On Tuesday I planted the flower gardens in the front and side of the house. We still have to fill the planters we got for our herb garden. Andrew is looking forward to a bountiful harvest of basil.
While we were out in the yard one of the neighbour boys came over to play with the kids.
"Do you want me to find a four-leaf clover for you, Miriam?" he asked. Then he swooped down, ran his fingers over a patch of clover and pulled out this:
I've spent my whole life casually looking for a four-leaf clover, combing over patches of clover from east coast to west and I've never found a single four-leaf clover.
"Oh, I've found lots," our neighbour told me. "There was a patch at my last school that had a lot of them in it."
I think I read somewhere once that four-leaf clovers were genetic or something, so if you're more likely to find a four-leaf clover in the same patch that has already produced a four-leaf clover so we'll be looking in that particular patch of clover again, I'm sure.
On Tuesday evening we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant (Torero's). They have a free kid's menu Monday through Thursday (one child per paying adult) so we actually ordered a plate of food for Benjamin. I think it's the first time in his life that he hasn't just had to graze off of everyone else's plates and he was so excited when the waiter placed a huge plate in front of him.
He did a remarkably good job eating his rice. If we had been at home it would have been all over the place, but most of it ended up in his mouth (or it was too dark to see if it had fallen all over the floor).
Miriam said, "Grandma is this a nice and fancy restaurant?" while twirling around on the bench.
"Well, it's pretty nice," Grandma said, "Considering you think McDonald's is a restaurant."
"I knew it!" Miriam said. "I knew it was a nice place!"
She was thrilled to be having a fancy dinner. And I suppose it's important to take the kids out every once in a while so they can learn proper etiquette. Rachel had a lot to say and was talking so loudly that it wasn't even funny. We had to keep telling her to use her six-inch voice (a school cafeteria rule) because only we had to hear her, not the entire restaurant!
Wednesday was a lovely day of rest for me. Grandma took the kids to the park in the morning and then brought them home, fed them lunch, and took the girls out shopping. Benjamin was left behind to take a nap.
I considered working on various projects throughout the day but instead I read a book from cover to cover. I cannot even recall the last time I was able to do that. It was rather luxurious to read a book so quickly.
The book, in case you're wondering, was The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, which is our book for book club this month. Alas, I don't think I'll make it to book club this month. That seems to be my curse: if I'm able to finish the book then I can't make it to book club and if I'm not able to finish the book then I can.
While they were out shopping, they picked out a toddler swing for Benjamin. Ignore his cheesy is-this-a-smile smile—he was really happy about this swing:
And here he is pretending to be a puppy. He was crawling around on the floor chasing after this ball. When he'd catch it he'd pick it up in his mouth (it's a little under-flated) and would hop up on two feet and run around.
On Thursday I put the front part of Rachel's hair in a fishtail braid and then pulled it back into a ponytail. My girls' hair is too wispy to put in one hair elastic so I usually pull it back in two sections (otherwise it all falls out). When I told Rachel what I'd done she said, "Ooh! It's a seahorse-tail!"
She's getting to be pretty witty. I like her sense of humour.
On either Saturday or Sunday (I can't remember which day, but I'm pretty sure it was Sunday) I was sitting beside Andrew on the couch, watching conference. I had my feet tucked up under me, we my knees up. Rachel came running into the room and jumped onto Andrew's lap but overshot a little and ended up crashing her knees into my knee.
It hurt pretty bad but I figured I'd be alright and didn't think much of it.
Later that day I knelt down to tuck the kids into bed and noticed my knee was stinging. I went in to the "office" where Andrew was working (aka: our bedroom) and pulled up my pant leg.
"What is wrong with my knee?!" I asked. "It stings and it's all red! Is it a rash or something?"
"Here. Put some of this on," said Andrew, casually handing me the tube of hydrocortisone cream that was sitting beside his mouse.
I did but it didn't make things much better.
While we were out in the yard one of the neighbour boys came over to play with the kids.
"Do you want me to find a four-leaf clover for you, Miriam?" he asked. Then he swooped down, ran his fingers over a patch of clover and pulled out this:
I've spent my whole life casually looking for a four-leaf clover, combing over patches of clover from east coast to west and I've never found a single four-leaf clover.
"Oh, I've found lots," our neighbour told me. "There was a patch at my last school that had a lot of them in it."
