friday already?

Liv came home last night. Three days without her were mellow...but a bit too quiet. She had a fabulous time with Oma. Water parks, nature sanctuaries, dinosaur IMAX movies, double decker bus rides...a very special time. I found it hard to entertain Briar at times without his favourite buddy running around. He didn't sleep well without her closeby. Consequently, I didn't either. I was determined to have both of us sleep well last night. So I took Briar everywhere I could fit in yesterday. Errands in the AM. A short nap in the car. Groceries, etc.

Then a trip to the beach. Followed by a long walk in the woods. Dinner and bedtime by 6:30pm. I fell asleep at the same time and slept in my clothes all night long (not super comfortable in the AM).

Luckily, Robo is visiting and travelled down island to pick up a little homesick Liv for me. I went to sleep with one child in bed with me and I woke up with two little kiddos tucked under my arms.

I occupied my time while Liv was gone by sorting through toys. Finding missing parts, broken pieces, toys that haven't been played in eons, junky toys, etc. I've been packing some up to deploy to the local second hand store and the consignment store. Although I've taken five big boxes out of the house so far, it does not seem any emptier. It feels wonderful to get rid of 'stuff'....but it is hard to remove anything, even toys, that have any connection to Jeff. I know it's silly keeping a rubber ball with a chunk out of it only because Jeff was the one who got it out of the vending machine with Liv....but I still can't chuck it out.

I found it amazing to listen to Briar while we had our one on one time.
He seems to speak so much more fluently when liv's not here to translate. He doesn't have to rush to get it out and I am not as distracted at times. He uses words and phrases that I had no idea he knew. He's becoming a little boy. I wish Jeff could see him. He'd be so proud of both of them.