Staying busy

We've been staying busy around here, but I suppose when you have three kids that's inevitable, and Memorial Day weekend was no different. Tommalamma and I ran errands all day on Friday, to the bank, setting up a meeting with the financial adviser, getting Sexy Flexy inspected, dropping off stuff with Tom, AND buying the kids new shoes. Nordstrom was having a sale in the children's department and since I had a gift card I decided to check out their shoe selection. They happened to have Keens on sale and Anne's always raving about them and our kids tear through shoes in record time, so I decided to give them a chance. I got both girls a pair to wear now (and hopefully they last through the fall) and got Tommy a pair to wear when he's older and walking. I foolishly bought Stasa's pair in her current size and they were a tad too tight so we went back to the mall that evening to exchange them for a larger size. The girls love going to the Nordstrom kids shoe section because there are free balloons there. Of course once we were at the mall we let the girls have some play time at the play place and watched Stasa and Lexi play their version of hide and seek.

After the mall we decided to eat out and on a whim chose Benihana. Tom wasn't sure it would be kid friendly, but I figured the girls would enjoy watching the "show" and I was right. The chef flipped food around and made an onion volcano and generally just entertained the kids at the table. I was slightly surprised at what the girls ate. Stasa was really adept with her chopsticks and even managed to grasp the tiny slices of scallion in her soup. She ate most of her soup, including the scallions and mushrooms, all of the shrimp appetizer, some of her chicken, and a ton of rice. She tried the veggies, but wasn't a huge fan. Lexi played with her soup - shocker - and ate all of her rice and none of her chicken, but she did eat most of her shrimp appetizer. Both girls enjoyed the rainbow sherbet that was included with their meal.



We spent Saturday at dance class and hanging out at home. It was way too cold for the pool and pretty windy so Tom took the girls out to play and fly their kites. Stasa did a pretty good job getting the kite up on her own and both kids had fun playing outside with Tom and I enjoyed some "quiet" time with Tommalamma and the vacuum.


Sunday was spent running all over the place. I made our meal plan for the week and then a shopping list for Target, Costco, and Safeway. We did the usual Merkel family trip to Costco and the girls had a blast sampling all of the food. I'm always amazed at the variety they're willing to eat when it's served on a toothpick. Before we went to the store I gave Stasa one of our old digital cameras and she was snap happy at Costco. So much so that I had to clear the camera's memory a couple of times during our trip so she could continue to take pictures of boxes and food and strangers.


She's quite happy with herself and her photo taking abilities. As soon as I find the cord for that camera I'll share her many artistic shots.

The pool was actually open on Monday, but it was still too cold and I knew the girls wouldn't get in the water so we hung out at home and thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and both of our pantries. The girls were pretty patient and entertained themselves for the most part. After their nap we took them out to the playground and let them run around for a bit before dinner. Lexi is still apprehensive of the swings and prefers to just sit on the big kid swings and avoids the kiddie swings. Well, of course there was a long wait to use the big kid swings as is usual on a nice day so we tried to convince Lexi to use the kiddie swings since she wanted to swing and we didn't have all day to wait. Stasa, being the good big sister that she is, hopped off of her big kid swing and ran over to the kiddie swings to get Lexi to join her. With Stasa by her side Lexi actually enjoyed the swings and even cracked a smile.



I love watching the girls at the playground. They have so much energy, especially Stasa, and it's nice to watch them run all over the place and climb and swing and slide. It's even better to watch them start to run out of steam because that means they'll sleep soundly and get a good night's rest.

All the busyness makes for one tired mama during the week. Well, that and the little man who insists on waking up for every possible feeding available to him, which means I'm up about every 2-3 hours at night and then listening to him grunt from 5:00 am until our alarms go off. So Tommy spends nearly every morning and afternoon napping and then takes cat naps on me the rest of the day. He's the first of our kids to really nap in the bouncer and I'm so grateful because it allows me to have two hands so I can make dinner and eat my lunch and shower. And he's just so adorable when he's sleeping.


When he's not sleeping or eating or pooping, and believe me those three things fill up the majority of our days - when he's not doing any of those things he's hanging around staring at me. And I kinda love when he does that because he's got beautiful eyes, eyes that I'm pretty sure will be blue like Tom's. And when he smiles his gas smiles he has the most adorable dimple forming on his left cheek.