5 Things

Well being home this week with a concussion wasn’t all bad. Ok, so it wasn’t all good either. But, in the spirit of looking at the glass as half full, here are a few positive things that have come out of this week:

1. We saved on gas. My car was parked down at The Mall for the better part of 4 days and therefore didn’t get driven (drove? Whatever). Hey, if we can save a few pennies out of this whole ordeal, I’ll take it!

2. Speaking of pennies, we have now met our insurance deductible. We were about $1000 dollars away as of Monday morning. Considering Monday afternoon contained a trip to the ER, various doctor charges, a CT Scan, an MRI and blood work, I’d say we’ve more than covered that one grand. Not to mention they’ll probably charge me for the scrubs they “gave me” to wear home.

3. We know that I do in fact have a brain. Hey, some people questioned it but now I have the MRI results to prove it! And, not only do I have a brain, I have a big one. One of the biggest the radiologists have ever seen! Neener, neener, neener! Ok, maybe I’m making that up. Or maybe not. Guess only me and the radiologists will ever know…

4. I got caught up on sleep. Ever since being relocated to The Mall, sleep has been more and more fleeting. I get up earlier and go to bed later and do a whole lot more in between. But this week, I’ve been to bed by 9pm every night and had at least 1 nap every day. Awesome!

5. And the most important thing – I got to spend more time with Munchkin, CJ and Samson. While I would rather have another reason to be at home with them, I’ll take anytime I can get. Munchkin is such a joy and every minute we have together is precious. While I am getting stir crazy and am ready to get back to work, I will very much miss being at home with my family during the day.

The Perfect Day

Yesterday was (almost) the perfect autumn day for me. There were a few mishaps but overall, it was amazing.

It started out with CJ making breakfast for me. I’m a morning person and CJ is a night person so the weekends usually go that he stays up late while I go to bed by 9:30 p.m. and I get up early (7ish) while he sleeps in. Well yesterday, he got up around 8 and made biscuits and gravy with omelets. It was yummy! I actually don’t like biscuits and gravy but gave his a try and they were delish!

Then we hung around the house, doing laundry and various other things until it was time for Munchkin to take a nap. I put her down and then immediately jumped in the shower (all parents of little ones know how you have to time these things precisely!). After a quick shower and blow dry, I hopped in to bed hoping to God Munchkin would stay asleep long enough for me to get in a few winks. And she did! I was able to sleep for about an hour. It was heavenly.

Once she woke up, we had lunch and then got ready to head to the zoo for their Halloween Spooktacular. I had made Munchkin a mummy costume and was excited to finally try it on her. Well, it didn’t work as I had hoped. What I hadn’t considered when putting strips of fabric on her onesie was that it would take the elasticity out of it. So, I could not stretch it enough to get it over her head! I finally wrestled it over her head but then could not get her arms in. Of course she thought this was akin to torture and screamed the whole time. I finally gave up and took it off. I almost had a meltdown myself and that point and thought about skipping the zoo altogether but then took a few deep breaths and reminded myself that it was not the end of the world. So I put a plain white onesie on her, with her mummy pants and we went from there.

I was so flustered by the costume fiasco that I forgot to take a jacket with me and it was a chilly day. Not to mention that when we got to the zoo, it was so crowded that I had to park across the interstate from it (which is about a 15 min. walk). I almost turned around and went home at that point. But, I remembered that this was Munchkin’s first Halloween that she could actually participate in and kept going. I parked, got Munchkin settled in the stroller with a blanket and made the trek to the zoo.

We arrived just in time for the parade and Munchkin got much delight in seeing the costumes walk by (there were Storm Troopers, clowns, an Iron Man and even War Machine (with moving guns!)). We then walked around, looking at the animals and other kids dressed in costume.

We came to a picnic area where they had a DJ set up playing music. Munchkin immediately started dancing as soon as she heard the tunes. I parked the stroller and let her “chair dance” for a while. Then I took her out to see what she would do. She stood up next to the stroller and started dancing like crazy!

Dancing by the stroller, in her mummy pants

After about an hour of tooling around, we left and came home so Munchkin took take another nap. While she was sleeping, I did some work on the computer and then made dinner. CJ was diligently working on the house, which he’s been painting for a couple of weeks (and it is looking awesome)!
After dinner, we carved Munch’s pumpkin. I got our her shape flashcards and had her pick the shapes that she wanted to be the eyes, nose and mouth. That way, she could design it! She picked a star and octagon for the eyes, circle for the nose and rectangle for the mouth. CJ drew them on and carved away!
Once he was done, we showed Munchkin and she got a real kick out of it!
 

Munchkin seeing her first jack-o-lantern

 
 
Then of course we had CJ and Munchkin pose together!

So proud!

 
And Samson  trying to get at it!
Costumes, zoo trips, pumpkins, yummy comfort food and roasted seeds. Yesterday had all the makings of a perfect fall day! I went to bed a very happy camper.