Weekend recap

We had a pretty good weekend all in all! Dare I say solo parenting is getting a bit easier/more manageable?

- Friday started bright and early with Paul’s tube removal. Both boys had ear tubes put in due to chronic ear infections - Paul at 9 months and Taco at 13 months.With Paul, he was too young for us to have the option to go back to the OR for the putting under part; I could have gone back with Taco but my nurse anesthetist cousin advised me to not go back because it can be upsetting to feel your kid go limp in your arms. Those procedures were leaps and bounds EASIER than Friday’s procedure (which was necessary since the tubes were stuck in the wax in his ears - eventually the foreign object will cause infections). The children’s hospital was amazing, of course. They had a person come in to talk about the process of putting him to sleep - they showed him the mask and some pictures. The woman did her best but Paul was incredibly terrified of getting put to sleep. There was no way he was going back there without me. So I carried him back to the OR as he was loudly protesting having to go through this and then I held him while he was put under. I knew what to expect so it wasn’t upsetting for me - it was just a stressful experience. This is where having been raised by a mom who was a nurse helps, I think. I do not get scared by medical procedures and am just generally a very pragmatic person (very much a T in the Myers Briggs paradigm). He was back in the room 15 minutes later and we were home by 9:15 and he was completely back to normal!

Ear procedure side-by-side: Paul at 9 months v Paul at 5.5 years! 

- We went to orientation at Taco’s new daycare. We got to see Taco’s room and met one of his teachers. He starts there a week from today. We feel good about this decision.

- Afterwards we had an impromptu park playdate that turned into getting takeout at our friend’s house. Hanging out with friends makes solo parenting far easier! 

- You’d think with the long day we had on Friday that Paul would sleep in? But no. He was up at 5:40 on Saturday morning. Yawn. Saturday was full of our usual library and gymnastics combo. They played around the house and did a ‘Dino dig’ with eggs they had gotten for Easter from my MIL. It was MESSY but entertained them. 

You soak the eggs in water and then chip away the material to find the dinosaur.

- Also messy is the way Taco plays with his construction equipment/cars. He has started to fill them with cherrios from his snack cup. I am trying to put an end to this as I hate food waste and messes! 

He looks a bit guilty after emptying one truck into another. 

- After nap/quiet time, I made the most putsy banana bread recipe ever from the ATK GF cookbook. It involves microwaving very brown bananas to get the juice out of them which you then boil down into a syrup. It’s worth all the effort as it tastes SO GOOD. I realized I was a little short on my GF flour mix (which I make myself using a recipe from that cookbook), but I thought of Nicole (HI NICOLE) and subbed in some almond flour. Usually running out of something would have paralyzed me and I would have not made the bread. What can I say - flexible is not a word used to describe me! Phil loves banana bread so this is kind of a birthday acts of service. 

- Then it was time for haircuts! We have started to cut their hair super short to cut down on the frequency of appointments. Now we go every 3 months instead of every 2. 

- Paul was up at 5:40 on Sunday again! Groan. We hit up the farmer’s market and park. The boys got cookies since the donut stand wasn’t there. And then I observed my biggest park pet peeve - big kids that seem completely unsupervised playing on little kid park equipment. I’m talking about things like climbing up slides while little 2-3 year old kids are trying to go down. I get that kids need less supervision as they get older but I think parents should be observant enough to notice when their kids are being pests. Instead I had to intervene and tell the kids to knock it off. Phil was home by the time we got back and we greeted him with open arms!!

- To cap off the weekend, we went to a pool party at Phil’s college friend’s house. Our contribution was a DQ birthday cake. Check out how they spelled Phil’s name! Last year my parents got him a DQ cake and they spelled his name ‘Phill’ so when I called in my order I spelled it out to avoid the double L situation. At least the cat is cute?

The birthday boy who turned 42, not 3!

And then we all collapsed into bed after baths. What a full weekend! 

How was your weekend? Is your name often misspelled? My name isn’t misspelled but oddly I’ve been mistakenly called Liz? Like a person will respond to an email with Lisa in my signature line and say, ‘Hi Liz’.