2018 :: week 19

April 29

We are experiencing that approximately the elusive two weeks of perfect spring weather right now and are doing our best to take full advantage. The sun is setting later and we are able to comfortably go for family walks after dinner a few times a week. Sunday Elliott and I stayed home from church because he threw up the night before (he was fine at home all day, but did take a longer nap than usual) and I was feeling stir crazy. That evening we walked or rode scooters around the neighborhood and tried to savor the gorgeous night.

April 30

When Lauren told me she was having a hard time sleeping because he tooth hurt, I initially shrugged it off as a delay tactic to avoid going to sleep. Upon further investigation I saw that her tooth was indeed extremely loose and I was able to pull it out for her. It's fun to watch her grow up and see the young lady she is becoming, but I genuinely felt a little sad knowing that her perfectly-straight-baby-teeth-smile days are over.

May 1

This ended up being a rough week for me. The greenery in the area seems to have exploded and my allergies were in full force, complete with sinus pain and pressure. I got up early Tuesday morning and took a walk around the neighborhood with Will, but after that I stayed inside as much as possible, which was harder than I expected.

May 2

My dad is a saint and came over Wednesday evening after soccer practice to help us get our garden plot ready. He dug out an additional 12 square feet, in the hopes that this year things won't be so crowded. Right as he was finishing up it started to rain. Within half an hour the tornado sirens were going off and we were debating whether or not to go to our basement! It was the first major storm of the year. Side note: Lauren wore a scooter (skirt with shorts underneath) to her soccer practice and it got a lot of attention. Lauren is into very feminine things, but is also very active and loves to be doing things. I love that she is comfortable enough in her own skin to do things her way.

May 3

Elliott's favorite time of day is the thirty to sixty minutes we've been playing at the park after the older kids get out of school. He plays with his buddies Nicolas and Ian (younger brothers of Lauren's classmates Daphne and Breanna) and gets as dirty as possible. Thursday the kids had an early dismissal and Will's friend Porter came over to play for a few hours.

May 4

The older kids had the day off from school due to a teacher work day. Lauren spent much of the day creating little cards and flowers for her friends, teachers and neighbors. Lauren loves to create and her teacher has told me she spends any free time in the classroom at the "art cart" making cards for her classmates. She made flowers and taped Starbursts onto them and wrote cheerful notes that she then put into snack-sized ziploc bags. Because the ones we are currently using happen to have Star Wars characters on them (I got them for 50% off at Target) she told the neighbors she delivered to they were "May the Force (4th)" treats.

May 5

Another busy Saturday. Will's baseball game started 30 minutes before Lauren's soccer game, so it was a divide and conquer morning. As I was loading up the van with post-game snacks--it was our week to provide--I noticed that our right back tire was totally flat. Luckily my mom was planning on coming to Lauren's game and she was able to give Lauren, Elliott and me a ride. After the games Stevie helped us pump up the tire enough to get it to the shop and it was patched in under an hour. Will decided he wanted to start riding a bike again. He had a rough time with his bike last year and had decided he was going to stick to the scooter. The more we pushed him to try the more he dug in his heels. He finally decided the time was right--he was ready to ride a bike again--and he spent hours riding up and down the street and around the block.