Adventures in Camping! Part VI

The next day I had a freak out after about 3 or 3 1/2 hours in. I had to pee. Had warned David 1 hour beforehand that I had to pee. We were caravanning with his family... I don't know why we had to caravan, perhaps David was worried we would end up in Oklahoma again.

I don't like having to ask everyone to pull over when I have to pee. We would catch up. I didn't see the big deal about pulling off, we have a GPS... it was already clear we wouldn't end up in Oklahoma as we had passed that point. I did however, mind having to get everyone to pull over.

Well we miss a town we could have stopped at. I didn't see anything in sight. Liam announces he has to pee and poo and can't hold it in much longer. I start crying because my bladder is going to burst or I am going to pee my pants because my, typically loving caring husband, isn't listening to me. No, he's too worried about the caravan. I start crying a lot. He says he is sorry. He calls his brother to tell them we have people who need to use the restroom. They say they need gas anyway. I won't pee at a gas station. I start crying harder. I see a McDonalds and calm down a bit. Okay I can pee at the McDonalds. And we can just grab lunch (though I don't like McDonalds it is convinient with the playgroud) so the kids can burn off some energy. And we can stop caravaning.

David pulls up next to his brother at the gas station to tell them we are going to the McDonalds to use the bathroom. David's sister says in a questioning tone "You are going to use the bathroom at the McDonalds?" I don't know if she was questioning it because she didn't want to eat there, I don't know if she thought I could just go at the gas station. I don't know. I just flip out because I can't believe we have to check in when I made it very clear that I have to use the bathroom right now. So once again, not proud of myself, I start yelling "YES, YES WE ARE USING THE BATHROOM AT MCDONALDS BECAUSE I HAVE TO PEE AND THAT'S WHERE WE ARE GOING TO PEE AT" David just drives away. Finally.

After the potty break David apologizes to me. He says he is sorry he didn't listen to me. I forgive him. Easy to do when your bladder isn't bursting anymore. I ask David for his wallet. He looks worried, he needs to check in with his family. I don't care anymore, I am going to order food for me and the kids, he can eat if he wants. We are going on our own after this because I am not asking for permission to pee again. My mind is set. He kind of reluctantly gives me the wallet and says Okay and tells me what he wants. His family comes in while I am ordering, his sister gives me a kiss on the cheek. They are so forgiving with my outbursts... I guess they know me well. I mumble I'm sorry for yelling like that.

We part ways. They leave first and we go to fill up on gas. But we arrive home about an hour before they do. David's brother drives about 5 miles under the speed limit, David goes about 5 over.

So glad to be home. The kids were so great...thanks to the DVD player. And if nothing else we appreciate home more and we got to enjoy some beautiful scenery. I told David I think we fight too much on vacations, it's actually bad for our marriage. He said no, that the trips to Florida (both the Disney trip and when we went to see my sister) we didn't fight. I was happy he remembered that when I didn't. I think it's just when we have to drive for hours on end.

We did spend too much money... buying all that gear we hardly used. It was supposed to be an investment for future camping trips, but I think it will be hard to get David to ever go camping again. I joked with David that in our older years we'll think we had evacuated a hurricane when we remember this "vacation". Luckily I think he is okay with my plan of retiring to colder Mountains someday. He said he thinks he would love that, as long as it had internet... haha, he didn't even have to say that, it was a given.

Adventures in Camping! Part V

When we got back from our hike we, which was a fairly short hike of about a mile and a half. It was so hot though that it felt longer... at least for most of us. David's sister is miss outdoors and not long after we recovered she was ready for another hike! She had already woken up before all of us and took her boys on a morning hike. Now she wanted to go up to this cave.



It took the rest of us some time to recover and when we did David's brother Ken was mentioning that we should probably leave tonight. He wanted to leave because he had to work on Monday. If we left the next day (Sunday) with such a long drive back, he wasn't sure he wouldn't get enough sleep for work. For SOME REASON we have to leave with them? At first (because I was so hot) when David was wanting to leave with them I was just "go with the flow" girl. When I realized we had one more day, that David didn't have to go back to work until Wednesday. I wanted to stay. David didn't. I didn't fight it. I didn't want to fight it. The kids were having fun. I thought it would be kind of sweet if it was just us there, but it had been a pretty rough trip for us to that point, so maybe going home would be for the best (is what I had reasoned).

