Missing Those Monthly Visits

I wasn't going to post this picture, but after seeing it bigger, I have to. My parents were watching American Idol tonight and I thought this would be a great time to take a picture of them sitting on the sofa together. I took this one on the regular automatic setting on my camera. Mom looks like she's surprised and saying, "Lanie, what are you doing?"

In this picture, which I took in the aperture priority setting on my camera, has much better lighting even with retouching. Here both of them just look like they're trying to ignore me, but they can't. I don't think Dad is actually smiling, he's actually ignoring me. With the Parkinson's, his facial expressions aren't as animated as they used to be. I prefer this picture because of the better lighting and the fact that Mom is smiling, but the first photo along with this one tells a better story. :)

Mom and Dad arrived yesterday for a visit. My Mom has been trying to convince my Dad to drive here because she hasn't seen the kids since New Year's Day. He prefers the familiarity and comfort of his own house. She just wants to see the kids. They were a huge help tonight. I'm going to detail it in the next paragraph to record it for my own information.

Eric was napping and apparently napped from around 2PM until about 5PM. I was able to leave work earlier than expected, so I met Patrick at the kids' Faith Formation class where he was originally going to attend a meeting for parents of children who are about to receive their First Communion (at 4:30PM--I was about 10 minutes late). Patrick left when I got there so he could drive to the stadium where Anthony's soccer team was playing a game (which started at 5PM). After their classes, I got the kids home by about 5:45PM. We ate dinner and Alex insisted on watching last night's episode of American Idol (which Mom and Dad watched "live" yesterday). We started watching around 6:45PM while Mom gave the youngest two a bath. We finished watching by 7:30PM when I put the younger kids to bed and told Alex to take his shower and get ready for bed. Then I took my own shower and by the time I was done, Patrick was home with Anthony (around 8PM). After I blow-dried my hair, I sang to Alex and put him to bed.

If they hadn't been here, Eric would not have taken such a long nap. I would have had to watch him during that hour-long meeting. Patrick or I would have had to make dinner or buy it. Alex and I would not have been able to watch American Idol because I would have been giving the younger kids their baths. It would have been a much harder night for me. Of course, Patrick wasn't having an easy time because he was outside in the cold, drizzly weather watching a soccer game. I haven't even detailed how Mom did at least 5 loads of laundry today, and either Mom or Dad washed all the dishes. I miss their monthly visits just as much as they do!

By the way, Natalie doesn't get to watch American Idol this week because she had to "move her clip to yellow" at school AGAIN for talking in class. Mind you, the teacher gives them a lot of warnings before they have to "move their clips" and she still had to "move her clip"! That child has to learn to listen!