This morning Daddy went out to Chautauqua with Mimi and Papa to put in the docks and finish opening up. The next trip out the whole family will be going!
Mommy, William and Madelyn stayed back and went grocery shopping (exciting, huh?). It was nice to get it out of the way though. Daddy came home around 3:30 and continued to do some work in the backyard. Mommy and Madelyn went up to the outlet mall to return a dress.
No pictures today.
Since Walton Drive will be the location for Jessica's Buffalo shower there is A LOT of work to do. It is a needed, good kick in the rear! So, what has to be done? The list keeps getting longer - Daddy would say thanks to Mommy, but Daddy is adding to it too!
Outside:
Prepare and plant vegetables in garden
Get the stinking grass growing
Border the flower beds
Spread mulch
Get some annuals planted for some color
Trim the trees
Sand and stain the deck and trellis
Power wash concrete patio and house siding
Plant flowers in hanging baskets and pots
Inside:
Finish the kitchen (for Pete's sake)! This looks like a quick job, but spots need to be primed, the ceiling needs to be painted, molding painted and then the walls painted. And everything needs to be taped off first.
Mommy also wants to paint the family room and have it recarpeted. Daddy says we are taking on too much, but it may be more the price of the new carpet that's holding him back. It is much more than he thought.
On top of that, all the normal daily upkeep, cooking and cleaning and, of course, the small, small job of parenting (HA!). It will all be worth it though.
Daddy and William went to Home Depot (Daddy's second home) to buy supplies. So, today some items were crossed off the list (see above). Daddy also mowed the lawn, trimmed, spread more grass seed - just need it to grow now, started to prepare the vegetable garden for planting - still need to spread some peat moss, moved William's sand box off the deck to his play area near the play set, and the deck is cleared off ready for sanding. He worked all day. Putting the border around the beds was pretty time consuming, but it looks great!
William, of course, helped whenever he could! Madelyn watched when she wasn't sleeping and Mommy helped too. Daddy says that Mommy is the brains of the operation and he is the brawn. That spells trouble! Mommy has been intensely researching colorful plants and is very excited to go to the nursrey next week to pick out plants!
Breakfast: Protein shake
Lunch: Tim Horton's Drive Thru - Egg Salad Sandwich and Chicken Noodle Soup
Dinner: LaNova - Pizza and Wings
Mommy was feeling a bit on the lazy side today. Everyone was fed though.
Madelyn is starting to play for longer periods of time by herself. You know when she's had enough!
William's activities ranged from vacuuming the family room to playing with Play Doh. He sure keeps busy! No down time for this guy.
Tiring night for all! Madelyn was awake at 4:30AM or so and William woke up at 5:30AM. That's having young kids for ya!
The weather is so dreary and cold. It is May for Pete's sake! Since all William's warmer weather pjs are too small for him and you can't really find any in the stores now AND it would be a waste because by fall he may not fit into them anyway (run on sentence?) he wore his Purdue sweats to bed last night. Looks cozy, huh?
William practiced cutting with scissors this morning. He did well, but would often become frustrated and scream, once loud enough to wake Madelyn from her nap. Fifteen minuted nap, great!
William, again, made Mommy proud today. Mommy, William and Madelyn were in the family room and Duke was up front barking. The door bell rang so they all went up front to see if there was a package. Nope. All back down in the family room. William said, "No package. No Laura's shoes." Amazing. Laura had three or four separate shoe deliveries to Walton Dr. over the past couple of weeks and William obviously remembered and now thinks all deliveries are Laura's shoes!
Last week, Madelyn rolled over back to front and did it again for a second time today!
William, for the first time, took a shower with Daddy tonight. Super cute. He enjoyed most of it. He was a little hesitant to get under the water, but warmed up to it after Daddy made a game out of it. When William got out he said, "Again." Mommy and Daddy are a little concerned that he may want to take a shower whenever Daddy does now!
Today, Madelyn and William made Mommy extra proud!
While Madelyn was sleeping, Mommy and William worked on a Letter of the Week - F craft. Mommy brought a bag into the family room and excitedly told William that she had a fun surprise in the bag. Something he's never seen. She asked if he knew what it was. All he did was repeat what Mommy said. Mommy had him put his hand in without looking to feel what was inside. He was impatient and instead of explaining what he felt, he just pulled out a hand full of feathers. Mommy asked if he knew what they were. He didn't and Mommy told him, feathers. William said, "Like birds have." HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT!? To make that connection when he's never seen a feather, never been up close to a bird and must of been told that birds have feathers, but who knows when, is freaking AMAZING. Proud. So, proud.
Then, not too long after, Madelyn showed her amazing strength by sitting by herself! It was long enough, too, for Mommy to fiddle with her phone and take a picture.
