Wednesday Weekend Recap

I missed Microblog Monday. It was a busy day around here in terms of cleaning up and getting organized because David spent all of Sunday outside working in the yard and running electric lines to the other side and front of the house to more easily plug in the chicken's heat lamp and Christmas lights. That left me on solo parent duty, and I decided to finish sewing Zuzu's Halloween costume, so cleaning up the house waited for Monday and blogging got away from me. Even Microblogging. Well, there's always next week.

Monday, Coco had her two month check up (although she's actually two and a half months) and not only did she appear healthy and adorable (I like that our pediatrician pronounces her "healthy and cute" as his official diagnosis at the end of each visit), she also flirted shamelessly with the doctor, giving him huge grins and all but batting her eyelashes at him.

She cried dramatically for her shot, but not for long.

I think Monday was also a bit challenging because I was still recovering from my weekend.

Oh, that sentence does not mean what it used to.

Friday morning was fabulous--our friend E came over to play with Zuzu since E's middle school was having parent/teacher conferences that day. E kept Zuzu totally entertained--it was a morning without whining, which is miraculous! We went to the park (the weather was beautiful), came home and painted pumpkins, and then had lunch before E had to leave.

I actually could have brought a book with me to the park this time--E was very careful and conscientious about helping Zuzu climb and slide and it was totally adorable.

Zuzu rocked this headband sweat-band style the whole time. 

The only hiccup came at lunch time, when E's sack lunch that she'd brought with her caused a lot of food envy for Zuzu--particularly the package of yogurt. E was nice enough to share her grapes and surreptitiously eat some of her other food so that Zuzu didn't really notice it. Zuzu cried when we dropped her off, but she took a good nap.

Zuzu loves E.

Friday evening was Family Fun Night at David's school. They set up a carnival and have food trucks and a hay maze and it's a fundraiser for the PTA. My friend Jamie and her family now live about five minutes from David's school (although they are in another district) so I invited them to come to Family Fun Night with their boys, Owen and Nathan. Zuzu calls Nathan "My Nay-fun" which is pretty cute.

Nathan, Owen, and Zuzu

Thank goodness they came with us because I don't think I could have kept track of Zuzu without their help. She basically acted like she owned the place, butting to the front of all the lines for the carnival games (the games were staffed by school volunteers, so people who knew her were totally enabling her, despite my best efforts), opening doors to rooms that she was not supposed to access, and bolting down the sidewalk when she was supposed to be waiting in line for the hayride.

Watching the boys play the fishing game. Zuzu had already gone fishing because of course she had to go first. #diva

Having Coco in the Ergo is convenient for keeping my hands free, but I can't exactly sprint while wearing the baby. And David was doing his hand-shaking, back-slapping, high-fiving principal thing, so he wasn't able to be with us the entire time we were there. Fortunately, Max and Jamie picked up some of the parenting slack since their children were, you know, NOT running amok and actually listening to their parents. Hashtag must be nice.

Zuzu got her face painted for the first time. She took it very seriously and held very still. I requested a pumpkin to match the dress she was wearing, but then she asked the girl for purple (her favorite color right now) so she got a purple spider on her other cheek.

So serious.

Both were smeared into unrecognizable blobs within ten minutes.

By the end of the night (it ended at 8pm), I was exhausted and Zuzu was still buzzing. I thought I was so smart for remembering to pack the girls' pajamas because it's a forty-five minute drive home and I was hoping to transfer Zuzu from the car without waking her up.

Would you believe that kid STAYED AWAKE the whole way home? In spite of soothing music on the radio. She chattered about her "fwends, Nay-fun and Owen" and asked me if we could go to Jamie's house and said she didn't want to go home, she wanted to go to Jamie's house. Finally, I quit engaging in conversation with her, hoping she'd nod off. But no. She was still bright-eyed when we got home. In fact, when David got home about forty-five minutes after we did, she was STILL AWAKE.

I'm wondering if someone slipped her a Red Bull when we weren't looking.

It was 11:30pm before we were all asleep.

Saturday morning we were up at 6:30pm to drive back out to David's school to canvass for votes for a proposition that will give the district enough money to accommodate the influx of students they will have over the next few years.

Coco was a total crab apple even though she usually loves chilling in the Ergo, so we'd only gone to a few houses when I turned back and headed for the car to sit down and feed her.

Zuzu, however, LOVED canvassing. After we left each house, she kept saying, "I say hi!" She was thrilled when people were home and opened the door so she could say hi. David would ring the doorbell and then she would pound on the door.

I'm totally going to get her to campaign for Hillary in 2016.

After canvassing, we decided to lunch at Red Robin. This was a good idea in theory, but we had two Code Brown diaper situations while we were there which does not exactly boost the appetite. Zuzu discovered how amazing Ranch dressing is and was drowning her grilled chicken in it and then resorted to just dipping her fingers and licking them. Gross me out. This is why children should not really be allowed to eat in public.

(I don't really mean that.)

(Except kind of I do.)

I freaking love Coco's face here. Look at those cheeks!

At least she was finally worn out enough to nap after lunch. She was asleep in her carseat before we pulled out of the restaurant's parking lot, and she didn't wake up when David transferred her to the stroller. This meant that we were actually able to do a little shopping at Macy's before Zuzu woke up. The game was over as soon as she was awake, but we were pretty much finished by then anyway.

DON'T WAKE THE TODDLER.

While David was trying on pants at Macy's I started watching this bike race on the TV by the dressing rooms and got so into it that when he was ready to go, I had to wait and see who won. It was exciting!

The last few days have been so gorgeous--October in the midwest in all its glory. Cool, crisp mornings, impossibly blue skies, all the leaves changing colors, highs around 70 degrees. Glorious.

I'm taking advantage of the weather by taking Coco and Cooper for long walks in Forest Park after we drop off Zuzu at school. It only takes two days in a row for Cooper to get his heart on the same thing happening over and over again, so we are both going to be really sad when it gets too cold to keep up this routine.

Coco's in the stroller, Cooper's sniffing in the brush

So that's what's been going on around here. I can't believe it's nearly Halloween! I gave a sneak-peek of Zuzu's costume on Instagram, but I'm pretty excited about how it's coming together. I just hope I
can get her to wear the bonnet. Two-year-olds--they're unpredictable, man.

for example, Zuzu here is saying, "No pictures, please, Mama" with a sigh in her best long-suffering voice