A totally disorganized/unedited/unpolished/boring/overly detailed description of my day, which was good. Don't feel obligated to read.

Woken up this morning on the couch--Liam had taken my spot in the bed sometime around 4 AM-by Soren, who, after some snuggling, willingly acquiesced to my mumbled request that he go play in his room while Mommy slept a while longer. Woken up a while later by little Liam shouting happily, "Daddy!" when he spotted me on the couch. Don't know why, but he's taken to calling me Daddy lately. Was intermittently bounced on/drooled on/cuddled with until Soren emerged from his room, asking, "Is it real morning now? Can we have Big Boy Cereal for breakfast?" Mommy's morale was a bit low from the broken night's sleep but I managed to find my robe, pull out a pan, put The Weepie's "You Can't Go Back Now" on continuous repeat on my under-the-counter kitchen stereo, and start some water boiling. The Weepies increased morale by 80%. Breakfast and a bath with the baby brought all systems to full functioning.

While Soren was at preschool, Liam and I took a walk, watched music videos with Auntie Merritt (we love The Piano Guys.....they often feature fabulous players like Jarrod Radnich, Jon Schmidt, and Steven Sharp Nelson), read stories, and entertained Miss Lindsey, Liam's Occupational Therapist, who couldn't stop gushing about how much progress he's made over the past few months.

Picked up Soren from preschool--the front of his shirt was completely soaked. "He was sucking on the collar," his teacher explained. And, bless her heart, she gave him a good-bye hug anyway.

We had lunch, the boys played, and I cleaned and put dinner in the crockpot. The kids did watercolor paintings together until Liam spilled his water cup and soren sopped up the mess with the rest of the paper. Liam fell asleep eating a brownie in his high chair. I wiped his chubby little fingers and face and carried him to bed. He only protested when I moved to remove his shoes. He feels that it is important to wear his shoes all the time. Even during naps. Who am I to argue?

While Liam napped, Soren tied his trike to the stroller. His favorite thing in the world is to attach things to each other. His idea was to set up a train. Then he realized that I had a bike that could be attached to his trike, so he abandoned the stroller and we rode around the block, both pedaling, but attached by Auntie Hillary's blue jump rope. Mommy in front. We enjoyed the ride so much we went all the way to the city part in the sunshine, chatting pleasantly along the way about things of interest to a four-year-old: why are the telephone wires so high? couldn't they just be put high enough that babies couldn't reach them but big kids who knew not to touch them could? how big are the biggest animals? what kinds of animals lived a long time ago? why are there zoos? don't you like those pretty white rocks? aren't they kind of like crystals? did those people with the construction tools forget they were building a road? have you ever made a friend, mommy?

(which, btw, cutest moment ever at a park on another day....little girl crests hill, i tell soren he should go say hello and introduce himself. he charges forward, gets nervous, turns around, comes back. "I feel shy sometimes, you know," he ways. So w ehave a talk about being brave and how that means doing things even though you're scared. So he tries again, gets a little closer, then turns back. "Did you know that people are shy sometimes, Mommy?" he asks. "Why don't YOU come and say hello?" But I prompt and encourage and finally he gets up the guts....he walks in....swerves away....moves back in and finally says "hello." then he runs back to report: "Mommy! she's just a BABY! like Liam!" At which point Liam runs over and starts strutting his stuff for her, walking back and forth with that funky shoulder wiggle he does when he's feeling extra good. The little girl is named Elly and the three of them play for a while.)

but we played at the park for a while and the sun was so warm and the company was the best and i hadn't ridden bikes to the park with anyone in so many years.

then we came home. liam was running around in the back yard naked while Auntie Merritt supervised; she claimed he had been playing in the kiddie pool. Drank homemade orange julius. Soren took to the pool and Liam stayed inside to help me make Zucchini Bread.

Chatted with various neighbors and friends throughout the day.

The boys dressed up in their pirate costumes--popsicle stick swords, eye patch for soren, bandana for for liam--and ran around sword fighting until soren got all spazzy and violent and had to be hugged then put in his room for some calm time. we took dinner to Sister King from church, who just had heart surgery. visited briefly with her and her husband. darling, wonderful people. came home, took one bite of the dinner, and realized--much to my horror--that while i had remembered No Chocolate, No Whole Wheat, and No Raw Vegetables, I had entirely forgotten Low Sodium. The shame. So poor sister king probably ate cold cereal for dinner while her husband ate my salty salty chicken and dumplings. Sigh...

Soren took it upon himself to give Liam a tutorial about using the potty. He took him into the bathroom: "Liam, this is a toilet. Toi-let. This is where your peepee goes. See? Like this."

The neighbor kids came over to play for a few minutes, then it was time for bed. Read stories, brushed teeth, entirely forgot about song prayer. Tucked the kids in bed, sat in the front room and read maeve binchy while abe read steven erickson and listened while the kids played together in their room--talking and music intermingled with occasional bursts of yelling or crying for another hour.

Then, silence.