"Paul Revere" Punks Her Mommy

We had quite the busy day today! First, we drove into Grand Rapids to see our friends, Jill and Lauren and deliver Lauren's belated birthday present. It was really nice to catch up with Jill... it had been far too long! Liam had a bit of a rough time during the visit. First, he had Lauren to contend with... the toddler who LOVES babies, sometimes a bit too much. Her love can quickly turn into aggressiveness, which can spell trouble for the baby, so their interactions were closely monitored. Second, he met their dog, a pug named Bear, and he wasn't all that thrilled with him. Bear is a licker, and Liam didn't care for that (can't say I blame him). Every time Bear would come his way, Liam would turn his head and crawl the other direction. Between dodging bonks on the head from Lauren and puppy dog kisses, he tended to stay very close to his Mama. Aside from the occasional normal toddler tiff, Maya and Lauren played pretty well together. They especially enjoyed jumping on the bed together and playing at the beach. Liam had a short trial at the beach and was cut off for trying to eat rocks. I ended up holding him and tossing him into the air to keep him entertained. He was wearing a big floppy blue sun hat, and when he was falling back into my hands, the brim of the hat would blow back in the rush of air. He just smiled and giggled. He loves that game! We played there through lunch time, at which point, Maya and Liam started to melt down. I had forgotten to change the kids back into regular diapers after coming back into the house, and for anyone who has ever put their kid in swim diapers, you know they don't absorb anything. Poor Maya started peeing, and it just went everywhere. She started crying, so not knowing what else to do, I whisked her off of Jill's brand new Pottery Barn rug (sorry, Jill) and took her to the bathroom. She refused to sit on the potty, so I just took off her swimsuit and changed her diaper. The rest of the visit went downhill rather quickly. Maya started saying, "I ready to go home now." which was the first time I have ever heard that phrase. I finished feeding Liam, and we left. They both were asleep within minutes of exiting the driveway. They played hard and crashed quickly.

While we were in GR, and the kids were needing a long nap, I drove to Ada to deliver another belated birthday present to Maya's little friend Ashley. I had a few minutes to chat with Melissa, who was having a really bad day. She shared her troubles, though we didn't have time to get into everything, it was nice to reconnect a little. A play date is in order very soon! Also, she sent us on our way with a big sack full of fresh peaches! Now I have to figure out what to do with all of them!

The kids continued to sleep as we made our way out of GR. Of course, as I looked at my dash, I noticed the needle on my gas gauge hovering right above empty. I would likely have to stop for gas! Though I tried to push it to the limit, inevitably the gas light came on. Even though stopping for gas was a possibly a deal-breaker for their naps, I was forced to pull into a station to fill up. I decided that actually running out of gas would be worse. Much to my amazement, they both snoozed right through the stop for gas! Yay!

Onward to our last stop, to see Karen, Paige, and Connor, and deliver yet another belated birthday gift! The kids woke up as we approached the south side of Grand Haven, and since they had been strapped into their carseats for about 1 1/2 hours by now, they were getting restless (this thought kills me when I think about our 7 hour drive back to Iowa coming up... ugh). Luckily, they were home and awake, so we exchanged gifts (Maya got a belated birthday gift from Paige, too!) then settled in outside in the shade. The girls played, Connor sat in the grass, and Liam found trouble wherever he crawled... the rocks, the driveway, the bubbles, the garden, etc... Maya had to sit in timeout once while we were there. Out of nowhere, she decided to hit me. That's intolerable behavior in our family, so she went straight to timeout. She cried the entire time she sat there, and by the time it was over (about 2 minutes later), I could tell she was truly remorseful. She cried in my arms for a couple of minutes, then we kissed and hugged, and I told her I love her. It's a rare occasion that she actually has to sit in timeout, and when she finds herself there, she does not like it. The funny thing about her hitting... which is not ever funny, but bear with me a minute... is that she doesn't know how to do it. I'm extremely proud of this and happy that hitting does not come naturally to her. It's really awkward and almost slow motion. Plus, she really thinks about it before she does it. The couple times she has hit, she balls up her little fist, bends her elbow, so her fist is by her shoulder and kind of just straightens that arm out in a forward direction. It's when she puts her fist up by her shoulder that she hesitates. She knows it's wrong, so she really has to think about it. I hope that's how her temperament stays... hesitant to lash out in anger. That's not such a bad trait. Anyway, I'm getting off track... before we left Karen's, we raided her garden, picking flowers, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and the yummiest smelling basil ever! She has a fabulous garden with tons of veggies! I can't wait to cook them!

Shortly after we FINALLY arrived back home, Maya kept telling me, "Poopies, Mommy, big poopies!" I couldn't figure out where she was talking about, so I asked her to show me. She says, "Puppy poopies, right dare!" and points under the table. I bent down and looked, and to my absolute horror, there were two piles of poop under the kitchen table! I asked Maya if she did that, and she said yes, though, she could not tell me when. We had only been home for 2 hours in the morning, during which time, she had a diaper on the entire 2 hours. At this point, we had only been home for about 10 minutes, and she still had a diaper on. I was RACKING MY BRAIN, trying to figure out how this happened!! I thought for a moment that her dog theory was interesting, but WE DON'T HAVE A DOG! I gathered up some wipes to dive into this awesome clean up job, crawled under the table, and upon closer inspection, I discovered that the "poopies" were actually big chunks of BROWNIES! I cracked up, and when I asked if she tricked me, she said, "Yeah, tick Mommy!" (She didn't actually get it, but I could tell she thought it was funny that I "thought" she played a trick on me... what a little comedian.) LOL... I got "Punk'd" by my 2 year old! Awesome! Ashton Kutcher better watch out, there's a new trickster in town!

After Will came home from work, we were sitting at the table, when Maya came running yelling, "(something intangible) are tumming! (something intangible) are tumming!" Will asked, "Did you say 'the Brits are coming'??" Maya says, "Yeah, Bits tumming!" Will says, "You better go warn all the town's people! How many lanterns will you use?" Without missing a beat, Maya turns around, holds up some fingers, and says, "TWO of 'um!" Hahaha.... One if by land, two if by sea... How did she know?? Will and I laughed and laughed... : )