Daddy Smiling as we’re finally out on our way. Mom was super slow getting ready to go, and so we left about 3 hours later than he would have liked.
We went to a fun little BBQ place and enjoyed a quiet lunch.
We got to IKEA and dropped Michael off at Smalland, and headed on our way enjoying the whole showroom floor at a snails pace.
A pretty dish set with lots of colorful creamy Bokeh.
A head board I like a lot, thought I think Kevin has had his share of iron beds and our next one will be wooden, or if it’s the right fabric, upholstered.
We timed it just right to be done with the top floor just as it was time to pick up Michael. We picked him up and headed on our way just as Michael mentioned he needed to go to the bathroom. So we headed back upstairs to the closest bathroom and Kevin headed in with him. There were urinals and two stalls (which is weird cause the women’s has at least 7). One stall was occupied, the other, nasty to put it nicely… So Kevin brought him back, still needing to go, just as I finished getting ready to take Joey and Aiden into the diapering room.
I took Michael into the ladies room while Kevin tackled the diaper and pull-up. While I was gone Joey tried to jump free of the changing shelf (he can scoot on his back now), and Aiden had a tantrum about not being able to get out of the stroller and read the children’s books from the nursing chair. Somewhere along the lines Aiden banged something and started crying louder, Kevin couldn’t see him cause the stroller was turned away from him so he just figured he was being regular grouchy Aiden, he finished changing Joey and turned around to put him back in the stroller and start on Aiden who was covered in blood from a massive double bloody nose… Oh Joy! We came back, and Kevin cleaned up Aiden the best he could while I dug through the bag for his clean shirt, and tried to wipe up everything. We finally got things stopped up and were trying to decide on what to do.
We walked out, and because this bathroom is next to the cafeteria where we usually eat when we go there, Aiden wanted something to eat, well we were weak, and didn’t want him to irritate his nose again by crying, and so we caved, Kevin went to grab some desserts while I went to sit down. I was walking along wistfully trying to find a good place to park all of us, and some gentleman taps me on my elbow to let me know “the one in front has a bad bloody nose.” “Not again! Thanks.” I grabbed a few napkins, tried to stop it enough to get out of the main line of traffic and noticed a few Indian women whispering about me almost arguing. OK, whatever. I hate being made a spectical.
I finally got Aiden to hold a napkin on it long enough to push the stroller over to a good table and then started cleaning it up and trying to help Aiden stop bleeding again. He suddenly got a bad case of the sneezes, yikes, blood spray, yuck! One of the Indian women came over and insisted that I pinch the bridge of his nose to make it stop. OK thanks, I’m up for anything at this point, but he won’t let me touch him… I finally did it a couple of times in between trying to catch the mess and him fighting me off. This was one of the grossest Mommy moments in ages, and in public no less. Sure enough after a few times of one or two seconds of pinching the bridge just where the cartilage starts it stopped.
We enjoyed our little dessert and went on our way down to the shopping area.
A sweet Sun ceiling lamp Aiden and I saw when Dad and Michael went on an important errand (another bathroom trip since Michael got shy in the girls room). I wish I’d looked into getting the floor model cause they didn’t have any on the shelf and it’s not on the online database, which means it’s probably discontinued, I REALLY love this and think it would be so fun in the boys room whenever we get them their own, unrented, room.
A light Aiden pointed out to ME when I was trying to distract him to keep him calm. He knows his Mama well.
This was what we Photographers call the golden hour, cause the sun shine is so pretty and the light turns warmer.
Joey sitting waiting patiently as Daddy and Mommy started to beak down and un-pack the stroller to do a little exploring then head home.
“The Sun’s so bright!”
Aiden getting sick of the stroller, we’re at the car after all! Michael smothering Joey and rubbing his soft baby hand on his face, and Joey wishing Michael would leave his hand alone. Or, my three toe heads.
Our good friend Mr. Turtle. No he doesn’t really have a name… It’s just our little air freshener that we hated at first, it had a way of jumping into our vision just as we were turning and giving the false impression of a bright green clothed pedestrian not watching for cars and suddenly coming out of nowhere. Freaky at first… Now we’re used to it, and probably should replace it…
Photos of Aiden crying in the back seat~ This was the only way to calm him down, by snapping pictures of him. Silly boy. He must like attention or something… No really we’d done a LOT of distracting and refocusing as he’d gotten frustrated through the day and this was almost bed time. He was DONE.
He made it really clear yesterday that he has problems with exploration and leaving his comfort zones. In the car every time we made a turn into unexpected territory he would cry and cry “Other way!” Until I explained where we where going and what we would do, and that’s a huge improvement, it used to be crying no matter what, no distractions. We have a doctors appointment this week by chance, so I’ll discuss this, as well as the bloody nose, with her then.
The cool car/motorcycle/tripod thingie we passed on the freeway in our exploring before heading home. Don’t worry, in the last shot that is a seat belt, but Joey’s car seat is in by LATCH and I have the buckle up in the back window so he doesn’t burn a foot on it by accident. Just in case someone was horrified…
Sorry for the bad crops. Having my favorite lens broken hasn’t left me with a lot of great choices in regards to up close zooming.
Aiden, less thank a mile from home, and finally asleep, but resting his head on his hand. I don’t think it would do that much good at that position, but whatever makes him feel better.
Nice little close to a busy day. 🙂