Ballet, Cousins, and a Day Off

Today I took a day off.
I had no agenda, and nothing special planned. That is until my sister mentioned that Monday is ballet for my niece, so I had the amazing privilege of attending the baby ballet class.
This was by far the cutest thing I'd ever seen. Of course, Kyla was the most adorable ballerina in her class. They totally made me laugh when they danced around and followed the teachers. And, at one point Kyla ran out of the room to give me a hug which totally made my day. Too sweet.
After ballet we went for a quick Starbucks and then Kyla and I went to pick up Matthew just before lunch.
Lunch for us was weiner wraps. Yummy! We bought pillsbury crescent rolls and wrapped the weiners in them. We added a bit of ketchup and then baked them. Delicious. Kyla and Matty totally got in on the act, helping roll and squeeze the ketchup. Plus, the two of them devoured the hot dogs when they were done.
After lunch we went to my sister's house to see my new second cousin (my cousin's baby). This baby is adorable. Matt was totally smitten by her. He kept saying "Kallysta is soooo cute." And she was. She slept the entire time and had little chubby cheeks.
I have to admit, though, I was a little jealous. She sleeps all day. In fact, my cousin sets her alarm clock for feedings every 3 hours. I am really happy for her, just like I was happy for my sister when she had a quiet baby. But, I have to say it's not all that fair. Why is that I went for a good year on NO sleep? And, I was in severe pain after Matt was born. My cousin is going to step classes and she has a seven week old. Not me. At seven weeks I was barely able to get through a day.
And, just as a side note, if one more person says to me "this is why you need a second - because it will be a quiet and easy baby." ahhhhh! No. I'm not willing to risk it for the experience of a quiet baby. There's always the possibility of a more active more screaming active baby. And, that I could not take. Anyway, way off topic!
The baby really was quite adorable, all jealousy aside, and I wouldn't trade my monkey for the world, even if I am still recouperating my sleep.
So after a bit of a visit I took Matt and Kyla on yet another adventure. We went to the $2 sale at Once Upon a Child and then to McDonald's. I got the best stuff for both kids at the clothing store. Kyla was smitten by the "Irish Dancing" dress I bought for her. It is black velvet with a tartan skirt. It's actually kind of funny, but she loved it, and who was I to refuse her. I almost said no since I thought it would be too small, but I took a chance on it since it was, after all, only $2. I don't think it will fit her for long, but it will get her at least to St. Patrick's day, and that's all you can ask for when you're a four year old with an Irish heritage.
Matthew was not quite as excited by the racks of clothing, but I managed to find him a pretty cool monster truck which I bought and opened and then he had a major temper tantrum becasue he wanted the blue monster truck not the red one. I felt really bad because there was a super pregnant lady watching the whole scene, and the ladies in the store were (bordering on rude) trying to help me calm him down. I had visions of her going into labour from the sheer terror of what was to lay ahead. I finally picked him up and took him out of the store. I was pretty close to just buying the monster truck that he wanted, but thought no, this is not good parenting. So I convinced him that we would get the blue truck the next time we are at that store, and miraculously he stopped crying.
Once we solved that problem Matt, Kyla and I walked across the parking lot to McDonalds where we enjoyed some fries and time in the play place.
This play place was really big and there was a huge climbing apparatus. It was pretty cool because Kyla could get through but Matt couldn't. I wasn't quite sure what to do. They wanted to stay, but he was just too little. I felt bad, but I was kind of curious how it would play out. Just when I was about to intervene they came up with a solution. It was pretty darn cute. Matt would climb first, and then Kyla would come behind him and give his butt a push and they'd get up the next step. I had to laugh. They were both pretty exhausted by the time we left.
The day went by way too quickly. It was fun.
But today has also left me wondering, how on earth do stay-at-home moms do it??? One day of this and I'm wiped.