Home again, home again jiggity jog

This past Tuesday eric packed his bags and headed to Hollywood as he tells Otto. He had some interviews to do for his book, pavement to pound for film studies and friends to visit. He is now as I type this somewhere on Rt. 80 headed home from Newark via Hoboken for dinner with Ben. That left Otto, Mette and I to entertain ourselves for the week. Really, Otto could keep us all entertained all day every day you just really have to like playing with trains and Hot Wheel cars. We had a lot of fun stuff planned and were lucky enough to score some dinner invites from friends. To be fair, at the beginning of the week I thought I was going to be exhausted and so tired of the kids by now, but I'm not. I'm tired, but no more than I have been for the last 2.5 years. And I have had such a good time with both of them that I can't wait to see them in the morning. Or Mette sometime in the next couple of hours... They were both very well behaved. Poor Mette had a bit of a tough time with getting 6 month shots and a tooth in the same day but it was nothing lots of cuddling and Motrin couldn't fix. Her second bottom tooth is looking very close and I wouldn't be surprised if it came in soon as well. Otto wowed me with his cuteness everyday and mastered potty training. What more could I ask for?? It's a good thing it all went so well because not only was eric gone, Rachel, Isaac and Nathan left today for a 3 to 5 month trip to Uruguay. We wanted to get as much time in with them before they left. If the kids were having a tough time this week it would have made it hard to visit with them.

One bonus I had the past few nights was the help of Ben W. eric's assistant. He was between houses and needed a place to crash for a few nights so he stayed here. Otto thinks he has been sent here to swing him and make funny sounds and nothing else. Otto got some quality air time and I was able to make dinner and put Mette to sleep knowing someone was watching Otto. Two priceless things. Having him here made a world difference. He even helped Otto go potty a few times which for a recent college graduate guy I think puts him in the saint hood realm. He also came to help while I gave both the kids a bath last night. Mette is now sitting up so well and I needed to bathe them both at the same time I decided to put them in the tub together. This was Mette's first big tub experience. Ben was kind enough to capture it on film. The smiles he got from Otto means if nothing else he has a job taking pictures of our kids!!

Mette has been making this face a lot since her new tooth came in. I think she is still getting used to the way it feels.