As I write this, someone is on their bed throwing a massive fit. There were many things that escalated it to this point, but the real problem was the absolute refusal to finish the last of 3 bites of meatloaf. I haven't cooked much lately, and I felt like I really should, and even wanted to tonight. So I did meatloaf (a very tasty one), mashed potatoes, and salad. Two of my four children will not eat mashed potatoes anyway, but I figured that they could at least try the meatloaf. Two of them whined and made faces, but ate it, and survived with no injuries. We might as well have been trying to kill the third. (Shawn still eats most things) I get so tired of the fight that happens when I stray outside the "easy" foods that include pasta of some sort, tacos/burros, and breakfast foods. It's seriously ridiculous. I'm so over it.
In happier news, we've had a good week. We went to Riverview's splash pad on Monday. The kids always enjoy that, and play happily for quite a while. Katy got her haircut (that I gave her a few months ago) fixed, thanks to Andrea. It was her first non-mom/non-grandma hair cut. :) It doesn't look much different, but I feel so much better knowing I'm not going to keep seeing uneven spots anymore. Who sends their kid to school for the first time like that? Haha.
Shawn and Katy had doctor's appointments. I have issues with making appointments and not having something go wrong right before them, so it's been about 10 months since Shawn was in...) and at 19 months he is 32.5 inches (43%) and just over 26 lbs (50%). It was a double appt with Katy's 5-year well-check (she's 40th percentile for both and passed her sight and hearing - all ready for kindergarten!) and even though she had a low fever (see, something always tries to derail my plans) it was a great visit and everything went smoothly. We love Dr. Noel and the whole office at Agave Pediatrics South! So worth the drive to Scottsdale. Thankfully, Sophie watched the older kids then, too, so we weren't chaos in a cup.
My birthday was last week, and I got flowers, my gym membership, and some hours to myself (including a work out first thing, which made me enjoy the cheesecake Jeremy made me later much more). All very much appreciated! Sophie watched our kids and Jeremy and I went to Joe's Farm Grill and got dinner, accompanied by a few friends. It was laid back and nice, for the most part.
Thursday I took them all swimming for several hours in the morning, and Friday morning we went to the AZ Science Center, just for a few hours. It's a bit of a drive, and since it doesn't open until 10, and Shawn really needs to nap by 12, there isn't a lot of morning time we can spend there. It was still fun, though, and thankfully not nearly as crowded as when we went Saturday afternoons the last few times. I was a little nervous about crowd control with my four without Jeremy, but we were fine.
Friday night we attempted some family pictures at our friend's house. It was kind of a fail (mostly because her camera suddenly refused to work with the light on hand all of a sudden) but we did end up with some cute ones. Pictures are so stressful for me. Trying to get clothes all together that go together and get everyone looking cute and not-messed up all at the very same time and ALSO getting everyone to cooperate? Oh my goodness, no. Here are some outtakes:
Saturday morning I watched a friend's toddler for several hours while she and her husband went to Sunsplash. Reilly was also at Sunsplash with a birthday friend, and Jeremy was mostly working. Shawn is at a very territorial stage, and was a tiny bit difficult about me holding this other baby, but thankfully she's enough smaller than him that he mostly played pretty nicely with her and didn't see her as an adversary. That afternoon my parents dropped by to visit since they were in town, and somehow we ended up sending the girls home with them overnight since they had been wanting to do that, and since Jeremy's sister was coming back the next evening and had room to bring them home. By the time Reilly got home from Sunsplash they were gone, but he wasn't upset. He felt that it was fair that they got to go, since he got to play at the water park all day. And he is always kind of happy for a break from his sisters. We celebrated by using Jeremy's free-burger coupon at Red Robin that evening. Shawn is getting harder and harder to dine out with right now. Not a big deal, since we don't do it often, but he can be so impatient!
Nursery isn't going that great yet either. He won't let us leave him in there for more than a few minutes without melting down. I guess it's good that I teach Relief Society once a month right now, or I would never get to go. But we've done this before, and eventually it works out and we get to go to all our own classes. After church was so calm and nice with only two kids. I even got a little nap, which I've done more in the last year than I did in the last 10 years, I think. Guess I'm getting old. :) Reilly was excited because we played Monopoly with him (which he is always begging for) and Jeremy also got out some of his old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other toys. Both boys enjoyed that. The girls got home pretty late that night (for them - about 9) but had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.
Monday was the big day they had been looking forward to for a while. Sunsplash day! We had one visit to Sunsplash on our POGO passes, and were able to coordinate with Ashley and Chloe to go together before school starts and it closes for the season soon. The kids had a blast. Jaina was pretty scared of some of the slides, but anything we made/convinced her to go on, she ended up loving. Chloe even went on a few slides, as did Katy, in a double tube. They loved the lazy river, the wave pool, and the kids' areas. We left Shawn with Sophie (thank you!!) so we could do slides and stuff, and so he could nap, then picked him up a couple hours before close. He probably would have been fine not going at all, but he seemed to enjoy parts of it. They played and played all day long, and Katy threw a fit when it was time to leave after 6 hours (because the park was closing, and because we just missed a last ride on the lazy river). We managed to avoid most sunburn (just a little on some cheeks/noses and Jeremy's feet). I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened for me, except I finally found a swim shirt my size (that wasn't too expensive) and wore that 90% of the time we were there. The kids all wore swim shirts too, and we stopped halfway through to eat, dry off, and apply more sunscreen. They've all been asking when we get to go back, but I think we're going to try Mesquite Grove Aquatic Center (a smaller, much cheaper version) in the next few weeks instead.
After all that sun, and climbing, and hauling tubes, I was pretty worn out. We did a whole lot of nothing on Tuesday, which was nice, since Shawn decided to sleep in until 8:45 (he's usually up about 6:45) and then took a 3.5 hour nap (usual is 2-2.5 hrs). He wasn't feeling good when he was awake, and was sad about his mouth, it seemed. I suspect 2-year molars already.
This week it was also Reilly and Jaina's turn for well-child checks, and thankfully they also went smoothly. Reilly is 48 inches and like 57 lbs (4th and 30th percentile) and Jaina is 49 (yes, taller) inches and 52 lbs. (right in the 40th percentile). They were a little concerned about Reilly's height, but mostly because at his last appt there (2 years ago) they had mistakenly written down that he was 48 inches already, so it looked like he hadn't grown at all. He is growing on his normal curve though, and hopefully he'll have a height spurt at some point!
