Joint Blog

R; We're writing a joint blog tonight because, well...
J: We figured it might be therapeutic.
R: The boys...the boys won the battle today. So I think to explain everything that was today, we'd have to start at last night.
J: Last night was Owen refusing to go to sleep on his own for the first time in I-can't-remember-how-long, fireworks going off around the neighborhood until about 10 PM, and the neighbor across the street blaring something that can't be classified as music from his car stereo until I asked him to stop at 9:15.
R: And last night for me was playing the annual July 3rd baseball game/fireworks/orchestra extravaganza where the whole brass section goes out to the brewery next door afterwards, and there's no escaping it, even if you carpooled. And it's kind of fun, but well, I looked at my journal from last year on the morning of July 4th, and it appears that I overdid it on the chicken wings and the beer then too.
J: Whoops.
R: So I was really careful to drink a ton of water and all night and to do everything in moderation--20 oz of a medium strength ale and four chicken wings. And I still was completely laid out until 9 am. I think I am just officially old.
J: Owen got up around 7:15, which is about right for him. And James was awake when we went to go get him as well. I knew that you had got in late, so I decided to let you sleep in. It quickly became apparent that Owen was going to have a rough morning.
R: I was mostly asleep, and that was apparent to me too.
J: He fussed over breakfast choices and activities suggested and changed his mind repeatedly about what he wanted. What I really wanted was to finish the dishes, because the night before I went to do them and found that someone had left the dishwasher 90% full and hadn't run it, so I could only put in three dishes and leave 90% of the dirty dishes on the sink.
R: I really don't know who that was, I was gone yesterday.
J: My initial attempts at trying to unload the clean dishes were met with Owen trying to reach into the dishwasher, climb into the dishwasher, or screaming "NO" at me. So after diverting him with books and toys I snuck back into the kitchen and set up the baby gate, used only in worst case scenarios to ensure that I could get some work done. He, of course, realized .3 seconds later what I had done and set himself up by the gate wailing and shouting "NO" and MAMA" most pitifully and pathetically. I continued to unload the bottom of the dishwasher waiting for his cries to subside, which they did. I picked up a bowl and turned to put it away, and caught sight of him balanced on his belly button atop the baby gate, ready to tip over.
I screamed, he tipped, and landed on his neck. Which made me scream again. Which made him scream.
Needless to say, I didn't finish unloading the dishwasher. And the baby gate has ceased to be useful.
R: Also needless to say, I realized I was going to need to get up sooner rather than later.
J: But you didn't get up for another hour! This is therapeutic...
R: Go on.
J: It should be noted that for the two hours the boys were up before Roy got up, James played beautifully by himself reading stories and talking to his stuffed animal and car friends, only fussing when Owen, who was annoying everybody, was annoying him as well. I thought a lot about waking you up, but by then it was a matter of pride. Prayed for patience for myself and everyone.
R: So, let's get to the part of the day when I got up and was helpful. And made a difference. Which started with Owen not wanting me to drink coffee or eat breakfast or read or touch him. Is this where we confess that we put on a movie by 10 am.
J: Yes. It was a holiday. It was hot. We're all in wedding recovery mode, and the Little Rascals is cute. It has a dog and a car race in it. Doesn't get any better than that for these kids.
R: And I got some church work done.
J: I got some peace and quiet done. Although I had to sit and watch the whole thing because Owen wouldn't let me leave.
R: James was still fine at that point, right?
J: Yup. He sat up when the car race started.
R: He liked the pickle song too.
J: Yeah, I like that one too.
R: So you know how when you go to the store, and you see really bratty kids out with their parents, and they're being awful, and you think to yourself 'I'm really glad our kids are so much cuter and better and kind of civilized?" Today at Wegmans, our kids were those kids. Our kids were the bottom of the food chain. They hit each other, they made loud shrieky noises, they begged for stuff.
J: Not really...James did a good job. I saw him looking at stuff that I knew he wanted to ask for and he didn't.
