Catching Up

Friday was Emma's 3rd birthday. We had a party for the kids at McDonald's and that was fine. Many Moms came, more children came, all had a good time. Except the one little baby who kept spitting up and his Mom. I don't think they were having too good of a time. We let Emma open her presents from us ONE AT A TIME. I don't mean plowing through them individually but all at once. I mean one every time we felt like sharing. HA! It was great! It worked out to roughly one an hour, not counting nap times or McDonald's parties. But she did get to pick which one to open each time. It was fabulously fun and I think we will always run it like that. Jim and I weren't sure what to do - we each had to wait until our fathers got home and we did the cake at the same time. But Jim was home. And the cake wasn't made yet. I baked a Dora shaped cake during nap times and after the kids went to bed I dragged yellow Duncan Hines Dora over to Trica's house and she helped me decorate it. It took us 3 hours. I kid you not, Reader. There was quite the amount of time to get such vibrant colors mixed, not to mention put on the cake in small, orderly, perfect little stars. Yes, it was a task for the truely ambitious. And I will not be adding cake decorating to my list of hobbies any time soon.


Then Saturday we had the family party. I came down with a terrbile sore throat and lethargy and a bit of a fever. But with some phenomenal help I got the house adequately cleaned and shiney for the party. Emma got an art easel, Dora bed sheets (we are painting her room next week), some Disney stock (OOOOOO DISNEY!), and a foam couch that folds out to a little bed. The couch thing she carries to whatever room she is going to be in (including her bedroom) and her and Mary sit on it to do whatever it is toddlers do all day. She spends a lot of time taking it up to her room, where she and Mary have a "pajama party". This also means she cannot get changed out of her pajamas all day long. It is an unseen twist to the new addition. So far she will now only sleep on this couch thing. She is a little too long for it and her feet hang off the end, but she doesn't care. It also has apeculiar chemical smeel about that Fabreeze won't remove and makes my daughter smell like old plastic chairs. I'm hoping that will go away.

You can click here to see the pictures from the parties.

Sunday I was feeling worse, with no appetite continuing and no willingness to communicate with anyone. So I napped and Jim took care of household things like children and some grocery shopping while the kids slept. I tried to take a relaxing and soothing bubble bath but for some reason our hot water was not working and Jim was at Kroger. So I sat in an underfilled tepid bubble bath for 20 minutes and gave up. That evening we joined Trica and her husband and went to see the musical Chicago. I got through it on throat lozenges, but I was glad to go. I love live theater and this was no exception. Then Monday came and I am slightly better, but still had no tolerance for irritating toddler things today. I even went out for a bit with the girls, only to add to my general frustration.

And so goes our Journey.