Good Mom Day

Otto and I had a little surprise when we came home from dropping Lincoln off at school this morning! Our armadillo was out! We've known that there's an armadillo in our yard - he/she has about 4 dens in different locations, but I had never seen our little lawn digger because they're typically nocturnal. Well, not today. It was just wandering around the driveway and the front of the house! Otto was fascinated! And Lincoln later named him Freddy when he saw the pictures. After it went to bed we went in and I set up an activity for him.

He worked so hard scooping and pouring rice, sorting leaves and using magnets to get little discs out. Of course when he announced he was done (after a whole half hour which is a LONG time for him!) he noted that he had made a mess. I suggested he go get his vacuum and he immediately retrieved it and set to work vacuuming up all the rice! High five to me on the kid clean up success! By the time he was done with that it was perfect timing to head to the library for story time!

We haven't been in a while but I've been wanting to get back into it with him. He did so well, listened very carefully to the stories, loved the puppet show and then after he watched all the kids and didn't even hit or bite anyone when they took things he wanted to play with! He also found all the stuffed animals and had a blast playing with them. Before we knew it it was time to pick Lincoln up and Otto took a short nap. The afternoon went pretty smoothly until the witching hour - which is this house begins pretty promptly at 4:30. There were sillies and whining and fighting and sillies and I'm not going to sugar coat it...my good momming ended shortly after all that nonsense started. To say I was done by the time Kyle got home would be a massive understatement. I barely recharged enough to get through bedtime but we made it. These days, even when they're full of highlights are long!

WHAT IN THE...

Folding laundry strikes again! Sooo, any guesses? I was getting ready to go to volunteering. I was already scheduled to be late so I was folding a load when I walked into the kitchen to find this...

Yep, that's a little boy and a puddle of syrup on the floor - a brand new, formerly un-opened bottle of syrup just dumped everywhere and of course he was sticky from head to toe. I immediately picked him up and put him in the tub gross pull-up and all then tried to figure out how to tackle the GIANT mess. I went back to check on him and found this

happy little creature floating in the tub and singing to himself. At least he was contained and content so I could clean up some more. As I scooped, and wiped and washed Lincoln came in and casually reported that Otto was emptying the tub onto the floor. He wasn't lying. There was about a quarter inch of standing water covering the entire back half of the bathroom. It took about 6 towels to sop it all up. This kid is out to get me!! As far as the weekend, Friday the 13th amazingly past without any major craziness although I'm pretty sure I paid the price today!! I crashed out before the kids did on Friday night and on Saturday morning we said bye to Susan since she headed home after over a week down here. Kyle was a worker bee out in the yard taking 2 loads of lawn stuff to the dump and I managed to tackle a couple "get on it already" tasks that have been hanging over my head for a while now. Over all it was a very successful weekend that left us with a yard that looks 1000x better than it did! I finished up by mowing this morning, and then, well...it went downhill from there! I'm still in disbelief. Honestly, I have to stop and take pictures of these things because no one would ever believe this stuff! Hope your day was a little less sticky but just as sweet! Hahaha!

Swim to Sleep

Today was kind of a busy one. Otto and I hung out this morning cleaning up around the house a bit then we got ready and picked Lincoln up from school and went straight to the Y. Lincoln had swimming lessons with Ms. Jessica and I swam with Otto. We all swam for about an hour - Lincoln got to do a lot of silly playing and by the time we got home he was out cold! He went straight into his room and zonked right back out on the floor, where he stayed for a couple hours. I ended up volunteering tonight to help out because they were short handed. This week has been moving at kind of a weirdly slow pace for some reason. I'm ready for the weekend to get here!!

Busy is Better

I've been continuing to work hard to give Otto productive things to do in the mornings to try to get some of the very messy urges out of his system before his afternoon destructive streak kicks in. Today he helped me to set up some water beads and waited so patiently to play with them after they'd grown this afternoon. It was no easy task to hold Lincoln off to let Otto use them first. Of course by the time everyone had a turn there were little broken beads all over, but it held their attention for a while. Nora's been enjoying doing some momwork when she gets home from school too. Keeping them busy seems to curb the fighting.

Whoops!

we dropped Susan off at the airport today to pick up a rental car so she could head to Port Charlotte to visit for a few days before heading back to Ohio. The original plan was for her to come back up on Saturday morning and go straight to the airport to fly home...BUT when looking for something else I came across this very important item. She wasn't going to make it far in Ohio without her car key! Luckily I found it while she was still in the state and far enough in advance to make an adjustment in plans relatively easy. Looks like we'll get to see her again before she leaves on Saturday!! Also, Happy Anniversary to my mom & dad!! Hope it's all romantical!

Cream!!

I was determined to quench Otto's need for messes this morning so I gave him some shaving cream and a few toys out in the backyard and let him get to work. And work he did! He was all about it! When Lincoln got home Otto was sure to tell him that he got to play with shaving cream and so of course Lincoln wanted his turn! While Otto was taking a nap and Susan was out with her friend, Lincoln got to play. They both smelled all clean and shaving creamy after being covered head to toe!

Up, Down, All Around!

Today was a day of plans that didn't go as planned, but I think it all worked out ok. Tim, Kyle & Meg did get up and go fishing leaving Marty, Kristin and I to make plans of our own. We figured that they would be back in time for the Brown's game so instead of sitting around we decided to head over to Cedar Point to pick up our passes and maybe hop on a ride or two. Turns out before we even made it off Bay Shore Rd. that they were back at the dock. Whoops! We got to the park, picked up our passes and headed inside at about the same time the other half of the crew was docking at the CP Marina! As it turns out the lake was ROUGH and Kyle opted to stay and meet up with us while Tim & Meg stayed on the boat and did a little fishing in the bay. We rode a few rides, scouted out a couple things for the kids to do and ate some french fries then headed back to the house to watch the Brown's game. Tim & Meg headed home a little bit later and shortly after that it was time for us to pack up and head to Columbus and ultimately home to Florida. Seriously, I feel like we packed a lot of fun and spontaneity into our weekend away and none of it would have been possible without Susan being willing to watch the monsters for 3 days! Now it's back to reality tomorrow with another week starting!