...across the room for Royalty, The Day After Day 7...

The house is SO QUIET today!  There are still cheerios in the box in the pantry, whole milk in the refrigerator, and from my comfy chair I can spot yet another toy between the wall unit and speaker!  Last week was SO busy, SO tiring, and SO much FUN!  I remember being a young mom of two, weary of all the three word sentences and craving adult interaction and conversation.  At this stage of my life however, I long to explore the minds of these little ones. It really is a learning experience to be reminded of life from their perspective!  I love their way of expressing feelings and thoughts and I have to say that a child's sense of humour is absolutely priceless!  Children bring laughter and love in huge doses into a home.  Nothing can compare to those verbal and demonstrative expressions of love from a child. I miss it already!  I feel like I have lived on a different planet for a week.  It was a refreshing place to be and a good reminder to me of what my daughters are doing every day!  These two precious little people walked across all the rooms of my house many times throughout this past week.  I can still hear the pitter patter of those little feet as they buzzed through the house in a game of hide and seek with Papa.

Inevitably the time came for them to walk out the door for their journey back home.  They did this with smiles on their faces as they looked forward to seeing their Dad, Zac the cat, and the familiar surroundings of their own home.  I know from the relaxed and rejuvenated look on their Mom's face that she is ready to plunge into the routine again and enjoy the pleasure of mothering and family life.  And that's how it should be!

...across the room for Royalty, Day 6...

Pictures during bath time I can deal with but I'm 

out of here to brush my teeth in private!

Declan skating at the Family

Leisure Centre this afternoon 

What an amazing day we've had!  So filled with fun and excitement!  Let's see, some highlights included the hilarious hour of hide and seek with Papa this morning; cooking lunch with Nana; an hour of skating for Declan at the Family Leisure Centre; mid-afternoon nachos and movie time; pizza supper; bath time followed by the P.J. Bedtime Story Book after which  two little munchkins were oh so ready for bed!   And a good time was had by all! 

...across the room for Royalty, Day 5...

If I have to I can do anything.  I am strong.  I am invincible.  I am WOMAN!  Those are just some of the words from Helen Redy's song of ages ago that for some reason have surfaced in my mind this week.  Today I was thinking that maybe I've got the hang ...... NO, not 'got' ...... getting would be closer to the truth ....  of managing a house and all that entails as well as 'managing' two young charges.  I've often wondered how Sarah of the Old Testament handled having a baby at 80 years of age!  That is a miracle to be sure.  But what about raising that child?  If you have to, you can do anything!!!  I would never have dreamed it was possible to accomplish all I've had to do this week with these two tagging along.  I even went to the paint store to choose a new colour and buy paint!  Play time at the park is still a love/hate activity. Fun while we're there but don't try getting a two year old to leave unless they're ready (I don't how long that is!)  It took two of us to de-claw her off the swing today.  Where do they get their strength from anyway?!

I still got lots of play time in today, laundry washed and folded and a big spread of roast chicken, potato, carrots, peas, salad and home made blueberry pie for dinner tonight, impressing the socks off the painter who wasn't going to stay for dinner until my hubby told him what we were having!

It's been a great day and now I'm beginning to wonder what we'll do for noise when the royal duo leaves Sunday!

...across the room for Royalty, Day 4....

Soon I'll lay me down to sleep

I pray my guests don't make a peep

but if they should may they not wake

'til I've had all the sleep I can take!

...across the room for Royalty, Day 3....

What I want to know is what are you supposed to do for the rest of the day when you've had breakfast, watched Veggietales, and baked chocolate chip cookies by 9:15 AM?  The days are long when you're always scratching your head trying to think of things to occupy the royal rascals!  Baking cookies with two little helpers (both experts in the field) (apparently!) was an unforgettable experience.  The princess was all about the Bernard Callibaut Chocolate Chips which she clutched to her little chest as she chanted CHOC-LAT CHIPS! CHOC-LAT CHIPS! CHOC-LAT CHIPS! (higher pitch by this time).  The King cracked the egg into the bowl while I wasn't looking.  When I did look there was egg on the princess, on the kings head and clothes, on the counter and very little in the bowl. We started all over again.  Whatever chocolate chips the royal pair didn't eat made it into the cookie dough and all in all they turned out better than expected.  I'm afraid I let them eat too many cookies today!

Thankfully a friend came for coffee today and was well entertained by the King's Knock Knock jokes!  I don't think she'll ever forget some of them.  His favourite is:  KNOCK KNOCK!  who's there?  ICE CREAM SODA!  ice cream soda who?  ICE CREAM (giggle giggle) SODA WHOLE WORLD (giggle giggle uncontrollably) WILL KNOW (giggle giggle)  WHAT A NUT YOU ARE!!!!

Menu's have gone to the dogs by now.  We don't have any in other words.  The King's palate calls for comfort food these days.  Comfort food as in Kraft Dinner and Turkey Hot Dogs for dinner. We servants ate the leftover lasagna we made yesterday.  We all agreed on ice cream and more chocolate chip cookies for dessert though.  I hope the diapers last!

Going to the park is a piece of cake.  Playing on the equipment and swings is no problem either.   Getting out of the park is a complicated exercise.  It usually means me trying to carry a kicking and screaming princess while the King impatiently waits at the locked vehicle.

