Tuesdays

I used to like Tuesdays. Tuesday was our night off... home together with nothing to do. Now, Mark works late on Tuesdays and doesn't get home until 7.

I pick Kate up from Miss Marilyn's and then, I have to get creative about what we do. It is SO hard to keep her happy, keep the house clean, cook dinner, all while waiting for Mark to get home. I seriously don't know how single parents keep it all together. You are my heroes!!

It's like she knows Daddy is coming home soon, and on Tuesdays, she has to wait so long for him to show up. It makes for a whiny, cranky girl. Not to mention she tears the house APART and I am just one person chasing after her.

All that to say, Tuesdays stink for us.

So, I came up with a plan. All of my "running around" will be done on Tuesdays. Kate LOVES being out and about, waving at strangers, and pulling things off the shelves. It's a win-win situation. I get my stuff done, she's happy, and I don't have to worry about getting through that crazy time of the day waiting for Mark to get home to HELP US OUT!!! I plan a simple dinner that can be thrown together and we just eat late that night when Mark gets home.

This past Tuesday, we had a bunch of stops to make. We got stuck in the rain at Target, so we camped out at the Starbucks for a little while and split a chocolate chip cookie.

And, here she is on the way home from that trip.

Pay special attention to the details: a bulging diaper, no shoes or socks 'cause she pulls them off the minute she gets in the car, her carseat straps that are still loose from the winter coat days, and her disheveled hair... but, she's just chillin'.

How that is comfortable, I will never know!

This Tuesday, we are heading to the Washington Riverfront trail to do some walking... the weather is supposed to be GREAT this week!!

I think Tuesdays are looking a little brighter around here...

Sky Zone

Mark's company has a New Year's party instead of a Christmas party. It was last Tuesday at Sky Zone. If you're not familiar with Sky Zone, it's a big rec center type place made up of trampolines.

The party was catered and I had a great time meeting everyone he works with. There was a little "Toddler Area" for kids two and under. Kate is a pretty rough and tumble kinda girl, so we knew she would love getting bounced around on the trampolines.

It took her awhile to get warmed up, but when she did... she was all over the place. And, when other kids got on there and bounced her little body all over the place, she was more than thrilled!

Her favorite was when I would chase her all around the trampolines.







See how her buttons are undone on her overalls?

That's how hard she was playing. Buttons were popping all over the place!



It took awhile to get her off of there. She kept running away and then looking back, smiling.



Once we finally caught her and took her off, she screamed, cried, arched her back, and ran away from us. Tantrums like this are an everyday occurrence these days. She got so mad today that she picked up the remote and BIT it!! What point that proved? I'm not sure. But, I'm sure it made sense in her head.

But, then, you see a picture like this...



... and you forget all about those yucky tantrums.

No Help At All

Note to self: When you take a baby to school with you to actually get work done, no work actually happens.


OK, so I did get some work done, but with many, many interruptions.


For instance, picture this....


I am cleaning off a little shelf and there was a ziplock bag full of straws on the floor. Kate comes crawling over (at top speed, I should add) and grabs the bag, throwing it over her shoulder, sending at least a hundred straws flying out of the bag all over the carpet.


OK, I can handle that. Pick them up, move on, not too much time wasted.


However, next I take some time to organize some books by size in a basket and get them all ready for my students. I put the basket in place (on the floor... see my stupidity already?) in my classroom library and admired my work. Ten minutes later, Mark calls me to come back in the classroom and look at Kate.

This is the scene:

(These pictures were taken on Mark's phone, so the quality isn't that great, but you get the idea.)

Kate is taking each book out ONE by ONE and casually tossing it over her shoulder, not even giving it a second look. Her main goal was to empty that basket, and empty that basket she did... twice. The second time, I thought we were safe. She was in her pack n' play, but when she got out, she headed right to those books. She was so cute, that I just let her do it. Besides, she was having so much fun doing it, and was so serious about the whole thing.

What's an extra twenty minutes to put it all back together anyway, right?