back to normal

After resting over the weekend (we were all exhausted from our short, but activity packed vacation), we got back into our normal schedule. My husband was working from home this week, so I had to keep the boys busy and relatively quiet.

I managed that task by taking them to the pool and out on short errands. We did the pool thing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It did rain on Tuesday, so our time at the pool was only 45 minutes!

Yesterday, we went school shoe shopping before we went to the pool. I always dread shoe shopping for the boys. Bob is so particular and SJ will only get shoes with Velcro. (We are still working on the shoe tying!) My mom was off yesterday, so she met us at the shoe store. I thought maybe if I had reinforcements if wouldn't be so bad.

We were a little late meeting my mom (neither boy wanted to leave the house to do this non-preferred task). Unbelievably, the boys both found a pair of shoes that they liked in less than 10 minutes. What? Who took my boys?

Maybe they are just maturing. Whatever happened to improve their behavior, I will take it! The only problem was that SJ picked out a pair of tie shoes, not Velcro. "Okay, buddy. We are going to have really work hard now on the shoe tying practice," I told him. "I know. I know," he replied.

After shoe shopping, we went to lunch with my mom. We went to their favorite, Chili's, so lunch went extremely well. After lunch, we drove to Macy's to get my niece, Laurel, her birthday present. She is really into Hello Kitty clothes, so that is what I was looking for. While I was browsing in the girls' section, my mom was trying hard to buy each boy an outfit for school. (This is an even worse task that shoe shopping!)

She kept showing them things and showing them things. "Nah," SJ would reply. "I don't need anything, Grammy," he added. Bob was responding even worse. "These clothes are horrible," he would say. Eventually, my mom wore SJ down. He picked out a tank top and shorts, which he tried on in the store. Bob left with nothing. My kids never want anything when we are out shopping. Sometimes that is a good thing, but it can be very frustrating when they actually need new clothes.

When we were done with our purchases, we drove back to our house and got ready for the pool. My mom joined us at the pool and we had a very nice time. We left the pool around 3:30 and drove home. (My mom needed to head home to beat the rush hour traffic.) It was nice to be on vacation, but I am glad to be back on our normal schedule.