Day 4

So we’re on day 4 of a long weekend during which Pete and Strider have both been out of town. While they’ve been off having loads of fun (with college friends in Maryland and with cousins in Pennsylvania, respectively), I have been home with the other 3 kids. This was my first time to man the fort without Strider to help out… I was a little nervous about the prospect. I’ve come to depend on him a lot when Pete’s not around.

The first day I was energized and enjoyed some special times with Sweet Girl, Creative Champ and Charming Baby. We had fun reading a mountain of new library books, playing outside, etc.

By the 2nd day, my children were replaced by Queen Rhetorical-Question Repeater, Chief Constant Chatterbox, and Captain Destructo. This, probably not coincidentally, was the morning that Miles made me get up at 5:30 am.

The 3rd day, I was just surviving with Needy Child 1, Needy Child 2 and Needy Child 3.

Honestly, they were behaving fine, I suppose, but due to more middle-of-the-night antics and another early morning, I was getting weary. Preparing the seventy-eleventh cup of juice or snack, and washing each of the dishes was getting old. Not to mention the constant laundry, question-answering, etc… Longing for a break, I was.

But here we are on Day 4, the Final Day, and we’re still smiling most of the time. In the last few days, we’ve experienced a broken glass (that the kids tried to clean up without telling me!), a broken dish, yogurt and maple syrup spilled on the rug, a broken vacuum, a broken chair

(why does everything seem to be broken when Pete is gone??), several way-too-long sweaty bike rides with little ones complaining they’re too tired to ride all the way home, and a very bloody gash on Miles’ finger that soaked through my entire box of band-aids over 2 days and provoked several wrestling matches between him and me as I tried to get him to keep said band-aids ON.

But we also had plenty of fun times like this...

(This video is not great since the camera angle makes it hard to actually see him... but I still love the sound. :) )

So it's been interesting.... and we're all ready to see our big guys tonight!