While Nathan Was Gone

Nathan is finally back! We definitely missed him all this last week while he was away playing doctor on the “battle field”. He had a lot of fun which was great but we weren’t able to talk to him at all while he was away. This is the longest I have gone without talking to him. It was not fun. All of us (Easton, Blair and I) survived this week without going too crazy so that was good. We tried to keep ourselves busy and I think we accomplished that goal. This is what we were up to this week:

Tuesday: In the morning we went with Heather and Savvy to the Nature Center. I took Easton there about 6 months ago. He seemed more interested in it this time since he could tell me what he saw and in some cases tell me what the animal says. Later that night we met up with a couple of friends and went to the DinoRock concert. It was pretty cute and I think most of the kids enjoyed the show.

All the kids: Lucy, Parker, Easton, Savvy, and Bella

Wednesday: I was going to take the kids to Barnes and Nobel for story time but we were running behind and didn’t make it so I decided to take them to the mall so Easton could play at the kids play area. Since we were going to the mall I thought I would check out JCPennys and use the rest of my gift card I got for my birthday. I found and bought two shirts! I wanted to check out one more store to see if they had any good deals on kids clothes. I figured since I had Easton already strapped on my back and Blair was content in her stroller it would be easier to do it right then instead of waiting until after Easton was done playing. We weren’t there for very long but as soon as were leaving the store, Easton felt a little heavier and he wouldn’t answer any of my questions. It turns out that he fell asleep. I felt really bad that he didn’t get to play. Later that night we went over to Heather and Savannah’s to eat dinner. We had pink pancakes. They were really good. Thanks Heather!

Thursday: We went to the splash park with a bunch of friends. Easton doesn’t like to get splashed (his face wet) so he spent most of his time playing in the puddles (of course), running around, and watching the other kids get wet. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad we did it but I think next time we will just go to the fountain were the DinoRock concert was and play in that fountain. It’s free there and I like free stuff.

Friday: Heather was nice enough to take Easton to playgroup so I could get some stuff done around the house. It was a much needed break from Easton. I love Easton but I (not to mention Blair) definitely needed some time without a toddler around. Later that night we went to McDonald’s to eat dinner before we went to a baby shower.

Saturday: We went to a Safari Festival. They had a petting zoo which Easton loved. I was a little worried that Easton wouldn’t like it all that much because he generally likes animals from a far (not so much up close). It took him a little while to warm up to the animals but once he petted the first animal he was excited to pet the others (well the ones that weren’t taller than him). We watched and listened to one band play a few songs. I was a little surprised that Easton didn’t dance all that much with the other kids but he did have fun running around. He even followed the monkey bar Congo line up on stage. It was pretty funny because Easton was the only child up there that wasn’t dancing. He just stood there staring at everyone else. Eventually we went to the playground where I almost lost Easton. He ran out of the fenced baby playground and I couldn’t find him. Luckily he was over at the big kids playground. It was definitely a scary situation.

Video of Savvy dancing and Easton running:

Video of monkey bar Congo line.

Sunday: We went to church and Easton was a nightmare. I definitely think he took advantage of the fact that there was only one parent and two kids. He kept standing on the bench, putting his feet up on the bench in front of ours, crawling under the bench, banging his toys on the bench, etc. It was horrible. I finally gave up trying to get him to behave and took Blair (who was sleeping) out of her car seat and grabbed Easton’s hand and took him out into the hall. I gave him a timeout but that didn’t even faze him. Blair eventually started to cry because I woke her up when I took her out of her car seat and also because she was hungry. Of course I didn’t grab the diaper bag or a pacifier but I wasn’t about to go back in with a crying baby and a misbehaved toddler just to get the diaper bag. I went to the nursing room to feed Blair and of course Easton had to come with us. The whole time we were in there Easton wouldn’t listen to me and kept bugging me and Blair. By the time I finished feeding Blair and got back to sacrament meeting it was time for me to go and set up for nursery. It probably looked weird for me to walk in, put Blair in her car seat, grab all the bags and Easton, and walk back out. Everyone probably thought that I had had enough and was going home. I must admit the thought did cross my mind. The only thing that kept me there was the thought of being Easton free for two hours. Little did I know, two nursery leaders weren’t going to show so we combined the two nurserys. Yes, that meant that Easton was stuck with me for those two hours and yes my child was a devil child. I really hope that Easton was just having a bad day and that he isn’t normally that bad. I was very embarrassed with his behavior. It is a little hard to expect everyone else’s kids to sit down and listen when I can’t even control my own kid. Come January I either need to be released from nursery or I’m moving to the younger nursery because I don’t think I can have Easton in my class. Soon after church Nathan came home to my rescue!


The Friday before Nathan left we took Easton mini golfing. I thought Easton would have fun since he is constantly hitting balls with a stick around our house all the time, but he actually didn't seem to care much for it. It might have been because there were so many more fun distractions for him to play with like animal statues, lots of water, and hills to slide down. At least he had fun with those things while Nathan and I had fun playing mini golf. Nathan and I took turns carrying Blair in her carrier. I won by two strokes but that might be because Nathan held Blair for two more holes than I did. He probably would have won if I would have held her for half the time. When Easton would play with us he generally would hit the ball once, pick the ball up, run to the hole and then drop the ball in the hole.

Dad and Blair golfing.

Video of Easton golfing:

Random video of Easton trying to do a somersault: