Riley and Avery

Oh, what a crazy past few days. First, on Tuesday Rudi turned off the alarm clock without waking us and we missed Riley's last day of school. So I called the school and asked if she could come on Wednesday, and they said okay. So we went to her last day of school on Wednesday and it was so sad, getting all of her stuff together and such. Then we had the West Side Moms playgroup right after school. We didn't get home until three o'clock. Then Riley took a late nap and was up forever. On Thursday we had the potluck picnic for her school. That was a lot of fun. Riley played mostly with Lorelai. She has another friend, Joan, who's mother is asian, and her father is something else, I can't quite pin it. But I was hoping that she could play with Joan one last time, but the asian families totally segregated themselves. I mean, they weren't even in the pavilion with everyone else. They got a blanket and sat off by themselves. Kind of weird. Oh, well.

We were outside playing the other day and Avery was stooped over an ant hill. Riley and Avery are really interested in ants, so I thought nothing of it, until Avery comes running over to me with her tongue hanging out, dirt all over it. I wonder what she was thinking when she decided to lick the ant hill. Especially dainty little Avery. I wish I had gotten a picture of it.

It seems like everything I want to do is happening this Saturday. I had originally planned on going to the sheep shearing at Rock Ledge Ranch here in town, but now I hear that they are having a yard sale at one of the cooperative preschools here, and I could probably score some really cool stuff. Then they have a wildflower hike for toddlers at Bear Creek Nature Center. Decisions. I guess the yard sale wouldn't be really fun for the kids, nor would the wildflower hike if they're not allowed to pick the flowers (I imagine they're not, but I don't know) so I think it'll be the sheep shearing. And trying to do any two of the above in one day would be asking a lot, so sheep shearing it is. Maybe they'll have yarn for sale or something. We can always go to Bear Creek Nature Center and go on our own flower walk and pick flowers when no one's looking (insert evil laughter).

Riley has really been struggling with the nap thing lately. We had pretty much eradicated naps, but now that spring has hit hard, we are so super busy that she is getting tired out. And I've gotten used to not having to be home for naptime, so we usually get home too late for her to take a nap. We got home from our NINO meeting today at nearly four o'clock, and around 4:30 she threw an absolute tantrum because she didn't get to have a nap. She was screaming "I didn't get a nap! I want a nap! NAAAAAAAAAAAP! But I'm tired! Why are you so mean to me? Why won't you let me take a nap!!!" Because I don't want to be up with you until two in the morning if you take a nap this late, kiddo! I guess we have to make more of a concerted effort to get out of the house early enough that we can be home in time for a nap if she needs one. I'm just no good in the morning. Never have been. The other day Riley and Avery actually took a three hour nap. They went down at 2 (the absolute latest that I let Riley begin a nap) and Avery woke at 3:30. I thought that I could get another half hour out of her and score a short nap myself, so I lay down to nurse her and let myself fall asleep. We all wake up at 5, grumpy and disoriented. I think the sheep shearing starts at 10am, so we should probably aim to be there early. Although it's still cold in the mornings here, so ugh...

Rudi's new shift at work is the pits. It's like being a single mother. From when the kids get up in the morning until they go to bed, I'm the only one taking care of them. It used to be that after dinner, he would watch the kids for a little bit while I got some Amy time, whether it was just a few minutes to run and get coffee, or longer to run errands. Now he's home too late for me to do anything. I think that on his days off, he'll have to watch the kids for a few hours while I try to regain my sanity. I have a list of things in my head that I want to do and places I want to go, by myself.

I should probably get off my duff and start getting ready for tomorrow...oh, Avery wakes, which means that I'll probably fall asleep and get nothing prepared. I can feel it...