Weekend Wrap Up

Having a side-by-side blog with Kevin is really entertaining and snags me lots of readers. But it is also really embarrassing when Kevin posts about making things better and I’m all, “TV shiny; poop stinky!” But, eh, it’s my life. And with that in mind…\
The orange Cadbury cream eggs are so yummy! You must try them.\
I think dim sum broke Brian’s butt! He’s been pooping nonstop ever since! Ok, well, it may have been the dozen strawberries he munched on in between servings of the dim sum.\
Here is my weekend wrap up:\
Saturday I spent the morning cleaning Max’s room. We even found a favorite stuffed animal, so he is extra happy. I organized his books and comics on the bookshelf and the toys in his toy box. I even found more storage space to utilize- wheeee. I washed the marker off of his walls, but the pen wasn’t coming off so easily. I’ll try Magic Erasure next time I have the urge, but I worry it will take off the paint too. I did manage to get most of the crayon off of his door. It was a tough job though, because the crayon is in the groove of the wood lines. I think a scrubby brush with bristles that can get in there will work. Most the “unsanctioned wall art” was from Brian.\
Saturday afternoon, the kids got to be with Anne while Kevin and I got to have a day date! We went out for a lunch at a new restaurant in Ashburn. The salad that came with my meal was so big, I took my entire entree home, which was dinner for Sunday. Score! Afterwards we got my passport photo taken. I am so excited for Paris! And still scared. After hanging around the house for an hour, trying desperately not to fall asleep, we zipped to the in-laws’ for dinner and to pick up the kids.\
Sunday was a good day, too. I woke up so freaking early with the kids that I was able to sneak in a morning nap. Around 11 am we went into Arlington for a group lunch of dim sum. Our party had 31 people in it, so we had to split into 3 tables. And of course we saw the Washington Monument, because no trek of ours outside of Northern Virginia would be complete without seeing it, even if it is not on the itinerary! The whole trip took us 4 hours, 2 hours for lunch & gabbing and 2 hours for driving. The kids were so well behaved that they both deserve ponies. They tried a bunch of new dishes and Max ate with chopsticks. When they weren’t eating, they just sat silently looking around, talking, or drawing. It was so nice. Brian was even awesome enough to poop before and after the trip, but not while we were out. YAY! Way less of a hassle to change him at home.\
This weekend, I only got one thing done and I feel great about it! The kids had fun with Grandma, I had fun with Kevin, and we all had fun together. Since Kevin is leaving for SXSWi this week, it was a good pre-trip fun time weekend.\
In other news:\
Max is in the faux gifted program at school. What this means is that a teacher takes him and a few other students out of class and has special lessons and activities for them. So far these lessons seem to be about spacial reasoning and placement. Anyway, let me take a minute to complain. We are lucky in that Max is smart, charming, cute, and has pushy parents who asked for more challenging instruction for him. So far Max is in: faux-gifted group; the accelerated reading program, which attempts to let kids read at their own level; the school’s writing group (they made a special exception for Max since it isn’t open to 1st graders); math all-stars (which is open to everyone); and has a very big part in the class play. What was I complaining about? oh yea, school. So, max is being taught all this extra stuff. Which yay for us. But booo to the other kids who are missing out. Here is my complaint: maybe Max isn’t smarter than anyone else, but maybe he is just being taught more?\
Brian has only napped once or twice in the past week. UGH! Make it stop. He is such a monster from 4-5:30 when he doesn’t nap.