Big, long post. While I'd like to be concise, I also really want to write down some detail that I forego in my little One-Line-a-Day journal, for my own benefit. To keep it clean, then, I'll make chapters. Kidding, but I will do sub-headers.
I. Minnesota for Labor Day
II. Kids' sleep changes because Ada's crazy fascinating
III. Housewarming
IV. Candyland Ball
V. Paul goes where, now, on Tuesdays?
VI. Weekend with Gin in Galveston
VII. "Busy"
I. Minnesota for Labor Day
We flew the family up to St. Paul for the long Labor Day weekend and stayed with Mike & Colleen. We got to meet little Madeline who'd just been born the day before we moved down to New Orleans last summer, and we were overjoyed to get the"big kids" together to play. To everyone's great happiness, Kate & Paul loved playing together. They were so darling the whole 4 days, and Paul's been asking about her since. Nevermind that it was great for us to see Kate again, our godchild, and really get to know her better now that she's not just a tiny toddler; she's bursting with personality! So, our agenda for the weekend was as follows: Arrive Friday, brunch at Pete & Denise's Saturday morning, Sunday morning Mass with the Bivers followed by a grill lunch in Minnehaha Falls, where the Beckers from Austin even met us, and a Monday all to our own devices in the backyard before leaving Tuesday morning.
We arrived Friday evening to a deliciously-cooked-by-the-Bives dinner and woke up Saturday to walk the long 2mile stretch of Summit & Grand Aves to Pete & Denise's for brunch. This was Dylan's and my neck of the woods for our married-before-children years, and it holds a very special place in our hearts. It was wonderful to be able to walk to Pete & Denise's, too, because it felt like we were doing something so normal, like we still lived there! I was so happy to be able to meet up with them; since Pete's a pilot, we weren't sure about his flight schedule this weekend, but we were so glad they squeezed us in for brunch. We got to meet their son, Finn! Who's precious, duh, and we got to revisit our friendship in this new phase of parenthood for both of us. It was really lovely to see them with Finn ... and their spread was delicious, as always! It was odd to say goodbye after just arriving, but when naps (in the stroller) called out to Paul and Ada, we decided to take an even longer route back to Mike & Colleen's. We spent the rest of the day talking and playing at Kate & Maddie's local playground; Knoll-kid approved! As you can imagine, we were up too late. Again.
The next morning, we ran off to church in a hurry - surprised? - and got caught in the rain on the way home. It was all still really lovely for Dylan and me, though. I think we like St. Paul ;). The rain gave us a bit of a break, though, juuust in time for the hamburger grill at Minnehaha Falls. The ground was still wet, but active rain gave way, and Heidi, Josh, Molly, and Drew Becker drove up from Austin (our 2nd MN home) to join us. Heidi and I have kept in touch reasonably well considering the distance, and it was really wonderful to see the family again - especially to see Molly and Paul together; they'd spent tons of time together as toddlers, and Heidi and I wondered how much they'd remember ... turns out, not terribly much but also not nothing. It meant an awful lot to me for them to make the gesture and come up to see us, even if just for a couple of hours ... in the rain ... with bugs ... outside near a creek ... none of which are Heidi's comfort-places, ha.
Then on Monday, our last full day, we had nothing planned! Imagine that! We sat outside in the yard for breakfast and let the kids run around and find interesting things to dig in before deciding on a trip to the café nearby. We strollered everyone up, trekked the few blocks, and treated everyone to little sips of yummy. Who'd-a-thunk a café would work for 4 kiddos? The adult:kid ratio was pretty good, but still. Then the men-folk took charge while Colleen and I hung back for a little bit of a walk just us. En route to the playground, of course. After naps, we just lazied the day away with popsicles, a bit of gardening, and a fire.
We loved our time so much; St. Paul will always hold a very special place in our hearts.
