Another Day in the Good Life

Ah, what a day. Today was one of those days I want to remember (which is why I'm here after yet another long absence from blogging). Today was not a holiday for me. According to Joey it IS a holiday today since his best friend Brendan turned 11, but for most of us around here it was just another ordinary day. I just have this feeling tonight that after I blink a few times our family will have grown up even more & days like today will be long in the past.

I started off the day with a much needed haircut. Truth be told, I didn't need a haircut as much as I needed to go hang out with Renee, the most fun hairdresser ever. I had a pb&j for lunch with some of the yummy mayhaw jelly I helped momma make Friday. Anna's best friend Sadie came over to play for a little while, then the boys came home & we had snacks while doing homework.

Now we've made it to the part of the day I most look forward to--walking at the park. Let me clarify that I do not usually go to the park, but Jason takes our 3 precious children for a 2 1/2 mile walk & to feed the ducks. That little Anna is wild. Until they go to the park & let her ride around her stroller she is whiny & high maintenance. Poor thing reminds me of our neighbor's huge Dalmatian that needs walking a couple times a day. So what do I do while they go to the park? Today I swore to myself that I would never buy another house with carpet as I crawled around the living room on my hands & knees scrubbing stains off the floor. Yep, this girl here knows how to relax! Then I cooked some supper & decided how many bites of each food my picky eaters were required to eat. The verdict? A whole strip of fried tenderized steak, 2 bites of corn (bites, not kernels), 2 bites of homemade Mac & cheese, & 1 bite of brown rice. It took some sweet talking, but the boys accomplished their goal without any crying! Woohoo! Anna only dumped her plate once, didn't throw any food, & only spit out one or two bites after chewing. I actually had to fix her extras since she ate so good.

I was so thrilled supper went smoothly. Now on to bath time. Anna has to go straight to the tub after supper since she usually ends up wearing half the meal. That means Jason has to shove those last few bites of supper in his mouth pretty quick before she goes nuts from boredom & tries to escape her chair. As I'm cleaning the table I hear him asking the boys to bring him paper towels. Yippee, Anna has pooped in the tub. Again. Here lately that bath water is just what she needs to keep her regular. Only this time she wanted to play with the "new brown toys" & got mad at her daddy because he wouldn't let her. I scooped out poop while he held her, then we started again. After she was done we had our nightly ritual with the boys--tell them each half a dozen times to get IN the tub while they whine that they don't want to, followed by telling them each repeatedly to get OUT of the tub while they whine that they don't want to.

Tired yet? Cuz I am! Now we get to entertain Hurricane Anna until 8:30 so she can go to sleep (even though she's tired already). That's where this story is gonna have to end tonight because it's 9:20 & the princess is trying to convince us (& herself) that she's not tired. She whined & cried in bed for 20 minutes until her daddy rescued her. Now I need to go find some missing pacifiers.