Clean Teeth and Poopy Diapers

I'm sitting at Jim and Katy's huge granite kitchen island. Typing this. Attempting to ignore the two adult Sands brothers. They are alternately arguing and laughing as they always do when they are together for more than fifteen minutes. They are both obstinate and opinionated. Conflict and competition naturally occurs in this environment. Katy is somewhere upstairs doing the laundry that piles up with three kids. Joe and Jim are watching the fantastic video from Joe's photo seminar last week. The video monitor shows baby Tierney asleep upstairs, making those sweet strange little noises that only babies make. And I'm sitting here trying to stay awake.

After a late arrival from Kansas City to Madison last night, I think we pulled into their driveway at 1:45am, and then getting up bright and early to play with the kids at 7am, I'm beat. The day was full.

Jim headed off to work. Joe and I watched Jackson while Katy took Connor to his first full day of preschool. Joe got a crown and a filling and a solid tooth cleaning over at Jim's office, one of the perks of having a dentist for a brother. While he was at his brother's mercy, Katy and I took Jackson over to his Little Gym class.

I got a solid 45 minutes with Miss Tierney, complete with bottle feeding, several substantial burps and minimal fussing, all while watching Jack and Katy climb and tumble and play with parachutes and jingle bells, with lots of visits and waves at the window from Jack. It was great. Then Katy dropped me off for my teeth cleaning, which was desperately needed. I got a "No cavities!" pass from Dr. Jim, and then Joe had to drive me over to Target after because somehow, even at the age of 36, I managed to forget to pack underpants. Seriously.

So underpants procured, we headed back to the house, visits from Katy's dad and Aunt Bonnie, who hadn't yet met Miss Tierney, then Katy headed off to a haircut and color (which turned out very cute!) Joe took a well deserved nap, Jim fed and rested with Tierney and the two littlest Sands boys and I had a lot of adventures for a few hours. Outside swinging, touching spider webs, sliding, trimming the grass and discussing the difference between dragon flies and spiders. Then inside where we built a fort, filled it up entirely with mounds of toys and then climbed in with a cow flashlight, then took a quick jaunt to Arizonia (Arizona to everyone but Connor) on a plane, bus, train and car. I made two new best friends. I got apple juice spilled on me, one child accidentally wiped boogers on my iPad (I won't name names, it could happen to anyone,) I stepped on a poopy diaper, I had to eat dinner left handed since Jack was sitting on my lap at dinner, and none of this mattered a bit. That's how fun today was. Just an average day for Katy and clan but a super fun day for us. And this was just Friday, tomorrow we have a birthday party for Jackson, he's turning 2, Jon Sands arrives and then two more days of action. I may need an extra cup of coffee tomorrow just so I can keep up.