October 26 An exhausting kind of blessing

Tuesday:  We were kind of "off" today ... perhaps it was just me--but things were NOT smooth. Maybe we just started off badly--I picked the little kids up from pre-school at 11:30. Usually, Erin and Aidan are at the same gate and are ushered over to my car by one of the teachers. Today, however, Erin was at one gate and Aidan was around the other side of the church at another gate with his class. I strapped Erin into her car seat, pulled the car ahead, and thought I would just physically run around to the other side of the church (because the parking lot was packed and I wasn't sure where I would park on the other side of the church) and grab Aidan. Brendan was in the car with Erin. When I walked around the church, Aidan's class was being dismissed by a teacher who had never met me and asked for my I.D. (which was in the car, which was of course on the other side of the church). Aidan had a totally blank look on his face ... like he had never seen me before in his entire life! I explained to this teacher that I had just picked up Erin and that my car was on the other side of the church, etc. I addressed Aidan--"I there sweetie!" No response. Zero. NOTHING from Aidan. She very reluctantly released Aidan to me, and he kept up his very distant "vibes" on our walk back to my car, which made me feel ... ODD. When I got him situated in his car seat and I asked him: "So ...what's up, dude?" And he began cracking up, like it was some kind of a joke. AHHHH. Okay, then. I tickled him without mercy afterwards.

We did all of our usual stuff today and it was a JOY to have them ... just a little bit more harried than usual. All three talking to me at once, wanting different activities simultaneously, etc. We did OK but I felt rather exhausted. Perhaps it was the thing with Aidan in the bathroom refusing to leave because he wanted to play in the sink ... water EVERYWHERE, etc. I ushered him out, but he was not pleased.

We designed a few game boards today. I had begun sketching out one early this morning and Brendan added to it for about an hour this afternoon. We had a water slide, a moon that you could slide off, a star that bounced you over to the moon, etc. Brendan, Erin and I played and Brendan WON.

Aidan spent a lot of his time building with LEGOs. He makes some kind of house every single week. He just enjoys putting the bricks together and picking out the colors. I'm so glad to see how much he enjoys this.

Aidan designed a game as well with VERY precise rules--except he was the only one who KNEW the rules! He and I played the game and he kept changing up the rules (this child is hilarious) but we made it through the game 2x!

Erin was super super sleepy today. She is only three and probably would benefit from an early afternoon nap--but she hasn't officially taken a nap since she was an early two. She was extra cuddly today and super sweet; however, she had much less patience with Aidan's antics and several times shouted quite loudly at him!

I popped some popcorn and settled the kids down to watch "Fievel Goes West" in the late afternoon. I cleaned up around the house a little bit and watched some of it with them. 

It took 45 minutes to drive back to Dylan and Kelly--a ridiculous amount of construction ongoing in this area! We enjoyed some yummy pizza AND I got to play with this little guy for awhile. Here he is trying my boots on. Callaghan is a sweetie-pie. He and I don't spend much time together ... so I always enjoy the opportunity to get to know him a little bit better. He reminds me a lot of his dad at this age ... laid back, easy-going, quick to smile ... love him.