Some weeks are harder than others

Just before Martin left for Germany we went to see Arlington National Cemetery. I suspected we might have some trouble due to youthful exuberance and I was right. Kiernan was thrilled to be near so many gravestones but he had a hard time grasping the concept of respectful (quiet) behavior. He wanted to swing on the chains and climb the walls and run joyfully through the gravestones. 

We let Martin go ahead. About halfway up our first big hill there was a bathroom emergency. This is not a pee behind a tree place. I got both kids back to the bathroom in time. Had an amazing fight with a squealing squirmy Megan to change her diaper and then tried to keep her out of the toilet while Kiernan sat on it. . . he sat and sat and sat and told us all about the world...

he did not use the toilet.

We went outside and had a snack on the benches. Sure enough bathroom emergency.

We rushed in for a 2nd unsuccessful attempt.

Walking out I realized that my phone was gone.

Kiernan said it was sitting on the bench where we had snacks.

It was not.

Relying (maybe too heavily) on my trust of the military personality I walked calmly up to lost and found and collected  my phone...that had been found on the bench where we had our snacks.

We started up the hill again.

Megan made a break for it. She was delighted to discover that she fit right under the chains, no problem.

I was given dirty looks and told to keep my children off the grass.

I sent Kiernan after her.

He got her, turned her gently around and herded her back to the chains.

He could not resist swinging the chains as he went under. This explains how his finger became wedged and then twisted forcefully in the links.

He cried out and looked down and his twisted bleeding purple finger and then he cried some more.

This freaked out Megan. They both suddenly needed very badly to sit in my lap. So there we sat, right about where Megan is in this picture, a bawling heap of Kuehnert's. Tourists skirted around us and I patted the kids backs and tried to calm them down and hush them up.

We went back to the benches and had a drink and played a game and called Martin to come meet us.

It was nap time.

On Friday we were determined to go do something nice for Grandma Mary.

Grandma Mary is doing that thing that has become so common of late. She is caring for her elderly and unwell parents nearly every second that she is not at work or sleeping. She is not sleeping much.

We decided it would be fun to bring Cuban food to her and to her mom. Her dad is not eating solids anymore . 

Here we are waiting outside Cuba De Ayer.

We waited so long we lost our window of nap opportunity and wound up seeing only Grandma Mary instead of going to the rehab center to see her parents.

We did got some fun time at Scearces though.

On Saturday I recovered from doing 3 school papers in one week,. I mostly did this by sleeping through 6 cups of water boiling off of my butternut squash soup...that did not smell nice!  David emptied, cleaned and filled the hot tub. Kiernan ran around like a maniac and Megan climbed like a mountain goat.

On Sunday we went to Ikea for a place mat for Megan. Yes Megan has graduated from her high chair to the table! We had a tasty breakfast there and got to meet up with Papa.

After that we finally made it over to the rehab center to visit with Grandma Mary's parents.

Kiernan did a puppet show for them and sang Jesus Loves me.

Megan jumped on the bed for them.

We are talking about death a lot this week. I am glad we went there. I think it helped Grandma Mary to have even that little bit of support. It helped the kids to have some context for the things we have been talking about.

On Monday I woke up with a splitting headache so I stayed home.

At 2 o'clock I got up and took Kiernan to his library science class.

It was about leaves.

He did rubbings and stamps and looked at leaves under magnification. He heard several stories about leaves and trees read by the librarian. Megan joined us afterward for some good library time.

Kiernan adopted the library baby. He rocked it and fed it and laid it down for naps very sweetly. He named it Cay Kan. He spelled this out for me several times. It was vitally important that the first name start with a "C" and the last with a "K".

From this you can see that spelling is becoming a big deal just now.

Also 

AAAwwwwww

How sweet is that?