Arlington Hills, a play date, and fussiness

This morning Misty came over and generously babysat my kids so I could go play the piano for a church meeting at Arlington Hills Nursing Home. I loved playing the piano for those sweet people, and they were so nice. They made me feel like I did a great job, even though I had serious difficulty at every page turn and made a ton of mistakes. What a great group of people.

After I was done, I came home and had a great play date with Misty and her kids.

Sophia enjoyed having her hands and feet traced.
Sophia enjoyed having her hands and feet traced.
Lydia drew this! All by herself!!!!!!!!!!!
Lydia drew this! All by herself!!!!!!!!!!!

They were pretending to be a choo-choo train, and Sophia specifically requested a photo shoot. So happy to oblige.

They were pretending to be a choo-choo train, and Sophia specifically requested a photo shoot. So happy to oblige.

Mary has been so fussy lately that I honestly started to wonder whether she has special needs I just don’t know about. For example, maybe she’s autistic? But she relates really well to me, and she seems socially in tune, so I ruled that out. Abe thinks she’s just teething, but he didn’t watch her turn purple from screaming for an hour today.

Perhaps it’s simply a straightforward addiction to chocolate chips. When I just can’t handle the screaming anymore, I give her a handful of chocolate chips and she transforms into a (somewhat) happy baby. By the end of today, Mary had polished off…a bag???? I think/hope/fear I helped…

Other than feeding my kids a million times and cleaning the kitchen two million times, my main accomplishment today was organizing the toy bins. In the midst of the mess, Mary found a ball on the floor and proceeded to play catch with me for twenty minutes. I did not even know she could throw a ball! Obviously, she can not actually catch one, but our game nevertheless bore a striking resemblance to catch.

Abe spent the evening studying and is practically at death’s door from exhaustion, so this is me hurrying up and finishing this blog. I still need to clean the whole house (it is a TOTAL wreck) before going to bed. Since Abe is pretty much in bed already, I need to work fast!