William, again, so smart. Madelyn was getting a diaper change and Mommy thought she had a poop. William was assisting and Mommy said, "No poops, just peeps." About 5 minutes later William was getting his diaper changed and again Mommy thought he had a poop (due to the pushing effort at the lunch table). When Mommy opened the diaper and said, "No poops, just peeps. I thought you had a poop!" William replied, "Like Madelyn. No poops, just peeps."
In other news, William also worked on a fire craft, which he didn't finish because he was getting frustrated with the glue and scissors. It is done enough though.
William is completely boy, well he also takes after his Mommy a bit on this one. He thinks passing gas is hilarious. He pushes so hard to try to get one out. There may just be an accident sometime soon. If you ask,"What was that?" He cracks up. If you don't ask, he'll say, "What was that?" and start cracking up at himself. So funny. To clarify, Mommy thinks passing gas is funny. Disgusting, but also funny.
Mommy thinks Madelyn has to be teething. She has been very difficult to soothe lately and her sleeping pattern is, well, not much of a pattern these past couple of days.
After naps, Madelyn, William and Mommy went to the library to return books and check out new letter F books: one about a fruit salad, another, funny farm and the last about the rain forest with a picture of a frog on the front, which William found himself.
Mimi came over after Madelyn and William were in bed and Mommy and Daddy went to Shango for dinner! Yum!
Today Ed and Kathleen took William out to lunch at the Wherle Diner and then to Clayton's where they bought him a cool firetruck. William has such a good time with Ed and Kathleen. He leaves the house without looking back.
Later, after naps, William worked on the Letter of the Week - F, by cutting and gluing letter F's and pictures of words that begin with the letter F on construction paper. He found a frog and fish.
Then Mimi came over for a couple hours and played with William and Madelyn so Mommy could do some house work. Mommy got a lot done and William and Madelyn had a great visit.
After three days, the flowers Andrew sent Mommy finally opened up! Beautiful!
Mommy was busy and kind of slacked off a bit this past week. Slow on the blog upkeep. However, it can be easily explained.
More of the same with William. He starts to whine and eventually cry if he is left in a room alone. This has made putting Madelyn down for a nap quite difficult. Mommy knew what she'd been doing had to be tweaked so, she decided to make a few changes and see how they went.
Madelyn was ready to start working on getting to sleep herself. Mommy tried to start with naps and then work towards night time, but changed the plan to get night time down first after the attempts on Monday and Tuesday weren't going well. For Madelyn's nap time, Mommy set William up his Play Doh in his room. That worked out well. Most other times William stays with Mommy in Madelyn's room. Sometimes Mommy softly reads a book to him and other times he just walks around the room playing. He is never very quiet. Madelyn is just getting used to the noise.
William moved on the Letter of the Week - E. Mommy, William and Madelyn went to the library, returned the letter D books and checked out SIX books from the series The Elephant and Pig by Mo Willems. Great books!
Mimi came over on Thursday to hang out with William while Mommy and Madelyn went to get alterations done on Mommy's brides maid dress. William showed Mimi how the plants were growing in the back yard - peas, grapes, grass, flowers.
Ed and Kathleen took William out on Friday for a few hours. They went to the toy store and William got a lawn mower that he loves. He cuts the "grass" in the family room since the weather hasn't been that great. They went out for brunch and William ate bacon, eggs, toast with jelly and potatoes. Then they went to Mimi and Papa's house where they assembled the lawn mower and had a trial run in the yard.
Late Friday night Laura came in! Saturday morning everyone caught up quickly before she was off to run a bunch of wedding errands. Later in the evening Mommy went out to dinner and dancing to celebrate Laura's upcoming wedding.
Sunday - Mother's Day! It was a great, great day. Mimi and Papa came over for a yummy, yummy brunch. Mimi was surprised by her gift and seemed to really enjoy it! Nana and Laura were over for the afternoon and dinner. Best day ever!
Monday has been a day of recuperation!
Tough day. William decided that he no longer wants to be left watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while Mommy gets Madelyn asleep or when she showers. This phase came quickly and hopefully goes even quicker. If not, Mommy is in trouble.
A much needed trip to Wegmans was about the only productive activity that was done today. Right after Madelyn woke up from her morning nap (1.5 hours!) everyone quickly hopped in the car. Madelyn didn't make it to the hour and a half mark before she wanted to nap again. She cried the entire ride home. The non-perishable groceries didn't even get put away until after William went in for his nap.
Daddy did a lot of yard work when he got home. William helped a little before Daddy got him to bed. Then, Daddy did more work in the yard.
Rise and shine sleepy heads! The Butwin's and Mayer's were up nice and early. Pretty obvious who has kids. It was a pretty good night in the Butwin room. William slept on a crib mattress on the floor. He ended up on the floor in the corner of the room a good three feet away from the mattress. Madelyn woke up once or twice but was easily put back to sleep. She woke up at 5AM, which is early, but Mommy is used to early mornings.
