Summer Sunday

Every Sunday, we go over to my in-laws house for brunch. Now, this is no reagular brunch, mind you. This is brunch Mexican style...aka YUM! This morning, I got a call from bro-in-law asking how many tamales to get for hubs and I. I asked hubs, who answered "5 or 6 for me". Right on. That's a lot of tamales. Anyway, besides the amazing food, my Little Bear gets a chance to tear up another house and enjoy some grandma, grandpa, and tio time. Speaking of Tio, he has a Porsche. Yup, bright red. And what did Little Bear focus all of her exhuberance on today?? The red Porsche. It went a little something like this.

Awesome. Anyway, this afternoon consisted mostly of a game of "will she/won't she take a nap". The final answer? She won't. Ever. *shrug* At least we didn't hit super meltdown phase where I can't even get her into the bath for all the writhing. This Little Bear was actually quite pleasant tonight! Perhaps that was because I had a moment of panicked realization that I may be a horrible mom because all she had eated today had been 3 bites of bean-soaked tortilla and some queso fresco. To remedy the situation, I gave that Little Bear her favorite dinner: "opa". She means "sopa" which is "soup" in Spanish. Chicken soup with rice (which always reminds me of that Maurice Sendak book that my first graders thought was so funnyy...). It has 3 of the major food groups covered, so I felt a LOT better about her nutrition at that moment. We shared a pear for dessert, and Bob's your uncle-a balanced meal :)

After dinner, she was wandering around saying "Pop!" and then poking the laptop. Pop is what she calls my dad, so I figured she wanted to see Ma-maw and Pop on Skype. Luckily, they were available to chat with her until bath time. Then, quickly and easily, she fell asleep.
End of the story?? Nope! Hubs decided to make me some s'mores. Awesome! However, this is what happened after he tried to microwave them for 18 minutes instead of 18 seconds.

The next batch worked out, thank goodness.

And even the doggies were happy campers after a little walk.

All in all, an excellent summer Sunday.

Summer Morning

So, even though my little monkey and I are on summer vacation, we still wake up at the same time. What happens after we wake up is MUCH different, though! There is a very calm feeling to wandering downstairs, letting Alice play in the living room while I grab some coffee feed the beasts, and then just sitting on the couch watching this amazing little girl play. During the school year, we are out the door by 7:15am to make it to the baby-sitter's in time for me to make it to the auditorium to pick up my class. I'm feeling rushed just thinking about it! So, I'm enjoying these slower-paced mornings. And I'm trying my best to have reasonable to-do lists for each day. So far this morning I have made a trip to Barnes and Noble to get The No-Cry Sleep Solution ('cus we NEED a solution, and I can't stand letting Alice cry). After the little one's nap, we have grocery shopping and cleaning the floors. I am really into reading other blogs where people post their housekeeping schedules. Anyone have any to share with me?

-meredith