I got back into town, although minus the two older girls, Monday afternoon. Mary and Katie are staying through the week with my mom and attending a local science (Sound and Sea) day camp. It sure is quiet around here without those two, as they are my talkers right now. Robbie, of course, is doing his best to keep me busy. While we were at the beach he started cutting all four of his eye teeth...at the same time. Of course he became Mr. Cankypants - fever and all. I don't blame him, but it sure is nice that he is back in his own bed now and not bunking with me. He never did do well with co-sleeping.
It was a nice visit to the beach. My dad had an empty apartment available for us to crash in. Which was helpful as my sister and niece had also flown in from the west coast. We spread the kids out among the houses (the apartment is connected to my Dad's house). I didn't see much of Katie from the time we arrived on Wednesday until Saturday, as she spent as much time as possible with my step-niece and the other two kids my step-mother is watching this summer. Emily moved in with my mom and really did not want to leave on Monday when it was time to go home. So, it was Mary, Robbie and myself for most of the time. We went to the beach (Mary tried her hand at skim boarding this year), played in the swimming pool (a lot), and we even held a Camp Rock slumber party for the tweens & tween-wanna-be's in the group.
I came back on Monday mainly to bring my sister back to the airport. My niece is now at a sailing camp on the coast and then will spend a few weeks visiting her various grandparents before her dad flies back out to pick her up. Mary and Katie will be home Sunday, giving me a whole week to work on some de-cluttering and organizing projects. So far, I'm not very motivated.
Today, I was shocked when at 9am everyone in the house was up, dressed and fed. We had the whole day ahead of us, could actually go ahead and run some errands. We didn't have to wait on any of the others to slowly wake themselves up. With nothing else to do we headed out to the library where they were having a toddler reading time. I always mean to go, but it never has worked with our schedule. Today we got to watch a puppet reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Emily was impressed and enjoyed it a lot, and Robbie didn't even scream once.
We all crashed after lunch (in my defense I had to get up at 4am to drive my sister to the airport) for a couple of hours. The afternoon was spent outside mowing the grass, filling the wading pool and picking through the outside toys (keepers, trash and give-away). I even tested out my ability to hack away at some of the overgrown shrubs that have been driving me nuts. I don't know if some of them will ever be the same, and I don't really care. Basically, none of the inside organization projects were touched today. Later this week it looks like we will hit 100-degrees again, I'll want to be inside then.
I have been talking with Mary and Katie both evenings, and they are having a blast at camp. Mary called me this evening talking about 100 words per second about all the animals she has seen today, at camp and otherwise. My mom took them back to the aquarium this afternoon after she picked them up. They go so often that some of the animals have become pseudo-pets to them; "the lobsters seemed sleepy today" and "the snake was really active, sliding in and out of his pool."
DH was glad to have us back. He says it just doesn't feel right to be here and for it to be quiet. With two of us missing it still feels out-of-kilter, but not as bad as when he was here alone. We know everyone is having a good time...and chaos will return next week.
Peace,
Amy
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