No hiking today

This week I've been being a grandma instead of wandering through the hills. Lee and Anna arrived Monday night and will stay until Sunday night. It has been an adventure - different from hiking! They've really been very good, sleeping through the night each night and staying out of mischief most of the time, no big problems, just little messes. But, I've learned why we have babies when we're young. It's tiring to stay on top of two active little ones all the time, and it's hard to go anywhere when you have to pack two kids in and out of car seats. Anna is being weaned on my watch. She had trouble the first two nights and sometimes during the days, but is doing much better now. She's not interested in a bottle except that the milk tastes good, and takes to a sippy cup even better than a bottle. She hasn't yet learned how to go to sleep on her own, but she's improving. Last night after I rocked her and held her about an hour, and tried the bed again, she whapped her head on the pillow from side to side, thrashing around and then finally dropping off to sleep. I hope that soon she will learn to go to sleep in her own bed without any other help.

But, we've been having fun with some projects around here. The clubhouse now has a door, and I got the family room floor clean enough and things put away enough to allow kids to be down there for extended periods. We had so much construction debris and tools that we always worried. There is still the problem of switchplate covers off (not through painting), but the outlets are covered with masking tape. There is NOTHING in the family room except the ping pong table and paddles and balls and a pile of paint cans in the closet that is a hole in the wall. That makes things easier for kids. They can run and run and run.


The other fun project is that I took my 25 year old Brio trains (they were Matthew's) and glued the tracks to a board with hot glue. They can be removed (I know, I already tried it), but they are secure and much more fun to drive the trains when the track doesn't fall apart. Baby Godzilla (our nickname for a little girl who goes around destroying things) can't pull them apart either.

Lee loves playing trains now.