crunch time

Things with us are going super fast and crazy. We are closing on the Briarwood house on October 10th. And we're leaving for every single weekend until then! We're nuts! Just last weekend we went to see Josh and Carrie for his 30th birthday. Then next weekend we're going to Gary Pace's wedding, and the weekend after that is the celebration in Arkansas for my great grandma Ruth's 111th birthday. I just can't believe how old she is!!!!! Violet did SO much better at Josh and Carrie's house this time than 5 months ago. She was a mess last time, freaking out and crying and whining if I wasn't with her. This time she was comfortable, played around as much as she wanted with Austin and would be in different rooms with out me, it was so nice to have that freedom. Calvin didn't sleep all that great. All of us were sleeping in the basement together (each kid in a pack n play and us on the futon) and Calvin woke up each night screaming a couple times, both of which I nursed him back to sleep. I'm just glad he didn't wake up V in the middle of the night. He doesn't get that special treatment at home. In fact, I thought he was sleeping through the night, but I learned that he isn't. We just don't hear him because of the loud fan in our room...but whatever...he always gets himself back to sleep anyway. He's used to it. Today I went downstairs to the basement bedroom to put C down for a nap, and the door was locked. I was SO frustrated. He was so tired, was already suckin' on his paci and I couldn't open the door. V had already gone down for a nap and Dave was hopping on an important conference call, so he couldn't help me. I snuck into V's room, grabbed C's swing, and temporarily set it up in our bedroom so he could swing in it and hopefully fall asleep. I hung up blankets, towels, and jeans up against the window so it would be darker. I noticed him falling asleep after a few minutes, so I asked Dave if I could run some errands while they slept. He said OK, so I left, and he ended up taking the pins of the door so he could get in that room. V has been into locking doors lately, so I'm 100% sure it was her turning the knob on that door and locking it. Dave put some duct tape over it for now so that won't happen again. I went running this morning. It was the hardest run ever. It was horrible. I ached. I got a stabbing side cramp early on that just intensified as I ran, so I stopped and walked a lot. I am really sore now, and have a tight muscle in my back. I hope it isn't always this hard. I might go once again this week. We'll see. We spent the evening over at the river house packing. Barb A came over to help us for an hour. She's such a servant. We got right to it and just filled boxes. We are very close to being almost done w/ that house. I'm trying to think about what Violet has been saying lately. She's speaking in full 100% sentences and is conversing perfectly like she's an almost 3 yr old. In some respects, its sooo nice that she can speak so well. She communicates things that she couldn't just a few months ago. But in some ways, she talks SO much it annoys me!! Agh! Her funny thing lately is to force a belly laugh. HA HA HA in a deep voice...its so hysterical. Calvin is just as goofy as ever. He loves 1 on 1 attention and craves to be with me 100% of the time. He'll be so happy in my lap, and if I put him on the floor to play, he will scream and cry. If Dave is holding him or playing with him and he catches a view of me, he screams and cries. Mama's boy. *eye roll* I love it though! He's still nursing 4 or 5 times a day and eating a lot of food. He would park himself in the high chair all day and just eat 24/7 if he could, I swear! I run out of ideas of what to feed him. He can't really do food chunks that well yet, he chokes.