I mean, I really do love her. I just think I might love her more if we could sleep until like 7. Or at least six. I get in this punky mood at 7:30 when I've been up for two hours and no one is listening to me and how can we have 3 hours to get ready and get our butts out the door and still not make it?

I bought a room darkening shade for the window next to the crib. Maybe, just maybe, this will give me an extra hour of beauty sleep. Actually we shall call it sanity sleep.

I just need to share this. Thanks M.

"Mom, you know what I need chopsticks for? To kill dogs. I need to kill dogs because sometimes I need dog meat. Know why I need dog meat? To make medicine."

I don't know where it came from but it does sound like some ancient Chinese thing, so the chopsticks fit.

Don't let me get disconnected from reality in my old age. I'm not talking dementia, I'm talking really egocentric like old men do. These people on my street live here like 30% of the time and have now blocked the lane 4 times in the last 3 weeks. Like all day. Once they sent us a notice saying they were going to be doing this. Thanks for the notice but I have places to go morons.

"And can you put a bell on your cat? He's hanging out by our bird feeder". I did, but it's not on any more and I"m not replacing it.

Or your freakin puppy is all excited about my kids and climbing on them, and somehow this is *their* fault? "Oh he's getting too excited". My kids are walking away and mildly freaked out, you can't reel him in a tish? By the way, in the eyes of the law and the rest of the world, my kids rank higher than your dog.

I love that all it takes to get my husband in a good mood is a trip out to the beach after dinner. I hate that it is 8:53 at night and his phone is ringing while he's reading stories to the boy for bed. No wonder he was in a bad mood.

Best mothers day yet. Lovely breakfast, lovely flowers, lovely family afternoon, perfect weather. Altogether marvelous.

For weeks now, Daddy and Boyza talk about the two dogs we're going to have at the Farm, Blue and Moon. So tonight I was doing bedtime and wanted more information.

"Actually, momma, three dogs. Choker, Blue, and Moon. Choker is white, Blue is black, and Moon is fuzzy. Actually, momma, Moon is black with white spots - one looks like a half moon and one a full moon. Blue is white. And Choker has throwup all over him.. We'll paint him to look like throwup."

Poor dog. I seriously was tearing up, laughing.

Upon walking into a candy shop where fresh pralines were being made, "I want some of whatever smells so good".

Overall, excellent trip. The one thing I learned is that there is no, zero, benefit to using a travel agent. Our plane ride was much harder than it needed to be (flew from Boston through Philly to Nola, when our friend got same rate from Manchester direct to Nola), our room and car were no cheaper than I found online, and the hotel had some serious service issues. We requested a crib months ago. Pack and plays are like $40. Oh and I know we got one of the smallest rooms in the place. All 4 of us.

Anyhoo, great time was had by all. Much sun, swimming, eating, drinking. And a little volunteering by the husbands. Actually a lot.

When we got up and left the hotel at 4 am, sunday, the streets were as packed as they were at 10 when we went to bed. Everyone was just more drunk.

Tomorrah! Tomorrah! I love ya tomorrah! You're only a day away.

Because tomorrow, we are going to N'ohlins. With the parents, and the sister and the niece. Which means plenty of swimming with the kids, grandfolks wiht the kids, and cocktails.

The bag is packed, there is a little spot in there for the aquarium (thanks gals, I will be packing it and those D batteries ;o), clothes for tomorrow are all laid out, small toys and snacky things and empty sippy cups (thanks homeland security) are in the carry on. I am going to vacuum the carseats and the double stroller, and then we're airport bound at 7 am. The worst part is, 7 am is not excessively early. It actually shouldn't be that hard to be ready.

I have to find quarters for the car wash vacuum. Or drag the dyson outside. Hm.

When looking at this picture, she says "massi and ba!" Ba is her word for brother, it's his name.



Today I was informed that the dinosaurs came first, then fire breathing dragons, then pirates, then us. Of course.

Best purchase of the year so far, right here. A child proof water dispenser thingie. No more water all over the kitchen floor. No more "cup? milk? cup?"

Will it be awful if I need to bring the crib aquarium on vacation with us? Will it fit on a hotel crib? Will she sleep without it? She's become conditioned to use it to get to sleep. I have become conditioned to needing to pee when it comes on - it gets me out of sight for 2 minutes to let her settle down, while not leaving her alone.