I think I read somewhere once that four-leaf clovers were genetic or something, so if you're more likely to find a four-leaf clover in the same patch that has already produced a four-leaf clover so we'll be looking in that particular patch of clover again, I'm sure.
On Tuesday evening we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant (Torero's). They have a free kid's menu Monday through Thursday (one child per paying adult) so we actually ordered a plate of food for Benjamin. I think it's the first time in his life that he hasn't just had to graze off of everyone else's plates and he was so excited when the waiter placed a huge plate in front of him.
He did a remarkably good job eating his rice. If we had been at home it would have been all over the place, but most of it ended up in his mouth (or it was too dark to see if it had fallen all over the floor).
Miriam said, "Grandma is this a nice and fancy restaurant?" while twirling around on the bench.
"Well, it's pretty nice," Grandma said, "Considering you think McDonald's is a restaurant."
"I knew it!" Miriam said. "I knew it was a nice place!"
She was thrilled to be having a fancy dinner. And I suppose it's important to take the kids out every once in a while so they can learn proper etiquette. Rachel had a lot to say and was talking so loudly that it wasn't even funny. We had to keep telling her to use her six-inch voice (a school cafeteria rule) because only we had to hear her, not the entire restaurant!
Wednesday was a lovely day of rest for me. Grandma took the kids to the park in the morning and then brought them home, fed them lunch, and took the girls out shopping. Benjamin was left behind to take a nap.
I considered working on various projects throughout the day but instead I read a book from cover to cover. I cannot even recall the last time I was able to do that. It was rather luxurious to read a book so quickly.
The book, in case you're wondering, was The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, which is our book for book club this month. Alas, I don't think I'll make it to book club this month. That seems to be my curse: if I'm able to finish the book then I can't make it to book club and if I'm not able to finish the book then I can.
While they were out shopping, they picked out a toddler swing for Benjamin. Ignore his cheesy is-this-a-smile smile—he was really happy about this swing:
And here he is pretending to be a puppy. He was crawling around on the floor chasing after this ball. When he'd catch it he'd pick it up in his mouth (it's a little under-flated) and would hop up on two feet and run around.
On Thursday I put the front part of Rachel's hair in a fishtail braid and then pulled it back into a ponytail. My girls' hair is too wispy to put in one hair elastic so I usually pull it back in two sections (otherwise it all falls out). When I told Rachel what I'd done she said, "Ooh! It's a seahorse-tail!"
She's getting to be pretty witty. I like her sense of humour.
On either Saturday or Sunday (I can't remember which day, but I'm pretty sure it was Sunday) I was sitting beside Andrew on the couch, watching conference. I had my feet tucked up under me, we my knees up. Rachel came running into the room and jumped onto Andrew's lap but overshot a little and ended up crashing her knees into my knee.
It hurt pretty bad but I figured I'd be alright and didn't think much of it.
Later that day I knelt down to tuck the kids into bed and noticed my knee was stinging. I went in to the "office" where Andrew was working (aka: our bedroom) and pulled up my pant leg.
"What is wrong with my knee?!" I asked. "It stings and it's all red! Is it a rash or something?"
"Here. Put some of this on," said Andrew, casually handing me the tube of hydrocortisone cream that was sitting beside his mouse.
I did but it didn't make things much better.
It was only after it started to turn greenish that I realized it was a bruise! Rachel nailed me a good one! My entire kneecap was bruised and I never noticed how often motherhood brings me to my knees until my knee got all banged up like this.
Playing with the kids. Getting kids dressed. Tucking kids in. Digging apples out of the bottom fridge drawer. Pulling toys out from under the couch. Changing diapers. Putting on kid shoes. Cleaning up toys from the floor.
I get on my knees several times a day. This week was a particularly painful one in that regard so I switched to doing a lot of squatting (which is probably healthier), especially while painting the deck, because I just couldn't kneel down!
Random. I hurt my knee this week and discovered just how much I kneel too. My injury came from kneeling a little hard on the snap of a onesie. Doesn't sound too bad; I'm surprised at how much it hurt and still does. Just thought you would like to hear the randomness of us having a similar experience at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI remember a time when I was taping a carport on stilts about 4 feet of the cement driveway when I tripped and fell, because I had no place safe to toss my tools I had to hold onto them and I went straight down on my knees. That hurt for a while.
ReplyDelete4 feet "off" the cement
Delete