December Daily 7

When the boys get up in the mornings when I'm home and Eric's gone, they usually crawl into bed with me and play with my iPad while I try to sneak in a little bit more rest.

I had Reid open one of the blinds for better lighting.

I signed Eric and me up for our first parent-teacher conferences. I forgot to tell Eric when I was talking to him last night so I sent him a text while he was flying.

Another cold, clear day. The sun does help, but it was still cold.

The boys and I went to Barnes and Noble to pick out a couple of books for Milayla's birthday party. She's a girl in their preschool class.

The van turned over to 30,000 miles. I love my van. Those who are too cool for vans have no idea what they're missing.

We finally made it to Milayla's birthday party an hour late. There was a bad traffic jam as soon as we got on to 470. As we were crawling along, I realized I had left the boys' swim bag back at the house. We finally were able to exit (three car crash) and back track all the way home. I took an entirely different route instead. After a little bit of cake, Reid gravitated to the basketball hoop.

While Aiden found some cars to play with.

Then it was time to swim. They had a fun little kiddie pool at this rec center.

Overall the boys had a good time. Reid decided he didn't want to get out of the pool and because I hadn't worn swim gear, I finally had to ask another dad to haul him out. Nothing like public shaming by your children to knock your pride down a few notches. He spent some time in his room when we got home, which he was not too happy about. He. was in better spirits before bedtime and both fell asleep almost right away tonight. Long day for all three of us without our naps.