Exhausted Ellie and a weekend with the cousins

This weekend the kids and I stayed at Katie's so David could rebuild the family room and mudroom. It's a big project and we are both excited for the outcome. Staying at Katie's was exciting and fun. We all looked forward to it a lot. We had a lot of fun doing meals together and just hanging out as the days passed. I have to admit that I underestimated how tired Ellie could get and what that would look like.

Friday night her and Erika were up talking until at least 11pm. I fell asleep before them, so I'm not sure how long that really went on. Then, they were up again at 5am. (Ellie usually gets 11 hours of sleep a night or more.) Saturday nap-time I had to wake them both up after 3 hours because of the evening ahead which included a late night girls basketball game at the high school. They got home at 10 something and Ellie was spent. She was a disaster getting into bed, but I think asleep about 5 minutes after she finally got in bed. We were smart enough to separate the girls into separate rooms on the second night.  Sunday I hear she was up by 6am again, 7 considering the time change.

We went to church and the girls did alright. Ellie was visibly exhausted and not making the best decisions in the world. She was quick to snap or cry, depending on the situation. By the time I got her to nap it was well overdue. However, she was overtired and I don't think she slept a wink.

When I went in to wake her she was wide awake. I asked her if she slept and she gave me this really close up crazy face with big eyes, a stern face and a little nut-so-ness coming through. I told Katie we were going to have to leave soon as I feared Ellie's upcoming behavior. The funny thing was she didn't believe me until she experienced it herself when calling Ellie for dinner.

As the evening progressed we lovingly referred to her as Poltergeist - Aunt Katie's nickname. Katie admitted never seeing Ellie like this before and even told Ellie she wanted her sweet little Ellie Bean Back. It's going to take a few days of regular sleep for that to happen, but we are working on it.

Max did really well with all things being different. He was happy to have Aunt Katie's play vacuum and used his voice to squeal to let me know when he was being man handled by his cousins in the playroom beyond his satisfaction!

It was a nice weekend and we are thankful for the hospitality. David worked hard and there's lots left, but we are making good progress! Below is Ellie posing at the paint store on Saturday morning. She wanted me to take this photo of her and send it to Daddy. Following is Max happily returning home on Sunday evening having packed his new favorite possession - his very own Vaavaa.