From hot tubs to sprinklers

Oh I was so happy when Friday at 4 p.m. came. As you might remember last week was a little out of the norm – keeping Ella home all week to do a freakish outbreak of illnesses everywhere. So, I was BUSY at work Friday. Like busy write down my to do list with time amounts next to each item busy, so I don’t spend too much time on any specific task. By the time I left my shoulders were tensed up to my neck and my mind was just racing. On those days it’s hard to come home and switch to baby mode. The mode where I patiently wait while Ella tries to put the coins in the piggy bank but they just won’t seem to fit. I so want to just put them all in! It gets easier as the weekend progresses though.

Another great thing about the weekend – no Saturday night shift. I had worked the previous two and it’s tough. So, anyway. Friday night. We decided to do something different than our usual delivery pizza. We try again to hit the new restaurant Granite City. Steve had been home all day with Ella so I knew he’d be dying to go out. And since I wasn’t picking up Ella at the sitters she won’t be anxious from being in a car for thirty minutes. Conditions were just right. Boy, things used to be so much simpler. Anyway, we got there around 5 p.m., yes I know we might as well be senior citizens, but we’re on an early schedule people, so we’re HUNGRY by then. Plus, this is about the only time there isn’t a long wait at this new place. And toddlers and long waits do not mix.

The food was delicious … an appetizer of waffle fries with an awesome sour cream dip, olive proscuitto pizza chicken artichoke lasagne. Yum. We all just shared. I even had a margarita. Delicious. Ella was pretty good, but she’s definitely getting to the age where it’s getting tricky to keep her content for a whole meal at a restaurant, so we have to be prepared. Snacks, drinks, toys, hope they have crayons, and this place even had balloons. Ella’s patience was done though by the time the meal ended though. She and I waited in the lobby playing with the balloon while daddy waited on the check.

That night after Ella went to bed we watched Wes Anderson’s latest movie Darjeeling Limited with Adrian Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson. It was pretty funny. That director has a unique style, and really quirky characters. If you like one of his movies (Royal Tennenbaums, The Aquatic Life of Steve Zissou) I think you’d like them all.

So, the rest of the weekend was the usual … laundry, shopping, playing outside, weeding. Ella has been working on a great trick she picked up recently. We tell her to do a headstand and she bends over with her head on the floor and dies laughing. It’s so funny. She’s either really flexible or her upper half is oddly the same length as her lower half. See below.

First, the bend…

Then the laughter …

Then the look for approval. And I’m so proud.

I also squeezed in a lot of extra things around the house – like washing the guest bed sheets and making room in the guest closet for the stuff we keep accruing. Our annual Memorial Day barbecue is coming up and I’m so excited. It’s really the only time of year all our college friends and us get together. I’m just glad we even do it this once. It’s so hard now that most of us have kids. I’m glad we can be the ones to host too. We’re happy to throw parties. In California we had a walk-in bar, a screened in room with an inground hot tub, a big backyard with a firepit … we had some good parties. That seems like a million years ago. The party now includes a bouncy house, a sand and water table and sprinklers. It’s a little different. Fun though still. And I’m pretty sure I won’t wake up to my Christmas tree being covered with tampons.