The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same!

The scene from behind my house this morning....AGAIN! Remember February?



Okay, you can't really see it, but it's on fire again. Can you believe it?! I mean, what? Someone decided it wasn't burnt enough? So sad. I think the owner was going to try to salvage it, but now I think all it lost for the old beauty. Sigh. Our house reeks of smoke and creosote now. **Since it has taken me all day to compose this, the house is now a pile of rubble - they demolished it.

Anyway, hello my friends! I have missed you all! We returned from Phoenix on Sunday (late) and took a day to regroup. Phoenix was great - ninety degrees plus every day, but with some surprising cool breezes, rain and overcast moments.

But let me rewind a moment and tell you the big news......Hamster Boy is crawling! We have an airport system where hubby drops of myself, the kids and all of our stuff then goes to park the car in the long term and shuttles back. It works really well for us so we avoid getting all of us and our things onto a shuttle bus. Anyway, the day we were departing, he dropped us off and while we were waiting, Hannah put Hayden down on the carpet and a few seconds later said to me "Mom...he's crawling!" I looked and sure enough he was! And if you don't believe me, here's proof! I was very excited to say the least. He also seems to stop and plant a foot now and again which is even better news as he still does not want to put weight on his feet. So I am hopeful that this is the start of something big!

We have a policy now when we travel with the little ones where we try to do only one thing per day. This system worked very well for me as I could schedule in naps and recharge myself. Usually for Hayden's morning nap I would put him down while the others went and had a swim. Then I could shower and maybe hang out on the balcony and read (or pull out my gray hairs as I did one morning!) Then we would meet up with the family, get food, do our activity we planned and return to the hotel for afternoon naps. Later we would regroup for dinner. The kids had a few late nights, but over all slept really well. Hayden even slept through the night twice in the little crib they supplied for us! The other two nights he woke around 1 am and joined us in the bed and slept until daylight - it was real heaven! Of course, now that we are home, he's being a complete dork and I suspect he's working on the last two top teeth. Enough of the teething already! Here's a photo of him sawing logs:



The Phoenix Zoo was superb this time - due to the fact that it was overcast, all of the animals were out anticipating rain so we got to see lions and tigers and bears - oh my! The only bad thing that happened was my brother in law ran over the back of my leg with the double cart thingie we had rented for the kids and I now have a bruise the size of my hand on my calf. **And update - today I smashed yet ANOTHER toe (on the same foot) and this time succeeded in ripping off half of the toenail. It's purple and swollen and really smarts! What is wrong with me these days? Clutz-ee!

I have more photos and things to upload but it's taking far too long for me to get organized! I'll aim for the next post! It's good to be back!