I need a laundry fairy

Oh my WORD, the laundry.

(But enough about THAT.)

I keep meaning to blog and then before I know it the day is over and I’m so exhausted I can’t even think straight, much less string two coherent sentences together. It’s partly getting up to feed a newborn during the night and partly because I’ve been a little sick. Not a full-blown cold, just mostly a scratchy throat. I sorta lost my voice, too.

A couple of updates are in order.  Last Friday I took Arianna to her 2-week check up to make sure she had regained her birth weight (many? most? breastfed babies lose some ounces during the first few days).  She was 5 oz. over what she weighed at birth so we’re good to go.  I really wasn’t worried about it… all those preemie clothes I got down from the attic and washed?  She grew out of like the first day.

(So basically I could have sat on the couch and done nothing the last week of my pregnancy and it all would have ended up the same.)

Oh – get this – on the drive to the doctor’s office, I looked down and MY CHECK ENGINE LIGHT WAS STILL ON.  (Areyoukiddingme?!)  So after her appointment I drove out to Honda and was so relieved to find out the code was for something very minor and he cleared the light for me.  If it comes back on it’s the kind of thing we just need to do before we try to get our plates renewed.  Okay, I can handle that.

My friend Jenny called me that evening wondering what I was doing (sitting on the couch in my pajamas!) and she brought over a movie and brownies after my kids were in bed.  I love my friends.

And then Saturday morning Dolly and her kids rolled into town and hung out with us all day, which is always SO much fun.  We always have a million things to swap, too.  (This time it was fleece jammies for cloth diapers, and a baby swing for packed-up, attic-bound maternity clothes.  And fabric, books, and a butterfly costume.)

Side note:  It was a gorgeous day and the kids spent a lot of time outside.  That was all well and good until they decided to start climbing trees.  At one point Ruthie came in concerned that Madeline had climbed “way too high!” and was that ever the truth.  I had to climb up and help her navigate/carry her down.  And it was a little scary since she was perched well above our roof line.

A little while later another of the kids came in saying Drew was hurt because he fell out of a (different) tree.  He was slumped on the grass saying his foot hurt but then he got up and started walking, er, limping on it.  He was pretty much back to normal yesterday, running around and being crazy.  So I’m thinking it’s not broken.

On Saturday night I took my maiden voyage to Walmart by myself with four kids.  There was no avoiding it — we were out of so many essentials and had given Max his last drop of dog food — I simply HAD to go.  I put the two youngest in my double stroller and Drew limped around and Madeline walked.  He really wanted to ride in the stroller but Adelaide didn’t want to share her seat.  I’m not above admitting I let him buy a treat for a) having to walk on a hurt foot and b) for being good while I shopped.  Madeline got a bag of candy and you know what? I can’t even remember if I actually said yes to that.  Yeah – oh well.

Anyway, they were golden in Walmart.  But then I made a very bad call and decided to stop also at the local grocery store since the prices are much better there on poultry and meat.  THINGS FALL APART.

There was this one couple that I kept passing and could just FEEL their eyebrows raising higher each time.  Drew and Madeline were both past their attention spans for following after the stroller and had started doing things like opening every single freezer door along down the line.  The baby also decided that was a perfect time to wake up hungry and I think Adelaide was also crying because I wouldn’t let her out of the stroller.  (Because I know how far she’d run.)

There was also a scene at the storefront with random coins and the gum/candy/junk machines.  I’ll spare you.

Needless to say, we made one very loud exit and walked right into Nicky’s sister in the parking lot.  You can pretty much guarantee those moments are the ones you’re going to run into someone you know.  Murphy’s Law.

Or in this case, two someones.  Right after I saw Callie, I turned around to find a friend from our old church.  I just had to laugh at the symphony of crying coming out of my car when she saw us.  We pretty much came home, ate nachos for dinner, and I sent everyone to bed.

I’m just going to end there since this is turning into a novel.  Until tomorrow then…