I left work a little early and picked up
pocketnaomi's little bundle of joy from her babysitter in Germantown and then came home with Grace (said bundle of joy) while pocketnaomi was able to stay late at work to get caught up before the long weekend. Seth, Julian and Grace watched Finding Nemo and played nicely together while I cooked Shabbos dinner (Tacos!). Grace is 15 months old, but far more sedate than Julian was at 15 months, and she was SO refreshing! Plus, she and Julian played very nicely together. Even coordinating dinner for two toddlers wasn't too difficult. Seth supervised while I brought out various things to try for each of them. Grace LOVES cheese! (Just like Julian) They were both jealous of what was on the other's plate/tray, even though they had basically the same things. 
psujedi and caryabend arrived sometime after the kids ate and then helped supervise Seth gave both of the kids a bath before he got ready to leave for shul. Apparently Julian was a little overzealous with the spashing, but they otherwise did very well together. psujedi got to have the first-time experience of putting a diaper on a baby (Grace) while Seth wrangled Julian. She did a fantastic job. Uh, other than putting it on backwards, but that was good for amusement's sake. What was funnier was that she showed Seth when she was finished to make sure she did it right and Seth said it was fine. Er....how many diapers has Seth changed in the last six months?? Heh heh. No worse for the wear, I found an old pair of Julian's pajamas that fit Grace and a pair of socks for her and we played together until pocketnaomi arrived to take Grace home after a very long day. Grace was absolutely fearless. Though she had never met me, she had no problem whatsoever climbing into my arms and heading off to unknown territory in the car with me. And she took right to Julian's toys and was unphased even when Julian took toys away from her. Julian is used to being the smallest (he shares a nanny with a four year old) and therefore usually gets his way when it comes to sharing. So although he is very good about sharing in general, he found it a little disconcerting to have an intruder simply take his toys without him having given them to her. :) He'll learn. Once we found alternate toys for him to play with, he returned to his usual, generous self. Whew! (I got some very nice pictures of Julian and Grace playing together which I'll post later, but maybe not tonight)
Seth and
caryabend went to shul, pocketnaomi took Grace home, Julian went to sleep with little complaint, psujedi and I set the table and chatted for a bit while I finished making fruit salad for dessert, and then Seth and Cary returned with our friend Shimon in tow. I was so pleased that I am finally getting to a point where Seth knew (without having to ask) that it was fine to bring an unexpected guest home. We enjoy Shimon's company and he's pretty easy going, so he wasn't startled or bothered by our seemingly un-festive taco shabbos. Speaking of tacos, they were yummy. Yes, it's a little unorthodox (pun intended) to have tacos for shabbos. Doesn't sound festive enough for a festive meal? I'll tell you what was festive about it... the lack of sleep deprivation is festive, that's what! And it was very nice. I made veggie taco "meat" with Morningstar Farms ground "beef", sauteed onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers, cut up lettuce and tomatoes and had salsa, homemade guacamole, and sour cream. Fruit salad for dessert. Seth bought Mexican beer. It was all quite nice. And very, very late. This morning I had an extremely difficult time waking up, so I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to shul. But Julian was bouncy and happy and I got myself dressed "just in case" I decided to take him up to the Torah Time for kids at 10:15. As it happened, Julian was getting restless, and though he probably would have gone down for a nap if I'd let him, I decided to take him up to shul, and I'm very glad I did. He had a great time at Torah Time, plus I got to socialize a little bit. Amy and I got to chat for a bit while the kids were engaged, and that's always nice. Plus, Seth, Julian, and I ended up with a lunch invitation. Since I didn't have anything specific planned for lunch (we had tuna salad and egg salad and veggies and such), it was a good opportunity. Since Nancy and Eric (our hosts) have two kids, they weren't going to be freaked out by Julian's wandering or restlessness, and I knew Julian would have a place to sleep if he needed a nap. It was a lovely time, of course, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Julian enjoyed wreaking havoc on the house and playroom, but was actuallly pretty well behaved. The truth is, he's an extremely well behaved child (MOST of the time), but I get very self-conscious of his completely normal behaviours in other people's houses. He's a very active child and doesn't sit still for too long (though he did quite well today). Fortunately, Nancy runs Torah Time most weeks (though not this week) so she's used to boisterous children. She put us right at ease. Though Julian could have taken a nap there, he stayed awake until we were walking home (at 3:30). When we got him home, he basically fell asleep in my arms climbing up the stairs and took a nice 2 hour nap while Seth napped and I fought a nap on the couch (the nap won the battle).
Julian woke up a little disoriented, since it was 6 o'clock and he was probably hungry. He's not used to waking up that late. But he ate a good dinner and was a happy, cuddly, bouncy boy until Seth left for shul. At 8 o'clock, Julian gave no complaint whatsoever about going to bed for the night. I had been worried that having taken such a late nap he would refuse to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but he crawled right in bed, smiled when I sang Sh'ma to him, and curled up and didn't make another peep. After shabbos ended, I cleaned the TV room downstairs, did a couple batches of dishes, cleaned off most of a counter and the stovetop in the kitchen, and now I'm relaxing. Love the relaxation, baby. Seth and our friend Ian are downstairs (in the newly-neatened TV room) watching Star Wars Episode IV. I'd join them, but I just can't deal with the messy kitchen. I'm going to do a little more LJ-perusing, and then get to work. Hopefully, I will fall asleep easily tonight.
Tomorrow, Julian's grandfather and uncle are coming to play with him in the morning. The rest of the day is so far undecided. Monday we are going to go visit
have_inner_lady and predigested at their new home. I'm very much looking forward to that visit. And it will be interesting to see how Julian reacts to 2 hours each way in the car... 