Hm, it's been a while. The highlights of the past few days have included pinkeye, candy free egg hunt and easter baskets (all the while, still too much candy about), a developmental assessment of the girl, and ice cream in 40 degree weather. Altogether fun.

So the girl is only at 13 months in her gross motor skills (she's almost 18). But she's at 20+ months in terms of language and cognition. She sure is. ;o)

She will make you laugh right out loud. She's got her brother as a teacher.

Well the girl is now conditioned to fall asleep to the sights and sounds of her Fisher Price Aquarium. She settles down in about 3 minutes, which gives me time to go do bathroom things and make sure she's falling asleep. Apparently this has conditioned me as well, because now she turns on the music and I need to pee. Ah, the power of the mind.

The boy has been semi sick which is frustrating. He still wants to be his normal self but he can't go to school if he's thrown up within 24 hours (it was like 22, sigh), and today it's the other end so we can't be far from a toilet. He still wants to be out and playing.

Now that you know all of his gastrointestinal issues . . .

He is an amazing little kid. Yesterday he drew a plane, with a pilot visible through the window, and cut it out. All by himself. Amazing. And his trex that he drew this weekend was spot on. His initials are legible, except that the G is mirrored.

Little girl is finally walking most of the time. It's hysterical. She dragged (drug?) me all over the Flower Show this weekend. Again, hysteria. It was family night, and a blast. Other than the fact that I, apparently, was antisocial when I moved around with stircrazy kids. You know, they're not the only ones who feel left out by conversations about random coworkers that you two know. :uh

Look at her hug her baby. Perfection.

Girly is finally walking some of the time, by choice. She sleeps in her bed. I kiss her goodnight and stick her in her crib and she lays down and sleeps. I don't know how it all happened, mostly because of the sleep deprivation, but I am thrilled. She wakes again around 7.

By the end of this week, I need to be running 1 mile in a row at once. I can do it. I'm .7 of the way there. I want to run a 5 mile race around July 6.

In the interest of accountability I present:

The girl now sleeps in her crib, straight through until sometime in the 4 am range, at which point I settle her back down until after 7. I can't wait to drop that waking. It is just so nice to be in my bed with my own pillow and blankets all to myself. It is so warm.

This week was the Building Energy conference. I've never done a professional development type of conference. It was fascinating. Between that and the accompanying trade show, I can't wait to sell our house and use all of the fun new products and tips I know.

Night 2 of sleep training was sigificantly better. Yes, I spent lots of time in the rocking chair draped in a blanket that was half as big as I needed. But the girl didn't scream, didn't throw up, and slept in her crib from 7:30 pm until 7 am. I just had to get up and sit with her twice for a total of 1.5 hours. Which sounds worse than it is. She's even learning to resettle herself. Woohoo. Yawn.

I feel like I am going to keel over of exhaustion at any moment. We've begun hard core sleep training, the primary goal being sleeping in crib. So last night I was up until 3:30, with the husband out of bed, and some time around 4, she was back in my bed. Then I went to yoga which made my body feel great and my mind feel like I shouldn't operate heavy machinery.

I feel like I just need to suffer for a few days. I need to enforce the "no kids in our bed until it's light out" rule hard core. Bleh.

I need more coffee. Stat.

She also has an ear infection again. I want her healthy. I'm lucky that the ENT didn't force us to get tubes. I'd have done it but I'd rather not. I just worry that no milk and ear infection isn't the best time to be sleep training, but mostly I see that as the excuse it is.

Well it took a year of biweekly watching, but tonight the boy found out that Bambi's mom dies. Many tears. All of us.

He wants to "get those bad guys".

"Momma, I like snuggling with you better than daddy because you're so soft." Makes the extra poundage a bit easier to handle.

Girl is still sick so we're going dairy free. Wish us luck.

Remember how I said having kids was fun? I guess it is still. But doing pukey/poopy laundry for 3 days with no end in sight isn't. And getting the sitter sick isn't either. Not only is she sick, which sucks, she couldn't take the kids.

So ya the house is a disaster and I haven't gotten work done in eons. I smell like stomach acid and my hands are raw from all the washing. And I haven't slept and am living on caffeine. Good times!!