I was in the kitchen Monday morning and heard shrieks which always require investigating. They were watching Cat in the Hat on the computer and William had decided it was more fun to spin MaryVic in the office chair. She was more than glad to let him because hey, a little brother has to be good for something!

And she reaps the benefits of all the upper body strength he developed while in the spica cast.

He enjoyed it as much as her.

It was unusually cold Monday morning but pretty. I took the kids to the library despite the temperature. Here they are playing on the preschool computers in the children’s department before Toddler Time. They had a good time at the storytime about Bugs!

After Toddler Time we went up to Momma’s office where she has some neat things like balls and slinkies.

And oooo… bookmarks!

Bookmark or ball?

Momma needs help. Look at this mess!

Yes, this needs to go.

and it does.

Then there are two helpers and then the shredder gets unplugged!

Monday continued with rounds in the library to visit co-workers, lunch with Daddy and then home for naps. We stayed in the rest of the day although MaryVic campaigned to go to the indoor pool. It is not heated so Momma vetoed pool visits. William did walk in the library a little bit while holding on to Momma and while holding on to Daddy with one hand in the evening! We have him climbing the stairs at bedtime now, all 16 steps.

On Tuesday MaryVic went to school so Momma did some cleaning. First she moved everything into the den and playroom to mop. William watched a show after he tried to climb a chair and get on the coffee table. The subsequent scolding sent him to climb up on the bathroom stool where he perched the whole time I was mopping.

Daddy came home from lunch and left the van. William took his nap and then we were off to get sister.

Everyone was glad to see him out of the cast although he took one look at Ms. Cathy and promptly hid from her, tucking his face into my neck. He perked up and then played spider on Momma while I talked to her. We found MaryVic in her class. Apparently everyone got the memo and all the little girls were in a pink outfits and the only boy was in a blue polo, very cute.

Ms. Cathy gave us a gift from Williams class. She told Greg and I about it weeks ago. She said it took forever to dry. The kids stepped in paint and walked on the paper. The teachers wrote the children’s names next to the footprints at different places on the sheet. A cute idea and it was sweet of them to think of him. I do have to laugh at the irony of it though.

She gave the roll to MaryVic to carry, ‘Can you carry William’s gift to the car?’ or something like that. All I know is William heard his name and started shrieking at the fact sister was touching something of HIS! So William got to carry it to the car. It was long enough that both of them had to hold it in their laps on the way home which William tolerated. He couldn’t wait to get it unrolled. I kept hearing paper noises and finally there was the rip.

We made it home with it mostly intact . MaryVic carried it in via the front door while I unloaded William and he pouted about it. I kept them from destroying it during the unraveling process. William promptly crawled all over it repeatedly. MaryVic crawled around with him too. At first he fussed about that but decided it was more fun to play with her on it.

Just a picture taken while waiting for Daddy to come home so we could all go see the cow!

We had dinner at Chik-Fil-A. The balloon guy was astounded to see William out of his cast. He really is very nice and made a big deal of it. He made William another special balloon with lots of twists. A race car balloon! MaryVic got a balloon wand with which she proceeded to attack the cow. Literally, I had to go get her at least twice and pull her away from cow. Momma, I’m hitting him on the nose! Yes, I saw that and you need to stop or cow is going to start going the other way when he sees you! And he did, unfortunately, so we had William at our table, “Coow! No…Cow!” So no cow high fives for William. Cow took a break right after that and it was time for us to go.

The next couple of days are supposed to be nice so we’ll be shooting for the park, indoor pool and zoo before Friday when it is supposed to rain again. Greg has added Twitter to the web blog. I input where we are which I was doing via Facebook. I’ll be able to input it via Twitter and it will update my Facebook page and the blog page. It seems pretty nifty.

I might as well blog about yesterday. I am drinking a cup of coffee so it may be somewhat intelligent, intelligible. Oh, and around 4:15, MaryVic came downstairs. Apparently she had a bad dream… I wonder what could have caused that! Now what did we do yesterday? Let me jog my memory with caffeine and the iphone.

We went to Toddler Time. MaryVic is sitting on the floor with her hands on her head. Sorry about the picture Kristin! She is the librarian reading stories and doing Toddler Time. I had a better picture but front and center is a little boy staring at the iphone. He wanted to be rich and famous but..

