It's Friday Already?

This week has flown by in a whirl of bananas and sippy cups. No, actually, it's just kind of surprising that it's Friday already.

On Tuesday, Mom visited with P's youngest son. P and his wife are separated and Mom helps P out on the weeks when the kids are with him. P's two oldest children are teenagers and pretty much do what they please. His youngest, E, is 9 and therefore needs more adult companionship and he loves his Nana, so it's all working out. Mom and E came over a couple of weeks ago and it went really well. The Muffins love E and had a great time playing with him. E had a great time playing X Box once the Muffins went down for their nap. So Mom decided a repeat performance was in order. Well, the Muffins were thrilled to see E and he was thrilled to play X Box (although this time the kids were awake and wanted to help E play - it was really rather cute). In an attempt to get out of the house for a bit and play the role of Cool Aunt, I suggested an ice cream run. E was all for it. Off to ice cream we went. E was sitting in the back of the van, enjoying his Moose Tracks, when I decided to pick up a Diet Coke on the way home. Mom, convinced E doesn't eat enough, had me pick something up for E. Well...he was all for that, too, and pretty much discarded the ice cream upon receipt of usually taboo french fries.

When we got back to the house, I had to round up Little Dog and tuck him away since Mom had to come in the house. While I was doing that, Mom let E out of the back of the van, P (who was in town and decided to meet us at my house to pick E up) got #1 out of his car seat, and Mom got #2. P, E and I visit for a while and Mom rushes off. Meanwhile, M calls and asks to come over. Welcome to my home. Also known as Grand Central Station. I tell M she can come over and she does. Eventually, P and E leave and J comes home from work. I whip up quiche and green beans for dinner and M takes her leave. J and I eat, feed the kids and hop in the van to go grocery shopping. At the stop sign at the end of the street I turn around to smile at #2 and see E's ice cream cone and dish and dirty napkins all over the back seat. Melted. Gooey. A mess. We turn around and J spends the next 20 minutes cleaning up the mess while I wipe up #2 who decided that she was a fountain and was spitting up (is it still spit up once they're not babies anymore?) every few minutes (and man did it reek). OK, mess cleaned up, baby periodically wiped down, groceries purchased. That was Tuesday.

M came over again on Wednesday and I took advantage of her visit to run some errands and get some packages off that I hadn't had time to send yet. I love you, UPS Store. I love that I don't need to package anything, that you'll measure and carefully pack and ship my items for a fee. The convenience is so worth it. I also did loads of baby laundry and realized that I could utilize the furniture in the guest room to store said baby laundry. (Because, you know, just shoving the baskets of folded - at least it's folded! - laundry in the room, while it did work for me, kind of led to a lack of available laundry baskets.) Wednesday was a rather productive day, all in all.

Yesterday was a long day, but I whipped up a great tofu casserole for dinner and, for a change of pace, I made cookies in the evening and called C up and had her come over to spend the night. The kids love it when C comes over. It was good visit and the cookies were yummy, as always. I had a difficult time falling asleep last night and then, just as I was dozing off, the power went out for more than two hours. I really couldn't get to sleep then. The ringing in my ears was louder than ever and the house was too quiet. J couldn't sleep either so we went downstairs and sat and waited. He finally gave in and went upstairs to wait it out. I relaxed on the couch and waited and waited. The power finally came back on about quarter to 4 and I was able to get some sleep. C slept peacefully, completely unaware of the power having gone out at all.

#1 learned a new trick today. In our living room, we have a four-shelf barrister bookcase. Having quickly explored the bottom two shelves by banging the doors incessantly and trying to push the books in, we removed the books and the doors to those shelves. He's working on the third shelf, too, and I think that'll most likely be gone by the end of the weekend. So tonight, relaxing in the living room, I hear a little hand slapping on wood and some heavy breathing and a little grunting. Being able to ascertain that no one was hiding in a corner discreetly pooping, I quickly figure out that #1 is somewhere near the bookcase. Well, I was mostly right. He was actually up in the second shelf. And he couldn't figure out how to get down. So we did what any good parent would do. I ran for the camera, and the battery died on me the moment I tried to snap a picture. I flipped open my cell phone only to be greeted with the message that my memory card if full. So J jumps up for the camcorder and records #1 in the bookcase as he tries to figure out a way out. He didn't. J helped him out and he proceeded to get up on the shelf four more times before the night was through.

My goal for tomorrow is to attack the unfinished part of the basement to clean it up and organize it with the ultimate goal of beginning work to clear out the finished part of the basement in the hopes of redoing it over the next few months. Sunday we're off to this and then out to dinner with P.

And then I'll be saying, it's Monday already?