Looooong weekend

Back to work today, and the kids are back to Cindy's. I just got off the phone with Cindy, actually; I called to check in on Mallory, who seems to be doing OK so long as she's occupied, but is definitely being much clingier and more prone to meltdowns than normal. I was on the verge of taking her to the ER yesterday morning, because for a good hour she was completely inconsolable and I was sure there must be more to it than just her teeth bothering her. I did get a peek at a new incisor that has come through yesterday afternoon though, and Cindy said that she can see Mallory grimacing as she's eating her morning snack. So I think I can rest assured that she is not currently rotting from the inside out due to some flesh eating disease variant.She seemed OK on Friday, when we spent the day out at The Summer Place with Gramma and Grampa Cook. She swam, she ran around, she got up close to the snake Liam found. He's got some good eyes, that kid. Thank goodness Liam found him and kept tabs on his whereabouts. I am just barely OK with snakes when I am prepared for them; I think I would have been out of there if I'd been the one to be surprised by it.I think this was my favourite part of the day. Chad and Liam found some frogs in the swamp grass and Chad was showing Liam how to use a reed to poke the frogs to make them jump. You can see him holding onto Liam by the ankle, because every time one of the frogs jumped, Liam would scream and jump, too. He nearly went over the dock. After they'd been at it for a while, I asked Liam to come to dinner, and he said to Chad, "Tell mom I'm too busy, I have to poke these frogs!"We then went up to Stratford for a couple of days to see my parents. This was the start of Mallory's demise - she spent Saturday and Sunday mostly listless with a fever. So she was not very good company. Liam and I went out pedal-boating again; he was not afraid of being out on the water this year, though he did grow bored with it fairly quickly. When I turned us around at the halfway point to head back to the boathouse, he said we should just keep going in the direction we were headed, back to Grampa Ralph's house. I had to explain to him that even if we pedalled all the way back, there was still no way for us to get out of the water.

On Monday, Chad had to go back to work, and I spent a lazy day puttering around with the kids, including an increasingly fussy Mallory. It kind of put a damper on our long weekend, but I did feel better being able to coddle her myself instead of throwing her to the wolves at Cindy's. Cindy takes very good care of her, but some of the other kids there can be a little rambunctious. I was glad she did not have to put up with them.

After the near-trip to the ER yesterday, we packed up and got out of the house, since it seems that Mallory does best when she is distracted and luckily, there was lots going on to distract her with. We went down to the park for our local Canada Day celebrations. We missed the pancake breakfast (or rather, THEY missed US, since they closed up shop an hour before the advertised cut-off time), but we made up for it with the cow train and bouncy castle (which Liam agreed to try, but did not enjoy; I don't think he likes all the other kids flailing around him and knocking into him). We ate lunch in the park, then walked back home for naps, and when the kids woke up we went downtown again for the parade. Next year, we won't be within walking distance of the festivities. Chalk up a 'con' to moving.