Birthday Girl

Here are a few shots from yesterday's birthday party:



We had good food and time with friends and family and Harper received a heap of gifts that she loved. It was awesome, actually, she squealed with delight over everything. You can never be certain how that will go with little children, you know? And lots of her gifts were the kind that you enjoy and get lots of use out of over the long term, but maybe don't have a huge thrill-appeal for unwrapping. But she was so happy with everything and had no complaints about things she's been hoping for that weren't in her pile. It was heartwarming how happy she was.

According to Harper yesterday was the best day of her life.

Today, however, she was overtired, over-partied, and a huge crank. Ah, well, that's how it goes. Matt and I are going to have to do some serious deep breathing exercises over the next several weeks because birthday craziness is nothing compared to how whipped up kids get over Christmas!

Anticipation

The wait? Almost killed these two today...

Michael climbed onto a dining room chair at 9 a.m. and said, "Me wat dis cate!" (Me watch this cake!)

Harper had to look at this pile-o-presents all day long - she was a trooper.


Short story - the party was a success!

Crafty

You guys, there has already been significant cake drama. I have determined that I have crappy cake pans. I will elaborate on this tomorrow or Sunday. In the meantime... a craft project!

One thing Harper is getting for her birthday is new bedding for her room. I got her a new lamp to replace the cracked one from my college days that she's been using. I also looked for a tissue box cover for her. Unfortunately, while there is a wealth of information about crocheting such items, I could not find something that fit the bill. So I decided to make my own.

I got a wooden tissue box holder and some Mod Podge from a craft store, printed a bunch of flower pictures I've taken and went to town. This is what I was doing from about 10:30 until 12:30 last night:


And here is the end result, one photo taken from the top and then one from each side:





I tried to give it a more "finished" look by gluing a ribbon border around the bottom and adding a little button at the ribbon end. Once we've got her new bedroom items in place I'll have to take a picture of the tissue box on her nightstand with the lamp.

Maybe it won't last or she won't like it, but it was fun to do!

Better Late Than Never

I still feel like I'm running on a hamster wheel here and in all my mental prepping for the rest of the week and weekend I've had birthday cakes on my mind. Blessedly, Harper did not request a cake that looks like anything other than a cake. We're going to try to make it a little funky with some food coloring and I'll be sure to take a picture - whether it is successful or not.

Anyhow, in thinking about Harper's cake I realized I never posted pictures of Michael's two-year-old cake. (Uh, yes, I'm talking about a cake I made in March.) I don't feel like I deserve too much credit because the design of the cake was really, REALLY simple. However, I was proud because of all the birthday cakes I've made this is the one where the final product most closely matched the vision I began with.

Ta da!



The cars were driving on a coffee-cake-topping road. And speaking of the cars, nothing says love like a cake topped with choking hazards - am I right?

You'll have to stayed tuned to see what I whip up for Harper this year.

Yes, I'll Have Some Cheese

Please excuse me while I whine a little bit because this week is kicking my butt.

I feel a little bit like I'm back in school and it's finals week or something. There is just so much to do! It's only Wednesday but I'm already feeling a sleep deprived haze settling over me and I'm a tiny bit worried that I won't be able to enjoy any of our weekend festivities because I'll be hiding in a corner of the basement, sleeping.

Aside from two batches of cookies for two different events, I have attended a PTO meeting and auction basket making session (at the elementary school from 6:00 - 10:20 last night), need to create a certificate on the computer, have to stuff tickets into bags for spaghetti dinner games, and need to cook and bake and clean for our own family celebration on Saturday. Individually each of these things is simple, manageable, even enjoyable but a part of my brain was clearly not fuctioning when I agreed to do them all in the same week.

PLUS it is NaBloPoMo and I feel like I'm missing out because I've barely glanced at another blog this week, nor have I addressed any of the great questions you guys asked me, I don't even know where my book is I haven't read in so many days, and I'm woefully behind on the non-internet writing I enjoy doing.

We also have two doctor and one car appointment this week as well as a family photo session and two different mornings worth of events at Michael's schools.

The bad thing about posting every day in November is that there are generally lots of things to write about but little time to write them.

Okay, thank you for letting me rant, back tomorrow!

P.S. Even the third time, Harper was thrilled with her Tooth Fairy coin - she even had to take it to school with her today.

So, uh, it's kind of busy.

It is Done

So I could not stop trying to capture the crazy-making tooth angel. I took this photo at about 4:15 p.m.:


Closer:

At approximately 4:20 Harper asked Michael if he'd like to wiggle it, instead he bopped it right out of her mouth. We found it on the computer room carpet.

The Tooth Fairy will be delivering a gold dollar coin this evening. Hallelujah!

In Which I Obsess About That Tooth (And We Bake)

The tooth! I cannot seem to get convincing photographic evidence of how disturbing I find it. Nor can I explain why I want to look at it all the time. Here is how it looked last Wednesday:


And today it is making an even more compelling case for eviction:


I may or may not be suppressing urges to accidentally elbow Harper in the mouth...