David's sister didn't want to go home yet. But she and her kids had driven up with Ken so she had no choice. So her mom wanted her to go on that hike to the cave while we packed up. His sister had worked really hard at the campsite, so nobody minded her taking a break on this one.

Packing up in the heat got me kind of grumpy again... I worked the whole time. Got a little splinter in my pinky finger, but kept going. David worked really hard to get us all packed up. Ken and my mom in law worked really hard as well. Violet was napping in the car, car running so a/c going. Liam wanted to sit in the car too. So for hours they sat/slept in the car while we packed up. Eileen came back, had an incredible hike, helped finish pack up.

We left around 6 p.m. drove for a few hours stopped at a Best Western. It was way nicer than the Holiday Inn Express...even though it doesn't look nicer in the picture lol... it was. It was. The bed wasn't lumpy and uncomfortable, the bathroom was clean, the free breakfast was better too.

To be concluded next episode...

Adventures in Camping! Part IV

It's a beautiful place, no? If it wasn't sooo hot! I don't know if I mentioned this is the last post, but at night it was nice and cool, not stuffy at all. Supposed to have gotten to 50 degrees, but I think it was more in the 60's. Funny I heard last night that up in Amarillo the cold front hit first and it's now about 63 degrees during the day! Oh well.

In the morning I made a big breakfast. It was a mess. I wish I took a picture. My eggs were burnt...sort of, little burnt pieces because the heat was too high and I used a cast iron skillet. The pancakes, well, I didn't have a measuring cup so they were watery... crepe like... Violet loved them. Bacon came out perfectly. I rolled some "burnt" eggs into my crepe like pancake with a piece of bacon and a little smear of blackberry jam. It was pretty good actually. Topped off with hot cocoa. Very healthy indeed.

After breakfast we planned to go on a family hike. It was beautiful. Here are some (a ton) of the pictures to tell the tale of the hike. (backwards because blogger photo uploading sucks and I don't feel like sorting it all out...just know it's telling the story from end to start).



























To Be Continued...

Adventures in Camping! Part III

We find a Holiday Inn Express. The kids ran around like crazy. They were so hyper from being stuck in a car for about 12 hours that they couldn't sleep. We had put them both in the same bed but they just giggled and yelped and giggled and climbed out of bed over and over. David and I were exhausted and decided to split them up. Violet slept with mommy, Liam slept with Daddy. Violet only kicked me once. David said it must have felt nice, but it's not nice to be woken up with a kick to the back when you are exhausted...no matter how small the foot. It was sweet that one time she reached over to stroke my hair a few times, to make sure I was there. And I felt her wiggle in bed for a few hours before I decided to wake up. When I did she looked at me and had a big grin on her little face. It was pretty sweet. The look said "hi mom, heh, yeah I'm here too, I slept in the bed with you" lol.

It turns out David's brother, sister, mom and nephews also stayed at a Holiday Inn because the camp had closed at 8 and they had arrived at 8:10 and it didn't matter anyway because the roads were closed too.

We left our hotel at 10:30 and arrived around noon to the campsite. The lady at the front desk was very rude... First she said she couldn't find our reservation. She asked if we made the reservation. David said no a friend of mine did named Mike. She said he should have said that in the first place and to next time be more specific. I wasn't there, I was outside with the kids, but I want to know why they didn't have better records because his name was also on the reservation. David pointed out that he was told he only needed to give his name (we really were told that).

THEN she said, since we didn't arrive last night (even though the roads were closed anyway) we lost our reservation. David pointed out that the reservation was for several days so it didn't make sense not to honor it. She begrudgingly gave in.

It turns out she gave the same attitude and speach to David's brother when they arrived just an hour before... so this wasn't new information, in fact it sounded like a script to try to bully more money out of people.

When we got to our site I was in an extremely bad mood. I can't really say why, I just was. I'm sure it had to do with the long car ride... arriving a day late... it was very hot outside... camping when I was younger always had lots of lush trees and water, this site was beautiful but had small bushes for trees and a large canyon surrounding us, it kind of felt like a desert... I was hungry... I had to pee.

