Kiddos were fabulous. They literally spend most of their time there yesterday kicking a ball around and shrieking happily. They don't usually get to kick a ball inside b/c there are things that might get knocked down, but in an empty apartment it's free game! Jack kicked it as hard as he possibly could and shrieked with delight when the ball went high and hit the wall with a thud. Lily shrieked right along with him, then Jack gave her a chance to kick the ball and she thought that was pretty neat, too. I had so much fun listening to their fun while I worked!
Today Lily fell asleep on the way there, b/c we spent a while in the car helping Tim get an errand run and off to the train station before we went to the apartment. (Tim had to go to San Francisco today for his work, and he'll be coming home late and doesn't want to ride his scooter that far in the wet cold!) She woke up when we got there, and I was worried she'd be grumpy, but I had food from Taco Bell and she was so excited to try new food!
Then I made the biggest mistake of my week. I thought the kiddos could paint with their own, colorful paints on the dropcloth while I did the painting touch-ups on the wall. I covered them up with old big T-shirts and gave them each a brush and a picture frame. If Lily was a little Jack, it would have worked well. But Lily is a little Lily. She was very excited to get to paint and she had a blast, but she got paint ALL OVER HERSELF. With glee! It was hard to get upset at her, she was so cute as she squished her paint-y hands all together! Jack wasn't happy about her mixing all the paint up into one smooth black, but he still had fun painting. His technique has improved a lot (so now I need to work some painting time into our days, while Lily naps so he has free reign). I had them both covered with an old big T-shirt, but Lily got so enthusiastic that she got some on the inside of the shirt and on her clothes. I was so sad! I tried so hard to get the T-shirt off of her without getting any more paint on her cute clothes, but with paint on the inside of the T-shirt, it just wasn't happening. I put her in the bathtub and started washing her off so she wouldn't paint the inside of the tub with permanent paint, then I tried to get as much paint as I could off of her cute shirt, but it was hopeless. I really felt like throwing a tantrum :( I decided to use that as a teaching moment and tell Jack how sad I felt; I think it was totally lost on him, but I am really proud of myself that I didn't lose my temper at my kids :D
Jack got his T-shirt off quite well and happily waited while I cleaned up. (I normally have him help, but the stakes were just too high with permanent paint and an apartment we're trying to leave spotless!) I got Lily fully paint-free, then told Jack we were going to go get frozen yogurt, and he was quite happy! I put Lily in the wrap on my back b/c she didn't have a shirt to wear, and she loved it; her little legs went "KICK KICK KICK" the whole time :D I put on my jacket and I'm sure I looked like a hunchback, but Lily's sweet smiling face behind mine drew smiles from many passers-by. (Have I mentioned how much I love going out with my kiddos?) We got big cups of frozen yogurt and took them back to the apartment to eat so I wouldn't have to worry about losing my sweet little wandering girl while I ate.
Galina, our apartment manager, was waiting there to do a quick walk-through; I hadn't expected her so soon, so my sweet Jack had to wait for us to be done before he could have his frozen yogurt. Amazingly, he waited patiently (I did go ahead and let him have it before we were quite done). And Galina gave us the thumbs-up, that I had patched the holes and scrubbed the place well enough to keep our entire deposit! Yay! So I took Lily out of the wrap, and she almost dove into Jack's cup of yogurt, she was so excited to eat it! I showed her she had her own cup, told her to sit down and she did, and gave her her cup with a spoon. She was one happy little girl :D And Jack was glad she had her own cup so she'd leave his alone! I got to eat in peace for a little bit, then Lily got all done with hers and tried mine. Apparently she didn't like mine, so she tried Jack's and liked it much better. Jack sweetly shared with her, but I could tell he would rather have it all to himself; when he had only a teeny bit left he asked me if he could have the last of it without sharing it with Lily, and I said he could and scooped her up and tossed her back into the bathtub to get all the yogurt off of her! Jack came and joined after he was all done, and they had a ball playing with water with the spoons and cups they'd eaten yogurt from :D I got all our stuff packed up, got them out of the bath, loaded up the car and headed home to get clothes for Lily. And of course, both of my precious children conked right out :D
THEN, we got to go back to our old place to play with our old neighbors, the mom with the three adopted boys with the trampoline! We ate pizza, chatted, and played, and life was good :D She is a sweet mother and I'm glad I've gotten to know her and her kids, and I'm glad her kids are such good friends to mine!
These are my kids wrestling on the floor of that old apartment :D This is from back in September.
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