Test run...

This weekend godson A spent the whole weekend with us. Usually we hang out for a few hours - play cars, play every musical instrument in the house, terrorize Mims the Wondercat and have him wash our dishes (I swear, he loves to do this!) - and then we send him home. However, we did the whole nine yards with three meals a day times two days, bathtime and bedtime at night, all from our very own treehouse. It was a test run for having a little person around, and I say we did quite well. They were two very relaxed and fun days for all three of us (only Mims does not make it four....).

Saturday we had big plans to spend the day outside to tucker the little guy out, but mother nature had different plans. Though rain was in the forecast, the sky was blue when we woke up, so I set about packing up our picnic lunch while KB made sure A felt happy and welcome during the drop off. By the time we got all three of us in the car, the sky turned gray. By the time we braved Jugla traffic (meaning random lane closures each day for neverending construction and work on water pipes) and made it to the outdoor museum, it was pouring on us. So we turned around and headed right back into town to the mall with a fast food place that has a playland. We figured while we were out we might as well give little A a run for his money. Not so much though. The only part of playland that really drew his attention was the big spiral tube slide, and he was fascinated as the big kids went down. He stood at the top babbling to us in A-talk (really, it is a language of its own) and finally decided to go for it. However, he hadn't caught on to the sitting down thing, so he was trying to walk down. Got scared about five steps in - wouldn't come forward or backward but just started screaming. So KB is at the bottom trying to coax him out, I am standing on the side near the top (it was built so adults can't fit in there) encouraging him, but neither of us could see him. Finally, finally, he walked down and fell into KB's arms screaming at the top of his lungs. Calmed him down with a strawberry milkshake and a song. He went right back up again. We thought he was being so brave to try again, but apparently he had just forgotten and the whole story repeated. After the third time, we didn't feel up to anymore evil looks from the staff and patrons, so we packed up the bags and left. This was one more screaming fit as we left, but we calmed that one down just as quickly as the rest.

We did some shopping, as we were at the mall. KB bought five new shirts for work for the price of one and we bought a hammock! Meanwhile, A had fallen asleep in KB's arms and my allergy eyes were acting up bigtime, so we headed home. The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully at home, which was nice. We played with cars and expanded A's interests to insects and frogs. Below is photo evidence of how we passed the afternoon. Apparently, my legs serve as a great road (my head is not in the photo because I didn't want documentation of my eyes). At one point I had a mini-nap while I was holding the ice pack over my eyes and woke up to plastic flies, grasshoppers and worms strategically placed on my neck and shoulders. :)Then KB went out for pizza and we all ate our fill. At this point we decided to brave bathtime. To avoid tears, it ended up with me rolling up my pajama pants and getting into the tub with A while KB washed him up, but by the time we were ready to get out he was just getting started. There was a lot of saving the frogs in the boat and then sinking them again. Meanwhile, KB slowly removed the rest of the toys one by one, while I pulled the plug and the water gradually disappeared. Then we transitioned into bedtime nicely by making the couch into a big bed which he happily jumped up on and put on a bit of Baby Einstein (seriously good stuff for the little guys) and we all fell asleep on the couch. I put myself to bed but left the guys on the couch for a campout.

The next morning the sun came out and we did a beach day!! Repacked the picnic lunch and off we went. By the time we got to the beach, it was raining again (hello, Latvia!), but it was only a drizzle so we went for it anyway. A few minutes later the sun was out again and we had a great time, filling and emptying buckets and kicking around a ball. And here is the king of cute....

The boys did go in for a bit of a swim as well. :)
As we were packing up to leave in order to get A home, a yellow jacket got tangled in my hair and stung me on the neck. Not knowing if this is the beesting I'm allergic to, we got a bit scared and really had to hurry. I took my pills, got some ice on it and realized that when a little one is relying just on you to keep him safe, you can't even let something possibly life-threatening like that stop you from caring for him even for a moment. We acted fast, stayed calm, and were on our way back to Riga, with KB driving just this side of safe to get us back quickly, but talking to A the whole way, and me icing my neck and feeding him the picnic lunch he refused to eat on the beach because it was way too much fun. Dropped him off at home and I proceeded to pass out on our couch all drugged up and KB passed out not too far after, exhausted but happy from the weekend.