Right away I'm yelling and snapping at the kids to stay near us. David goes right to work setting up camp... though we had to wait a few hours to set up our tent because the ground where the tent would go was wet...though everything else was dry. I pick up the "bathroom backpack" to hike to the bathroom which is about a mile or so away. Mike stops me and says the road is flooded to the bathroom and the best way to cross it is by car, that it was a river basically. So I had to wait for David. Who kept getting side tracked into helping in other areas of the camp. Also David's family had cooked a ton of eggs for lunch as some had cracked during the trip. Now it was very very very nice of them to offer us some. But please remember that A) I'm in a bad mood B) I worked very very very hard on preparing all the meals we would eat for the trip and I was already two meals behind because of the delay. ALSO I'm a middle child and I realized during this trip that I usually go with the flow and just do whatever someone else has planned (which turns out to be a middle child trait) BUT, and I mean BUT, IF I do ANY sort of planning and my planning gets thrown off, it stresses me out to no end. Which leads us to C)Don't Ignore My Wishes when expressed. Thank you.

We were lovingly offered lunch. I politely said "no thank you, we have lunch as soon as David gets the cooler out". But oh we have these made already, come eat them. No really, thank you though. Someone says "David come eat some eggs", ME: No, we have food thank you!. 'How about the kids, they must be hungry'. OMGoodness. No, thank you! But they are hungry. ME, now kind of snapping: Liam won't eat eggs, and Violet hasn't liked them lately, plus won't eat them at all without ketchup. Oh, okay... but we have ketchup... ARRRGGGHHHH.

David still unloading, I start putting sunblock on the kids, then myself. Liam says "mom, may I have something to drink please?", I answer "Yes Liam, just give me a minute to finish putting on sunblock". My mother-in-law says "oh we have juice boxes he can have". I know she was being helpful and I'm overreacting at everything at this point but I was planning on the kids only having water during the day, juice at night, the day because of the heat... and sugar takes more water to break down and therefore is not good to drink in this kind of weather and when going to be outside all day. Juice later as a 'reward' for drinking water all day. I don't say I have water for them, because I don't want to come off that I know better... because I don't... this is just my feeling on the subject is all.

My mom-in-law, who is usually VERY respectful of my wishes for the kids, hands Liam a juice box. I can't believe nobody is listening to me and can't imagine this is how the entire trip is going to be because I just can't take it after all the careful thoughtful planning I did concerning my children. I hate to admit this but I snapped at her. This makes me very sad. I said "I wanted them to have water" but you have to imagine me saying it fast and with an impatient attitude. She says "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize... I thought you were just going to give him a juice". I say "it's okay, it's okay" but again, with an attitude. Now I feel bad. Really bad because I know I probably hurt her feelings. After about 10 minutes I apologize to her, say that I just hate not being listened to but she's a grandma and can give them a juice box if she wants. Also that I was in a bad mood but praying that I can change my attitude. She said she was just upset that she didn't listen to me in the first place, but she really didn't know I was just giving them water.

Okay so with new resolve I scream at David that I need to pee and to please hurry. After I pee all is well. My attitude improves. Even more so after I make lunch of hotdogs, chips and broccoli. And even more so when we finally get our tent up. By the evening I'm in a really good mood. But now David has a headache from all that sunshine and is in a really bad mood.

He's now snapping at me over nothing... I suppose it's a taste of my own medicine, but I just tell him "don't be so rude to me, I haven't done anything to you" lol... at least not right then... nearly the entire day, but not for the past few hours. Haha, we are so off track.

After a dinner of slider burgers and corn we learn that our 'host' Mike and his family are leaving that night. He feels sick, like he has heat exhaustion and one of his little girls isn't feeling well either. First he helps David set up a telescope we borrowed and we roast marshmallows. The moon was so beautiful, we saw all sorts of details of the moon. No stars as it was still a bit cloudy. Mike and his family leave. We go on a very little night 'hike', exploring the camp. Liam and Violet and the nephews already went on one during the afternoon with their Tia (David's sister).

We leave the rain fly off the tent and enjoy the stars that start to shine as we fall asleep.

1 a.m. I wake up. I have to pee. I pee about 3 (at least) times a night. I can't hold it in very long either, I've had two kids and they broke me, I just can't. I can't fall back asleep feeling uncomfortable anyway. So I get up and drive to the bathroom. Apparently that worried David to the point of pissing him off. And it worried his mom when she saw it was me coming back into the tent. Sorry guys, I just can't help it.

At 5:30 I wake up again. I toss and turn for an hour. Now the stars are sooo bright you can see all the constellations so clearly. It was gorgeous. I got up at 6:30. I peed off in the tall grass rather than drive to the bathroom again. Gross I know, but oh well. I had t.p. in our car which I grabbed beforehand. I then tried to take a picture of the constellations but my camera wouldn't focus... I don't know manual well enough and it was too dark to figure it out. SO no pictures of that beautiful sky.