After breakfast Daddy was quick to get William ready for the day and outside. William had only seen the cows from a distance yesterday and he was excited to see them today. Eric took Daddy and William to the field across the road to feed the cows! Mommy got a picture from the house so it didn't turn out that well.
Eric put the guys to work and Daddy took William for a loooong walk up the steeeeeeep hill to see the other cows in the field on the other side of the farm - also to check on the quality of Chuck's plowing skills on the tractor.
It was a nice view, but windy and started to sprinkle, so turned around. It never ended up raining, and William and Daddy jumped in the Gator (or "green tractor" as William refers to it) to go check on the various fields and plowing activities. We also moved the cows from one field to another to graze. William especially liked this activity - there were two calves that had a tough time making it through the gate but Daddy with William on his shoulders went to push them back through the gate with the others.
Next it was time for some lunch and a nap for William. While William was napping, the guys got in some tennis and visiting. Following naps, it was time to head down to the lake for some fishing. Daddy caught a bass, but William and Leslie both got scared and we had to quickly remove the hook and toss back. Not sure of the problem, as William was into the fishing last year...that better resolve itself before weekends at Chautauqua!
Madelyn and Mommy were pretty much confined to the house today. First, Madelyn was ready for a nap so they stayed back when Daddy and William went up to see the tractor. Mommy and Madelyn both took a nap. Mommy hadn't napped in quite some time and she woke up groggy. Then, Mommy tried to get Madelyn in Abe's stroller to meet up with Daddy and William. We found them, but soon after Madelyn was protesting. Back in the house while Daddy and William rode up the hill on the Gator.
The fam packed up and left mid-afternoon in order to get home in time to make some dinner and get into bed at a decent hour. They grilled and had a nice dinner and everyone was very tired from the long day (except maybe Madelyn, who slept the whole way home...) All in all - a very good and eventful day.
Madelyn slept until 8AM this morning leaving us plenty of time to get packed and ready for the ride out to Eric and Maureen's in East Aurora. Mommy actually had to wake her. Worked out well for everyone though. The ride down was uneventful. Madelyn played with her toys and William watched the cars and trucks.
We arrived at E & M's and the whole crew was there: Eric, Maureen, Garrett, Chuck, Retal, Derrick, Carolyn, Tegan, Paul, Zach, and Carly. And, of course, Leslie and Baby Abe. After brief hellos and loading the cars with food and the canoes, the gang set off to the Mayer farm in Ellicottville to drop off food and cars. Mommy, Madelyn, William, Maureen, Leslie and Abe stayed behind in East Aurora.
After Abe napped and he and Madelyn ate the Mayer and Butwin cars headed off to Ellicottville. Madelyn fussed for a few minutes and then fell asleep! It was timed perfectly, although not on purpose. She was content the entire drive! William started to doze off with only 15 minutes left to the farm. Mommy turned on a movie for him to watch to keep him awake. Looking back, that wasn't the greatest idea.
The farm arrival time was 11:35AM. Mommy hadn't been to the farm in a few years and it was completely remodeled and beautiful. Mommy was in awe. After a quick tour, Lynn and John Mayer showed up with their dogs: Yeller, Rowdy, and Dori. E & M's dog, Burly and Tegan's dog Lilly were also there. Dogs everywhere! Duke would have been going crazy, which is why he was left with Mimi and Papa for the weekend.
Mommy and Madelyn unloaded some of the car while William played with Leslie and the dogs. Mommy heard William crying from inside the house and ran out to see that he became upset when one of the dogs stole his pretzel and knocked him down. Not happy!
William and Leslie had lunch and then they went in for a nap. And that was all...they went in, but didn't fall asleep. This made for a difficult afternoon. Mommy should have let William fall asleep in the car. Oops.
Madelyn took a nice long nap and Maureen, Mommy, William, Leslie and Abe went over to the tennis court. Leslie and William rode around on the Jeep and tractor. It started off OK, but soon William was upset about something that Mommy couldn't figure out. Distraction...food. Maureen brought out some snacks for Leslie and William to eat. Sharing...so tough for 2 year olds. To keep this post as short as possible (unlike one last week), let's skip all the details. William was crying/complaining about something until he went to bed at 7. He did have a quiet stretch while he was in the stroller, but because Madelyn wasn't cooperating in the baby carrier we had to turn around. Ugh...if its not one, its the other. He wasn't too bad during dinner either.
Daddy and the crew didn't get back to the farm until after 8PM. Mommy and Maureen (and Madelyn) had a good time talking and catching up. Madelyn stayed up until 9:30. She wanted to be part of the action. Once everyone was home and she made her rounds, she was finally ready for bed.
Congratulations to Retal and Meredith. They are expecting in early November! Yay, more babies!
It was a good day overall! Friends, food, and fun (and maybe some drinks too)!
