April showers

We're well into three things at the moment: Babywatch 2016 (my next appointment isn't until next week- two days before my due date!- and Walters family birthdate bets have been placed, so it's all downhill from here), the (early) 18 month sleep regression (it's a thing, and it sucks), and the discovery of the temper tantrum. The latter means that a park date can go pretty rapidly from this:

to this:

and all three mean that the next couple months promise to be a handful. To put it mildly.

Finley and I survived the week on our own, and although waking her up insanely early to get her to daycare in time to make my awful commute was a complete nightmare, Seth had a productive time at West Point learning the ropes of the new job. More importantly to those of us more concerned with moving dates than win records, he found time to go in person to the housing and daycare offices to straighten out all of our paperwork for the lengthy waitlists there. (It had, naturally, been completely screwed up.) As a result we can tentatively report that both kids have a reasonable chance of scoring childcare and we may even get onpost housing. Although the latter is less certain, and the horrific process for both only adds to my aversion to joining the West Point scene.

We put Seth to work upon his return, and he knocked it out of the park Saturday, finally getting rid of the pool table and moving the guest bed downstairs so the new baby can have at least part of a nursery (and we don't feel like complete jerks.) Finley "helped"

and took snack breaks. I think the fact that she has learned to dip her pita in hummus is basically the cutest thing ever. (We take a lot of Mom-daughter snack breaks.)

We dragged Finley to a swanky brunch in the city Sunday and she behaved as expected, underscoring our general rule of "no restaurants at naptimes." Still, it was a treat to see the Alexanders (and meet the adorable, tiny 6 week old Nina!) and pretty funny to watch our little beast stare at the baby suspiciously in between bites of sausage.

The rest of our weekend was uneventful and pleasant, wild weather swings and the resulting cancellation of Bunnyland at Butler's Orchard notwithstanding. We played outside in the yard (Finley cheats at cornhole)

and she was thrilled to have her patient bubble-blowing buddy back (Mom's bubble time limit is significantly shorter than Dad's.)

There may even have been a nap on the couch. And there was definitely Final Four watching.

We're all hoping to make it through this week (I'll be 39 weeks on Thursday!) baby-free and unscathed, although Finley's first day in her big girl classroom (yesterday) included being bitten in under an hour, and Seth and I both spent a rough 24 hours battling some sort of horrific stomach bug. Today we're all none the worse for the wear, and at least two of us are frantically trying to get papers written. Wish us luck, as we really are racing the clock now!

Two photos of the week- Finley hilariously trying to put on her a-pac slippers. She knows there are no shoes in the house, and always takes hers off immediately (then sometimes demands her slippers.)

And this was our first puddle walk, which she demanded yesterday in the middle of a downpour. I was under the weather and Seth was at school, and I really did not feel like unearthing rain clothes. But Finley was adamant so I located this oversized hand-me-down rain coat and next year's snow boots, and we spent a delightful hour splashing in puddles. Her delight at this discovery made my entire week. It's true what they say about seeing the world through a kid's eyes. Tired, nauseous, and "to-do list"ing in my head, I still may have been convinced to do a little splashing myself.