the past 24 hours

yesterday was just a tough, long day.  and it rolled right into today too.

last night mason broke out it hives/welts on his face during dinner. as best as i can tell it was from the honey mustard salad dressing he was dipping carrots in because it was on his face in the areas where the skin was reacting. the weird part is that he has had the dressing before. i am going to test another spot on his face tonight to see if that is definitely the source of the reaction. it really freaked me out because he has never had it happen before, i wasn't sure what to do, i was alone with the kids, and he kept running around playing which made it difficult to watch him for more symptoms. once i showed him his face in the mirror he let me examine the rest of his body (for spots) and posed for some nice pictures i could share with daddy (and post here).

it was time to clean up all the toys and get ready for bed.  mason picked up some cars, madelyn picked up a few of her toys, but the bulk of their stuff was just left all over the place.  this has been an ongoing struggle here - cleaning up the toys - so while the tub was filling up for bath time, i bagged up everything that wasn't put away.  i filled a whole bag up in their room and hauled it out to the living room so i could fish the toys away from the trash (artwork, magazines, miscellaneous papers, and other odd and ends).  we just have too much for this apartment and it is hard for me to walk around.  we have been reclaiming toys each night all week but last night was the biggest haul yet.  anyway, back to the injuries...

when i took mason's shirt off for bath time his nipples were bright pink/red.  i use the past tense because it looks like he picked them off his chest.  he has been playing with his nipples a lot lately, but i hadn't noticed him doing anything yesterday and he was wearing a shirt all day.  so if he did do something it was while he was in his room for nap time.  again, it freaked me out a little.

i went to get their towels (the only bathtub is in the master bath but we hang their towels in the bathroom next to their room) because i forgot to grab them before starting the bath; i was a little mentally exhausted from my day.  mason tried to get out of the tub while i was gone resulting in him landing on his face and scraping his forehead a little.  mainly there was crying.  i hustled through bath time and told them that there would be no books, straight to bed.  i think they both knew that they hadn't made the best choices all day and there were no arguments. 

i was sorting through the confiscated toys trying to get it down to an amount i could stack in our closet to keep them away from the kids (there isn't really much for storage in the apartment) when matt got home.  i think my face told him how hard the day had been. 

today i took them to the zoo.  the kids didn't deserve to, but mommy did.  and we all really, really, really needed a day outside of the apartment to stretch our legs.  i am happy to report that the behavior today has been a vast improvement over yesterday, but the injuries just kept on coming.

mason was running down a hill at the zoo and tripped. this caused him to slide to a stop on his face. there is a scrape on his forehead next to the one from the bathtub fall, but his hair hides them.  thankfully, the scrape is pretty minimal and it didn't really bleed at all.  i think it scared him (and me) more than anything.

we had a nice time at the zoo.  we saw a few new (to us) exhibits and then went to have lunch.  after lunch the kids were playing in the jellyfish exhibit (there is a play area) with some other kids.  they were running across a long stretch of gym mats.  and then madelyn collided with the boy she was running around with!  his head hit her in just the right spot to give her an instant bruise and knot on her cheek.  i am sure it is going to be pretty impressive tomorrow.

thank goodness tomorrow is saturday and matt is going to be able to give me a little break.  this week has been mentally exhausting!  i am grateful that all of the injuries were minor.  it definitely could have been worse. love.