Night terrors! Grace never had these, and Edie had her second one on Saturday night (of course we were out of town, staying at a friends house in Montreal!) So after getting Grace settled for the night (at 10:00 p.m., wayyyyy too late for Grace to be up) I heard some whimpering from the playpen. I usually choose to ignore cries at night because Edie usually settles herself quite nicely. Well, there was something different about these cries and they escalated into full hysterics. I picked her up and she looked terrified and pulled a Helen Keller by grabbing at my face; I guess she was trying to figure out who I was? What seemed to clinch it for her that I was in fact her Mommy was when she grabbed the necklace that she faithfully tries to yank off my neck every day - she calmed down and held on to that necklace for dear life. Poor little munchkin - I didn't want to put her back in her playpen. There is no feeling like holding on a child who is holding on to you just as strongly.
Montreal was great - too much wine, too much food, too much fun. I even squeezed in a few hours sans kids and went shopping (I love H&M!)
Grace played with the boys (she did look relieved when Ella, almost 4, showed up).
The drive home was a little bit difficult - Edie couldn't relax enough to fall asleep in the car, and it was her naptime. We realized that maybe she wasn't falling asleep because her big sister was poking her on and off for the whole ride! After a few threats (I never thought I would utter the words "do you want me to pull this car over right now!?) things settled down (thank God for mini-vans with DVD players!) and cruised home for an afternoon of swatting mosquitos, cursing the pool and doing some gardening.
One last complaint though: After an intense run and sweating out a weekends worth of toxins, I was looking forward to nice hot shower. Imagine my disapointment when I discovered that Grace had left the hot water tap running in the laundry room and used up all the hot water! Grrrr. I guess I should look on the bright side and be grateful that she washed her hands.....
website of the day: http://www.archive.org/details/movies - kind of a neat site to explore (love the drive-in movie ads!)