Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Days 20 and 21: "Auntie Breann to the rescue!!"

So yesterday was a rough day. Everybody cried for a variety of reasons. I was just run down from days and days of going to battle with my kids over "no, I can't carry everyone" and "You MUST hold my hand!!" and "You are a big boy, and I know you can put on your socks" and of course all of the fun food issues that one of my kids brings to the table when under stress.

Today was so wonderful! There are ways to manage multiple children at home where things are childproofed and you know where things are.. and people aren't starring at your every move (embarrassing at times)and you can trust your kid in YOUR family bathroom. Having another set of hands means if so and so needs their bottom wiped or "hey can you grab some crackers?" or "hey can you butter Ben's toast?" or whatever is such a lifesaver. No epic meltdowns today, and no tears because Mom couldn't give all trauma children everything at every moment.

Last night, I was able to sneak out after all of the kids were asleep along with Hilo (one of Carmens trusted drivers)and go to the airport to meet up with Breann. Everything came through just fine (including all the money that was SUPPOSED to be transferred but never worked out). Finally got our hotel bill for May paid that I had attempted to pay on May 1.

Breann and I of course stayed up too late talking like a sleepover. Sam went easy on her this morning with his "town crier" noises. We had a nice breakfast and got everybody out the door to show Breann the ropes of our part of town. We did "the loop" of my favorite play places and where I have to do occasional shopping. I didn't get a picture, but we spent an excellent 4 mil on some fresh mangos and learned that it is a much larger serving than it seems! We also enjoyed some pollo empanadas from one of my favorite Mom and Pop storefronts along the way.

My Mom had sent some care package (and stuff I forgot) items down with Breann, and this was helpful at park time. We enjoyed some slingshot foam airplanes today at the park, as well as some new little motorcycle Matchbox cars.

After the park, it was off to Pan Pa Ya, my favorite play place yet again for a latte and for the boys to get more wiggles out. Breann was quite impressed of course. In the words of Breann "It's nice to have an enclosed box that they can go be in". She is going to be a great parent as well!

We were able to put both of the Ergo carriers to good use towards the end of the long walking morning which really helped with the meltdowns. Just having that 10 minutes where Lucas can ride instead of walking along really brings the stress level down for everybody. At home, this won't be an issue because I have a nice sit and stand double stroller that he can ride along if he needs to... which I REALLY should have packed.

We got home, we chillaxed for about 15 minutes, and then it was time for lunch. Turns out Sam was tired from the morning, that he wasn't interested in waking up. Example below:



Today was Chloe's Birthday. Chloe was also turning three today. Her parents put together a pretty big party for her, since they got stuck in the court process (SINCE FEBRUARY!!) and had always planned on her being home for her birthday. There was a clown and dancing and cake and balloon animals. Also, turns out everybody wants to obviously give my children each balloon swords. Rather than be a total killer of joy, I allowed some sword fighting for at least a little bit, illustrations below:



Soon after, these went on top of the wardrobe.. obviously. I'm letting them use them for small periods of supervised time a little later. Tonight, Alecia is coming after the boys rest time to give me and Breann a two hour breather to go get some snackies and escape the children briefly. We haven't sit down to decide exactly what we want to do yet while she is here in terms of site seeing, but we should have more picture worthy things next week.

Night night all!

1 comment:

  1. I'm exhausted - just exhausted and I haven't lifted a gosh dern finger ! You are amazing and deserve one or two glasses of wine, I do believe!

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