To be continued...

Adventures in Camping! Part II

As you can see, the car was full. I didn't even have room for my legs. (pictures taken with my phone, please excuse the quality).

My brother Connor lent us a DVD player for the car, with two screens. BUT forgot to get us the power cord. He was at work and the cord was in his car. We decided it would be well worth it to go pick up the power cord as Violet was already screaming her head off. And yes it was.

Before we leave Connor's place of work, we enter the address into the GPS. It says the trip will take (about) 14.5 hours... but when we checked on google maps it had said (about) 11.5 hours. I question this and David just assumes the car GPS is more accurate. It doesn't occur to either of us to check the overall route.

After about 6 hours of driving we make a pit stop. This is actually our 2nd stop, but nothing happened at the first stop. I don't like to pee at gas stations and I won't unless given no other option. And, if I can help it, I don't like to pee at fast food restaurants either...but I will. So where does that leave me? Home Depots, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Grocery Stores etc. I just find they are used less, and therefore less gross.

We stop at Academy Sports and Outdoors. And what a blessing we did! The ropes we used to tie down the tent and gear on the top had just become unraveled. The stuff was still held down with bungee cords, but I don't think they would outlast the speed + weight of the bag ratio. We find these awesome luggage rack straps. We fill up on gas and I take over driving.

As I'm driving we pass by Oklahoma City. I say to David: I didn't realize Texas had an Oklahoma City... David says: Uh it doesn't... Oklahoma does. He checks the GPS route. CRAP. It detoured us through Oklahoma. 3 hours off route...add in the extra stop, that's another hour at least... so about 4 hours off course. 4 HOURS, with a two year old and a 3 year old... who were being very patient, but only because they got to watch Toy Story and Toy Story II over and over again. (we have other movies but those were the favorites of both kids, they only tolerated the other movies).

We are now figuring it will be midnight when we get there. We didn't KNOW that the park closed at 8. We did find out, when we were still 5 hours away, that several of the roads in the canyon were closed due to flooding... making it impossible to get to our campsite anyway. David and I decide to drive three more hours and find a hotel for the night. Thank goodness for the flooding, as we would not have been able to get in the park anyway!

To be continued...

Adventures in Camping! Part I

David took Wednesday off so we could spend the day packing. Except, first we had to get Liam ready for school. Drop him off. Then I followed David to the dealership to have the oil changed and tires rotated. We packed here and there, mostly pulled stuff out to pack, not sure how it would fit in the car.

Then we picked up Liam from School. Then we picked up the car. Then we went to Academy to buy a cooler. Bought a bunch of other stuff as well. Home. Kids nap. David goes to the grocery store. I cook food for the camp out... that way I wouldn't have to store any raw meat and I would have all our meals ready to go with just a tiny bit of heat up at the camp site.

We were camping with David's brother, sister, mom, two nephews, a friend (who's idea this was) his wife and two kids and his mom and step-dad. His friend said we should just bring food for our own families. I should have realized to count David's brother, sister, mom and nephew as our family... they brought their own food, BUT... well, I'll talk about that more later.

Meanwhile David is STILL at the store. He had to stop at Academy again to pick up a cooler cap (that was missing on our brand new cooler) and some shorts and shirts. At the grocery store he called me every 5 to 10 minutes. He was gone for nearly 4 hours. I was about to lose my mind. We had wanted to get some sleep and leave really early in the morning... but we weren't even close to being finished.

By 1 a.m. we have chairs, clothes and the tent on top of the car. We have food and ice in the cooler (supposed to last 7 days...it's a "7" day cooler) and it's packed in the car. We also have stuff all over the house. We realized several things were NOT going to fit. So we had to rethink some of our packing. We decide to go to bed and get up at 4 a.m. to finish the rest.

5:30 a.m. we wake up. It takes us until 8:30 a.m. to finally head out... to be continued... I know it's been fascinating so far.

I'm Probably the Only Person Who Thinks This is Funny

David, while admiring a thermos he bought for the camping trip but didn't use: I really like this thermos, I'm glad I bought it, it will come in handy if I want to bring soup to work...

Me: Silence... thinking... realizing David doesn't eat soup, EVER. Cracking up laughing, can't breathe I think this is so funny, he said it so sincerely too... more laughter. David makes a sad face but is trying not to laugh too... I say: Yeah that will be great, you know, if one day you like soup!

Violet's First Week of Mommy Time

I have enjoyed this week with Violet so much. It's also caused her to become more attached than ever.

