Still Whirling, But Smiling

I found the trick to travel sanity, thanks for some forced creativity for a weekend roadtrip to close up the cabin. My cousin and her 1-year-old daughter joined my kiddos and me for the smashed-into-one-little-green-van trip, so we put Breanna in the back back with Baby Grant and Lillian and Baby Chloe in the middle, with us big girls in the front to hop back to pop in nuks and dole out snacks and toys.

I didn't even consider suicide once. For real. We had a great weekend with lots of close conversation and plenty of bonding. The kiddos all were good, and even those who were teething were really fun to be around. My sister and her new baby were there, too, so we enjoyed a lot of mommy talk. It's hard to believe that I have the big kids - and they're only 2!

After we returned home Sunday night, I got the kids off to bed and then realized that I had a couple hours of free time until DH returned from his fruitless antelope-hunting trip. I got laundry going and then curled up with a cookbook. Aah, the glory. For 15 minutes anyway, until Grant woke up and insisted on being held the rest of the night while his new teeth tried to work their way out.

Labor Day was spent just hanging out and doing the 10 million loads of laundry we'd all created. The girls are getting into joining us for praying, so we practiced the sign of the cross quite a bit, along with the "Now I lay me" prayer. We also worked on colors and counting (got up to 10 - holy crap!) and we did our animal noises, too. We all know now that antelopes say "wee wee." Breanna has become close friends with Grant's "tubba bear," which sounds sometimes like "taco bar." Both girls continue to talk about all the "lucky" things, such as poop and buggies and snot bubbles. Lucky indeed.

Although DH technically moved in with us full time for real, he's leaving tomorrow morning to go back and work in Fargo for a few days. He still hasn't lined up a place to stay - brave man thinks he can just "crash" somewhere. I wonder if he realizes everyone he knows now has families and isn't really into the bachelor lifestyle any more. These jobs are dragging out forever, it seems. One day when we're all together all week long, I'll finally get in to get my highlights done again. Until then, I'll continue my progression toward looking like Brittany Spears. Yikes. Trailer city, here I come.