She can move it back and forth with her bottom teeth. And she stands next to me, moving it, tooth clicking against tooth.

Click. Click. Click.

Must. Not. Elbow. Child.

I mean, I know it will be fine if the tooth is still there when we get photos taken on Thursday. But it won't possibly still be hanging so crazily on Thursday, right? Maybe I can get Michael to wrestle it out...

Are all top front teeth this maddening?

What? You don't want to hear more about Harper's tooth? FINE.

After dinner Harper helped me baked cookies. I'm contributing them to a book swap event at a school where I used to teach and I now volunteer in the library.

Although, when I say helped, I should probably say I helped Harper bake the cookies. I assisted with some measuring tasks, partially managed the hand mixer, and formed the dough into little balls - Harper did everything else. She is getting to be quite the pro in the kitchen.

It wasn't even very stressful to bake together. I was hardly crabby at all! The only stern words needed were when she couldn't seem to remember that the fresh out of the oven cookie sheets were hot. (Too bad I couldn't find a way to take her tooth out with a cookie sheet, or stray shake of sprinkles.)

These are made from my very favorite sugar cookie recipe - and they aren't cutouts, even better. The are crunchy and yet they sort of melt in your mouth. Yum!


We have to make another batch later this week for the spaghetti dinner at Harper's elementary school. How long do you think it will be before I can just tell her to go whip up some cookies while I read with my feet up?

Jiggity Jig

I did go to Chicago and now I'm home again. It was completely rejuvenating to spend time with my friend Cindy and her husband.

Fortunately everyone was just fine on the home front. Matt really took one for the team this weekend!

In other news... It is officially Toothwatch 2010. We are supposed to have family photos taken this Thursday and one of Harper's middle teeth is hanging at an unfortunate angle. I will be encouraging as much tooth wiggling as possible in the next few days. I think a gap will be preferable to the way the tooth looks now - like it can't wait to escape from her mouth. I'll try to post a picture tomorrow.

Play Ball!

I don't know if I've mentioned before that Matt's company is a sponsor for the local minor league ball team. Occasionally he will have a suite at the ball park to entertain clients and sometimes we get to tag along. We can control the food that comes into the suite so this is the only way we feel comfortable taking the kids to a ball game - the rest of the place is covered in peanuts.

Harper has been to games with Matt a couple of times, but this August was Michael's first trip. He loved it and still talks about going to the ball game.

Matt's dad came to, he is a good child-wrangler.

This summer Harper tried to teach Michael to sing, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." You may notice that we have taken liberties with the named snacks, you know, to make it peanut allergy friendly.

Hopeful

In about an hour I am supposed to get in the car and drive to Chicago to spend the weekend with one of my best college friends. So of course the kids were each up several times last night with nightmares, stuffy noses, coughs, etc. GREAT! I hemmed and hawed about whether to go, but I think I'm going to hit the road as planned. The kids are tired today but seem to be suffering from run of the mill colds. Harper actively wants me to go because then she gets to spend some extra time with Matt's mom.

I'm sure they will all survive the weekend, but maybe send good vibes that I won't need to turn around and come back to Ohio tomorrow...

8 Years, 3 Months, 8 Days

That's how long Matt and I have been married.

When I was in the hospital for several weeks before Michael's birth I was pumped full of fluids. It didn't occur to me to take my wedding band off (I had removed my engagement ring) until it was way too late. Someone from maintenance had to cut it off once it started to hurt my finger. At the time that ring was the least of my worries.

When I was in my third trimester with Harper and my rings were too snug, I got a very thin gold band at JC Penny and wore it in place of my rings. After Michael was born I just slipped that ring back on and I've been wearing it for over two-and-a-half years. This past week Matt took my rings to the jeweler and, just like that, I have them back. Until I put them back on my finger today I hadn't realized how much I'd missed them. I almost cried in the jewelery store.

It's not that they are prettier or more expensive than my other band (although they are), it's that these are the rings Matt gave me. The one he got down on one knee and proposed with and the one he slipped on my finger in our family church in Wisconsin. No other rings in the world could replace these rings. I'm so grateful to have them where they belong.


Incidentally I discovered two things tonight:

1) I am not a good photographer of rings.

2) I will NEVER find work as a hand model.

P.S. The rings are gold, not silver or white gold, as seems to be the rage these days. I just couldn't get the photo to look decent in full color.

Mr. Michael

Today kind of got away from me so I'm just going to share a couple of things Michael says that make me laugh - this is the kind of stuff I'll almost certainly forget if I don't write it down.


- Michael's newest verbal quirk is saying, "Huh?" Which is actually sort of annoying but a little bit cute. I don't know where he picked it up. In true two-year-old fashion it often comes out as, "Huh why?"

-Michael sometimes calls me "Mama," sometimes, "Mom," and recently, "Mom-mom." I kind of like "Mom-mom," mostly because I know that won't last.

-I may have mentioned this one before, but when Michael wants something repeated he'll say, "Mo-gen?" Which is the way he morphs more and again into one word.

