Errand Day

 Last night was great for Ayden but rough for me.  My fever kept escalating all night and I was in a hot/cold cycle that kept waking me up.  My fever peaked around 101.4*F or so and when David left it was around 99*.  When Ayden and I woke up for the day at 8:30am, it was back to normal.  I still had a little headache and was overly hungry since I didn't have much of an appetite last night.  Once I was fed and ready for the day I was feeling myself again.  One part of motherhood that isn't always the best is that you don't get sick days.  Gone are the days of lounging around all day just because you don't feel well.  You have to put on your happy face, find energy from the depths within and get on with your day.

In a post last week I showed my awesome new reminder station:

 and I am happy to report that I've done very well with it this week! Yesterday was "anti-procrastination day" (a FlyLady daily focus) which is when you make all of your phone calls, write emails, mail stuff, or do any other little things that tend to get put off time and time again. I had several calls and emails and a small list of little tasks (ie: hot gluing a clip back on my menu board) and I did them all. Today was errand day. First, we went to story time like we do most Thursdays.

Then we went to Whole Foods for some groceries for the weekend. We are going out of town and with our current diet it takes planning and prep to make sure we have plenty of David healing diet/paleo approved eats. The next stop was home to unload the groceries and put dinner in the crockpot. Ayden fell asleep on the way home and easily transferred from his car seat for a nice, long nap.  While he slept I got to work on the crock pot and cleaned up the kitchen.  

Around 2:30 we headed back out for the rest of errand day.  I left my car at a tire repair shop (we found a nail in one of the tires and needed to get that taken care of before our little road trip this weekend) and went to Kroger to pick up a couple of things Whole Foods doesn't carry as well as visit our bank branch there while we waited on the car (Kroger and the repair shop are in the same shopping center so I usually multi-task like this while waiting on car repairs).  Once the car was done we stopped by Lowe's to get a copy of our house key because:

Our house is officially on the market!  So weird to see that sign out front.  We needed a key to put in the lock box on the front door. We already had a showing tonight and have another scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  Crazy!  After Lowe's we went to an office supply store to have a couple of things laminated and then made it home right before David. 

That next hour was a whirlwind of putting the house back together, eating dinner and leaving in time for the house showing.  It's weird to leave knowing that strangers are going to be walking through your house, opening closet and cabinet doors, looking critically at your home and judging your decor.  David went to his Crossfit workout and Ayden and I went to hang at the park. First stop were the swings:

This was his second time on the swings and he loves them!  Now that autumn is approaching, we'll be heading to the park more and more.  I love watching him have fun.  Something about that completes me :).  After the swings we took a walk on the walking path that goes around the park while we waited for the all clear to come back home:

 

 

Chillin'

The rest of the night was spent hanging out and playing until bed time.  Ayden was in an amazing mood all day!  Usually during errand days he eventually protests getting back in his car seat because there is so much out/in going on but today he just went with the flow.  He would babble at random people during all of our stops and, of course, stole all of their hearts.

How could he not?

As for his rash, when he woke up it was looking much better!  After it erupted like it did after his fever we were considering taking him to the doctor just to confirm that we were hollistically treating him for the right thing but it's improvement overnight confirmed that we are doing something right.  I kept meaning to snap a comparison pic because I was kind of amazed at the progress but never had my phone handy during a diaper change today.  Perhaps I will remember tomorrow...

I also have a couple of new developments to report.  Diaper changes used to be Ayden's most favorite thing!  He loved the nakey time, the way having his bum cleaned felt and the interactions we'd have during that time.  Now he just wants to roll over and crawl away.  This is a normal speed bump at this stage and the key is to stay consistent with our expectations.  He can't learn that diaper changes can be over before they are actually over, so I gently roll him back each time and talk to him about what's going on and attempt to distract him with a silly song or a toy.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but he'll get the idea eventually if we stay consistent enough for him to learn the expectations and boundaries. He has also started looking for things that he knows "exist" but can't see at the moment.  The official term for this is "object permanence."  He was playing with a little silver baby spoon that was irritating his gums and making him get "the screams" so I handed him something that I thought was equally as awesome.  In the split second he took to examine the new toy I took the spoon and when he decided that the new toy was not as fun he started looking all around him for the "missing" spoon.  Another area that he is displaying this new skill is when I start reciting the words to Brown Bear Brown Bear to him without actually having the book.  He'll look in my hands, then around us on the floor and even at his book shelf.  He has always loved that book but this past week or two he has become a bit obsessed and it is adorable.  He will pull it off of his book shelf, sit back, kick at it and whine which is his way of letting us know he'd like to read the book.  While we read it he just sits there with his hands on his lap while he listens.  He'll help us turn the pages or pat at the pictures sometimes with a pleasant look on his face.  When we are done we always say, "The End" and shut the book and he usually starts crying his "you just took the most awesome thing away from me" cry.  We show him the sign for more, which usually makes him stop crying, and read it again.  He can even be crying or fussing and I'll just say "brown bear brown bear" and he immediately gets quiet and starts listening to the story.  So. Cute!  I have read to him almost every single day since he was born and am so excited that reading is already becoming one of his favorite things.

Tomorrow's plans consist of packing and prepping for our weekend trip all while keeping our baby happy and our house in showing order.  Wish me luck!

~Sarah