Last week we got to spend a morning with the Cassons. They got here late, and Jess was up doing some work on his laptop, so he let them in to go straight to bed. The rest of us were already out. The kids got to play all morning, and Jess brought us a pizza for lunch, before they had to start their drive to Kansas for a wedding.
Liam seemed to really like Paige. Here they are watching Curious George together.
After they left the kids rode bikes and scooters for a while, and then Neely switched to her favorite activity: Getting wet and filthy on the front porch and in the mud pit she creates next to the faucet.
She had to be stripped down out there and carried right to the bath. She passed out quickly after the bath, because I had used the Cassons being here as an excuse to wake her up at 8-which is apparently unbelievably early for my kids.
Neely's in such a hard stage. Our kids honestly need like 3 hours less sleep than other kids at their ages. They are done napping by between 2 and a half and 3 years old. If they DO fall asleep and nap at these ages, they will be up until 2 or 3 in the morning, especially if the nap happens later in the day. Even on days when Neely wakes up at 9 and DOESN'T nap, it's hard to get her to sleep at a decent hour. She just never starts to seem overtired or grumpy. 8 pm rolls around and she's still happy and ready to play. So I need to wake her up early, but then leaving the house any time after 4 is dangerous, because she might nap and then be up all night. So it's either never leave home, or just live in a sleep deprived state, and never spend time with just Jess. I read a blog recently and the lady's four girls all take 2-3 hour naps until they're about 5. I can't even imagine that happening.
Anyway, all of us but Paige woke up that night with sore throats and stuffy noses. We'd gone a couple months without getting sick, so we thought we'd do it just in time for the Cassons to visit.
The Cassons came back on Sunday, and we mostly hung out at home, although we DID go to La Luna for dinner. The kids were really good and we stuffed ourselves.
Monday morning we headed to the zoo. Jess had taken the day off, and we were happy it wouldn't be crowded because it was a weekday. Instead there were public school buses everywhere, and tons of classes of kids. It wasn't that bad once we got in though. I didn't feel like we saw many animals, we mostly walked around, let the kids play in the water, and in the Children's Zoo.
Monday morning we headed to the zoo. Jess had taken the day off, and we were happy it wouldn't be crowded because it was a weekday. Instead there were public school buses everywhere, and tons of classes of kids. It wasn't that bad once we got in though. I didn't feel like we saw many animals, we mostly walked around, let the kids play in the water, and in the Children's Zoo.
After a while, Jess took Paige and Cason to ride the Leapin' Lizard, so Neely and I went with the Cassons to look for the elephants. I had a feeling the Leapin' Lizard would be one of those things I would be tempted to stop them from doing because I'm a chicken, and I don't want to ruin all their fun. So I figured I should just let Jess go. I was right, because this picture Jess put on Instagram freaked me out later. She had fun though.
Poor Cason was too light by only a few pounds, so he couldn't do it. :( He handled it well, and even let Paige borrow his socks, since you had to have some for her ride, and she was in sandals. Jess took him to the carousel, after, and at least he got to ride a panda.
On our walk to find the elephants, Neeliam held hands, for quite a while too.
We were pretty worn out after the zoo, so thankfully Sarah wanted to make us spaghetti. She and I went shopping, and she made us salad, spaghetti, and garlic bread, and even cleaned a bunch. Thanks Sarah! It was really good, and we brought in the picnic table for the kids. They were pretty cute.
My only contribution was chocolate chip cookies, which we had with vanilla ice cream.
They had to leave the next day. We hung out, letting the kids play all morning.
I had to make sure my kids gave Colin some breathing room. Especially Cason, he loves babies, and Colin is "just too cute" he's been telling me since they left.
He is pretty cute.
We went out front for a bit too, so the kids could play soccer. The bigger ones did, and Liam for a bit, but then he joined Neely in getting muddy.
When he got another container to fill with water, she told him "Good finking(thinking) Wiam!"
They got filthy, and Sarah gave them a bath while I made us some lunch. They had to leave a couple of hours later. We had lots of fun!
Posts
1 comment:
THERE ARE PEOPLE WHOSE CHILDREN SLEEP FOR HOURS!?!? PLURAL!? Ha, unless mine is sick, we were lucky to hit an hour nap, at any age. It is so sad when they outgrow daily naps, and mine was around two and a half too, and it is hard when a nap makes the difference between sleeping that night and not, but no nap means afternoon tiredness. I hated that choice, of tired afternoon of keeping her up or letting her nap and knowing bedtime was going off the rails. And I don't think mine was that far off your kinds - since we try to start to get her down by 7 (which means we start a bath at 7 or 7:30ish), so in bed by 8ish, even though she isn't acting tired or anything, usually asleep by 8:30 (unless took nap and then add an hour of her laying in bed singing and chatting). And then she is up before 7 almost every day (7 is a lucky sometimes sleeping in hour on weekends). So... adjusting for staying up later and then sleeping in more... I think we're pretty similar on the hours of actual sleep. But honestly, in the tricky world of sleeping, I truly get your conundrum on being exhausted bc that nap wrecked your sleep time, and now no time alone. I love that time alone, even if just a half hour before we crash, bc need a quiet minute to say, "hi there."
Also, love when you blog, adorable kiddos, hope OK is going well!!
Post a Comment