A weekly recap

Haven't been on much this week. Oh, I've been online, just not on here. The boys have both this week been rather, well, difficult. I think Turner is about to cut his first tooth, and Guthrie is going through some weird stage I don't know what to do with. He's been waking up with nightmares at 3 a.m., screaming about ladybugs and not wanting to be flushed down the toilet and begging for glasses of soy milk. I've been exhausted.

On top of this, we had our friend, poet Kevin Prufer here visiting since Wednesday. It's been a lot of fun, and I guess Kevin did amazingly on his various lectures and readings around campus and town, but it was strangely hard on Guthrie. He had a good time with Kevin, but Guthrie can be unpredictable and will react to some things in the exact opposite way you'd expect. So, for example, when Kevin was showing him magic tricks and pretending to eat one of Guthrie's toys, Guthrie freaked out. Total meltdown. He was upset about it for the whole day, telling me, "Kevin will not eat my tree. Kevin must eat food," with tears streaming down his face. *sigh*

Oh, yeah, and Kevin got in Wednesday night. I was informed of his visit on ... Monday evening. Yep. Somehow, I didn't get that memo. I vaguely remember Eric asking me if those days would be okay, but I don't remember any confirmation that he was indeed coming. Words of wisdom: If you have company coming, tell your spouse/partner/roommates in advance, and 2 days does not count as in advance.

The weather here lately has been perfect. Absolutely what you would order if you would ask for your perfect day (well, at least I would). 80 degrees during the day, 50s at night. Bee-you-tee-full.

So, now that we've been having this great weather, I've been making a point of trying to talk a walk with the boys to the park every day. The park is a little under a mile from our house, so the walk to and from is at least a mile and a half, pushing 50 pounds of kid in a stroller. When we get there, if it's not busy (most of the time during the day we're the only ones there), Guthrie gets out and plays on the playground while I push Turner, who usually falls asleep, around in laps on the sidewalk around the playground. I can see Guthrie the whole time, I'm never really any further from him than if I was sitting on the benches by the playground, and this way I can get some additional exercise. I even bought a digital pedometer, so I can keep track of myself. It tells me my total steps, aerobic steps, time spent in aerobic exercise, and how far I went. I'm getting a solid half hour or more of aerobic exercise every day now, and have gotten as much as an hour and a half. I feel great, too.

We also paid a whopping $15 and bought an exercise machine from our neighbor's garage sale. I don't know exactly what to call it - an Airstride or something. I figure for $15, if I only use it a little bit, it won't be a huge waste of money. We're leaving it in a corner of the living room so I can sneak on it while the boys are playing. Well, that was my plan, but every time I try to step on it, Guthrie does too, and that doesn't work. So it might have been a waste after all.

It's only 5:45, but I'm already starting to nod off at the computer. I'll try to give a little more tomorrow, as it has been an interesting week. For now, though, I need coffee. I'll sign off with pictures:

Wild parrots, less than a block from our house. I could hear them out our window. They're beautiful.





The tree in front of our house is flowering. It's a butterfly magnet, and this morning I lay on the floor of the boys' room and watched dozens of butterflies flutter around they tree while they played. I've also seen hummingbirds on it. The butterflies are very pretty, and come in all colors. Eric almost cut this tree down to put up an oak, but I'm glad he didn't. Now I won't let him. ;)





And blogger still won't let me embed video, so click here to see a video of Guthrie singing his ABCs.