Unscripted.: Week in the Life 2012: Friday

Fridays are a laid back day. It's the day we go to my parents house to visit with Pop-Pop. I don't know if I have talked about this on here before, but my father had a stroke 4 years ago, just before Mason turned a year old. Starting last year, he used to come to our house every Friday to spend time with the kids, we'd play board games (Mason always seemed to win despite our best efforts), watch movies, and share pictures and stories about our week. Slowly, Sophie began to stop taking naps on Fridays, not wanting to miss her time with Pop-Pop. It became known as Pop-Pop Friday. I loved watching the kids get excited when my Dad showed up and so sad to see him leave, running to his car to give him hugs and saying, "Pop-Pop don't leave!" It was another day of the week we'd all look forward to. When things took a turn for the worse over the winter holidays, we found our Pop-Pop Fridays in jeopardy. Knowing that it is extremely important my kids have a relationship with their Grandfather, we decided to bring Pop-Pop Fridays to him. So, now every Friday we pack up some toys and head to my parents for the afternoon.

Here's a look into how this particular Friday went.

Breakfast.

Playtime.

Carpool.

Pick up and an early nap.

Then its off to Costco to print out the invitations I made for Sophie's birthday. I picked up a few essential items along the way. Passing through the clothes section, Sophie sees a princess dress and tries it on. If you could have seen her twirling and dancing through the aisles announcing, "I a princess!" you would have bought the dress too. Mason found an outfit in the athletic attire just like daddys. He immediately loved how soft it felt, but what really delighted him were the pockets. In the cart it goes.

A quick bite to eat (you can't beat a cheaper lunch than $1.50 for a hot dog and soda) before heading home to drop off our purchases. As soon as the kids opened the door they grabbed their new clothes and screamed, "Daddy, look my beautiful dress! It's beautiful and cute!" and "Daddy, look my outfit is just like yours! And it has pockets."

Toys in back packs and seat belts on, we are on our way to my parents house around 2:00-2:30pm. The kids always crave a snack and tend to raid the juice boxes and Pringles my parents have stashed for Grandma Sundays. Knowing this, I made a quick stop at 7-Eleven to pick up some munchies. After a snack, and Mason singing his B-B-B-Bats song from Spring Sing to Pop-Pop, I attempt to put Sophie down for a nap. Even though she looked tired and willing crawled into bed, I was sure she wouldn't stay down long, if at all. While she kind of slept upstairs, Pop-Pop and Mason watched the news video of Fred during his trip to Padre Island.

Sophie ends up peeing her pants for the second time, and I am out of a clean change of clothes. This cuts our visit short and she has to ride home in pee soaked pants, which don't seem to bother her at all. Argh! Potty training is such a power struggle with this one.

Once home, we order Moby Dicks for dinner. One of our favorite places to order take out. Fridays are the only day I spend sitting in rush hour traffic, as we tend to not leave my Dads until around 4:30pm-5:00pm. Usually it's too late to start cooking dinner so we either just pick something up on our way home, or order out. Tonight we all enjoyed our Mobys usual of kubideh with rice. We order two and share with the kids. Sophie really likes the cucumber sauce and I find myself having to cut her off.

After dinner and some TV, its time for bed. Part of our nightly routine has been to lather Sophie up with either Cetaphil or Aquaphor. Neither has worked very well to clear up her eczema. Most recently I decided to try a new product, Neosporin Eczema Essentials. It's a bit expensive ($11 a bottle) but after two weeks it has seemed to clear up her eczema better than anything we've tried, and I'd much prefer to use this on a daily basis than the steroid prescription. This is, if we can keep her from scratching. On nights that she is particularly itchy I place band-aids over her ankles and then put socks on her. Usually this does the trick.