Our Week in a Nutshell

Phew! It's been a loooong week. Andi traveled for work early Sunday morning to Wednesday evening. Typically, solo parenting doesn't bother me -- doing most of the meal prep and clean up, sleep routines and kid entertaining falls on my plate most days anyway -- but once in a while his trips seem to take forever and this was one of them. I must've been low on energy and patience this week because there were several instances I glanced at the clock and thought, "Good lord, it's only 9:30am?" So, I filled our days with as many activities as I could manage ...

Sunday, I carted the kids to Target to pick up bread, butter, yogurt, fruit, baby food and baby water. Basically, the essentials for a functional life with Tory and Aden. Taking two monkeys into Target on a Sunday (okay, one monkey and one nicely behaved boy) was just as much fun as it sounds. We booked it out of the store as fast as possible and made a pit-stop by a local park on the way home because Monkey #1 desperately needed to burn off some energy. We picked up pizza for dinner Sunday night which is usually on the list of things to do when Andi's out of town because A) no cooking = no brainer and B) Andi doesn't like pizza so it's the only time I get to eat it. Anyway, on our drive home from the pizza place, Tory was rambling on in the backseat about something and my nerves were five o'clock frazzled. I can't remember what she was asking me but I said, "Sure, knock yourself out." Tory stopped talking mid-sentence and said in a puzzled voice, "Huh? Knock yourself out?" Ha. Hahahahahaha. I nearly died laughing. Leave it to Tory to lighten the mood. We both laughed and laughed about that one.

Monday, we played in the backyard and I let Tory eat a Popsicle before dinnertime. What's summertime as a kid if you can't sit on the deck and eat a frozen treat in your underwear?

Or, sit in a pool without water because your mother is too lazy to fill it?

Don't let his cute smile fool you -- Aden is suddenly afraid of loud noises and screamed with fear every time an airplane flew overhead or the neighbor tore through his yard on a riding lawnmower ... which, in the case of our neighbor, happens a lot.

Tuesday was our neighborhood's annual kids parade. I like participating in this event because it's a nice way to bring our neighborhood together. It always amazes me how many children live within a few miles of our house, though I never see one of them playing outside on any other day. I wonder where these kids are to befriend Tory and Aden? It's a suburb fantasy of mine to have friends in the neighborhood with whom we get together for barbecues and sit on each other decks and drink wine while our kids play in the backyard. And, okay, it'd be nice to have friends in close proximity to get together for playdates if for no other reason. So, I help organize the annual parade each year and hope to hit it off with some nice mom just like me ... but it has yet to happen. There's other nice moms in the neighborhood; just no one I click with on a "let's hang out" level.

Anyway, the kid's parade was fun. I let Tory wear her favorite princess dress and decorated the wagon to look like a royal carriage. I zip-tied the top half of Aden's baby activity mat to the wagon and tied pink tulle to the bars. Tory was super excited about her princess wheels and we made signs together that said "Princess Tory" and "Prince Aden" for the sides of the wagon. We didn't win the costume contest (seriously, a girl who decorated her bike with tree branches took first place) but Tory, Aden and I still had a nice time walking in the parade together. Wish Andi would've been in town to go with us.

Wednesday morning, I packed a picnic lunch and took Tory and Aden to a free Alphabits kid's concert in a nearby park. It was HOT yesterday, we had to park a mile away and there were definite moments when I cursed myself for dragging the kids there ... but once we arrived and settled onto our picnic blanket, I was so glad we went.

Tory and Aden loved the music and Tory's favorite thing in the whole world are picnics in the park. We ate and danced to Old MacDonald and the Hokey Pokey. Afterwards, we played on the playground equipment for a while. It was one of those moments where I said a little prayer of thanks for having the opportunity to stay home with my kids and do fun things like this during the week.