This morning she had parts of a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast and then wanted to wear a dress. She's wearing her white & red with collar Gap dress (hand-me-down from her cousin). After being dressed, she spent the morning harrassing her older brothers, who were trying to play Lego Star Wars on the Playstation, and was taken to my bedroom for a birthday time-out at 8:43 AM.
9:00-ish: I wrote Grandpa Smith's check and got it ready to send, then remembered that Grannie said yesterday that one of Uncle John & Aunt Karen's kids was about to give birth. I called John & Karen, but no answer; I called Jennifer, who was busy painting her girls' bedroom. Stan and Whitney had a baby boy yesterday, Luke William. Mystery solved.
Harrison and Carter want to go outside, but I told them they have to clean their room first. They are now in their bedroom, arguing and crying.
10:00 - Jen just called back and we chatted for a while about the family. She, Rachael (John's wife) and Dena are all expecting babies in September and the race is on to see which one will get to have Aunt Karen with her during the delivery. Hopefully they won't all go into labor the same day. J & K's family are all coming to the Oregon coast in November and we made plans to meet up sometime during their stay.
10:30 - The kids are all outside - I had Bella take a book so she could read and watch Roz play. I started to pick up the living room, found one of the boys' church ties, went to put it away in the "Church closet" (our tiny hall closet), noticed that the closet doorknob was falling off, pulled the door open and found that the hanging bar had collapsed on one side and all the church clothes were half on their hangers, half collapsing on the boxes on the closet floor. This apartment certainly wasn't meant for a family of seven. Everything constantly breaks. I started moving all the church clothes to the boys' room closet, something I was planning to do anyway, and noticed that Harrison's hamster doesn't look well. He was kind of limping around in his cage and I also saw poop stuck to the side of the aquarium, then noticed the hamster's poopy bum. Uh oh, we're about to lose another hamster.
Dad is taking Isabella, Harrison and Carter to Federal Way, Washington tomorrow for a weekend soccer tournament. They'll be camping with the rest of the team families. It'll be fun but it means I need to start laundry and get some packing done.
11:30 - Some of these kids are TIRED. I just told Bella to turn on the fan, she did, and Harrison threw a big crying fit that HE wanted to turn on the fan! Now he's whining that he doesn't want a sandwich for lunch, he wants Froot Loops. We're listening to "Somebody to Love" and Roz is dancing and twirling in the living room. The laundry is started and the boys' room is finally picked up (they picked up everything but the bottom bunk, which had all kinds of stuff on it). Carter went back outside. I need to wash towels so I'll have a washcloth to clean up the kitchen (our laundry has been neglected for a few days).
12:45 - Folded and put away the laundry that's been hanging around in the dryer for I don't know how many days - life's hard to get back into after you break your foot. I'm still hobbling around here wearing my boot, with one leg "taller" than the other. It doesn't hurt but I miss just plain walking around - I got around much faster. I put the boys' closet door back on its track (one more broken thing) and dragged the tent out for tomorrow's trip. My plan for not having to clean the kitchen was foiled when I found a stray washcloth hanging around in the underwear and socks, so that's next.
Goot is taking her time falling asleep on my bed for her nap. It needs to happen soon so we can put her tricycle together and so she'll be awake and happy when it's time to play in the fountain and have dinner later.
The boys are still outside playing and Bella picked up her room and is now complaining about how boring TV is. We're turning on our DVD of Thoroughly Modern Millie.