It's a major award!

Dylan's school had a raffle fundraiser last weekend and there were so many prizes to be won, from gift certificates to gym memberships to power ride-on cars for the kids. We won a giant cardboard cutout of Cheerios Man. I'm pretty sure we might have been one of the only ones trying to win him.

We picked him up at school on Saturday morning and we laughed and laughed with the teachers as they took pictures of us with our major award!




He was a hit this weekend with our family.











Welcome home, Cheerios Man, welcome home.

If I had a hammer

My project for the weekend was to make our basement stairs a bit safer. They were open, with railings but no spindles, I was terrified that one day Dylan or Kate would slip off the side and fall onto the concrete. So no more procrastinating. Dylan and I were at Home Depot by 7AM yesterday and we worked all day--Dylan stayed by my side helping me work--until I put him to bed at seven. I've got the spindles up, but I haven't finished painting everything.



I also did this:



What a skillful carpenter! Sean and Kate spent the day together getting things done around the house and I barely held her for twenty minutes. They were happy to spend a father/daughter day together and Dylan and I really enjoyed our day, too.



I've still got a ton of work to do but after working so hard yesterday I can barely move today. So I'm taking it easy.



Kate seems more than happy to spend the day in pajamas, too.

The weekend

Today Katie is 314 days old. She's sick and covered in lunch, but still smiling.



The four of us caught a pretty miserable cold and spent the weekend in a sloth-like state. The kids bounced back quick and Sean either contracted a less severe cold or has yet to come down with the brunt of it. I felt beyond horrible and Sean let me take an abundance of naps and I'm starting to feel better after the sleep surplus.



But the weekend wasn't all sleeping. I went through the kids' baby clothes and donated a bunch. And still I weeded them down to two bins of Dylan's baby clothes, one bin of Kate's old clothes, and two bins of stuff they'll grow into. That many clothes.



We also danced.

Environmental fail

This is how recycling day works: the truck comes every two weeks--Friday mornings at 9:30AM. Sean puts our giant blue bin out on the curb on Thursday night. But yesterday he came home from work sick and plopped onto the couch and so our recycling bin never made it to the street.

Fast forward to this morning. Katie woke up just as sick as Sean and so I was downstairs on the couch feeding her a bottle. Sean came downstairs after his shower wearing only pants and noticed that the recycling truck was two houses down from us already! Two hours early!

"We're going to miss recycling unless you can get the bin outside in time for the truck, it's here already and I'm not dressed!"

I was half-dressed--jeans and a shirt, no bra and no shoes--but I was determined to succeed. I gently threw the baby at Sean and rushed outside. But the truck was moving along fast and so I started shouting, "WAIT! WAIT!" as I manhandled this giant blue bin down our driveway. The truck was at our neighbor's house and I was on my way towards him. I noticed the driver was wearing earphones and was not looking at me as I shlept the monstrosity towards the street.

And then it was over. He drove past our house. I had not made it.

Defeat swept over me and I turned around and dragged the thing back towards the house. Little Dylan's head was poking up from the window watching me. I looked over at our neighbor's kitchen window and my neighbor and her kids were smiling and waving. I tried to hide my pointy boobs and my shame as I waved back. Defeat. Serious defeat.

With shoulders slumped I walked back inside and announced, "I didn't make it."

"You do know that thing has wheels right? My love was dragging it like a giant brick!" Sean joked.

And then do you know what I did? I bawled like a baby. Sean gave me a hug and a you'll gettum next time speech, thrown off guard because his wife was crying like a total luny over a bin of recycling.

"I'm so embarrased!" I said through tears. "The neighbors were laughing at me! And I'm outside with no bra on like some total idiot!" I walked into the bathroom and began picking up the kids' clothes from last night's bath. Dylan trailed behind me.

"Don't cry, Mama. You're OKay. Is this a bandaid? Can you go get my truck?"

Helluva way to start a Friday, I thought. A sick baby and a whole shit ton of defeat.

We are now watching a movie while Katie sleeps, and I've all but forgotten how upset I was about the recycling. What a weirdo. I cried over not being able to recycle.

Bitizen landlord

I've become addicted to the iPhone game Tiny Tower. And I figured out a way to cheat so that I no longer have to wait to restock or construct. And I still love it, even if there isn't really a point to the game now.