Why does it take toddlers sooo long to eat!! I know all the news is buzzing about taking your time eating right now but it was just a bowl of cereal, a kiddie bowl. There is no reason for me to be hurrying the kids but you want to get certain things done each day and Argh!! Finally William finished and I could get the kids ready to go for groceries. MaryVic refused to eat the cereal she wanted last time from the grocery store. She waits for William to sign and say ‘all done’ and for me to say we’re moving, ‘I haven’t eaten my cereal!

So we do the grocery store with a side venture to Home Depot where William threw a tantrum. MaryVic had to go to potty. You know your a parent when you don’t have to ask where the restrooms are in Home Depot. Everybody go ‘eeewww…’ as William crawls around on the floor of the ladies restroom. MaryVic held the door so he could crawl out. This is progressing a bit slowly as we are at the very back of Home Depot and there are groceries in the car, albeit in the keep cool bag. I grab William and he protests in loud, kicking, angry toddler independence spirit which echoes stridently in the warehouse of Home Depot. MaryVic winds up carrying our purchases to the register and almost unable to keep with Momma as she tries to get William out of there. He stops instantly at the cash register when I put him down on the floor again.

We pay, leave and go home so I can do a quick unload of the groceries. I know better than to doubt MaryVic’s power of observation but we still disagree about the crackers bought at the store. I grab two packs of the cheese with cracker sticks. No, I want the ones you got at Publix! These are the same. No! I go and look. Sure enough she’s right. I bought the flat crackers with the red stick and cheese. I grab one and tell her that she was right. Usually this results in chortled delight but I guess she’s more focused on getting to the park to eat them today.

At the park we have snack on the train and played in the sandbox. I set the timer on the phone for one hour and told them when it went off, we had to go home for lunch and naps.

The rest of the time was spent in the Tinkerbell’s Castle area of the park.

Last summer we were holding her hands as she crossed the tires.

I didn’t remember to twitter until we were at the park. Daddy knew where we were and stopped by on his lunch break to the kids delight.

Showing off for Daddy on the balance beam.

and she makes it!

William realized Mom wasn’t going to pick him up so he took off.

Crossing the suspension bridge which is now listing to one side.

Daddy went on to get some lunch. MaryVic gave him a huge hug and came back to check on Momma and William. He crawled up Tinkerbell’s Castle and was looking at the slide.

After thinking about it, they opted to keep crawling around on the castle. MaryVic was very sweet and cute as she got down on her hands and knees to crawl after William. She informed me that we were going from smallest to tallest, William to me.

They crawled the castle 3 or 4 times before the timer went off. MaryVic played the chimes while I grabbed William as he tried to make a last minute scramble back to the castle. I had set him down to take these pictures, turned around and he was booking it back into the playground.

We went home, lunch and naps. I tried to talk MaryVic into going back to the park but she wanted to go to the indoor pool. We went there for an hour. Everyone else was outside so we did have it to ourselves. William is enjoying getting into the pool more and more. He did away with the noodle support and water winged it some for the first time. We played throw a floating ball and the kids would race to get it. William was trying to paddle, kick, and wiggle to it. The only problem is he doesn’t like to throw the ball after getting it. It is mine now! Thankfully the game was fun enough that he didn’t fuss when I wrestled it away from him and threw it again.

After pool, the required strawberry bar snack on the way back home.

Hmmm…. this is NOT the right kind of strawberry bar. Look it has frosting! NO! You cannot fuss until you have at least tasted it. She gave it a tentative lick and then ate the whole thing.

The only other really memorable moment was last night after dinner when I went to get the ice cream. I cleaned off the table first, taking everyone’s plates. William had been playing with his so he wailed when I took it away. I came back in with the mini-ice cream bowls and he had his head on the table sobbing. ‘William, look what Momma has!’ He lifts the tearful face and it goes long with wide eyes and an ‘ooooo!’ The fit stops instantly. It was such a quick change that both Greg and I laughed out loud. No camera though!

William and I had a bunch of errands to run. We went to Target, Costco and the car wash. We walked over to Home Depot to exchange some light bulbs while the car was being cleaned.

The shopping cart picture:

I meant to grab another pillow. He was more comfortable after I put a bag underneath him. He can’t sit in the seat because of that big bar and has a hard time staying in place so he’ll grab the sides of the cart.

Momma makes up for it with a berry drink that she doesn’t take away from him in the car. This is pre-car cleaning.

Hey! Are you taking a picture of me for that blog again! Momma Paparazzi Alert!

Looking very concerned as Momma tests her blood pressure at Publix. Are you sure you know what you are doing???

It was high at the doctors office the other day so I’m testing it weekly and keeping track, sort of, as I remember to do so. Today it started at 140/79 which is not good and dropped to 125/67 which was better. This was after walking over to Home Depot and on the way back to the car wash.

After all that we went home for lunch, William napped and then we went back to Sams for some lawn maintenance supplies and water. We went for a walk with the red wagon when we returned home.

Watched Greg/Daddy set up the spreader and do the yard. William was very impressed with Dad’s dumping the turf treatment in the spreader and cheered when the bag was empty. He was then relegated to the bay window in the kitchen where he could watch Daddy go around the yard and wave at him.

Dinner came with complimentary alfredo noodle sauce gel so we had the joy of washing William’s hair in the sink. He sooo does NOT enjoy this. Huge sobs and cries of “Noooo!”.

He was pretty tired at the end of the day and fell asleep pretty quick.

Despite all the bon bon talk, I watched my first movie and stayed up till 12:30 or so. Appleseed Ex Machina. An anime directed and produced by Jon Woo so it had the standard shots of shells falling to the floor in slow motion. Very pretty. I think the older Appleseed had a slightly better story and the computer animation made all the fight scenes feel very video-gamish to me. I’ve also gotten to watch part of the first show of the season of Medium. Ah well, Dora, Wonder Pets and SpongeBob aren’t all that bad.