R: He's paying for Owen's sins in my memory. We should mention that this Wegmans trip would have been very expensive (Date Night In blogs coming soon) but we received an unnecessary but very much appreciated generous gift from the Eatons, who are hereby named the official sponsor of July Date Night In. Also, James really wants cheeseballs again, like he had at the picnic in Albion.
J: We tried to explain that that isn't food, but he didn't buy it.
R: Also, he turned his nose up at the amazing fresh gourmet mozarella cheese in the caprese salad we made tonight and is going to need to finish it tomorrow...but he wants those radioactive orange cheese balls.
J: Puffs of cheez.
R: So neither of them did well at dinner.
J: It was a beautiful dinner. It was pretty, it was fresh, it was tasty. I took pictures of it, it was so nice. They both screamed and said no, and pushed it away, and threw it on the floor, and threw it in my face. (That was Owen.) So frustrating.
R: We should put some of these pictures up. Sauteed peppers and onions and mushrooms and good sausage, and then this beautiful caprese salad, and the promise of home made ice cream for dessert, which we should talk about the making-of.
J: I'm going to say this cottage cheese is no longer good. <going through fridge>
R: They shrieked and pawed and tried to grab stuff the whole time J was making the ice cream, and then when we finally got to the "clean out the bowl part" they were like nasty little harpies, smacking each other and dripping it all over the place.
J: It was so bad.
R: And they didn't end up getting any dessert. We took back the dinner table tonight, though at great cost. Owen is now getting buckled in to his high chair. He has stood up and reached across the table so many times that he lost unbuckled privileges. And how would you describe your feelings about James?
J: ....
R: You might just be feeling sorry for him since he slipped and banged his leg up on the way in from outside and had a good cry. But how were you feeling about him at dinner time?
J: <sighs> Frustrated, that yet again he turns his nose up at healthy wholesome food that isn't too scary or crazy or foreign. He'll eat peppers any other day of the week, as long as they aren't cooked. But throw them in a skillet and all of a sudden they are abhorrent. And he asks the same questions and tries to barter the same way 20 times in 10 minutes, which is extremely frustrating, and hard to know how to balance wanting him to know that you hear him, but also not letting him control the situation with his unnecessary queries.
R: He never gives up on talking his way out of dinner.
J; And he doesn't win. Maybe you disagree, but does he ever win that?
R: Well, he protracts dinner way beyond what we'd like. And maybe knowing that he's controlling the situation by delaying it is a small win for him.A way to be in control.
J: Something to think about more, especially as Csehy is coming up. We'll need a battle plan. So, despite us being both completely exhausted by the time dinner was over we agreed that the only rational thing to do for our sanity and theirs was to go for the longest run we could stand because we knew that they would both be quiet for as long as we were out pushing the stroller. It was the last thing I wanted to do because I was tired, we'd run like 12 miles in 3 days, and I had a lot of bread for lunch, which doesn't help my legs. On a normal run we might go between 2.5 and 3 miles. Roy quickly mapped a new route that would be at least 4, and hopefully get us to bedtime.
R: I wasn't particularly feeling this run for the love of it either, but it got us to bedtime.
J: High fives all around. It was the quietest part of the day.
R: Until James fell on the way back into the house.
J: So we took them to the bath, and they giggled a lot. I asked James three times before I put him in the tub if he had to go potty, and he said no. Two minutes after he was in he had to get out all drippy and go, and couldn't understand when I warned him why the toilet seat would be slippery.
R: "This was not my plan."
J: Owen drank a lot of bath water. I gave up on that battle about six months ago.
R: But we got them in bed. And it sounds like Owen was happy to go down?
J: Yup. Well, he wanted to read all of the books, but he's very proud of his new animals noises.
R: It sounded like you had a zoo in the other room.
J: A zoo full of roosters.
R: And then we came downstairs...
J: And ate ice cream.
R: And started working on the Eaton Memorial Date Night In.
J: It wasn't a funeral, it was a wedding. And a very lovely one at that.
R: So I pickled onions, and you made tomatillo salsa and a citrus marinade for a pork shoulder.
J; Yum
R: And now it's 9:07. Want to go to bed early?
J: Shower please. And yes.