We're Swingers Now!

Sorry to leave everyone hanging. We survived week one.

We got home from China late on a Thursday evening. The following Saturday morning, our doorbell rang. It was probably a totally reasonable time of 10:00am. We, however, were still sound asleep adjusting from the time change. Jim threw on some suitable clothes and went to the door. I went back to sleep. I heard his voice outside and some others, but didn't pay any attention. When he came back up, I asked what he'd been doing as he'd been gone awhile. Two of his co-workers had brought over some outside toys their children had outgrown: one of those Little Tykes squares that kids climb and slide down, a small car with pedals, and a swingset. I was just amazed at their generosity.

It was probably a couple of weeks before we brought Sera out to the swingset. She hated it. Jim tried to put her in the swing. She screamed and tried to climb out. It was as if we were torturing her.

On Friday, Jim took Sera out back with him when we got home from work. This is a regular ritual with them. They watch Shadow run around the backyard and take care of business. On this day, Sera pointed to the swings. Jim took her over and put her in the swing. She loved it!

Sera had such a busy week. We were going to go out to dinner because neither of us felt like cooking. We weren't planning anything fancy, just Chinese at our local favorite spot. Jim ran upstairs to change into shorts while Sera and I stayed downstairs. She was walking around and fell because she was so tired. She normally bounces right back up and even laughs when she has a minor fall. This time she just collapsed in tears. Jim came down to find me cuddling a sobbing baby on my lap. We changed our plans. Jim fixed her some dinner, then I put her to bed while he ran out and got Chinese takeout instead.

She slept in two hours on Saturday morning, took a two hour morning nap, and a one-and-a-half hour afternoon nap. I think she was trying to catch up from the week. She's only napping for one hour a day at daycare. She's used to sleeping 12 hours and napping for an additional 3-4 hours a day. She's now sleeping 11 hours and napping for 1. They would let the kids sleep more at daycare, but someone keeps waking up after about an hour and waking all the rest. I wish she'd nap in the car on the way home, but she seems to have given up sleeping in the car. I don't know how else to get her more sleep time. I literally wake her up just before we leave in the morning.

With all her naps, we had a lowkey stay-at-home and recover day on Saturday. It was wonderful! On Sunday, we had some good friends that we don't see nearly enough come over for lunch. We had planned to grill, but the monsoon-like rain we've had this weekend changed that plan, instead we took them to our favorite steak restaurant. I made the strawberry pretzel salad for dessert. After lunch, we came back to our house and visited and ate that dessert. They have two children that are just adorable. Their son is hysterical. He's 2 1/2 years old. Within minutes of meeting Shadow (90 lbs.), he wrapped himself around Shadow's neck and wrestled him down to the ground. Shadow loved it, and we thought it was hysterical.