It was a nice story time. The signing lady was there. William did sign some and several of the other children knew some signs too. I talked with the instructor. She does BabySigns which is 90% ASL . I think almost all of the signs she showed the children were ASL except for maybe bunny. The focus was on animals with Brown Bear, Brown Bear and we had fun making animal noises and signing.

William loved craft time and we were one of the last to leave. We had sheets of white paper with a white crayon. I distressed him by writing on the paper with the crayon but he settled down to painting on it quickly. The writing would show through after the paper was painted. People seemed to be amused that he colored the whole sheet.

The final product:

But one sheet isn’t enough. I wrote just his name on one side but he colored both sides of this page, flipping it over while I was talking to another mother.

After storytime, we roamed the library and chatted with my co-workers. William waved and was mostly cooperative. I would push the stroller back and forth while he leaned forward to see the wheels. He’d sit there and yell, “Go, go go!”

Then we headed out to Home Depot to pick up light bulbs, a bathroom light fixture, and some pansies. I bought a larger bathroom light fixture but it works, both in lighting and fitting in the room size wise. Opted for verbana instead of pansies.

William has to ride in the cart. He cannot sit in the cart child seats with the bar between his calves. I brought the big frog stuffed animal and tried to prop him up with him. He’ll ride along for a while then grab the sides and start trying to left himself to see around better. I’ll have to take a picture of him like this one day.

Afterwards we went home for the day. The exterminator got to our house a little early but waited for me. He sprayed the kitchen counter and baseboards, downstairs bathroom, and around the inside and outside of the front door. This is the 3 visit in as many weeks. We have little black ants that are being persistent pests. Steve found two places that they are trying to get under the house and inside. He put some bait there and hopefully the rain on Wednesday will not wash it all away.

We are using Americare and subscribing either to the annual quarterly or flex plan. Get regular sprayings to keep the little buggers away once we finally get rid of them. All of this is after I sprayed the outside, windows and doors as well as spraying the kitchen twice so it has been a five week battle. The guys that have come out have been extremely nice and seem to be confident that the ants will go away eventually. The company does have a good customer service ethic.

I cleaned the house up some. Planted the flowers while William napped and moved some bulbs. Greg came home tired and we decided not to go to Chik-Fil-A for family night. He put up the new fixture.

We chatted on the computer with Grandmomma and MaryVic. She cut up most of the time with a feather fan. It was good to see her with her curls and smiles.

Then bath and bed!

William and I had breakfast and then he sat in a baby vibrating chair while I showered. He was really good. We came downstairs and did tummy time. Played cars, ball and blocks until Daddy came home for lunch. We had lunch and loaded up for the follow-up trip to the doctor.

The doctor visit went quicker than we thought. We were in and out of x-rays and talking to the doctor in 15 minutes. Everything looks to be going well. The bone still is obviously broken in the x-ray but together and the doctor was very pleased with how it looked. He told us that the next visit would be the one that decided if the cast needed to be adjusted or a new one applied, etcetera. He did say if things stay the same, it is highly unlikely they will do anything to the cast.

Then he started talking more about after the cast comes off. Greg and I have slightly differing perspectives on the discussion but it doesn’t matter because we can ask more next week and however it long it takes William to recover, it will take that long. I had been thinking that he might be up and around in 2-3 weeks, walking again. I guess I also thought the healing process would alleviate any limp too. I was a little taken aback when the doctor said 6 weeks or longer to walk again, talking about rolling, crawling and pulling up. And yet again, when he said there would be a pronounced limp but it would alleviate over time with his normal growth rate to next to nothing.

I guess I was being overly optimistic about things and got a reality check. Greg thinks William could still walk again in 2-3 weeks and the limp will be gone in just a couple of baby growth spurts. Ah well, mothers worry…and this one will look for more on the web about it.

We took William to Home Depot afterwards and looked at ceiling fans with lights. William is in favor of replacing the bonus room fan with the earth light and fan with rockets. I’m afraid we’ll be going with something a bit duller

We went to daycare and picked up MaryVic who had a good time at school. Mrs. Kathy came out to see William. She reminded me that gymnastics is on Thursdays and dance on Mondays. MaryVic is only signed up for gymnastics but sometimes attends dance on Mondays to make up for missing a gymnastics class. She said they are making a huge card for William. The kids are putting their footprints on it so it was currently drying. Apparently a major production, toddlers with paint on their feet, and now that I think about it, a little ironic? Sweet thoughtfulness though. She said they pray for him at daycare at breakfast and lunch.

I got an email from Nashville Parent while waiting for Greg to get MaryVic. Seems I won the February drawing and we have two weeks to come pick up our dvds, Charlie Brown’s Valentine and a Bob the Builder dvd. I had to laugh when Greg joked I should have bought a lottery ticket. I think this may be one of the few drawings I’ve even won.

William fell asleep on the way home. We were home for just a little bit then loaded up again to go to Costco and then our favorite Tuesday night hangout, Chik-Fil-A. The kids had a blast. The balloon guy made William a super duper Mickey balloon hat that he loved and MaryVic got a dolphin. MaryVic played in the playground and danced and sang. She even dragged Daddy up there to dance with her. She really got into the music and all this time, letting her ice cream melt until it was tossed. William wiggled and danced along to the music too. We took tons of pictures with our iphones so we’ll have to see how they turned out.

You would think the kids would have been tired through and through but no… We finally got William down and I had to go snuggle MaryVic. Finally both of them were asleep for the moment if not the duration.