The Blankie

We're kind of a blankie family. I had a blankie as a kid. I basically hand-picked my kids' blankies when they were born, on some advice from more experienced moms that your kids will deal with separation better if they have a special blanket or stuffed animal. So all the kids have a favorite blanket, which anyone who knows us well will know.

I have this theory that we shouldn't make kids give up their baby blankets. Most adults I know have at least occasional sleeping problems, and maybe if we had just kept our cozy blankies around, we'd be alright. Pacifiers, bottles, sippy cups, and thumb-sucking - sure - those have to go. And there are sleepover and summer camp issues to work out, but really, who cares if a kid has an extra blanket in their bed? Not me.

That's not really the point of this post, though. The point is, I can absolutely see the need to keep the blankie in bed. It's pretty silly to see a preschooler carrying their blanket in public places. (Though I have to say, at one-and-a-half, I think DJ is the cutest thing ever when he throws his over his shoulder and drags it around like Linus from Peanuts.) Admittedly, we aren't very good (at all) about enforcing the blanket-stays-in-bed rule.

And we pay the price. Annie's the main culprit. She's lost two blankets already - one at the grocery store and one at a restaurant - which meant finding a replacement blankie, stat. We've held on to this last blanket for a good two years, but least once a week, Kevin and I have to scour the house at bedtime looking for it. Like tonight. Which got me thinking about all the weird places we've eventually found it, such as:

In the seat of our ride-on school bus.
In the babysitter's car.
In the lazy susan.
In the sippy cup drawer. (Yeah, we still have those, too. And DJ drinks out of a bottle. No thumb sucking or pacifiers, at the moment, though. [Shrug])
In an old purse.
In the compartment on the back of the driver's seat in the van.
In Ben Young's bedroom.
In the front hall closet.
In and behind the hamper in our bedroom.
At my parents' house.
Under the kitchen table.
In the toy shopping cart.
In her hand-me-down backpack.
Stuck between couch cushions.

Still, there's no end-date at the Wernet house for life with blankies. It's a good thing one of my skills is finding stuff.

(Not) Suzie Homemaker

As you recall, we live in John's house. We have three kids and three dogs. It's messy. I've found that having John home every few weeks is good motivation to at least pick up and wipe things down...lots of things. But he hasn't been back as much this summer, and as I mentioned in the earlier post, I was working (outside the home - let's face it, it's all work) every day for a few weeks there. Let's just say, things kind of...slipped. So Friday in some miraculous fury of energy, I picked up the house, scrubbed bathrooms, vacuumed, dusted, swept, sorted and organized the kids' collective 100 pairs of shoes, went grocery shopping, did all the laundry, and just generally achieved some level of order around here.

Kevin's response: Wait, is my dad coming home this weekend? [Me] I don't think so. Why, did you talk to him? [Kevin] No, I just wondered why you're cleaning so much.

Emily's response: Wow, it really is clean in here!

Nellie's response: Why are we cleaning so much? Is Papa John coming home? [Me] No, I don't think so. [Nellie] Well, I'm going to write him a letter and tell him that the house is clean, so he should come home soon.

Just for the record, I do clean! I like the house to be clean! And sometimes, it's clean even when there's no one else here to witness it. Okay, rarely, but it does happen.

Things that were great about this (extended) weekend

So, I haven't posted much this summer. Not for any particular reason other than the usual summer stuff--either we're busy working or busy having fun, and there's little time for sitting down at a computer to write about it! But I'll try to do better.

This weekend (I'm counting Thursday, too) was a particularly great one. No vacation or anything, we just stayed home. But I was recovering from three very busy weeks of data collection and co-teaching a graduate course, so it felt so great not to be working nonstop. Also, Kevin came home from his backpacking trip for work. Plus...Dave and Laurel were here! That always makes life a party. And there were all kinds of fun, easy-going things going on, like:

• Celebrating my grandpa's 80th birthday with all my siblings and their spouses, and (almost) all my cousins.
• Building a fire at mom and dad's Thursday morning, because it's Dave's favorite thing and it has been so chilly for a Michigan August!
• Playing on the Wacousta school playground (for the first time in lots of years), where we saw...
• All three kids sitting on a tire swing, singing, "sisters, sisters, and a little brother!"
• Taking naps on three different days, just because I could. And really, really needed to.
• The kids are sleeping all night, in their own beds! So much more sleep! 
• Finishing lots of much-needed household chores, including laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping - all in one day.
• Having the whole family over for dinner Friday night, including the two new babies!! Also...
• Hearing DJ say, "Tah-to" [what he calls Otto.]
• Boating on the Grand River on the most perfectly beautiful summer day. All the kids were happy.
  

Following boating with pizza and house-brewed cream soda at Eagle Monk Brewery.

Pizza cheers!

Nellie's taking pictures again

Discovered the self-timer

• Enjoying other tastes of the season: zucchini bread and homemade pickles, sauteed zucchini, salads with garden lettuce and tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers.
• Eating outside.
• Building a "toad abode" with Nellie, who is remarkably good and finding toads and frogs and loves them all like her own children.
• Half listening, half dozing while Nellie took out the garbage, dusted, vacuumed, and swept the floors - just because she wanted to.
• Taking a long walk/bike ride this evening, watching Nellie start and stop on her two-wheeler (she says she's working on winning the gold medal in these events, actually), Annie cruising behind on her little bike, and DJ walking--no, almost running--behind her. I'm seeing family bike rides in the very near future.