Monkeys make a mess

I've been basically go going since Friday, so today I'm zapped. All morning I just felt like lying on the couch and napping. And of course since I said something at work yesterday about Alex letting me sleep in until 7:30 almost every day since we moved him to a bed, he got me up quarter of 7:00. It's funny the last two days he's been a real cuddle bug. This morning I sat with him as he watched Diego. He was sitting between my legs using my belly as a pillow. Yesterday he came up to me hugged me then let me hold him for a good 15 minutes. Not that I mind because it doesn't happen much lately now that he can do a lot of things for himself.

It was a pretty good trip. My trip up to Cumberland ended up a little longer than planned.The ten minute bathroom break at Sidling Hill turned into a half hour because a certain little person needed to burn off some energy. So we got to my Uncle's house around 4:30. Alex was shy at first but Chris won him over with big rocks to climb and play on. By the end of the evening the two were playing with the soccer ball and Alex didn't want to come into go to bed. It ended he was only a half hour past bed time. Of course Chris tired him out so much that he was asleep in minutes. They gave us the larger bedroom and put an air mattress on the floor for Alex. He refused to sleep on it. He fell asleep on the floor right next to it. Woke up once at 4 am. I think being in a strange place combine with watching Monsters Inc so many times he was worried about the door. (There isn't a closet in his room)I got him calmed down and was going to sleep next to him on the air mattress. But he pointed to the big bed and told me to go to bed. I wish I had stayed on the air mattress it was actually more comfortable for my pregnant body.

I had some nice conversations with both my mom and my aunt. Mostly just various family issues. Though at dinner the topic of discussion was schools. Cindy was a guidance councelor at a couple PG county elementary schools. She is now back to teaching at an elementary school, because in Cumberland there were no guidance councelor slots available to her. (No slots and when one opens it seems to go to someone else) Cindy doesn't like to deal with bullshit. She's pretty easy going but her whole philosophy though is do what's best for the children to make sure they have the learning environment they need. So the small town mentality that you have to one up your peers to get a head just annoys her to no end. She feels teachers should work together, help each other with lesson plans and advice on handling special needs children. She doesn't get that type of support in this school, unlike the schools she worked in in DC and PG county.

This moved on to Bush's Every Child Left Behind Program. She thinks the whole reason he developed this idea was to make public schools fail. Then they could turn schools into charter schools, which in turn would be run by his big business freinds. Guess who makes the profits. Her problem with most charter schools has been that they start out good but down the line things slip and the education they give is worse than the public schools. What happens when education of the kids going there conflicts with the profit margin of the school, who wins, not the kids. So interesting night of conversations.

The next morning was pretty relaxed. Everyone took Alex for a walk after breakfast so I got to take a shower in peace. Then Chris suggested to Alex that we go see a real train. In the summer a steam train runs from Cumberland to Frostburg and back daily. Once the weather warms they start runs on the weekends. We weren't sure when it would get there or leave so we tried to get Alex moving. But we lucked out the train had arrived a half hour before we got there and wouldn't be leaving for several hours. Alex got to stand on the back of the caboose, he really liked that. Once there we walked over to the tow path to see the canal boat. We got distracted by the Hertige days activities. There was a local band playing Irish Music. Alex kept moving closer and closer. He got to the tent climbed on to a chair, then flirted with the lady at the end of the row. She was sitting kind of turned, her arm on the chair next to her. Alex kept trying to imitate her between songs. But when the music played he'd be clapping or stomping his feet. After that we walked over to the canal boat then on to look at the canal the were refilling. Finally we walked along the tracks back to the train station. Alex went choochooing down the tracks pretendign he was a train.We got back and I got him settled for a nap. Chris stayed and said he'd bring him over to Patty's when he woke up. I told him to check on him after an hour if he wasn't sleeping just come over.

Mom, Cindy and I went over to help Patty set up for the baby shower. I took a few minutes to go over the album with Denise and Justin, not too many changes to work on. Funny one of our other clients just came back with their revisions Thursday. So now I have work to do. The shower was nice. I took a lot of pictures. I was asked by Denise's mom where I'm hiding the baby. I said under the baby fat of my first one. At 17 weeks I still seem to be between sizes at least in terms of pants. I am mostly wearing maternity tops but all my maternity pants still keep sliding down and I absolutly don't fit into any of my regular pants unless they are stretchy like my yoga pants. Unfortunately they are not work appropriate. I seem to be carrying the weight all over not just in my belly so who know when if I'll pop.

Katie and Doug brought down al lot of their old baby stuff for denise and I to go through. So I came home last night with a car full and I didn't even take that much. Most of what they brough down we things we already had and there is no need for two of. Heh, I think my big purchase(s) this time around will be a hotsling and/or a second carrier like a Mei Tai. I got home around 9:30 and unfortuntely had to get up this morning for work. Some Mother's day huh? They did let me leave early. But I had such a migraine by that time I needed a nap. Ken did make a roast on the rotissery for dinner tonight. He originally planned to roast potatoes on the grill as well but he couldn't with the rotissery. So I made my roast potatoes in the oven. I opened my gift over ice cream after Survivor was over. Ken got me a copy of Dodgeball because the movie cracked me up so much when we rented it.