weekend roundup

Yesterday, E and I went to Raleigh to visit my grandma on her birthday. She was exhausted by the time we got there, but seemed to appreciate the hugs. E enjoyed some cake. Then we went to my parents' to hang out and E ran herself ragged playing with J and MC. MC has discovered the Wizard of Oz and they were trying to play that but both wanted to be Glinda and E also apparently didn't have the patience to act out the whole storyline as her cousin was trying to do. She came in and told me she didn't know how to play Wizard of Oz with MC. So I went out and played Dorothy and repeated as many lines as I could remember, and sang as much of the songs as I could remember, and that was fun. E had the most fun, actually, when she decided to play Toto. We left at 7:00 and she fell asleep in the car pretty quick, then was up until sometime after 10 at home. My lingering cough that becomes violent after nightfall kept me awake late, too.

This morning she got up at 9:00. I had been delighted to sleep til 8:20. E fingerpainted in the morning, kept saying over and over, "I'm an artist!" I agreed. She clearly enjoys the process. We colored her glitter paper for a surprisingly long time, too. I tried to convince her to help me clean her room by saying Let's find some treasure! She did a little bit. After lunch she had a play date over at my friend Carol's house. Her son is 6. They played great together and I had some time and space to think and get things done at home. That was wonderful. I took off the desk attachment that used to be E's changing table, turned it on its side and made it a sort of shelf next to her bed, the right height for setting her cup of water on. Now she has a desk she can use. I also got all the junk and trash out of my car. Didn't vacuum because it was raining.

I still haven't been able to get the soap out of the toilet. All I have to show for my efforts with the "snake" are scratches in the bowl. Maybe flushing a lot will eventually dissolve it.