The week following Alexis' 3 songs.

Since Alexis' performing debut, the kids have been busy with several other activities.  The week was fairly normal Monday - Thursday...though there have been two new songs to sing around the house...more on that later.
Friday, Andrew's day care was closed so he had a day with mommy.  Mommy had to get the house ready for the Sunday School party though, so Mema came over to help.  Andrew has become quite attached to the idea of having someone's face to look at and play with at all times.  While he can sit or lay for a little while and entertain himself with toys, he seems to either like to know that he's being watched or be carried around.  This did not make tasks like cleaning and preparing food especially easy.  Oh and did I mention he decided he did not want to miss a second of anything so napping was out of the question for the day.  Daddy got home with Alexis and began on the outside lights while I got Alexis and Andrew ready for pajama night at church.  Got the kiddos ready, got Alexis interested in something, grabbed Andrew and went to Wal-mart for the last few items I needed for the party only to find out that they stopped carrying one ingredient 6 weeks ago.  I raced back home, plopped Alexis in my car and shouted out the window that the lights looked fine and that people would probably start showing up before I got back. 

Drop off became a semi-fiasco as Alexis thought I was leaving her but taking Andrew.  I had to drop Alexis off first b/c Andrew needed to be fed and I had left his bottle at home, so Andrew needed to eat early before I left which meant he would need to be woken up because after a day of nothing but catnaps, he had fallen asleep in the car.  She cried and said that she didn't want her friends and the girls watching them to look at her.  I took the door stopper away and closed the door and left her with one of the teens to keep her from following me.  It was heartbreaking.  As I left I asked Mr. Buddy to check on her and walk her down to Andrew to show her that he got left there too.  She was fine and just needed a few minutes to adjust to a new crowd.  Still it left me stressed, but oh wait, I'm late for the party at my house. 

So I race home (forgetting to stop at Tom Thumb to get the ingredient that Wal-Mart no longer carries) and arrive home to find that most of what needed the final ingredient had already been eaten, so it must not have been a big deal, though it still was in my head.  And said a quick hello as I ran to my room to put on clothes that were more appropriate for visiting with people than working around my house and got ready.  I was only the 2nd to last person to arrive at our house, so I guess that means I was close enough to on time.  Good food, good discussion, kind of a flop of a gift exchange as there was not much stealing and competition this year, but I'd say the winner of a gift was the question jar which we used to continue the party until the absolute last minute before we all needed to pick up the kids.  We managed to thwart all but one attempt at people leaving their white elephant gifts at our house regardless of how hard some tried, Grant knew who to watch out for. 

I picked up the kiddos (afterall, I was blocking people into our driveway) and brought them home so that Grant could put them to bed and I could head out to one more party.  The terrible mom that I am left my phone in the car and didn't know that Alexis wet herself and woke up Andrew in the process of getting new jammies and left daddy with a screaming, inconsolable Andrew.  In the short time I was gone, I had 15 missed calls.  Since I had been driving around with my gas light on as I was in a hurry everytime I drove somewhere, I was planning to get gas on the way home.  But decided delaying my arrival home would not be the best course of action.  Got home and consoled screaming koala spud.  Neither kid slept soundly which was surprising considering how exhausted we all were.

Saturday, I was determined that we would be at the Christmas Parade.  Alexis did the things that were required of her to do "something fun" just fine...however, she was whiney and obstinant about everything else so we decided that "something fun #2" needed to be replaced by nap time.  Andrew pulled his own shenanigans while Alexis was being 3 (not good, but not really bad).  He woke up from being sound asleep thanks to the paramedic in the parade that made the siren go off right by us, so the car seat in the stroller was not enjoyable for him.  Without a sling or carrier we created a make shift one using a blanket and zipping him up against me in Grant's jacket.  This was great until he leaned over the zipper and spit up into his carseat b/c he put too much pressure on his belly after wiggling around to the marching band.  We shifted him around so that I was holding him normally but still snuggled in the jacket but he decided the jacket needed some liquid white decorations as well...at this point, Grant went back to the car for wipes and other cleaning agents that I had neglected to grab from the bag and put in the bottom of the stroller.  We cleaned every thing up, re-wrapped Andrew and let him sit unbuckled so that he could look in the gap between the canopy of the stroller and the backward facing car seat...however at this point the package of wipes was more entertaining than watching the parade and his sister gathering candy. 

Next up, Santa Claus.