Weekend Update

I can’t remember how my weekend started. Friday was years ago.
Erik had taken most of the day off to do whatever it is he does when I’m not around. That evening he took his parents to the airport, they are going to be in Egypt for a while and he was heading home the same time I was after work, close to 3:30. Since it was so early Erik and I decided to leave Laine at daycare while we cleaned up. We were able to completely rearrange the kitchen. I collected all the pots and pans, utensils and flatware that I never use and got them packed up, ready to either sell or donate. At 6:00 we went to get Laine and headed over to Borders to look for a birthday present for Jacob, thanks to my person I knew what to get him. We spent about an hour there until Laine started getting hungry so we headed back to the house, picking up some pizza and milk on the way since neither one of us felt like cooking and both of us were starving. Once we got home Erik took the pizza into the living room and turned on the TV while I fed and bathed Laine. When I got done I found Erik waiting on me to eat, which surprised me. Catch Me If You Can was just starting so we watched that as we ate. Laine was sweet as she kept lying down on Erik’s tummy. Her head would shoot up every now and then but mostly she just chilled there. About 9:30 she gave up and went to sleep and stayed down all night until around 7:00. Well, I woke up at 7:00 and Erik wasn’t in bed so I assumed Laine woke up sometime close to that because they were in the blue room and Laine was talking to the fan as Erik slept. I went in there and crawled into bed with them and we all talked for a while as I took pictures, of course, it's what I do.
After an hour of goofing off we took a shower and started getting ready to start the day. Sydney called and we invited her along with us to the Painted Potter so that we could get started on some of the grandparents Christmas presents, we only had time to do one of them so we’ll have to go back in a few weeks to do it again. I painted the base coat of the gift and then set it on Laine’s little table that we borrowed from moms house and just let her finger paint, her bang-scream-smear technique seemed to work well. Well see on the 4th how it turned out.
From the Painted Potter we had to first run back to the house to grab my new camcorder and then we headed over to Jacobs birthday party. I can’t believe he’s seven already. It doesn’t’ feel like seven years at all. Even Erik thought I was getting my numbers mixed up but my baby is seven, and he can bowl and tie his own shoes and open his own gifts and when did all this happen? I hope Laine lets me catch my breath before she starts doing all these things on her own too. I encourage her as much as I can but in the back of my mind I’m screaming “Don’t walk yet!”
Erik, Jacob and Josh all bowled at the party, Josh and Erik have an amazing relationship, in that they are both kind of outsiders in the adoption, outsiders is the wrong word, but I can’t think of a better one. I think that’s why they have gravitated towards one anther so well. There was a sweet moment between the two where Erik would coach him on how to throw the ball and after Josh would toss it down the alley (and I do mean toss) he'd run back and hold Erik’s hand so that they could watch it go down together, silently moving the ball with their minds. It was adorable. To the max.
There was pizza and cake and I ate it all and felt it later but it was all so much fun watching the run around. I never could get a good shot of Jacob, he was always running, always headed someplace. I had a little better luck with Josh; he’s a ham for the camera. And Laine seemed to really enjoy watching everything happen around her; we got a little video of her standing up all on her own while holding onto my dad’s foot.
I was sad to leave so soon but the party was over and it’s not the same as when we go to Darren and Audrey house and hang out for a while, the party was from 2:00 to 4:00 and it was 4:00 so we had to leave. It was sad and I cried a little but they were happy tears, Jacob’s growing in all the ways he should and it’s okay now that I have to leave him with someone else.
We headed over to Colleens house after that. We needed to see Josie dressed as Nemo and try to get pictures of all the girls together in their costumes. We managed to get a few shots in but it took some doing. Laine was an adorable monkey and the character fit her so well, she really does get into everything. I was glad that her costume was comfortable for her, it seemed a little tight but she never pulled on it. She made it until almost 10:00 with it still on. We went trick-or-treating in Erik’s parent’s neighborhood with Kate and one of her friends. We put Laine in a wagon and pulled her around but she didn’t make it very far before she went to sleep. When she woke up again we were already back at the house with her full bucket of candy and Kate had a couple friends come over to spend the night. It s the first time I’ve ever been the adult that parents came to talk to before leaving their kids with me. Every parent was given the house number and we assured them that their kids would be safe with us until midnight, at which time we were leaving and we relinquish all responsibility to Jenn and Alicia. We checked back in with them after church and everyone was still safe and happy and awake in the living room still telling ghost stories in their costumes. Kate’s friends are good girls, I was glad to get to know them. They scared the crap out of Erik though. He now has the crazy idea that Laine is going to an all girl’s boarding school. Or was that my idea… I can’t remember, HA!
So after we left them for a second time we headed over to Oriental Gourmet for Stimpy’s girlfriends birthday with the family. We felt really thankful to be invited along, we had a lot of fun, and it’s nice to see Adam and Charlie outside of work. It should happen more often. Adam’s mom almost ran off with Laine, she wants grandkids so bad, I’ll have to make a point to go and visit her more often.
After lunch Erik and I had to hurry home since Shannon was coming by to meet Laine for the first time, that was a quick and very nice visit but after that Erik and I were both exhausted and wanted nothing more than to veg out in the living room. Erik turned on the football game and Laine and I turned into zombies watching the boob tube. Colleen and Josie came over and saved us from becoming grafted into the couch and we went out for a walk while Erik and Mike watched soccer. We went out to the park for a short time and then walked around the block. Josie ate it in the street but didn’t’ have any marks to show for it, that’s good to, I didn’t want to have to kick a sidewalks ass.
Back home and Colleen and crew left us to go eat dinner at their house while we went back to watching TV again.
We went up to bed around 9:30 and slept all night long, a good end to a good weekend.