Weekend Recap

As weekends go, this was not an especially eventful one, but it made me think a lot about this summer, when I won't be teaching at all and the girls won't be in school at all and it will be all three of us at home all the time. It's going to be SO GREAT. And also SO EXHAUSTING. And fun! And frustrating! In short, I am really looking forward to summer, and I've no doubt that when August rolls around, I'll really be looking forward to going back to work.

I kept the girls home with me on Friday for a "fun day" and met up with my friend Angie and her kids at Purina Farms. It was a great idea--Purina Farms was having their springtime village, so there were all kinds of adorable baby animals, but there were also a zillion people and my kids are somehow missing the evolutionary gene that should make them want to avoid losing sight of their parents in a crowd of people, so there were a couple of stressful moments for me. Next time we'll meet up at a small park and let the kids fend for themselves so we can actually have a conversation.

But we did have a good time. The girls insisted on bringing their baby dolls with them. I'd encouraged Zuzu to leave her doll in the car when we arrived, as I explained there were going to be lots of animals for us to see.

Zuzu: And those animals might eat Keya?
Me: No... these animals are mostly cats and dogs--
Zuzu: (knowingly) Oh! So they eat trash. My dog eats trash.

(It's true that Cooper has become disgustingly obsessed with getting into our trash, but also funny how she makes sense of the world.)

Anyway, Baby Keya and Baby Maria both made it home with us, but I spent most of the morning pushing a stroller with two dolls and no kid in it. I should have skipped the stroller altogether, as Coco wanted to run around. She was so delighted with the animals. The girls drove me crazy with their lack of concern for staying near me, but I managed not to lose them OR the dolls, so it was a successful morning. We had lunch there and they both fell asleep on the way home AND transferred to the cribs, so I was pretty smug about it.

Saturday morning I was aggravated because I wanted to go to an exercise class but I had to cancel because David had to go in to work for kindergarten orientation stuff. I decided to take the girls to the Botanical Gardens, but it didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped, mostly because it was FREEZING. The high for the day was 59 and it was sunny, but it took a long time to warm up and the wind was blowing so hard; it was brutal. I was wearing a lightweight sweater and a light jacket and was still freezing. My EARS were cold and achy from the wind.

It started out fine and we had a good time chasing each other in the hedge maze, but then Zuzu wanted to go to the children's garden and I was irritated because she wasn't being a good listener and Coco wanted to do everything she wanted to do, but she wouldn't wait for her sister and she wanted to do things Coco is too little to do, and Coco wouldn't be distracted. Then I had to pee, so I made them come inside, but Zuzu had a total meltdown and then continued to dramatically fake cry and fake sniffle until I thought my head was going to explode.

It was definitely time to go, but Zuzu was nasty about it and I was at the end of my rope. By the time we'd left, I'd told her that she was acting like a pill and she said, "No, YOU'RE the pill, Mommy!" which was both funny and totally NOT OKAY.

(Similarly, we had this exchange tonight:

Zuzu: I don't WANT to go to bed.
Me: Honey, you are exhausted.
Zuzu: NO, Mommy, YOU'RE  'zausted!)

She didn't nap that afternoon, which I'd expected since we had to come home for lunch and I couldn't drive her around until she nodded off. David got home from work and we were both crabby with each other because we were cranky that he had to work and then he did yard work and I graded papers but I had to stop to deal with the girls every five seconds and then I stopped to make them dinner and then I was so irritated that I'm the parent who always gets interrupted and I always deal with the kids' immediate needs while David gets to finish whatever project HE has decided is important at the time, even though I think cleaning out the car is much less important than feeding our children and grading exams. So I snapped at him and picked a fight with him and then realized that I was complaining about having to feed my kids dinner when I am a mom who has to feed my kids dinner, and this fight was pointless.

Both girls were asleep by 7:30, so then I felt better.

We watched Spotlight, which was great and so disturbing to contemplate the implications of the Catholic priest scandal in Boston (and many, many other cities). Then I irresponsibly stayed awake until 1:30am reading a murder mystery set in medieval England.

This morning we cleaned house (girls had me up at 7am, not caring about my late-night novel reading), then our neighbors came over and we watched the Cards game on TV and ate burgers and the kids literally chased each other in circles and dogpiled each other for three hours.

Zuzu and Coco were both asleep by 7:30 again, so David and I watched Survivor and I folded laundry and we got clothes laid out for the week. This is a really busy week for me, so I am trying to make sure things are organized as I go back to work tomorrow. I cleaned out my bag and my wallet and menu planned for the week, so I think that we are in pretty good shape. I find that I am much happier when we are organized on Sundays, so I'm making extra effort to plan ahead.

Now I'm headed up to bed to feel nice and smug about how organized I am and do a little more reading. I don't think I'll make it to 1:30am though.