It was a bit of a rough week for the Browders. Camille had complete meltdowns 4 days in a row after school, and some days she had more than one. She was a basket case, crying inconsolably for long periods at a time. Harry thought he would add to this by also having meltdowns of his own, which is very uncharacteristic of him. By Wed. I broke down and took him to the pediatrician. Ear infection. Not a big deal. Put him on some antibiotics, and all’s good. Well, except for the fact that for some reason they were really hard on his stomach this go round. It took me back to the days when Camille had her food allergies. She used to go through multiple outfits a day, soiling one after another after another. And the smell…yikes. Harry likes to take care of his business in his little potty, but this new development made it challenging for both of us.
But luckily the weekend rolled around just in the nick of time. Saturday was beautiful. Sunny and near 60. I decided the very best way to enjoy this windfall of good weather was to begin cleaning out the garage. Yippie. Loads of fun for everyone! I got all excited last weekend at our dinner party because I found out you can take a truck load of junk to the dump for only 30 bucks. SCORE! (Ohioans, keep in mind that here in the Pacific Northwest we have to pay extra money if we exceed the limit of garbage on any particular week. One of the first weeks we were here we were charged an extra $5 because the lid of our trash can was not flush against the trashcan. I kid you not. SO, you can imagine how 30 bucks for a whole truck load would be a bargain.) I took a carload of stuff to Goodwill and I photographed some of the stuff in the garage for Craig’s List. Who says housewives lead boring lives??
Sat. night Elyse (our picky eater) had a birthday party to attend, so Chris and I took Camille (and Harry) out to a Vietnamese restaurant. Despite the fact that I made 3 trips to the bathroom (1 for Camille and 2 with Harry) within the first 10 mins. of arriving, we had a really DELICIOUS dinner out. Camille was so great yet again trying new dishes and sauces and lettuce wraps and Chris and I LOVE eating out with her. I think she was disappointed they didn’t give her chopsticks. She loves to show off.
To end the weekend, the kids and I decided to make it a special relaxing day for Chris. It wasn’t Father’s Day, but it was Superbowl Sunday, and I knew he was excited to watch the game and eat good food. I felt a little bad for him that he didn’t have a party to go to, or a cool enough big screen to invite friends over, so we decided to spoil him a bit. When he got home from soccer, we had the family room all picked up, the lunch menu waiting on the coffee table for him, and we were ready to serve. “Happy Superbowl Sunday” we cheered as he walked in the door! I figured he could come home and hang out on the couch all afternoon. What guy wouldn’t love that, right??
Shortly after he arrived I whisked Harry upstairs for his nap so that I could focus all my attention on preparing Chris’ lunch. As I’m putting Harry down, the smoke alarm goes off. OH $%^&*(!! I forgot the RICE was on the burner. 2 cups of burnt rice into the compost.
After this, Chris was skeptical about my competency with regards to his order:
1 hamburger on a lightly toasted bun, with bacon, swiss, and garlic mayo
1 black bean burger also on a lightly toasted bun with chipotle mayo and lettuce
1 ice water
1 Guinness
and for dessert: ice cream over brownies (that I hadn’t even made yet)
I was skeptical too. I had to cook the bacon, peel and chop the garlic, toast the buns, and cook the brownies?? C’mon! (that’s Elyse’s new favorite retort whenever I ask her to do something she doesn’t want to do like: homework or helping pick up). C’mon Chris. I’m not the Barefoot Contessa for goodness sakes!
OH, and I had to feed myself and Camille still. But, I put my best foot forward and started on the task. I try to pour the beer, but apparently there are specific requirements for propper pouring and frothing of Guinness. I had to ask for instructions from the couch potato on how to do this, exactly. Chris decided I was in over my head and decided to grill the burger himself. He doesn’t trust me with the grill. I don’t blame him. I have no gas grill experience. Heck, I can’t even cook rice.
We manage to get the lunch and dessert, despite the fact that the girls were fighting over who got to be the server, who got to take his order, etc. Funny though, neither one wanted to help me in the kitchen to prepare the food or clean up. A bit before halftime I think he was ready to get outside and move around a bit so we took a little walk in the neighborhood and left the girls home alone. We were gone maybe 20 mins. When I came back to check on them and try to lure them outside they were up to something. Camille told me not to come upstairs and had a guilty look on her face. Uh-oh. Turns out they were in the process of attempting to print some American Girl bookmarks from my laptop. Seriously? How do they even know how to do this? I just learned myself last month. When I walked into my bedroom there’s Camille loading paper into the printer and pushing Print. I guess out of all things they could have been doing this isn’t bad, it’s just surprising. Who knew they’d know how to do this?
Anyway, we ended up all going to the park, and then returning for last half of the game. I can’t say that Chris was able to just leisurely sit back all evening, but for the most part he was “on break” from parenting and chores. This is the least I can do after he gave me the while weekend off when I went to Portland for Presidents Day weekend.
As I watched the game, I sorted pink plastic junk all evening (more trips to Goodwill in my future) and didn’t feel a bit of regret that I had no more little girls to pass this stuff onto. God knew what he was doing when he gave me a little boy. At least the cars and trucks are something different to trip over.













