Today, nana and papa (my parents) left to return home after a 4 day visit.  Tonight, I tucked Jonathan in for the night and he immediately went to his list of individuals who might free him…. “Nana”…. “Papa”…. “Nana”…. “Nana”….. “Mama”…. “Nana”….. hoping that someone would give in.

Everyone had a great time.  The women all spent some time at Jo Ann Fabrics.  Amanda and I had a birthday dinner for Amanda.  Jonathan spent time walking Riley around the house.  Many cookies were made.  Dog N Suds was ransacked.  5 little monkeys Jumped on the bed.  And Grace spoke her mind and called for Da-Da!

Yea!

Last week we left the kids with my parents and took a cruise to the Bahamas.

It was my idea and a fabulous one at that.  Amanda and I drove down to Charleston, SC and got on the boat.  On the way, we visited Pinehurst, North Carolina which had just had a massive snowstorm– all of 2 inches. The entire county was closed. We were lucky to find somewhere to eat.

Overall, the trip was very relaxing, which was goal one.  We enjoyed the time on the road to and from SC (listening to podcasts, chatting, and playing the state license plate game.  It also only took 16 hours on the road before we stopped talking about the kids).  We also enjoyed the time on the boat.  It was like a little city (that was 12 decks high, a couple football fields long, and has a staff of people that wait on you day and night).  The part that we enjoyed the least was the ports.  We were dropped off in seaports where the only objective was for you to buy their stuff.  If we were to cruise again, we would map out each port ahead of time and make full arrangements for the day.

Every day I come home from work to find some new stack of books, Jonathan using new words, a new toy, newly painted artwork, or a house full of children running and screaming together.

Last week, I came home and there was some new artwork on the wall.  It was more of the impressionist type art work.  It was very good for his age category, I’m sure.

Later that evening I sat down on the couch and began watching a TV show and then realized that there was some weird bluish blob on the ottoman.  After a couple minutes of discussion with Amanda, we pieced together the day of activities which included the artwork which was created by dipping balloons in paint and then rubbing the balloons on the canvas.  Well, apparently, one of the balloons wasn’t totally cleaned off and Jonathan strolled off with it to the ottoman, and voila, I now have a brown ottoman with a dash of blue!