Hello, August! (TOT at the end)

This is my calendar for August (and thank you Jennie for introducing me to the world of Google calendar). I’m pretty sure that weekend of 8/27-28 is a fluke and I’m missing something, but as it stands now, I have 3 free weekend days in the next five weeks (although I'm trying to set up an out-of-town lunch with the girl whose baby shower I missed two weekends ago, so there goes one of the days). I’m assuming it will all be fun, I hope, but holy goodness I’m busy these days!

And beyond that, there’s regular old life with two kids. Regular, exhausting, exhilarating and annoying, life with two kids. For every complaint I could have, there is something amazing going on. I’m trying very hard not to dwell on the constant headache I’ve been having lately or the tantrums or the twice nightly wake-up calls or the screaming or the viruses … instead, there’s the look on this boy’s face when he gets to ride with daddy on his co-pilot bike. There’s two very small children playing peacefully together for a solid 15 minutes. There’s the little one, staring rapt at the television and giggling while watching Where the Wild Things Are (thank goodness I have one who has the attention span for movies). There is Spencer, spelling every sign he sees these days while he tries to learn words. There is Henry, overjoyed at the prospect of walking but not ready to let go (he likes to hold onto my dress now, so I’m not actually supporting him. I’m like his own personal security blanket).

It was a hard weekend. I came down with whatever the kids had and I’m a little whiny baby about being sick. I came in late to work after the kids’ doctor (no ear infections, no antibiotics … just have to ride it out), muttered through work for four hours and then went back home to lay on the couch and feel miserable for awhile, went to bed at 7ish and slept for 12 hours. The kids are starting to get better – the noses are drying up a little, Henry’s rash went away (he had a rash on his belly and up the sides of his back) and they are both back to being in normal form (i.e. loud and rambunctious). I accidentally got S all excited for a birthday party on Saturday that actually was set for Sunday, so I took him out for a little Mommy & Me time … he chose to go to the mall (I’m not complaining) and I chose to take him to the airport to watch the airplanes take off, and the trams and the taxis. We walked around the ticketing counters and the building and talked about our October airplane ride. It was a good time. Henry is still not sleeping through the night, waking up angrily twice every night to scream in his crib until someone comes to rescue him, and I’m still not sure what to do about it. We are back to CIO, and he woke up once Sunday night, cried terribly for 20 minutes and went back to sleep. Monday night, he woke up, cried terribly for 30 minutes, and went back to sleep. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears. At this point I’m pretty sure we’ve tried everything.

We had our first family bike ride on Saturday. We got a co-pilot bike trailer for S, and a new bike helmet (Cars) so Henry could get the hand-me-down helmet and the iBert. Spencer was so excited about that bike. Henry … he didn’t know what to think, but he hated the helmet so he spent most of the ride fighting with it. We went 7 miles, and Spencer would have gladly gone longer but it was long enough for Daddy and Henry. We’ll have to work up to longer rides.

And there are only 52 hours until I leave for Delaware! Ahh!

So I forgot to post on Monday, so M/T are combined today. Here's this week's TOT, via Chelsea (although my answers are a little bit of a cop-out; I hate laundry):

1. Do you do laundry all at the same time or a load here and there? I try to run it all at the same time, but I sometimes forget half way through and leave a load in for a day or two that then has to be rewashed.
2. What kind of detergent do you use? Up&Up Allergen Free, or sometimes All Allergen Free.
3. Do you use fabric softener? Downy
4. Do you use dryer sheets? Only if the clothes are just on the brink of needing to be rewashed and I don't feel like it.
5. Do you iron your own clothes or take them to a cleaner to get pressed? I hate to iron, but it has never occurred to me to pay to have clothes pressed. If I'm taking my clothes to the cleaners, it's because they need to clean them for me. Usually I just go wrinkly.
6. Do you like heavy starch or light starch? I don't have much of a need for starch. Hubby likes heavy. He also prefers to do the ironing.
7. Do you wash all your laundry at once or separate it? I separate unless the load is small and then sometimes I stuff extra stuff in.
8. How do you separate it? By people or by colors? By colors, and then all the outdoor stuff goes separately, like the towels etc.
9. What clothes get hung up and what goes in drawers? We used to hang everything, but now it's mostly our work clothes and everything else goes in drawers.
10. Do you use plastic, wire, or wooden hangers? Do they all match? mostly plastic, wood for my work pants and hubby's work clothes. the wood ones all match, but the plastic are a mish-mash. No wire, ever.