Day 492 | Bye Bye

Shout out to Andi for another amazing pic.

One more quick cousin pic before the trip to the airport. Love these kiddos.

Day 491 | Tree Park with Cousins

Photo credit to Aunt Andi. Thanks for sharing.

We showed off Tree Park to another set of cousins today and everyone approved (no surprise).

It was a lovely (but too short) visit with these crazy cats. Christmas can't come fast enough to be reunited with such good friends...both the kids and adults!

Day 490 | Family Fun

It was museum day for our visiting family. They managed two Smithsonians in one day: the Air and Space Museum and the Postal Museum. The boys and I joined them for the first leg of the tour and then headed home for some much needed rest and back-resting.

Have I mentioned how much I love it when family visits?

Day 489 | Big Helper

It's been such a crazy couple of weeks, I haven't even had time to get excited for our visitors coming tonight. Luckily, Chris handled housework along with child rearing like a champ and the house is looking pretty decent for his brother and his family. Can't wait to spend oodles of time with them!

But there were a few odd jobs that Robbe and I had to take care of today. As you can see, Robbe did most of the work while I supervised. 

Day 488 | Good Company

Another day of rest for my back. Another day of me going crazy because I can't check things off my list.

At least I had good company...and he tried to be as gentle as possible. 

Day 487 | Enough

As if weeks of fighting summer colds and the corresponding limited sleep wasn't enough. As if dealing with a cat with a UTI wasn't enough. Today, I finally reached the enough point. 

I can barely move from some crazy back pain. Poor Chris had to stay home and manage everything related to the boys, me being sedentary, and taking care of meals. Luckily, he's amazing and did all that without complaining once. 

In hopes of a brighter tomorrow, today's photo is from our trampoline park visit a couple of weeks ago. Remember that time when I could frolick on a trampoline (not to mention just stand up successfully)? Someday, someday. 

Day 486 | Just Yelp for Help

The shadow of one of Chase's Paw Patrol toys. Artsy, right?

If you're ever in trouble, just yelp for help!

That's the catch phrase from Chase's newest obsession: the Paw Patrol. It's a cartoon that he has watched exactly four times. But he was hooked after the first episode (and a few books). It's a sweet show and Chase thinks it's fall-off-your-chair funny. Oh, and the main puppy is named Chase. Amazing!

So after hearing Chase repeat the slogan "...yelp for help," why did it take me three days of no naps at school to do just that? I needed the help of the Paw Patrol to incentivize (not bribe!) this much needed rest time. This morning it dawned on me how powerful this cartoon was as I told him that if he napped today at school he could watch a Paw Patrol episode (a reward usually reserved for haircut time...which makes him ask for haircuts all the time now, by the way). He immediately was on board. He was even so confident that he said he wanted to take a video of him watching the episode and send it to his dad so he could see him.

The verdict? He slept! And boy was he proud of himself, not to mention a wee bit excited to watch his show when he returned home. Incentives do work wonders, don't they? Now I just need to figure out how to keep the momentum going. I can't bribe him with a show every day, after all. I'm just hopeful that now that he's done it once, he has a better understanding of how to calm himself down quickly and check out.

In conclusion, thanks, Paw Patrol. I'll never doubt your power again.