the good, the bad
(Before you even start reading, let me warn you. This post is long, and as I reread it, it's pretty scattered. No real point. What can I say, it's late and I should be in bed. You may want to read it just a little at a time. Or not at all. You've been warned.)
Although right now I feel exhausted, mentally and physically, today was actually a really good day. I got to spend a lot of time with Anya, and she's been in a really good mood (mostly) lately.
(A couple of weeks ago she got sick, and that just brought out her worst whiny tantrumy toddlerness. We were worried that it was more than just the sickness, because it lasted for awhile afterward, but fortunately she seems to have put that behind her and we have our Anya back. )
This morning we dropped my mom off at the airport, she was here for a little over a week, helping us with the kiddos, and doing some miscellaneous odd jobs (painting, landscaping, etc.) From Denver, we headed towards Boulder, which is sort of on the way home. First of all we stopped off at Lowes, to get a fertilizer spreader, to replace the one I have, which is terrible. All they had was Scott's brand, and I refused to buy one. I've had two Scott's spreaders now, and they're terrible, and I'm not going to make that mistake again. So there was a Home Depot across the street, I figured I'd try my luck there. They also had the ubiquitous Scott's, but also another brand (I forget, it was yellow.) so I got that. We'll see how it does.
At Lowes we all (all four of us) went into the store, but then Evan got hungry, so Lara stayed out in the car to feed him, while Anya and I went into Home Depot. We were pretty quick, so Evan was still eating when we got back. Rather than sit in the car to wait, Anya and I sat in a shady spot on the grass nearby. She thought this was great. We watched some birds come and go, looked at the weeds, checked out a car that didn't have a trunk (it's one of those cars that has a bed like a truck), and in general just hung out.
So then we went to the mall.
ASIDE: The whole point of these little expeditions was killing time. We were looking to buy a stroller in Boulder, but the store didn't open until 11, so we needed to kill some time.
Anyhow, the mall. Most of the stores there weren't open yet either, but for some reason Pottery Barn was. Anya has a chair from Pottery Barn Kids that was half price, and we saw the grown-up version sitting there in the store, so I said something about it to her. Well, so she wanted to go sit in it. I complied, but tried to make it quick, because, she was wearing her shoes, which were up on the chair (she's short, and it's a big chair), she was holding her water cup, and, well, the chair cost $1300. So we left the store, but she didn't forget. Every ten minutes or so, she reminded me that she wanted to go back and sit in the chairs some more.
It was still early, but we decided to have some lunch. We perused the options, and settled on McDonalds. Which was about how I expected it to be. Did you know a quarter pounder w/cheese contains not less than 1200mg of sodium? I felt like I poured a salt shaker on my tongue. Seriously. I mean, I like salt. "Use more salt" is one of my two personal cooking commandments. But wow. Too much salt.
After lunch Anya wanted to sit in the chairs, but settled for getting coffee. (for me). I got my coffee and asked her if she wanted to sit in the Starbucks (they had a cool booth thing along the wall, next to a window). At first she said no, but as I was walking out she must have changed her mind, because she yelled "No! I do! I do!" It was cute. So we sat there, dancing to the music and enjoying pure, unadorned caffeine.
We hooked back up with Lara, and Anya wanted to sit in the chairs, but settled for GameSpot. Turns out they don't sell used PC games anymore, boo. Not that I have time to play them...
Evan needed to eat again, so we went outside to this huge sand play area. Probably the world's largest sandbox. Also the world's hottest sunniest, least shady sandbox, but we found a tiny little bit of shade and played in the sand. Anya loves the sand, she'll scoop it into buckets and dump it out all day.
We headed to Crate and Barrel, in the vague hope of finding a computer desk. No such luck. We pretty soon decided that toddler roaming free plus glassware was a disaster waiting to happen, so Anya got the stroller, while Evan got held. (See, this is why we're shopping for the new stroller.)
After ringing up our wares (no desk, alas), we hit the road, Boulder bound at last. (we never did sit in the chairs again.)
And both kids promptly fell asleep.
We arrived at the stroller store, having already decided what we were going to buy. We had seen the demo, and Lara's sister already has one that we like, so this was just going to be a quick go in, say we'll take it, pay, go home type of thing. Since everyone was asleep, we decided I would wait in the car and Lara would go in and get the stroller. So I waited. And waited. And this drove by:
(some sort of climbing wall on a trailer).
BTW, pictures in this post courtesy of my snazzy new camera phone. Yes, I now have a cell phone, and it even has a camera. Welcome to the 21st century.
And I waited. And I played a few demo games on my phone.
I began to wonder if they were out of strollers and were waiting for some more to arrive. From New Zealand.
I began to organize the contacts on my phone. And then, finally, Lara came out with the stroller. Evidently they were assembling it for us, and it took awhile.
I'm tired, so let me just summarize the rest of the day: it went downhill. Anya was still her cheery little self, but Evan lost his patience just before we arrived home, and spent a few hours making me regret ever saying "well, it could definitely be worse." Which is to say he cried. A lot. But we had some Chinese food, which was good, and he's not crying now, which is a blessing.
Goodnight all.
Although right now I feel exhausted, mentally and physically, today was actually a really good day. I got to spend a lot of time with Anya, and she's been in a really good mood (mostly) lately.
