Good idea/Bad idea and the full moon

Ask any pediatric nurse you know (or anyone who works with kids for that matter) about a full moon and they will give you a look of dread and an audible “ugh”. There were only three instances we NEVER wanted to work at the hospital: Halloween, 4th of July and ANY full moon. If people think it doesn't change kids behavior, they would be wrong.

Let's start with earlier in the week. The full moon that appears should have been my first clue. Wednesday was my toughest day EVER at work. I saw 65 kids in my office that day. That is my new record. That is more than a quarter of my student population! And I was in a meeting that day for a while too, and I still saw that many kids. It was like a revolving door was attached to my office – it never stopped. I had to stay at work an extra 45 unpaid minutes just to get my charting done in the computer. It was crazy. I did try to halt it – went to the classes to see what was going on. But they just kept coming!!

Here is my cutest yet most exacerbating moment:

Kindergarten boy: “I am came down because I feel a nosebleed coming on”

Too much.

Thursday and Friday were calmer at work. But Friday was the beginning of the weekend, and the beginning of the trouble. As for this weekend, we HAD good ideas, but they soon turned into bad ones! Not all of them, but.....

Friday we decided we were going to go to a we must have been out of our minds fun activity at Old Mystic Village (click on the name and you can see it). It is a place that oozes cutest – cute shops, cute little church, cute restaurants. They had everything lit up for Christmas. Every shop and restaurant had lights – it was so pretty. We were going down to look at the lights, have some dinner, and go to the Aqarium that is in Mystic. We could get in the aquarium by just donating canned goods – we got in for free, and that was why we went.

We were meeting Mat there – so the kids and I packed up after school/work and headed down. It was COLD. REALLY cold. And windy. And the kids and I parked at the wrong end of the shopping area. We had to walk a very long distance together to get to where Mat is waiting. I thought our plan was to eat first, but Mat thought we were going to the aquarium first. I didn't bring the canned goods with me from the car, so we had to walk all the way back. That was SO fun. (do you hear me being sarcastic? Just making sure you are paying attention) We got the cans, DROVE back (the only smart thing we did all night) to where the aquarium was. We walk over and there was a huge line of people who love free stuff good citizens waiting to go into the aquarium. We stood in line, which didn't move too slowly, and went into the most crowded aquarium I have ever been in. It was body to body in there! But it was decorated for Christmas. There were tons of trees – all donated and decorated by different businesses. There were kids all playing music, singing, and such all different places throughout the aquarium. Our kids loved looking at the animals. We stayed in there and got warm for about 1 hour and then decided to come out. We were going to walk around the stores but it was so cold that we only made it into one before we decided we were hungry and wanted to go to dinner.

Since we have little kids, and some of them are bad two years old we decided to skip the expensive restaurants and went to Friendly's. There was a line, but we didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes to sit. But dinner was a disaster. It was my fault. I broke our recently made “no more eating out until the kids were 15 years old” rule. Arlington was crying – I don't think she felt good (that to come later) and was tired. She cried over little things – Cainan wanting to color on her paper, she lost a green crayon, she was getting into trouble for making a scene. Finley was all over the place. They were crowded so we took a table where only one kid could sit in a high chair and Finley usually refuses to be the “one and only” so Cainan got that seat. Finley colored all over the table while I was concentrating on Cainan. Cainan put a crayon in his ear and was twisting it around while I was concentrating on Finley. Finley ate mostly ketsup for dinner. What didn't go in her mouth when on her shirt.

BUT – we did end the dinner with ice cream. And there is NOTHING bad about ice cream.

By the time our crazy night ended the kids were in bed at 8:30- an hour after their bed time. Thank goodness it is the weekend.

Today started out fine for about 1 hour. The kids were playing nicely in their rooms and Mat and I were catching a little extra shut eye, and we hear Arlington come in the room. She had an accident, and I won't share the details. Sounded like our girl caught a stomach bug. It happened again during the morning and so she spent most of the morning on the couch. She felt better at lunch time, so we got everyone all bundled up and headed off to see a live nativity that Arlington has been wanting to see. It is in a neighboring town. They were going to have the nativity, music, hot drinks, food, it was going to be fun. (except for the food part for our poor girl). She seemed okay so off we went. So we get up there, and we are looking for a parking spot and out side of the town green ther is the big advertisement sign for this event with the 13th CROSSED off and the 20th written below it. The event was changed to next weekend! UGH!!!!

This evening, though took a turn for the better. When the babies got up from their naps, we went to the mall to see Santa. We have been talking it up all week to the little ones hoping against hope that they might not cry. There wasn't a long line, so we didn't have to wait long and Finley and Cainan got a good look at Santa before we actually went up there. Finley even gave Cainan a pep talk telling him “Santa a nice man – no crying”. And it WORKED! They went up, they sat on his lap, checked him out, and even said a few things to him. Cainan told him that he wanted a fire truck and Finley told him she wanted a lolipop. They said goodbye to him and then Arlington was able to give Santa her Christmas list. Santa kept it and said it would help the elves out. Arlington was a little worried about leaving it, but I assured her we had another copy at home, so that made it better.
So here is this year's Santa picture!

And there are a few below as well – as long as we bought a picture (to the tune of $22!!!) we could take some of our own.

After that we got our family ornament for this year. I think I have mentioned before that each year we get an ornament made for our family. This year we chose penguins. Here it is


The penguin on the bottom is SO Finley (hence why I put her name under it). Carelessfree. (if you can't tell from the picture, the penguin has his hands in the air)

After that we had Panera (takeout) Bread and headed home. And even tonight the full moon is shining bright, things are looking up.

Here are the rest of the pictures. Have a great rest of your weekend and I will see you Tuesday!!