With An Ankle Sprain Here And An Ankle Sprain There...

Let's see, Wednesday night into Thursday there was no sleep to be had. Too much work to be done. So, work on Thursday didn't let up at all and it spilled over into Thursday night as well. By the time Friday morning rolled around, I was working on about 7 or 8 hours of sleep between three days. Finally at around 5:50ish on Friday we put the whitewash on the fence and gave up the ghost. I wanted to go straight home to watch the Pens game, but I needed to run a few quick errands. It was 1-0 Tampa Bay when I went into the store. When I came back out, I couldn't get a score because all people were talking about was the fact that Crosby hadn't returned to the ice. That's when the alarm bells started going off in my head. Crosby + Not on ice = bad stuff. Turns out Mr. Crosby, much like Susie had an ankle sprain. Now Susie didn't pick hers up by crashing into the boards during a hockey game, but I'll be it hurts just as much. So, now two games without him, they are a plus 3 points, but it's gonna be a long haul if he's out for too long. Atlanta is quite upset as well. Sidney is not going to be able to play in the All-Star game. That can mean quite the revenue loss for them down there.
Anyway, Saturday rolled around and that enrolled us in babysitting duty. The Warners had relatives visiting and they were up for a dinner out and visiting the new glass exhibit at Phipps Conservatory. That left Terri and I (since Susie had the aforementioned ankle sprain) with 5 children under the age of 5 to babysit. Ok, technically one of those 5 is really under the age, since he/she is now -5 months old. So that one wasn't going to be too much trouble. Then we had Mary who is just a shade over 4 months old. Next came Andrew who just recently turned 2. Then Gage who will be 4 in a couple of months and finally Katie who just turned 4. Terri and I didn't think it would be too much trouble. Hang out, play for a little while, feed the kids some dinner, put Mary down for a nap, plunk the older kids in front of a movie, then get everyone ready for bed. Ah, well laid plans. Mary decided against the nap, opting instead for an alternating method of crying and eating. It's amazing to me how much you take for granted when a child can articulate their needs and wants. You forget little tell-tale signs of a small child's needs. So, it ended up being one of us with the three older children and the other with Mary. Finally, after 3 bottles and just about every song I had in my head (which is quite a few), I got her into a lulled sleep. The older children weren't really any trouble at all beyond the normal trials and tribulations of kids their age. "I don't want to eat my peas." "I want to finish the whole movie before bed." "I want to wait for mommy and daddy before sleeping." So, I'm fairly certain all involved slept well Saturday night. Except maybe Mary :-) Following are some pictures.