LOOOOOOOOOOOONNGG Day!

I see your hiney...all cute and shiny!

Today was a long day! It started at 6:30 because we had to go to the ENT this morning. It was a follow up to have Bradley's ears checked to see how his tubes are draining. Turns out, they're doing great...thank goodness! I wasn't sure if water was collecting in his ears or not since it's very hard to keep water completely out of his ears. Even in the tub, with vaseline covered cotton balls, Bradley still likes to lay his head back and sorta "float" in the tub. Of course, when he does this, water gets in his ears. Anyway, I was very glad to hear that the amounts are apparently small enough not to cause any damage to his tubes. We left there and went to "Old McDonald's" as Rachel sometimes calls it and played on the indoor playground and had lunch. It was so stinkin' hot, I couldn't imagine playing on an outdoor playground right now! Rachel and Bradley had so much fun playing with the handful of other kids who were already playing. It's so neat that kids make friends with other kids instantly. They don't have to know anything about each other, no names, no background, no toy preference, they just want to play. How neat to be a kid!

Next, we had to go to Kroger. We went through there as quickly as we could and then sweated to death just walking to the car to unload the groceries! We don't usually run so many errands on days when we have gymnastics, but it just worked out that the ENT appointment was today, and since we were already out and trying to reserve gas by running more than one errand on a trip, we were out longer than usual. Oh well! We were all pretty tired when we got home, but I was cutting it really close to Bradley's nap time. As it turns out, I had sorta missed the "window" where he'll willingly and easily lay down and go to sleep. He kept crying and fussing, so I went in to rock him. I had only been rocking him for about 5 minutes (and he was NOT going to sleep) when I heard Rachel crying and screaming in pain. I knew this was a serious cry, so I took Bradley into the den and Rachel was holding her eye and crying. Apparently, she was trying to do flips into the rocking chair/recliner and she somehow stumbled or missed the chair and hit the corner of her eye on the lever that releases the foot rest. It took me a long time to understand exactly how she did it. At first, she was just crying and pointing in the chair's direction. After a little while, she calmed down and told me more of what happened. She said, "I try to be gentle but I stumble and hit my eye." Anyway, thankfully, she hit to the right of her right eye instead of IN her eye. It's tender to touch and a little puffy, and I'm sure she'll have a little bruise, but thankfully, she didn't do more damage. Why do my kids have to be such monkeys!!!???? So, we all sat still and chilled out for a half hour or so until we had to leave for gymnastics. Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way there and I let Bradley take a long nap in the car while Rachel was doing gymnastics. (I was able to park at the door, keep the car running, watch Rachel take off her shoes and join her friends and then I got back in the car.) Rachel had a blast at gymnastics. Right now, it's just her, Raquel and Camryn. Those 3 girls have so much fun together! I think some more kids are moving into the class next week, so it'll be interesting to see if/how the dynamics change. Anyway, we came home, fixed and ate supper and then Nick took the kids outside with him while he weeded the garden and I cleaned the dishes. Almost every night, the kids want to get in their baby pool and splash, make a huge mess, etc... Who can blame them in this heat! But, I looked out one time and saw Bradley sitting in a huge pile of dirt in the garden, very contentedly playing and getting nasty while Nick worked. Rachel was still in the baby pool. At about 7:30, we all came in and I stripped the kids down. For some reason, maybe because they feel so free, the kids LOVE to run around NAKED! They did this for a good 10 minutes and just giggled and giggled! Running around the kitchen and den is their new favorite pasttime! Little sillies! So, I gave the kids a bath and put them to bed. I'm so tired and ready to get in bed myself! G'night!