II. Kids' sleep changes because Ada's crazy fascinating
Adeline be cray-cray. We arrived home from MN to take the side off of her crib, officially shifting her from a baby crib to a "toddler bed". Now she can get in and out as she pleases. Good. Then we thought to saw off a couple of inches from the bottom of the legs so that it would fit nicely under Paul's loft/bunk bed. More space, also good. Except that she whined and cried and cried and whined and tossed and turned. It took a couple of days of having an odd, slow-to-fall-asleep Ada before we concluded that she's not used to being covered that way, and she may be feeling claustrophobic. Paul had a suggestion, though! He thought maybe sleeping together would be nice. So he'd hop down into her bed, or she'd climb up onto his (the lesser but clearly more fun of the two choices because
should she thrash about and fall out, it's a good few feet down!), and they'd cuddle each other to sleep. Oh, for cute! It's been about a month since this change, and she's gotten used to and seems to like the new situation just fine, but for a couple of weeks in there, we didn't really know what to do! As with most things,
this, too, shall pass.
While we're on sleeping, they're 8:15-6:30-ers, pretty regularly, with an average of a 2-hr simultaneous nap, excepting when Paul decides not to nap at all, maybe once every 10 days or so. He does, however, seem to understand "quiet time", and he'll lay quietly reading, playing, or just rolling around, for a good hour at least.
III. Housewarming
Since we've bought our house, we wanted to throw a party for it! Kinda strange, though, that since we're renting out the other side, it's exactly the same as it has been. And again with the funny "congratulations: you owe money!", but I get it. It's ours, we can settle-in in ways we couldn't before. Anyway, we had a great party! There may have been upwards of about 50 people here, and thank God it was a beautiful day; it had rained the prior 4 straight days! We had to lay a tarp down for the mud under the (thankfully carpet-less!) verandah, but otherwise, we had great weather! Mom and Dad came in, both of Dad's siblings, my Aunt Cyndi & Uncle Bobby, and theirs came, and a very special guest, my mom's sister, Aunt Mollie, who's generally homebound by default of her husband, Uncle Larry; she hadn't been to the Westbank but for jury duty in a decade, ha. Peter made it out, and then came friends and their children - it was pretty lively! I loved it. We had lasagnas (thanks, Mom!), snacks, ice cream, and drinks, and kiddos' bedtime is what shooed people off. We felt we christened the house nicely, though we haven't actually had it blessed, yet! The local priest said evening's aren't good for him, so he couldn't make it. We'll do it soon, though!
IV. Candyland Ball
I'll have to start this one by saying that there was a photo booth that published photos online just a couple of days later, but we weren't in the album! I was kind of sad, and a couple of other families weren't included either; somewhere a little while afterwards, it all got ironed out, and I just saw these photos for the first time last week! They're for purchase, but you can hop over to the site to see
Candyland Ball photos, just be sure to click on "Photo Booth 2", and you'll catch the Knolls.
So, this is a fundraiser party for Confetti Kids, the neighborhood family organization that maintains the playgrounds as well as throws free neighborhood events throughout the year for Halloween, Mardi Gras, Easter, etc. There was a silent auction - where we "won" a session at a New Orleans kids' music school, yay - as well as donation-giving a-plenty.
Then, there was the bar. Oh yeah, there was beer and wine for parents, but there was a
candy bar. Stacked to the 9s with all sorts of candies and sweets, and Ada enjoyed her very first bit of marshmallowy Heaven. Paul's jaw dropped, and he was very hesitant to walk closer; he looked at me, as if asking, and I told him, "Tonight, you don't have to ask!"
V. Paul goes where, now, on Tuesdays?
Wellllll, back when I
started this post, I had enrolled Paul in a Tuesdays only "Mother's Day Out", as they call it here, where I dropped him off from 9-noon. They had activities, toys galore, snacks, excursions ... but, unfortunately, no real playmates. There were a few kids to play with, yes, but no one his age. He liked it anyway, mostly, but the second time we went, there was just one 9-month-old, who promptly fell asleep. So, pay for Paul to play with three older ladies and miss out on what his sister was doing? Naah; we quit. Mrs. Ashley at Story Time Tuesday is very happy out this! Also, point for, homeschooling, the blur of getting our the door on time with all of the right things was annoying - and we only did it
twice!
