Challenging Week

We continued our visit from Grandma on Monday with her, Hallie, and Landon going to Jungle Java and occupational therapy. Meanwhile, Mike, Eliza, and Leo enjoyed the sun and shade of the backyard. Eliza has learned how to remove her clothes and diaper, so Mike decided, why fight it? The girl reveled in the caress of the dappled sun on all four of her olive cheeks. Problem was, she enjoyed it so much we had a hard time getting her to get back into her pajamas for bed. We made salsa Monday night.

On Tuesday the ladies and kids went to Greenfield Village, dropping Mike off at Wayne State along the way. He took a gander at his office:

While at Greenfield Village the gang got to do things we had never done before such as ride a Model T and a horse drawn carriage. Landon loves everything with wheels or that moves. He was in Heaven. In the end we enjoyed the yummy mac & cheese at Taste of History and frozen custard.

All too soon Wednesday came, and Grandma had to leave us. Grandpa missed her too much (next time you can come with!). 

A family portrait before Grandma left. . .

. . . and the close-up

They left a little early with Landon to run a couple of errands while Mike looked after Eliza and Leo. Landon started showing symptoms of what we thought might be pinkeye and by the end of the day he was miserable.

On Thursday, Mike helped a new family move into the branch. Eliza started showing signs of goopy things in her eyes. Hallie started feeling sick herself. We were hoping that it is allergies.

We attended a concert by musician Jim Gill on Friday. Before leaving, we took Leo out for a potty break. He decided not to come in, so we chose to leave him in the fenced-in back yard. At the concert, we found that Jim Gill was even more fun to listen to live than on his CDs. Very talented.

When we came home, we found Leo in the company of Miles and Dan. He had squeezed through a gap in the side yard fence, run into the front yard, and nearly got hit by a car. A kind soul corralled him, and Miles claimed him as ours. Thanks, Miles and Dan! Not good, Leo. . . .

Hallie was able to get an appointment to take the kids to the doctor, where they were both diagnosed with conjunctivitis. Boo. They received eye drops, and of course they are not too fond of them.

Hallie asked us to give her a happy Saturday, and we did try. We started the morning with chocolate chip pancakes covered in strawberry freezer jam, and then we went upstairs to get some cleaning done. Hallie and Landon went to get Hallie’s repaired cell phone while Mike and the other babies played outside. Shortly after Hallie and Landon’s return, Mike came inside while Landon took Leo out for a potty break. Again, Leo had squeezed through the opening in the fence that Mike had thought he closed after the prior day’s escapades. We quickly caught Leo and brought him back to the yard. Mike and Landon set to work closing off the gap for good with wire, Sugru, stakes nailed into the ground, and so on. The idea was not only to keep Leo in but to prevent the electric meter reader (the cause of the gap) from taking that shortcut through our yard on his rounds.

In the meantime, Eliza took a nap and we watched some Olympic action. After she woke up, we put Leo in his crate and went back upstairs to work. Hallie asked Landon to get something from downstairs, and Landon decided to say hi to Leo, leaving his crate open in the process. Some time later, Mike came down to find that Leo had left his crate and completely destroyed a DVD we had borrowed from the library. In itself, the destroyed DVD was not a big deal in the overall scheme of things, but as a straw, it was the last one, sealing the slowly growing realization Mike and Hallie had come to over the month that we really were not ready to deal with three very active little ones and the chaos they bring in their wake. Leo is a great dog and deserves to be in a situation where he is the center of attention rather than one of three needy "puppies."

Unfortunately, between Leo’s misadventure and the other kids’ needs, Hallie’s perfect day had imploded. We put Leo in his crate with some music playing while the rest of us ran some errands and otherwise cooled down from the emotional charge. Once we returned home and Mike took Leo for a walk, things resembled normal again.

Hallie stayed home with the kids while Mike went to church on Sunday. When he got home, we made the decision to look for a new home for Leo. This is not a decision we take lightly. We’ll try again when everyone is more ready, and in the meantime, we’ll try to make sure Leo goes to a good home.  

We had dinner in the back yard, again with the kids enjoying the mild weather in their all-together. Again, why fight the inevitable? 

Trader Joe's Joe-Joe goatee