Getting Back to Normal

The last of our family has gone back north. My mom left in the middle of last week and my dad left at 4am on Sunday. My dad had originally planned on going home Friday with Alex, but when he decided to go with my mom, my dad stayed longer. We used that time on Saturday to do some 'regular' stuff.

First thing after breakfast, we took the wagon for a spin to the park. Aiden really seemed to enjoy it.

After a couple blocks, we came to the conclusion that the canopy needs to stay off in the winter months. Having the sun on your back when it's cold is a good thing. We will definitely need that thing in the summer though!

While we were at the playground, a man and his grandson came. Guess what the little boy's name was. Aiden! The most popular boy's name of 2009 AND 2010. Ugh. Anyway, this Aiden was three years old. He reminded me a lot of Blair when it came to what he could do physically. Our Aiden always follows him around and copies him and that's exactly what he did with Three-Year-Old-Aiden. At one point, the older boy heard a sound in the distance, turned toward it and said "What is that?" It made me laugh because our Aiden says that all the time, but it sounds more like "Wassat?" It was like a look 19-months into our future!

My dad spent the rest of the day helping me around the house. We took down Christmas decorations and brought the tree out to the driveway. We're planning on dropping it off, along with the plastics and newspaper we've been saving, at the Recycle Center in Galveston next Saturday.

Travis worked on Saturday. He works a lot. Because of that, there are a few things that have gone to the wayside. One of those being our running toilet. It started acting up about a month ago. We had to jiggle the handle after each flush to get it to stop. My dad fixed that problem with a little Vaseline. It wasn't until that problem was fixed that we noticed that there was still a constant trickle of water into the toilet. My dad determined that two out of the three parts in the tank needed to be replaced. The third part should be replaced, but we'll do that at a different time. Anyhoo, it took a lot of elbow grease and I'm glad my dad was there to take care of the job!

Ariel and Robert stopped by at lunch time with some McDonald's. They wanted to say goodbye before my dad headed off and they both had to work that night.

My dad's trip home has been a doozy. He got caught in all the snow that's coming down in that snowstorm over Arkansas. After he spent four hours driving 45 mph, he finally pulled over for the night. He claims he counted 86 accidents/cars veered off the road. He actually hasn't made it home yet. He got back on the road at 6 this morning and just stopped in Effingham, Illinois. He's close though!