Busy Day

After staying up quite late to work on my grad school project, I was really looking forward to a nice morning of sleeping in. I even decided I wouldn't go to church today because I was so tired. I was out...and then, earlier than I wanted, I woke up to, "Mommy, Mommy, come quick. Hurry Mommy." I sit up right away wondering what could be going on and I find Abby staring me in the face with a big grin from ear to ear. Realizing quite quickly that this is not an emergency, I put my head back on my pillow, gaze over at the clock which reads 7am, and tell Abby that if it is not an emergency, Mommy is tired and is going back to sleep. Abby is completely bummed but tries again, "But I cleaned my whole room all by myself!" I had to ask when, she said this morning when she woke up (how early did she get up - that room was a mess). I explained to her that Mommy was up late and that I needed a little more sleep, as soon as I got a little more sleep I would look at her room first thing. Abby wasn't happy but asked if she could cuddle. Sure. Well, if by cuddling she meant toss and turn and sigh and whimper, then we had a good half hour cuddle. Finally, enough was enough, I got up to see her room. She charged up the steps like an elephant - she was so loud. I whispered to be quiet so she didn't wake Aine (for some reason I still thought I might be able to squeak a bit more sleep time after the room inspection-I was wrong) she bounded to the top of the steps, announced that Aine was awake now (imagine that) and smiled proudly with a big "Wha-la!!!"

Her room was quite clean. Now, she wanted to arrange them...which was actually fine with me because the last time she rearranged her room - the arrangement was not great and there was no room at all. In fact, Mike and I were planning on doing that the following weekend anyhow so I didn't mind. Well, three plus hours later, her room was rearranged. In the process of moving things, Abby found some old favorite toys and playthings; plus, the move allowed easy access to her extra toy storage thingy where even more old toys were hiding. Aine was quite excited to see what all was in this space and found that the space in and of itself was quite fun. Instead of being terrified by having the cabinet closed, she thought standing in a dark atticy spot was hilarious and wanted me to close her in again and again. She didn't cry or get frightened once, rather when I would open the area to check on her she would quickly say, "No Mommy, do again." and want me to shut her in again. Karl and Abby soon joined in (they were always big chickens about the area before but apparently couldn't be outdone by their little sister) and fun was had by all three.

Later that afternoon Grandpa came for Karl's piano recital. An old/favorite sitter Brittany, she had gone away to college and was home for the summer, was able to come over to watch the girls. This was nice for a couple reasons - Aine and long, quiet piano recitals do not match, and they adore Brittany and were quite excited to see her. Karl was bummed about his performance. He made more mistakes than normal and couldn't get over that, so he sat bummed for awhile. Grandpa hadn't been to a recital of Karl's before and was glad to make it, I was glad he was there too because he spoke with Karl after regarding how to deal with those feelings. It isn't that I couldn't handle it, it is just that Karl really looks up to his grandpas and listen to what ever they say to a fault. Advice or words of wisdom coming from a grandpa is much more important that something just from Mom. To celebrate Karl's performance, Grandpa treated us all to A&W treats. Mom got a hot fudge sundae that was more fudge than sundae (perks of knowing the student workers-see teaching is more than just summers off...) and Karl got a strawberry shake. If Grandpa's chat didn't cheer him up, the shake certainly helped.

After we headed home, Grandpa was on his way, and after some nice conversation with Brittany, the regular Sunday evening get-ready-for-school routine began.

A busy, but productive and memorable day.