One fell off and bumped his head.

No more monkeys jumping on the bed....

Joey was having a great time playing on our bed one morning....until his head met the headboard.  This kid is all boy.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great, relaxing Labor Day weekend.  Jeff & I took the day off on Friday, but the kids went to school.  We enjoyed a perfect day by the pool.  Since all of the neighborhood kids were in school, we basically had the place to ourselves!

Saturday morning, we all went to the Zionsville Farmers Market.  Jeff and Melanie have gone to the market every single Saturday this summer that we have been in town.  Usually, Joey is taking his first nap during this time, but we have occasionally joined them.  After the market, it's a tradition to play at the park, so we took part in that tradition!  Melanie and I then headed to the Monon Center for our first and only trip to the aquatic park this season!  We met Aya & Lida there, and it was a gorgeous day! We took a lap through the lazy river, and Melanie made a career out of going down the little slide at least 300 times.  She made it a good 2.5 hours without going overboard; she did fall asleep before we left the parking lot!  Later that evening, we went to Grace's house for dinner.

Sunday was a very lazy day....after Mel & I did nursery duty, errands, lunch, etc., I changed back into my pajamas, and we just hung out at the house.  The weather had gotten considerably colder since the first half of the weekend, so we just played & slept indoors all day!  Gigi & Poppy came over that night, and played with the kids while Jeff & I walked to dinner out.

Monday, Melanie and I started our morning with a playdate at Aya's with Aya & Grace...how cool is it that Aya has a bouncy house in her basement??  Then we headed to Bella's fifth birthday party, where there were a LOT of little rock stars!  Melanie was able to get off of my hip for a few short minutes to pretend like she was a rock star!

I'd say we packed a lot into the long weekend, while still managing to relax and enjoy ourselves! Melanie struggled with quite a bit of antisocialness over the weekend, and we're still investigating how to get her to interact a little better.  She has a very large personality, but it doesn't always come out when she's around other people!

Tuesday night, Molly came over to play while Julie taught her acting class at ZPC.  That night, Melanie was definitely back "on" with her sociability!   The girls were hilarious, and getting along great.

Charlie's soccer game

It was so fun to go to Charlie's first soccer game - the weekend before Labor Day.  He was a GREAT hustler, and even scored a goal!  He was really good - and I'm not just saying that because I'm his aunt!  His coaches are so good too - encouraging the kids in their relationships with their families.  After the game, Charlie came over and hugged each one of his fans - he had a lot of them!  Way to go, Char!

Welcome to the World, Hailey!

Jeff's "best friend" (not that these guys would use that term...) Scotty, and his wife Lori, of course, had their first baby, Hailey Alyssa, in August.  We were delayed in getting to meet her, due to our kids, Jeff's trip to Arkansas, etc.  It was very nice to spend a couple of hours with them, while Randy & Cory watched our kids, and see how wonderfully Scott & Lori are adapting to parenthood!

My Children Love Shoes

As I've mentioned before, Joey doesn't have many words.  One that he has obtained lately, though, is "shoes."  This goes well with his sister's obsession with shoes.  They are both constantly trying on, trading, and playing with their shoes.  The picture above represents just a fraction of the shoes that are typically in this basket - these are the shoes that are in "first string" rotation for these two kiddos; only two pairs are Joey's.  It doesn't matter to him; he'll wear his sister's, mine, Jeff's, no worries.

Recently, Jeff bought Melanie a pair of $2 clearance sandals at Meijer.  When I gave them to her, she said "I never got new shoes before.  These are nice.  Do they light up?"  Shortly thereafter, I was presenting her with a pair of $7 brown dress shoes.  That receiving quote was "I'm so excited!  These are cute!!"

Zoo!

After Melanie's grumpy, mean, weekend, I decided to keep her home Monday morning.  She just hadn't napped well at all over the weekend, and she was in bed by about 7:45 Saturday and Sunday night.  Monday, she seemed sleepy, still VERY grumpy, etc.  I thought maybe some one-on-one time with Mommy might help.  We spent the morning cuddling, and then headed to the zoo.  We were guests number 15 and 16, due in part to our early arrival and part to school being back in session everywhere.

After the first ride on the carousel, where she didn't want me to touch her, she rode three more times ALL BY HERSELF.  Big time, I'm telling you.  I couldn't keep her off of it!

We also rode the train twice.  We were passengers #1 and 2 for that one.

She wanted nothing to do with animals.  We went in for the dolphin show, but she screamed and cried to leave.  You can tell she's excited to be with the giraffes....

She slept on the way home, and then for about three hours this afternoon.  I'm hoping we're on the other side of whatever has been going on with her for the last few days!  It was a gorgeous day to spend the morning at the zoo!

A Weekend Without Husbands

Jeff, Randy, and their parents drove to Arkansas for Richard Fernald's funeral.  Richard, Jeff's Aunt Barb's husband, lost his battle with cancer last week, after a very valiant fight.  He will be greatly missed.

While everyone was out of town, Cory & I devised a plan to keep each other sane.  Friday night, we had dinner, played, and stayed the night in Fishers.  Melanie liked Charlie's night-time ritual of watching TV in the big bed before bedtime!

Saturday, we all headed to the State Fair.  I was excited for Melanie to capitalize on the love of carnival rides that she developed at SetonFest last month.  Well, maybe we shouldn't have started out on the roller coaster.  After crying her way through it - "It's TOO FAST Mommy, I want OFF, Mommy!!" - she didn't ride any other rides.  Joey got giggles from all of the passers-by by the end of the fair, for his snack-time nap.  He was just too sleepy to get that piece of cracker to his mouth.  Similarly, on the way home, while he was dancing in his carseat, I said "Look at your brother, Melanie."  I watched her look at him, close her eyes, and sleep the rest of the way home.

After the fair, Cory and the kids came to our house for a yummy steak dinner (for the Mommies, at least), and they stayed the night with us.  I thought that might help my kids act a little more "normally."  After Joey had been really cranky for about a week, we have him on ear drops.  He's started feeling and acting MUCH better, but Melanie spent the weekend VERY whiney for her Daddy.  She was really clingy to me, and wouldn't do much by herself.  By Saturday evening, I realized she had a low-grade fever; she also hadn't eaten anything Saturday.  Sunday, she acted bizarre even with Gigi; both when I was there and when I wasn't.  We were all very happy to have Daddy home on Sunday evening!  

It was great to spend the weekend with Cory and the kids; nice to have that support system!!