Memorial Day Weekend

We had a pretty good weekend around here overall. Natalie has officially has entered a tantrum and independence phase. The big conflict has been over TV. This morning, she was asking to watch something the moment she got up practically. The problem is that she is so presistent. She demands to take us by the hand and lead us to the TV saying all sorts of words like the name of the show (Gabba Gabba or Kuzco usually), remote, TV, me, see. At first, she doesn't understand that we know what she wants but are just saying no. But then when she does get the message, it still takes a while for her to cry and get over it. Its taxing, especailly since we thought we were going okay as far as restricting her TV went. Most of our other battles are smaller, like her wanting to eat and dinner is still cooking or wanting to go onto other people's property. But, along with this fussiness, she is learning amazing things. She is getting really good with a spoon and fork, going up and down stairs, stepping in and out of pants and shoes, and of course, learning new words all the time.

But, even with all this, we had a good weekend. First of all, Mike busted his ass this weekend. He went to the pool supply store to get the pump looked at and get a new ladder. When he got home, he fixed the pump. That afternoon, he went to the dealership in Saco to start the process of getting a new car. Four hours later, he drove home in our new [to us] Sienna. Sunday, he put in the screens for the doors and fixed the water filter I broke. That afternoon he built the ladder (the ladder was a big hassle; Mike's form of the Boyd black cloud comes in the form of home repair) and opened the pool. Then, just before he grilled for dinner, he put in the AC's in the bed rooms. Today, we took a trip back to the dealership for me to sign the title for my car to trade in.

Saturday, I took Natalie grocery shopping, but it seemed like she didn't have a very fun day. So, I decided we would me sure that she had some the rest of the weekend. Sunday, we took her to the park. Not the little one by the library, but the big one in the town next to us. She had a great time on the merry-go-round, but also enjoyed the see-saw. In the fall, there were lots of ducks, but now there were only two. She wanted to run right into the water and Mike had a little trouble holding her back. She really got a kick out of the white headed dandelions, too. Then, today, we went to the mall after the dealership and she loved running around. We let her have a ride on the carousel, and she got to ride on the horse for the first time. She really liked it, too. Later on, we let her ride on of those mall rides. This one was a school bus, and she loved pretending to be driving. Since we were running late, we went to Wendy's for lunch, where she got lots of fries. But, she fell asleep in the car and then even after an hour in her room, she couldn't take a nap. The house was pretty hot, since it was in the low 80's out, so we filled up her kiddie pool and let her wade in it in just a shirt and diaper. She had a blast with that too. It kept her busy for at least half an hour.

So, it was a good weekend around here. I feel a bit bad that I didn't do more. But, the heat being in the 80's, both indoor and out, two out of three of the days, I wasn't too much help. I remember that the heat really bothered me during my pregnancy with Natalie, too, so I was ready for it to be a problem this time, too. But, I didn't think it would start in May. Luckily, its going to cool down to more seasonable weather in a couple days. Then it will be back to enjoying the backyard and going on walks for a few weeks until it gets hot again. I was glad the wading pool was such a huge hit, because I could sit in the shade near her occasionally sticking my feet in, and she was perfectly happy. When its hot, we usually grill, so that means Mike cooks for dinner, but I did still do a lot of clean up, and did the laundry this week (speaking of which the last load is waiting in the dryer right now). Mike has been doing the laundry because I don't like to carry it down the stairs anymore, but I still do all or most of the folding. Since Mike was so busy, I did watch her a lot, especailly Saturday when I took her shopping and Mike got home later than expected from the dealership. (We had just expected him to put the car on hold with a deposit, not drive it home!). I was happy to get my on line book club book finished a few days early as well as another book. It looks probably that I'll have read 14 books this month, which really helps me out on my 100 book goal.