It’s mid-August, so that means it was party weekend! Henry’s on Saturday and Bailey’s on Sunday and I’m glad they seem to be on different days every year, so we can be at both. We had a good week of sleep with our little humans but then someone learned to pull herself up in her crib and someone else skipped a few naps this week and yeesh, it’s been a bit rough. I’m ready for a recovery week!

Lori is on vacation, so I took Friday off to hang with the kids 🤍 We sang a silly “Happy Birthday” to Henry, had band practice, took a trip to the library and after Lydia’s 8 month photo shoot (8 months! I can’t believe it!), Demps and I made cookies and watched Willy Wonka. He asked me “is there egg in here?” before eating the batter (like that’s ever stopped him before 😂), but lucky for him, they were vegan! And see his piece of pink salt? He really wanted to use that!

Woke up and had breakfast sandwiches à la Joey on Saturday morning and that’s how I found Lyds after her first nap. Don’t worry, we’ve since lowered her mattress. We headed into Erie shortly after for Henry’s 3rd birthday party. I cannot believe he’s 3 already! It was a skeleton theme and everything looked so cute, plus it got me excited for fall 😋 Little Miss was a happy girl the whole time and Dempsey had fun playing and also put a dried bean in his nose?! That was a first! HBD, Henry, we love you 🤍

Made us all shrimp scampi for dinner and my kids were way more into the asparagus than the shrimp?? 😂 But Lyds didn’t have any allergic reaction to the shrimp, thank goodness! And Joey and I thought it was pretty good. After the kids went to bed, Joey and I finished a movie we started the night before and though I loved Kelly Reichardt’s last move, First Cow, I thought Showing Up was finally painfully boring. Oh well.

We all slept poorly and had a late start to our Sunday. I tried to shake it off with a run and then I made us all waffles. Lydia made a mess but she seemed into it! Afterward, more crib standing 🤪😬 Dempsey wanted a snack and ate two full peaches! At 11:30, we headed to Bailey’s birthday party. That’s Dempsey’s usual lunch and nap time and he looked positively exhausted in the car but pizza, ice cream and playtime with other kids seemed to revive him long enough to enjoy the party. We left after he threw a handful of wood chips at another kid 😩 Lyds immediately crashed in the car and Demps ended up taking a late nap too. Made us corn and potato chowder for dinner and though Demps declared he didn’t like it, Lydia ate quite a bit! Took an evening stroll afterward then got the kids to bed and watched Big Brother.

Happy Monday!

Much respect to all the single parents out there because I was flying solo for the past five days while Joey was on vacation and I am TIRED. But I managed to keep both kids fed, in bed on time (a true feat because bedtime seemed to be at its WORST for both kids the last week or so!), mostly clean and usually happy so that was a good mom-confidence booster 🤍 Here’s some scenes from our week!

Lyds just wants to get into the crawling stance and practice standing up 24/7, especially when she’s supposed to be sleeping 🤪 Demps watched Annie, I watched Frances Ha and started a new book. Turns out I get a lot more reading done when Joey is gone 😅

Friday mani, dinner at Tocabe and a sleepover with Grandma for Dempsey! It was super strange to put Lydia to bed at 7 then have the night to myself?? I’m told Demps finished his movie in the tent then asked to sleep in his crib 🥹😂

Saturday morning, Lyds and I had pancakes (her first!) together before Grandma brought Dempsey home. That day and Sunday were probably the hardest days. Behavior-wise, Dempsey has been struggling a little. I want to trust him around his little sister but I feel like I can’t with all the hitting, biting, hair-pulling and yelling in her face he’s been doing 😞 There’s been lots of throwing of food and utensils too. Is this the threenager or new sibling stuff or a terrifying hybrid of the two?? We made it through by the grace of Disney+, lots of painting, snacks and walks in the stroller. Took them to the farmers’ market on Sunday and Dempsey picked out the prettiest sunflowers plus it was blissfully cool that day. Rounded out the weekend with a visit from my mom, Aunt Bean and Uncle Wayne and when Joey came home, I hugged him and told him no more vacations this year, please 😉