A Weekend with Family.
Friday night, we attended Laurel's poetry award ceremony and reading. We were so proud of her!
PawPaw and Julie were also in attendance. Laurel read her poem, then manipulated PawPaw into buying her a muffin the size of Kilimanjaro and a strawberry-banana smoothie which was the worst-tasting thing I've tried in a long time:
Grandma Smith, at her insistence, ended up with the kids for the night. Greg and I were grateful but apprehensive -- we've been fighting Ethan's refusal to sleep for more than a week now. Though we were both exhausted and needed sleep, the last thing we wanted was for Grandma to be shorted her rest. Not to worry, though -- it seems Ethan slept like a champ save for one short-lived 'monsters' issue. Ethan has done better the last couple of nights, and we're grateful for it, but we're running out of bribery stickers. Every morning, he gets a bribery sticker if he didn't get out of bed the night before. I am not above bribery. So far, so good, with the exception of one night when he was up 4 times.
Saturday we watched 'O Brother, Where Art Thou' with Laurel while Ethan napped, then we watched 'Toy Story' during dinner while enjoying this:
We're damned proud of our pizzas around this house. They may not look that pretty or, well, ROUND, but by god, they're the best-tasting buggers you ever had. And all homemade, too -- that includes the dough and sauce. Not the pepperoni, though. I mean, come on.
Anyway!
We had a fabulous evening with the kids. It was so fabulous that the contrast of Sunday morning was a bore. It was SUCH a bore. Greg and I were crawling out of our skins with boredom but we couldn't do anything about it that morning -- I had already started a loaf of bread, it was nearly lunchtime, and that meant it was nearly naptime for Ethan, too.
But!
When Ethan awoke, we took the kids to the pool. They were so excited, they were so down with it, they were so eager. Until --
--until Greg tried to take Ethan's shoes off in the changing room. He freaked out. Screaming, caterwauling, the whole nine yards. Laurel and I were already out in the pool area when Greg, shaking his head in resignation, emerged with Ethan. We tried everything. We tried everything harder. We bribed, cajoled, demanded, and threatened (because I am not above that if it gets my way). Ethan wasn't falling for any of our old tricks. After an hour of screwing around with this business, I resolutely forced him into his trunks while his screams shook the recreation center to its very foundations. Then we swapped places with Greg so he could change, too. We ended up forcing Ethan into the pool, he cried, then he smiled, and then...
...then the little stinker didn't want to leave. And the screaming began again.
Sigh. Life with a toddler can be a real pain in the ass.
But we wouldn't trade it for anything.
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