VI. Weekend for Gin in Galveston
I left NOLA at 9am Friday the 2nd, made it to Mom & Dad's around 3:30, and the kids were excellent! We had a great break midway through at a great road stop: there are gators, and slides, and ducks, and bathrooms, and a lake, and rocks. It really is the perfect stopping point between NOLA and Houston. Anyway, a little respite at Nana & Pappy's is always welcome. Saturday morning, I packed up to leave again, this time for Galveston and a ladies' night, and the kiddos went with their superb babysitters to a pumpkin patch. There was no time to miss Mama or Papa! Paul and Ada had so. much. fun, and they've talked about it since. It truly is awesome to see them grow and learn, particularly Paul at this stage and with events like this, because he's on the cusp of remembering things longer termed; watching him associate that pumpkin patch with Nana and Pappy to pumpkins and similar activities we see elsewhere is just gorgeous. They also treated my parents to a great night's sleep; lucky. So,
my weekend was a little less activity-packed and a lot less sleep-filled, but, hey, it was all for the cause! I met Ginny and a few of her friends around lunchtime; we lounged on the beach, we played Bachelorette-y bride-y question games with Ryan's answers, Ginny lost a beer to the ocean, and then we went to a couple of bars that evening. Lucky that there was another usual early-birder, I slid into bed around 12:30. It'd been
aaages since I'd gone out with only women, and I don't think I'd ever been the only married gal with kids in the group; dynamics I hadn't even thought about before. In the morning, I walked the beach briefly in my church dress before heading to a special Mass for St. Francis of Assisi at a church run by Franciscans - neat! After coming back and seeing that the others were, indeed, already up, we hung out until about lunch time, when I drove back to my lovies! I missed them terribly! We had a fire in Pappy's backyard and hit the sack early. The drive back home to Papa was uneventful, too, thank the Lord.
VII. "Busy"
Let's just stop using that word already. Only sort of kidding. When seeing someone you meet, perhaps, regularly but not often, the exchange often goes something like this:
Hey, great to see you. How've you been? Gosh, we're busy, too, I hear ya. Crazy this time of year. And it could be
any time of year at all. Of course we're all busy; why on Earth would we idle ourselves? But - and here's the caveat - why on Earth do we
busy ourselves, imposing the busy on ourselves and our families? I should have an answer because it's what we? I? have been doing since about mid-August. We have been
busy, but it hasn't been just a lot of things on at once; much of it has been busy for busy's sake, and therein lies the problem. Sometimes we are, honestly, very busy. Newborn stage, anyone? New jobs, or moving, or study or any number of real life things. But what's our excuse since August? Kids are doing fine, Dylan's job's doing fine, friends, family, everyone's happy and healthy. But we've been barely scraping together an hour of family-chill time a week -- and to what end? So that we can squeeze in this neighborhood gathering, or that event? Good things in and of themselves turned not so good when packed in together as a sort of checklist -
done! We enjoyed all of those things I listed above - the MN trip, the Candyland Ball, our own housewarming - they were all great! And I, honestly, don't know how I could have thinned it out anymore on the weekend/event front. But I do think that I can control what the kids and I do during the week so that we aren't burned out come time for the fun don't-wanna-miss events. That's what I've been doing for the past, hm, two weeks maybe. We've skipped some weekday outings, opting instead for a lot more at-home play time. I keep the regulars, of course, (read: Costco, libraries, Flubber Friday art class), but I need to learn to say no in other places. The FOMO-sufferer inside cringes sometimes because I know there'll be tons of great photos of all of Paul's little friends (and mine!) hanging out at ___ together, but if it makes me more scream-y and leads the laundry to pile up to frustration level, it's just not worth it. End rant.
In conclusion (remember being forced to end high school papers this way?), there will be an amazing photo-dump to proceed this post. Photos will be from the above events as well as from all sorts of everyday doings and kid cuteness. It'll be all photos and no (ok, very little) news because, well, we're trying to downsize the news. We'll be at libraries, grocery stores, and art studios.
Except there's this big family get-together coming up on October 24th ... I can't quite remember just what it is, but I know I'm in Houston for it, and it involves a priest and some vows.
So. Excited.