Craft time…

“Good job William!”

Sharing the crayon…

But the horse needs some more color.

Showing the books to the horse puppets.

This is the good book! Posing for pictures for Mom. Both played on the computers for 30 minutes after storytime. They played Barney games. William watched the video clips and Mary did a counting game. They also watched Stellaluna the book on the computers.

Then off to Momma’s office so she could check email and voicemail. William got some tummy time.

MaryVic exercised.

We were very good while Mom caught up with her co-workers. Okay maybe there was an incident with the admin hallway door as Momma talked with Olivia due to impatience and MaryVic being overly helpful!

MaryVic regaled anyone who would listen with the story of her ‘broken’ toe. She managed to blister her big toe on the side while running around barefoot almost all day or the 20 minutes she was outside in her furry lined crocs. Everyone she spoke with was most impressed with her Hello Kitty band-aid if treated to the show.

A quick call from Daddy reminded Momma how long we’d been at the library and we left to pick him up for lunch. Momma vetoed eating in the clean mini-van at Sonic. It was fairly easy to convince her to eat at the place with colored chairs, Shane’s Bar-B-Que.

Both enjoyed their fries and cheese sandwich. MaryVic was good so we partook of the free ice cream offered that day. Actually it was ice cream and apple or peach pie on Mondays! The lady was nice enough to bring MaryVic some just ice cream.

We went home afterwards for a failed attempt at napping. I guess the change to doing so in the bonus room was too distracting. Downstairs a couple of hours later for some quick cleaning. I insisted it was too nice to stay indoors and dragged both children, screaming, outside. MaryVic rode her bike as far as the pool house and parked it in the bike rack. She walked the rest of the way. William quieted down once she was walking with us. We fed the fish, saw turtles and a couple of young ducks diving in the pond.

When we got home Wiliam pushed up for me.

It is still a lot of work. Missing his nap here.

We tormented him with another hair washing. You would think that without naps they would pass on out but evidence gathered indicates that lack of nap has no effect on bedtime. William had some screaming bouts but settled down. MaryVic fell asleep eventually too. I got up and laid with William during the storms after midnight.

And here we are at 4 a.m on Wednesday morning, watching Wubbzy.

5 a.m. artist at work

Okay, I think I’m due another cup of coffee. No big plans for today. MaryVic goes to school in 2 hrs. I’ll mop then relocate upstairs to run the vacuum. Probably Chik-Fil-A tonight. By then non one will be wanting me to cook!

We had fun at Monday’s Toddler Time craft with glue and crayons! MaryVic is waving around her duck puppet.

Looking at her first library card. Williamson County allows you a library card when you are 4 years old.

William has been enjoying playing with this pull-up toy. We had not sold it on e-bay yet but that was the plan. Hopefully it will be useful after the cast comes off too. The balls can be dropped from the top and roll down. I thought it might be interesting for others to see him pushing himself around in the cast, getting into a crawling posture. The cast is still very heavy on him but he would push himself after the balls if they rolled on out and then shove himself back to the toy.

William took it as a personal challenge to get the saran wrap back around the chocolate chip cookie when we lunched in Daddy’s office. He never did eat the cookie or get it wrapped back up.

We walked down to the pond and fed the fish. Have to fatten them up for catching later on. Get your fishing poles and bait ready Poppa! I think you have a few weeks though, the fish are not any bigger than a cricket right now.

Sister gave him a wish flower. You have to blow off all the dandelion puffs for a wish to come true. Yes, my neighbors love me for that little myth.

Chasing the dandelion puffs and yes Mom put a stop too it when she went off the sidewalk.

Getting ready to go in the zoo. MaryVic is a pro at using the key to open and shut the doors and trunk. We do not push the red alarm button because that makes Holly the van scream. I was worried about keeping up with her so I dressed her in orange and put the feathers on her head. It worked quite well but she also stayed close.

We played in the playground and went into the ‘reptile house’ like building. It has frogs, snakes, spiders, bugs. birds, turtles, lizards and bats plus other creatures. They don’t allow strollers in there. MaryVic was very good about staying with us as I carried him around.

G

Playing at the dance studio on Thursday during MaryVic’s make up session.

We had company Thursday evening. One of the neighbors dogs came over and MaryVic ran him around the yard.

