The Inmates Escape

We've had an eventful weekend and its only Sunday morning! On Friday afternoon I left work early and came home to get the kids ready for the overnighter and Mom and Dad's. Between Archer, Annika, Brock, and Shelly, the house was a little bit of a zoo (as always), and I was rushing around trying to get clothes and diapers and everything packed up and ready, while keeping the kids out of the suitcase and out from under my feet. Then Archer decided he was ready to go before I was, and he went out to sit in my car. Annika followed him out... The three door system had failed us as the kids escaped the house. So, Grandma Sue went to try to get the kids back in and as she stood in the doorway between the laundry room and the garage, with all three doors wide open, Everett took his opportunity and dashed out past her and ran away. The three door system was at this point a complete loss. All the doors were open, all the inmates had escaped, and the zoo keepers (Grandma and I) were unable to go after the escaped parties as there were still two babies left in the house and nothing had been packed in the car yet and all of civilization seemed to be crumbling around us.


The breakdown had occurred in two places - I hadn't closed the garage door because I was planning on going in and out a couple of times to get things into the car, and the childproof door handle into the laundry room has disappeared somewhere, so the kids were able to get into the laundry room and from there it just disintigrated all together. I had to take charge somehow, and ordered all people back into the house to contain the situation. The kids came back, the doors were closed, and then I went after the dog. I think in our neighborhood almost everyone has a dog, but we're probably known for the frequency of how often our dog escapes. The great thing about Everett, though, is he always gets distracted by the interesting smells in the yard next door or across the street and so he never really gets too far. I caught up to him, grabbed his tail (dogs have tails for the same reason kids have hands - something to grab onto when you don't want them to run away), and led him back inside. The three door system had been restored, everything closed and in lockdown until I was actually ready to leave. From there, it could only get better!





We headed off to Archer's doctor appointment, where it was discovered that he has very good blood pressure, is average height and weight, and is generally very healthy. They tried a vision and hearing test but he looked at it more as a game where he was trying to give the answers we wanted to hear and wasn't trying very hard to actually say whether he could hear something or not. Oh well, we'll try again next year!

Then it was time to get the party started! We moved on to Mom and Dad's for a sleepover, had a great time there and then in the morning took off for Madison. We picked up Denise along the way and arrived in Madison for the world famous Brat Fest. Archer and Shelly stayed with Aunt Patti and Grandpa Shorty while Aunt Laurie, AJ, Alec, Denise and I all went to spend the next three hours picking up garbage around the festival grounds. There was a small problem with this job though - there was very little garbage! So we ended up spending a lot of time just wandering around, avoiding Tracy (our supervisor), and people-watching. Luckily it didn't start raining hard until we were in the car on the way back to the house. Archer had a great time playing with the trains at Laurie's house and Denise and I enjoyed the time with Laurie and the boys. It was a nice day out, doing something different and spending time with family. I'm looking forward to next year!





And now, for the major milestone event - last night on the way home from Madison I stopped back at Mom and Dad's house and left both kids behind. Its my first night without Shelly and it was really hard for me to leave her behind but for my sanity (and David's) we both needed a little break from the kids and it was time to let go a little. Right now its 8:14 and Dad's going to bring them home at 9:00 and I'm counting down the minutes until I get to hold my baby again, I really miss her! But I do have to admit it was really nice to have a night where David and I could sleep through the night without our usual "musical beds" routine. (For those of you who aren't familiar with this nighttime game, it involves Archer falling asleep somewhere, then waking up a few hours later and crawling into bed with us, the bed getting too crowded and someone leaving for the couch, Archer following that person to the couch and that person leaving for the other couch, and so on...) Thanks Mom and Dad for a peaceful night's sleep, and I can't wait to hear how it went with your first night with Shelly!