(A couple of weeks ago she got sick, and that just brought out her worst whiny tantrumy toddlerness. We were worried that it was more than just the sickness, because it lasted for awhile afterward, but fortunately she seems to have put that behind her and we have our Anya back. )
This morning we dropped my mom off at the airport, she was here for a little over a week, helping us with the kiddos, and doing some miscellaneous odd jobs (painting, landscaping, etc.) From Denver, we headed towards Boulder, which is sort of on the way home. First of all we stopped off at Lowes, to get a fertilizer spreader, to replace the one I have, which is terrible. All they had was Scott's brand, and I refused to buy one. I've had two Scott's spreaders now, and they're terrible, and I'm not going to make that mistake again. So there was a Home Depot across the street, I figured I'd try my luck there. They also had the ubiquitous Scott's, but also another brand (I forget, it was yellow.) so I got that. We'll see how it does.
At Lowes we all (all four of us) went into the store, but then Evan got hungry, so Lara stayed out in the car to feed him, while Anya and I went into Home Depot. We were pretty quick, so Evan was still eating when we got back. Rather than sit in the car to wait, Anya and I sat in a shady spot on the grass nearby. She thought this was great. We watched some birds come and go, looked at the weeds, checked out a car that didn't have a trunk (it's one of those cars that has a bed like a truck), and in general just hung out.
So then we went to the mall.
ASIDE: The whole point of these little expeditions was killing time. We were looking to buy a stroller in Boulder, but the store didn't open until 11, so we needed to kill some time.
Anyhow, the mall. Most of the stores there weren't open yet either, but for some reason Pottery Barn was. Anya has a chair from Pottery Barn Kids that was half price, and we saw the grown-up version sitting there in the store, so I said something about it to her. Well, so she wanted to go sit in it. I complied, but tried to make it quick, because, she was wearing her shoes, which were up on the chair (she's short, and it's a big chair), she was holding her water cup, and, well, the chair cost $1300. So we left the store, but she didn't forget. Every ten minutes or so, she reminded me that she wanted to go back and sit in the chairs some more.
It was still early, but we decided to have some lunch. We perused the options, and settled on McDonalds. Which was about how I expected it to be. Did you know a quarter pounder w/cheese contains not less than 1200mg of sodium? I felt like I poured a salt shaker on my tongue. Seriously. I mean, I like salt. "Use more salt" is one of my two personal cooking commandments. But wow. Too much salt.
After lunch Anya wanted to sit in the chairs, but settled for getting coffee. (for me). I got my coffee and asked her if she wanted to sit in the Starbucks (they had a cool booth thing along the wall, next to a window). At first she said no, but as I was walking out she must have changed her mind, because she yelled "No! I do! I do!" It was cute. So we sat there, dancing to the music and enjoying pure, unadorned caffeine.
We hooked back up with Lara, and Anya wanted to sit in the chairs, but settled for GameSpot. Turns out they don't sell used PC games anymore, boo. Not that I have time to play them...
Evan needed to eat again, so we went outside to this huge sand play area. Probably the world's largest sandbox. Also the world's hottest sunniest, least shady sandbox, but we found a tiny little bit of shade and played in the sand. Anya loves the sand, she'll scoop it into buckets and dump it out all day.
We headed to Crate and Barrel, in the vague hope of finding a computer desk. No such luck. We pretty soon decided that toddler roaming free plus glassware was a disaster waiting to happen, so Anya got the stroller, while Evan got held. (See, this is why we're shopping for the new stroller.)
After ringing up our wares (no desk, alas), we hit the road, Boulder bound at last. (we never did sit in the chairs again.)
And both kids promptly fell asleep.
We arrived at the stroller store, having already decided what we were going to buy. We had seen the demo, and Lara's sister already has one that we like, so this was just going to be a quick go in, say we'll take it, pay, go home type of thing. Since everyone was asleep, we decided I would wait in the car and Lara would go in and get the stroller. So I waited. And waited. And this drove by:
(some sort of climbing wall on a trailer).
BTW, pictures in this post courtesy of my snazzy new camera phone. Yes, I now have a cell phone, and it even has a camera. Welcome to the 21st century.
And I waited. And I played a few demo games on my phone.
I began to wonder if they were out of strollers and were waiting for some more to arrive. From New Zealand.
I began to organize the contacts on my phone. And then, finally, Lara came out with the stroller. Evidently they were assembling it for us, and it took awhile.
I'm tired, so let me just summarize the rest of the day: it went downhill. Anya was still her cheery little self, but Evan lost his patience just before we arrived home, and spent a few hours making me regret ever saying "well, it could definitely be worse." Which is to say he cried. A lot. But we had some Chinese food, which was good, and he's not crying now, which is a blessing.
Goodnight all.
posted by Steve
3 Comments:
When we were "living" in Fort Collins the climbing wall trailer would occasionally be parked next to our house. The guy that drove it around lived a couple of houses away and would sometimes bring home other kid entertainment trailers.
Now that you have the new stroller you can go and check it out.
I want to see this snazzy stroller. I remember when Lara's sister was here checking it out.
oh, it's a great stroller. all worth the effort i think...and the waiting. and you even got the updated version that's supposedly all NEW and improved. So good job procrastinating on buying it...i think it was worth it. good post. and GREAT camera phone. seriously, i'm jealous. i thought those were normal pics.
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