Nights are the opposite of days.  Short in other words!  I finally realized why I ache all over in the morning.  I think I'm trying so hard not to disturb the little princess that I tense up all night so as not to waker her.  I wake up feeling like I've done a days work!  I thought I might try sleeping in my own bed tonight however for some reason sleep eludes my little bed partner tonight and therefore I took an aspirin and hope not to have to call anyone in the morning!!  May you all have a blessed and restful night!

...across the room for Royalty, Day 2....

Sleeping with royalty in the house is not the same as sleeping without royalty in the house. Since constant attention is required it seemed only fitting last night that the princess share her bed with me.  Unfortunately this translated into less sleep than usual, for me at least, and waking up several times during the night to a little hand holding on to my nose!... something I'm really not used to at all!

Tonight I'm cross-eyed from watching computer games, playing monopoly, figuring out how to play a kids movie on the new television (OK not all THAT new! but why do there have to be so many options?!), reading a million books and the list goes on.  

The afternoon expedition to the park to wear out the royal highnesses didn't seem to affect them as much as it did me.  While I parked my weary body on the couch for a few minutes following our adventure they were fast forwarding around the house!  Where do they get their energy from I ask you?!

Some things will never wear me out though.  I will never weary of hearing "I love you Nana", "I wuv wu Nana", "ALL RIGHT Nana", the feel of little arms around my neck, and the sight of those naked little bodies in the tub and later in their jammies!  That's day two folks!

...across the room for ROYALTY...

We are going all out this week to provide room, board and entertainment for our long awaited ROYAL guests.  King Declan (age 7) and Princess Rowan (age 2) have graced us with their presence for the week and we are here to serve!  I travelled to Lethbridge to provide our best transportation back to our home and was told the  loaded '08 Toyota Tundra 4 X 4 was too DIRTY!  The music in the vehicle made the king "crazy" and did we not have any other music we could listen to?  The princess did not "get" that I was the one making great sacrifices of time and sleep to meet them early.  She began and ended every sentence with the same word ... "Papa" as in "Papa!  blah boo pooh me ahh pinky poo blah see Papa!"  

I meant it when I said we're here to serve!  My plan was to cook lasagna for dinner however the king seemed partial to pasta with white sauce and chicken.  I made pasta with white sauce and chicken.  Apparently the sauce was not exactly what the queen mother cooks at home. Hers is whiter than mine, which apparently is skin colour!  The princess spotted every piece of chicken and bacon bits on her plate which she placed on the side of her plate and then ate the pasta. Thankfully dessert was to their liking but then I suppose the royal family purchase their ice cream at the supermarket as well.

Bath time is always a challenge.  One can not be sure whether the princess is more accustomed to showers than baths since she refuses to sit in the tub.  When asked if we should wash her tummy with soap she replied "NO!  Blah pooh boo ah no back!" as she pointed to the soap bottle in my hand and then the spot where the soap had been standing!  In time I discovered the way to get things done is "DON'T ASK!  Just do it!"

As the day draws to a close the dishes sit unwashed on the counter, toys, books and games lie scattered around the house, and my beautiful spa bathroom looks like a family of twelve just got ready for church!   I take my little charges downstairs to their rooms for the night.  King Declan watches as I place Princess Rowan in her bed, pats her little head and whispers "Goodnight Peanut!" before he slips into his own private room.  What a protective little man he is!  As I tuck my little princess in bed she focuses those beautiful big eyes on my face and says "I wuv wu Nana" and I can not think of anything I would rather be doing that very moment!

 

...a blonde moment in the life of a brunette....

I was so excited to go to Daytona Beach on our Harley's!  I had heard about it and read about it for years. We were not going there the ever popular bike week I had read so much about, however I was still thrilled to see where all this fun takes place every year.

The area was unfamiliar to me so I lagged behind somewhat in order to read road signs and enjoy the scenery without having to worry about getting too close to my husband's bike.  He prefers that I do not lag TOO far behind so even though I saw many signs I was simply skimming most of them.

I noticed a number of signs regarding "greyhound races" at Daytona.  By the time we arrived at Daytona Beach I was so excited about the possibility of watching these races.  The excitement mounted as I realized the hotel my husband stopped at was right beside the race track!  After we stopped, he was busy beside his bike, on his knees, trying to get something out of his saddle bag when I piped up with "Well one thing I would really like to do while we are here is take in those bus races (for many miles I had visions of those big greyhound buses careening down the race track at Daytona Beach and I couldn't wait to see what that would look like!)  My husband stopped rummaging for a few seconds, looked up at me with a look I never want to see on his face again, and mumbled "THOSE are NOT BUSES!  they are DOGS!!"  I could not believe my ears!  Not once had it occurred to me that greyhound referred to dogs!

What a let down!  Who would want to watch dogs race any way?!

...across the room to stay in touch....

....."I really didn't say everything I said"

Yogi Berra

... Did I say I would write another segment?  Segment #2?  I thought I should let my readers and lurkers know that I have not given up on blogging.  After my last entry I began writing about our year away and realized that there is so much to say that it would get too lengthy for this blog.  For many years now I have dreamed of writing a book and I think this may be the year to start the project.  Having said that, I do still plan to write segment #2 about the changes I was talking about.  It seemed that I had to write down all the background information and  preliminaries before I could concentrate on that aspect of our year.  I've been spending a lot of time writing a new talk for an organization I do some speaking for.  It has been completed and approved and I can now concentrate on my book.  I plan to include some excerpts from the book on my blog occasionally so that when it gets published you will all want to buy a copy!  I'm wondering whether you noticed I said "when" and not "if"?

Stay tuned friends!  More to come SOON!