Grandparent Overload

Whew. Coming down off of Ella Ann's get-anything-and-everything-you-want-from-the-grandparents attitude has been rough thus far today. Usually it's not bad but today has been trying. The kids and I took off to my parent's house last Wednesday after Ella Ann got out of ballet at 2.p.m. This was quite a late start for us but since we pay for ballet she must be throwing up or bleeding to death in order for her to miss. It was perfect, though, for Rane and his 2 o'clock nap! We jumped in the car and hit the road making excellent time. Rane slept from 2-4:30....the normal length for his afternoon nap, so that was absolutely fantastic since he hates the car and I have been struggling to get over some shoulder pain and handing him toys over and over was not helping the healing process. Well we had made it to just about 10 miles from Clarksville, Tennessee without stopping. I was going to stop there to feed the kids and then we would only have less than 1 hour left in the car. I crested a hill and only saw miles of red brake lights. Ohhh that was the pits after Rane was peaking for his tolerance of the car seat, as was I, I needed to use the restroom really bad, we were almost there AND we hadn't yet eaten dinner. I literally parked my car for 1.5 hours. We watched the sun go down. Ella Ann peed ON the interstate. I fed what little food we had left in the car to the kids and then we just had to sit...and sit....and sit some more. I was honestly shocked at how well Ella Ann and Rane did for such a long time. I never saw what happened, I am assuming it was a wreck. Once we started going, though, I wasn't stopping again except to get a little gas to get me the rest of the way. Rane screamed his head off for about 10 minutes solid and then he was out (it was past his bed time at this point). Ella Ann even fell asleep!

With all that behind us we were able to enjoy our few days with my Mom and Dad. Ella Ann secured herself to my Dad's hip every waking minute he was at the house, Rane enjoyed lots and lots of attention from both his Grandpa and Mimi and the good news is he would go to my dad happily without making his awful face! Dad was thrilled! A friend of our family, Vicki, came over for a visit Thursday morning and gave Ella Ann a princess coloring book with tons of stickers (doesn't get much better than that for her) and Rane a little toy. That entertained them both for quite some time. (Thanks again, Vicki!) We went out to dinner that evening at my favorite Italian restaurant and we all enjoyed wonderful food. Unfortunately Ella Ann woke up that day with a horrible cold she caught from Rane but she had it much worse than him. She was up several times every night we were there (gloriously I was in my room downstairs with Rane and never heard a thing since she was upstairs). We got really worried about her one evening with the cough. It was starting to sound like croup so I put her in the bed with me. Ummm...big mistake. She was perfectly fine with the breathing all night but I was up most of it because she tossed and turned, cried out, talked in her sleep and coughed in my face. Wonderful. She is better now but I still didn't send her to school this morning because she's still snotty with a gross cough.

The Jensens came over Friday morning to see the kids. They gave Ella Ann a huge Pre-K workbook and I swear she is nearly finished! They have given her two workbooks in the past and we play "school" all the time. She will sit for hours and do them mostly by herself. It was great to see Gary and Gayla and the kids really enjoyed spending a little time with them.

On Saturday I visited my friend, Sara, and her little girl, Lucy. I couldn't take the kids because we would infect them but it was nice just to hang with Sara by myself for a change.

Well that's our visit in a nutshell. We just hung out at the house each day because it was freezing up there. Fortunately our trip home was quick and painless. Now the task at hand is to readjust Ella Ann!

Ella Ann drug out most of my old Beanie Babies to play with.

Rane joined in on the coloring for the first time. He actually knew what to do, except for he wanted to color on the table instead....or eat the crayon.

Grandpa brought home from work a pink balloon for EA and a blue for Rane. Honestly that is what they loved the most!

We put Rane in a big pot of my Mom's and he loved it. He would play peek-a-boo with my Mom and laugh and laugh! We just wanted to contain him for a few minutes so we could sit down for a sec but he ended up staying a while.

Ella Ann got chocolate mouse for dessert on Thursday evening. It was her first mouse experience and she ate nearly all of it.

Workin' in the workbook.

Dancin' the night away!

Rane's first time really seeing snow. Side note, yes I know he desperately needs a haircut but I am not going to do it.....yet. We decided to let the boy's hair grow out reeeeeeeeeeally, really long. Hehehehehe. Just joking...grandparents you can take a deep breath now. Seriously, we are going to let it grow and see what it looks like and if it looks awful (I'll make that decision, thank you) then I'll chop it.

Finally I got a picture of Rane practicing his other new move. The Downward Facing Dog (non-yoga people....it's the name of this particular position)!

This is one of his favorite spots, of course, being that it's next to the paper shredder, Grandpa's gross shoes, his table full of little things, a cord and an air vent.

Baking chocolate chip cookies with Mimi on Saturday.