lauren is 3! Because the third Tuesday of the month is always our RS meeting (and coordinating the meetings is my church assignment) and Anthony was out of town, I knew we wouldn't be able to celebrate in the evening. I invited a few friends to meet us at the park for cupcakes before I took Will to school. A fun group of friends came and the all three of us enjoyed playing, eating treats and visiting with friends.

October 22

We went to the Plaza for lunch on Wednesday.  I wanted to do something fun and I had been wanting to take a picture of the kids with the blue fountains so to the Plaza we went. We played around the fountain and adjoining field for awhile, then got lunch at Firehouse Subs. Of course Will had to go to the bathroom really bad AFTER we had carried our food across the busy street. Despite the emergency bathroom break, it was a fun outing.

October 23

Thursday was my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. It was truly awful. There had been bits of tension throughout the week, but Thursday is when things got ugly. My patience was thin because I was tired.  I was tired because for some reason the kids have started waking up in the night again. No one slept well the night before and I really wanted the kids to take a quiet time so I could take a nap. They were uncooperative in a variety of aggravating and obnoxious ways. I took this picture because it illustrated an especially frustrating sequence. Lauren pooped in her pull-up, somehow picked up the poop while I was cleaning her, and then when I opened the door to take the diaper out this picture frame fell and glass shattered all over the ground. Thankfully my mom was able to help me feel better about myself and my sub par parenting skills. I'm aware that my problems are small compared to most people's, but while I was living it, Thursday was the lowest I've felt in a long time.

October 24

Friday I put together Lauren's Halloween costume. She told me she wanted to be an elephant. I found a few tutorials online and made them work for us. Lauren enjoyed watching me work until I wouldn't let her use the scissors. Then she antagonized me, tripling the amount of time I thought it would take me to finish.

October 25

Dad's home and we're all excited! And relieved! We had a busy day of pumpkin-patching, celebrating Lauren's birthday, trunk or treating and watching the Royals game. When it was time for bed both kids insisted on having Dad carry them up.