Playing at today’s Saturday dance class. This was the first time William has gone to her regular dance class and I had to spend some time explaining about his cast. He is quite good and plays during the class.

So far today, we have had an easy day. A storm came up during dance class and it’s been gloomy-gray so far. We went to lunch at Panchos and hopefully are on the tale end of a Barbie movie marathon now. So far we have watched Mariposa, Fairytopeia, and now Swan Lake. William took a nap. Guess I’d better check on the clothes washing and get W changed now that he is awake.

3 days until the x-ray and a decision regarding the cast!!

We spent more time at the library than planned. I needed to look for something for a co-worker which I couldn’t find in my office, of course! I spent some time in the office and the kids played very nicely. MaryVic shredded part of my ‘to be shredded’ stack and William did tummy time on the floor. Afterwards we walked around and touched base with co-workers.MaryVic got her first library card and checked out books. She was thrilled. I guess she takes after her mother’s reading tastes right now as she insists on checking out Halloween books. I like the scary stuff, good ghost stories and thrillers too. She was nice and checked out 2 board books for her brother.It was after one by the time we left the library so to apologize to the kids for having kept them there so long, we went to Sonic for milkshakes. They could not have the shakes in the just cleaned minivan so straight home. William fell asleep on the way but he did eat his shake after nap.After he woke up, ate lunch and I was finally able to get them moving. Well, I did give up after an hour and just bagged the chicken nuggets to go with us to the grocery store. We did the grocery shopping. I was very amused with MaryVic. We passed the store’s blood pressure check machine and she started going on about my arm. After spinning in circles 5 times trying to find what was on my arms?!, I figured out she was reminding to check my blood pressure which I had forgotten about. She sat in the cart telling me that she’d give me another sticker for checking it. I had already received two Kroger stickers because I was a good mommy (much to the Kroger pharmacists amusement). Blood pressure was fine: 117/50 and 106/67.The only other thing of note on Monday were I called Vandy again to double check about Williams appointment. Dr. Martus had said that April 1 was too soon to remove the cast and to either go to Vandy on Friday or come back to the Cool Springs office on Tuesday, April 8. The nurse called me back and said Dr. Martus needed to see William 3 weeks from the last appointment which would be April 2. The cast may or may not come off then. We have decided not to hold our breath hoping and just go with the flow.On Tuesday, MaryVic went to school with not a lot of fuss. William and I stayed home for the day. He was very good as I went on a small cleaning spree. Americare staff were back at the house again baiting the outside for the ants.We picked MaryVic up and went to Chik-fil-A for dinner. She got a pink and purple armadillo and William got a green alien man from the Balloon Guy. The alien guy was as big a hit as the train and he attacked Momma and stomped on dinner.The ants have found our primary garbage can in the garage. Of course, this is discovered in the evening, long after AmeriCare Pest Control is gone. Greg sprayed the corner of the garage down with Home Defense. So the Ant Wars wage on…All is well otherwise. We have an outing to the Apple store today, Wednesday, to see about the shift key on my laptop.

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!

They enjoyed Toddler Time. It was all about farm animals and puppies with some fun songs. William got shy and didn’t participate as much as I thought he would but he listened. We sang Old MacDonald at bathtime and he was right there with the e-i-e-i-O, especially the Oooo.

They both enjoyed the craft, making stick puppets and coloring with markers. William tested the colors on his fingers before coloring.

Mary gave her puppy pink spots. She ran around with her red bird puppet at home singing red bird, red bird what do you see?

I did an hour of work. Trying to get started on the patron satisfaction survey and check my email from work. William did tummy time in the office while Mary played. Janice gave them some toys to play with so they were happy.

The trip to the library wound up being 3 hrs to my surprise so straight home for nap and lunch at 1p. We were still able to make it to the grocery store in the afternoon before the rain started. William rode in the little car and had a good time there. And the bakery was giving out Mary’s favorite, chocolate chip cookies!

The evening went nicely also. The only hitch was William spat out his pain medicine, all over his face and into one of his eyes. So he was a little fussy all night. Greg and I washed his hair in the kitchen sink which he enjoyed immensely… NOT. He looks a lot better now though. I know he’ll be glad when this is all over and we stop tormenting in all these little ways or he can at least try to run away.