I noticed that she says so many words, is always pointing to things and naming them. Somethings surprise me, even simple things... like today she pointed to my jeans and said "pockets, 1 2 3 4 pockets" as she pointed to each pocket and counted them. I have found that she knows her whole alphabet by recognition and loves to tell me letters. She also knows her shapes and colors...though sometimes just calls everything purple... but she gives me this look, with a little twinkle in her eye and slight turn of the mouth and I know she is being silly, or wacky as Liam would say.

She does really well with puzzles. She follows directions exactly. If I ask her to find something and I describe where it is she goes right to it and brings it to me with a little triumph in her step. Liam to this day has a hard time with that... he's exactly like his daddy in this area because David to this day has that same problem.

She has quite an imagination. She loves pretending to cook and have me taste her cooking. She plays monster and growls or chases me with a monster puppet threatening to eat me up in a low monstery voice. Or says "OH NO A SNAKE! RUN!" while chasing me with a rubber snake. She also loves to play with her baby doll, push her in a stroller around the house then put her down for mimi (nap). She loves trains and cars and rolling them around the house saying "vroom vroom" or "choo Choo". She loves to play house with little dolls I buy her. She loves to sing. She loves to 'play the piano' AND drum on it, she'll climb by the window and drum on the top of the piano while singing a song. She loves to read books with me. And girl after my own heart loves loves loves to draw.

If I ever stop to do the dishes or do a load of laundry she'll go into my room, locate the colored pencils and paper and happily draw little pictures. She can hold a pencil perfectly... except when she's watching her brother, then she'll grab it the way he does which is wrong, I've seen her eye him and switch the way she's holding her pencil. She is sooo observant, it's no doubt how she's learned all these things. I only had to stop and play with her to see how much she already knows.

Liam's First Week of School

First week of school he's ever had ~ with many more to come.

After the first day I was a little unsure we made the right decision. Liam was fine but I wasn't used to starting my day so soon and having to worry so much. Plus more driving than I am used to. Sure the school is literally one minute away... that doesn't change how many times I have buckle buckle, unbuckle unbuckle, buckle, unbuckle, buckle, unbuckle, buckle buckle, unbuckle unbuckle kids in all day (that probably doesn't sound as annoying as it is)... and thursdays it's buckle buckle buckle, unbuckle unbuckle unbuckle, buckle buckle, unbuckle unbuckle, buckle buckle, unbuckle unbuckle, buckle buckle buckle, unbuckle unbuckle unbuckle... and if I go somewhere with Violet or Violet and Bria add a few more to the list...

The first day Liam excitedly told me about the book they read, the music class, that Mrs. S yelled at him "Sit down on your FROG!" and when I asked which teacher he liked best he dreamily replied "Mrs. P" when I asked why he replied "because she's the best teacher in the whole world".

Second day Liam told me that fruit is good for our bodies, he said they got to eat blueberries. Surprised I asked "Wow, did you eat some?" (he never eats fruit unless it's in a smoothie or a fruit strip). He said "NO". haha. He also told me he got in the yellow and if he gets a red he has to go to time out. Uh-oh I said. He then told me this: That's okay, If I get a red I told my teacher "NO I don't want a time out" and then I push her.
I didn't realize he was plotting what he would do if he got a time out, I thought this actually happened... I even asked him three times if he pushed his teacher and he said Yes. So he got sent to his room... where he ended up taking a long nap. I told him when he woke up that he would have to apologize to his teacher the next day.

Third day right away Liam apologizes to one of his teachers. I tell the teacher he has informed me that he pushed one of the teachers yesterday. She looks surprised and says "No, he didn't do that, he's well behaved". I say "well he also told me he got yellow" and she says "well yes, we are trying to establish the rules and the consequences of obeying the rules and disobeying them, he gets up from his spot a lot. When they stay in their seat without being told they get to put a marble in the jar. If we have to tell them several times to sit down their color goes from green to yellow to red, red means a five minute time out". I see. She adds "But we see that he's outgoing and very smart, you probably know that of course" I can't help but say "yeah, He's reading already" and she says "yes, we have frogs with words on them and he read them to the class yesterday, we also noticed that he's very good with patterns. We'll figure a way out to challenge him". Awww that last part made me feel sooo relieved! It was exactly what I was hoping for.

At the end of the day Liam mentions a new friend at school and that he got yellow again, but that he was a good boy after that and it went to green again! The teachers also told me at pick up that he was very good that day.

