November 13 - The End of a Long Week

I have great sympathy for stay at home moms whose husbands travel. Mike's trips are usually just a night or two but last week he was gone seven nights which overlapped a weekend and that really makes it feel like a long time. I think you could compare it doing your medical residency. It's like being on-call 24x7. Fortunately, the kids slept well and every time Tyler would misbehave I would remind him that he promised Daddy that he would be mommy's big helper. But before your imagination gets carried away, let me give you an example of Tyler helping:
"Tyler, mommy has a headache so only one story before naptime."
"Oh, mommy. Poor mommy. Ty will make you feel better mommy."
Tyler proceeds to his closet where he purposefully searches for his drum while chanting, "Make mommy feel better. Make mommy feel better."
He starts drumming as loud as he can and then get his maracas and says, "Make mommy feel more better."

He cracks me up. He is such an energetic and vibrant child (I was searching for politically correct synonyms for "wild" and "crazy") but he has moments where I catch a glimpse of his big heart and compassionate nature.

Speaking of compassion... I arose early on Friday morning with an extra spring in my step. Today was the day Mike was returning from his San Diego "business" trip of golfing, drinking and playing poker and I had a great plan of a Keli-centered weekend of shopping, sleeping late and dining at fine resturants.. Ok, I was at least hoping to take a shower without worrying Tyler was going to burn down the house. Then my phone rings while I have both kids at Target, buying new sunglasses because Tyler had somehow misplaced mine. Anyway, it was 9am and we had already dumped an entire bag of popcorn in aisle 5 and my only thought was getting any pair of sunglasses and getting home as soon as possible but I still had a smile on my face because this was the LAST DAY of playing single parent. That was until my cell phone kept urgently ringing. After ignoring it the first 3 times. I pick up and on the phone is Mike telling me he is taking an earlier flight home because he has been sick all night... It these moments where I know that God has a sense of humor and thankfully somehow I was able to have one too (After one small moment of feeling quite sorry for myself). C'est la vie. Sleep, shopping and me-time must be in the plan for next "season" of my life.





Tyler's latest act of independance is dressing himself but it's not going well as you can see. However, as our very patient cleaning lady can tell you, Tyler is quite the helper on cleaning days.





Here is Miss Mia content in her swing. It only took her 3.5 months to start to enjoy it.