Growing Up In Oz

Our life lately has been a whirlwind. Three weeks ago my parents closed on and moved out of the house I grew up in. They found a fabulous new house, the only problem was they weren’t closing on it until October 15th. So for the past few weeks we have been shuffling boxes back and forth to storage facilities and cramming 4 adults and 2 children into our 2,000 square foot, 2 bathroom house.  It has been chaos for everyone involved and while we are always more than willing to help family, I think all of us can agree that we are happy to be living in separate houses again. For some reason, my children think it’s okay to act like Heathens when their grandparents are around. Little rats.

On top of all of this Hannah’s sleeping has been abysmal. I don’t know if it’s teething, sickness or a phase but she wakes up an average of 3-4 times per night. Sometimes more. I feel so bad for my poor parents who slept in the room NEXT to hers for the past few weeks.

After spending Friday night and Saturday morning moving my parents into their new house, we took the opportunity to let Hannah stay at my In-Laws and have some special time with Madison. We took her to a birthday party where she got her very first Strawberry Fanta soda (her second soda ever), jumped in a bounce house for hours, got her face painted and got to run around without her little sister tagging along.

Sunday morning we woke up to Clint getting donuts, spent hours playing play-doh and then painted a pumpkin.

It’s not that we can’t do all of these things with Hannah home, but anyone who has had a 16 month old knows that play doh and painting and making public appearances that last 6 hours are quite difficult with a curious, demanding and precocious toddler.

I have to say I really enjoyed the one on one time with Madison. She kept telling us how much fun she was having and how much she loved us. I’m starting to learn that while I love doing things as a family of four, the girls each need their alone time with us to feel like the center of attention.

I wish I could freeze frame some of the moments from this weekend, they really filled my heart up with happiness.

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