Yesterday -- Saturday -- was one of those "what a day!" kind of days, trying to jam-pack every loose end, every errand, and every to-do item in the course of a few hours. A few beautiful hours, that is, as the day was perfect.
My nephews are spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa upstairs, so my kids have instant playmates -- a fact which makes them (my kids) very, very happy and thereby very manageable. They've been cute, searching for their cousins every other minute, playing nicely outside ... good stuff. Last night we had a "family movie night," with Don and all four kids crammed on the couch, my parents cozied up on the loveseat, and Jack and myself squeezed together on the chair. Yes ... I got the dog. We watched Surf's Up, a dorky cartoon flick about surfing penguins that couldn't hold a candle to the Pixar offerings of entertainment, yet was fairly fun overall. After a very busy day, it was a good way to settle down.
But I'll backtrack a bit ... After spending the morning ticking off errands (grocery shopping, bank, running to Toys R Us to replace Aidan's Speed Racer that I destroyed in the laundry, etc.) I began to think about how I would spend the afternoon. My kids have been on some crazy schedule, going to bed late and waking up outrageously early, so they're a bit out of sorts. Grace had fallen asleep at the odd hour of 10:30 a.m. and slept in the car for much of our running about ... which meant her nap schedule completely flew out the window. Oh well -- a nap is a nap, no matter what time of day, so I resigned myself to an afternoon with a (wide) awake girl. That's OK -- she's just so dang cute.
So with the sun shining, the breeze blowing, and the temperature just about perfect, I decided it had to be an outdoor day. And that means ... gardening. And other things. So here are the Three B's (see title) that I encountered yesterday:
Of Birds: Yep, they're back. They sure are busy little beavers! Just two days or so since we cleaned out the bird bottle of all things dead and nasty, a cute little couple has already commenced rebuilding a nest. Twigs are poking out of the bottle, and there was constant fluttery movement as both Daddy Bird and Mama Bird came and went, beaks loaded with nesting material. Wow. They don't waste any time.
Of Blossoms: Early in the afternoon, before Don and Aidan left to get their hair cut, we trekked over to a local garden center to purchase the last of the flowers needed to fill in a few strategic areas. The kids behaved, although we had to keep an eye on Impish Grace, who thought it was fun to pull out those little plastic markers and stick them ... wherever. Oops. We noticed those antics a little too late. Some poor un-knowing flower shopper will go home thinking they have the largest, purpliest marigolds in the world! Oops again. But I got what I wanted -- "Victory Blue" salvia for the front to off-set the brilliant geraniums, a few Dusty Millers for bright accents, multi-colored and ever-cheerful verbena for our hanging pots on the fence, and a super-fun mix of dwarf-ish dahlias for our patio pots. They're all in now, they're all mulched, they're all fed ... so now we sit back and enjoy, and wait for the marigold and zinnia seeds to grow. We're also ready to harvest our first crop of lettuce, probably tonight for dinner. Yum.
Of Boo-Boo's: We went through the Band-Aids and neosporin yesterday like never before. First, Aidan decided to try out his cousin's new scooter, some four-wheeler wobbly thing called a "Fuzion." It's really cool (I tried it too), but the poor kid had a little trouble maneuvering and wrecked in a big way, smashing into the concrete foundation of the house. It's all superficial, but my boy freaks out with the slightest scrape, let alone the sight of blood, which did indeed make it's vibrantly red appearance. Then came the screams, the protestations of "I can't walk!" and so on. His elbow and knee were soon covered in Band-Aids.
Next it was my turn -- and no, I didn't wreck on a scooter. I experienced a very strange event which caused great pain despite it's weirdness. My arms were very full, carrying buckets and soil and tools from the basement, so I pushed the door open with my left arm/elbow. I didn't know there was a scooter on the other side, which prevented the door from opening completely. I began to charge through, but the door stopped me dead. I suddenly felt a tremendous stab of pain in my left arm that increased with each passing second. I must have hit the door knob. But later when I went back to look, I noticed that the key -- which was still in the lock -- had been completely bent 90-degrees! That's what I hit -- the key, not the door knob. My arm bent the key. Either they make keys a little flimsy or I've got Hulk DNA floating around in my gene pool. Cool.
The last boo-boo of the day was dished out to Grace. She tripped and a quick "Ooowwww" escaped her, a momentary furrowed brow, and then she continued on with play. I thought nothing of it ... until I saw her shin later on, which was completely scraped up, just as bad as her brother's elbow from earlier in the day. He screamed and carried on; she brushed it off immediately. Wow -- two kids, so very, very different ...
Yep, it was quite a day. A good one. And the best part for me came at the very end. Grace was so exhausted from her string of late nights, very early mornings, and a somewhat missed nap. The movie ended at 8:30 p.m -- late for my kids but not so bad. Grace had already been bathed and clothed in her PJ's, so while Aidan was getting ready for bed, she climbed up on my lap facing me, laid her head on my chest, and promptly fell sound asleep. I didn't want the moment to end. I haven't held her like that in a long, long time ... and it was perfect.
What a day.
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