Today, Thursday, is the last day of the week for him. I promised him a doughnut every Thursday if he was good in school all week. He also had show and tell... We have to bring something that begins with the letter of the week. The letter of the week was M, so we brought a Monkey toy. I'm pretty happy I've remembered his lunch all week and to bring something for show and tell. Let's see if I can keep that up... He also stayed in the green all day. At pick up one of the teachers told me that he read a book to the class, without any help! I think it's great they let him do that.

That boy sure loves school. I haven't had any trouble getting him to get ready and he barely turns around to say goodbye, today I made him come back and kiss me goodbye. And always at pick up he's all smiles and shouts "Mommy!" and hugs me.

Adventures with Poison Control

I never talk on the phone. If you call and I don't answer, there is a good reason. My kids are that reason... either they climb and talk and cry in my ear while I'm on the phone or they sneak off and get into trouble.

Yesterday I was returning a call... even I forget my rule sometimes... they lure me into a sense of security, those kids, being all sweet and playing nicely together. I was on the phone about 5 maybe 10 minutes when I hear Violet scream at the top of her lungs... like from old horror film. I ZOom to Liam's room where the door has been suspiciously shut closed and quickly open the door to a still shrieking Violet.

She is shaking as she looks up at me through squinty, pain filled eyes, her hair wet and matted down. It doesn't take me long to realize something has been poured on her head and that it's burning her. I lean in to smell but I didn't need to lean in I just needed to breathe in because it smells very strongly and my first thought is nail polish remover.

I pick her up, realizing the phone is still in my hand I shout "I got to go" click. I start panicking and crying quite hystercially "Violet! Are you okay! Oh my baby!! Are you okay!" while I rinse of her hair and eyes. She was having trouble taking in breathes amid the fumes but finally she calms down and the stinging lessens and the smell subsides. I jet back to Liam's room to see if I can find the substance. I see a half empty (guess that means I'm a pessimist?) bottle of hand sanitizer on the ground and Liam hiding under his blankets. I give him a quick lecture that what he did was wrong and a swat on the butt and tell him he's in his room for the rest of the night (it was 5 o'clock).

I go back in the bathroom where I left Violet and start a bath for her so I can rinse her more properly. I call David with panic still in my voice. I had seen a news story a few years ago about a toddler who died from alcohol poisoning because her mother put too much hand sanitizer (true story). I keep it in my purse for especially gross/germy situations like after the grocery store or chuck-e-cheese's...and only use a tiny bit. Liam saw my purse and got it out... and thinking it was shampoo, dumped in on Violet's head.

I asked David to call poison control for me and do some research online if I need to take her to the doctors. I get Violet in the bath and rinse off her hair more throughly. I decide David will never call poison control and I have the number on my phone so I just call.

Do you notice with all these Poison Control stories they start with me panicking, then Poison Control acting all calm and collective like it's no big deal... It almost makes me think everytime I have a situation "oh I don't need to call them, they'll tell me it's okay" but then I think "No, I don't want to be that parent, it's so easy to call and know what to do".

The lady told me in this case I do have to rinse her eyes for ten to fifteen minutes. She said to wrap her tightly in a towel to keep her hands down and lay her back and pour water at the bridge of her nose so it falls into her eyes... do it for at least ten minutes. Then read her a book and let her sleep so her eyes can rest.

OKAY. Yeah. Sounds like something Violet will go for... I tried people, I tried. I would have succeeded if David was there to help me hold her while I poured the water. Finally I just grabbed her tight, and dumped water over her face *with breaks in between so she could breathe of course* she screamed and cried and hit and kicked and I got soaking wet from head to toe. I told her I was sooo sorry but that we HAD to rinse out her eyes. I said that over and over. I think I made it to 8 minutes. I could see her eyes were no longer red and she no longer had to rub them. I asked if she was okay, she said "I'm okay mommy".

I went to get another dry towel, and I popped in to see Liam...he was sound asleep.

Now time to get Violet to sleep. Nope, no way. She got super hyper... a side effect perhaps? And we played with her little house, then she grabbed Liam's snake and chased me with it. Finally David came home and he was able to put her to bed. Phew. What a day. BY THE WAY: I didn't properly hang up the phone, so my poor friend heard me freaking out and panicking. ALSO David did NOT call poison control, but he did do research, he wants me to throw out the hand sanitizer because as little as three squirts ingested can cause fatal alcohol poisoning in toddlers.