-My favorite, favorite, favorite thing Michael says is, "No-me-ah-fine," but he says it all run together. It means, "No me, I'm fine." It is used something like this:

Me: Here Michael put your coat on.

Michael: Nomeahfine.

or

Me: Here Michael, wipe your nose.

Michael: Nomeahfine!

Love it!

I Heart November

Okay, so, as much as I hate Halloween, I look forward to it because November happens the very next day.

My birthday is in November. And Harper's birthday. And the birthdays of several of my most wonderful friends. It is a seriously great month for birthdays. And I am not embarrassed to admit how much I love and look forward to my birthday. Since Harper's birthday is close to mine, my parents and siblings are almost always in town to celebrate - isn't that nice of them?

I also love election day, especially when there are big races. Sure our system isn't perfect, but I LOVE that we all get to participate. It's truly remarkable. I took the kids to the polls for the last presidential election, but have voted by absentee ballot in the last two elections (we had a special one last May). Can I convince you of the awesomeness that is the absentee ballot? Discovering I could do that ranks right up there with the day I realized I could basically order books from the library and get email notification when they were ready for me. Especially for those of you with little kids or long work hours, seriously, absentee ballot is the way to go.

I'm a little nervous tonight because we have a very important school levy on the ballot, one that failed in May. It will mean some ugly things for our local schools if it doesn't pass. I know I have fairly narrow vision on this issue, I just can't understand why you wouldn't vote to support public schools... Sigh.

Where was I? Oh yes, November.

Do you know what else happens in November? Thanksgiving. And the day after Thanksgiving - the day that Christmas restriction is lifted and we bust out all the holiday music, movies, books and decorations. I really love that.

*****

You guys are kind of hard- hitting with the questions! Some of those will be fun to answer over the next couple of weeks. Keep them coming - if today's post is any indication, I'll definitely be struggling for material.

NaBlo What?

Aw shucks! Okay, since people are still willing to read here I will take on National Blog Posting Month once again.

I looked back at my archives and this will be my fifth go at NaBloPoMo, which is hard to believe.

Just in case I run out of ideas, I'm always curious if there is anything in particular you'd like to hear about - so feel free to leave ideas/questions in the comments.

So yes, just a quick post to say I'm in and look forward to seeing you all often this month.

Halloween: We Survived

Before I post the obligatory pumpkin and costume pictures I'm wondering... National Blog Posting Month - does anyone care this year? By "anyone" I don't mean the internet at large, I mean the readers of this space. My posting has been so sporadic this fall that I fear many readers have fallen off. I guess I still like the challenge of posting every day and there is usually lots to write about in November, but I'm not sure how motivated I am if only three people are reading (Hi Dad!). If you would read posts every day for a month this might be a good time to leave a comment and let me know - er, or I might have to let this one slide...

So, anyway, here are the pumpkin carving pictures. Which reminds me that I need to find time to roast those seeds! This first picture is included primarily to display Harper's incredible bed head:


Michael was fairly adamant about not touching any of the pumpkin innards, but he loved to look inside:


Harper, on the other hand, dug right in a separated a lot of the seeds. That is, she separated seeds when she wasn't busy playing in the goop.


This was an incredibly lazy year for me in the costume department. Meaning we just went to the costume store one Friday night and let the kids make a choice. (Side note: part of what I don't like about Halloween is the level of sexy in the girls' costumes, even the ones for little girls!)

Poor Harper was very excited about her Toy Story costume, but had a terrible time keeping the hat on her (large) noggin. Michael was a "dragonsaurus" which I guess is a dragon or dinosaur, depending on the mood of your two-year-old or the interpretation of the people handing out candy.


Are there pictures of Jessie posing like this? Because Harper did the exact same thing every time I tried to take a solo picture of her.


This was Michael's first year for actual trick-or-treating and he was a champ. When we noticed it we took unsafe (nutty) candy out of Harper's bucket, but Michael had a fit if we tried to touch his. At each house he'd turn around, hold up what he'd been given, and shout, "Yook!" to us. So precious, it never got old.

By the end of the night it was an hour past his bedtime and he was carrying a bucket way too heavy for him - he was the dragon stumbling along as if he'd just spent a few hours at the pub. He didn't actually give up until about a block from the car when he handed over his bucket and reached out for one of us to carry him.


So yes, we survived Halloween. We even survived Harper's school party where a well-meaning but misguided parent (grandparent?) tried to hand out mini Snickers bars to the kids. (I, uh, intervened, explaining the room was nut free, but had a little moment of panic for sure.)

Aaaand we can close the books on Halloween 2010. Thank goodness!

Talkin' Books

Let me set a scene for you... The children and I are sitting in the living room, just before bedtime, and I've convinced them to stop playing tornado and read some books to settle down. Harper dug into our seasonal book basket and found a few Gail Gibbons books that she recognized from school. Moments later she starts telling me why the books by Gail Gibbons are so wonderful and it seemed like something I might like to record. I stopped her, sent her for the camera, and we resumed. The resulting video is below.

Now I know listening to my kid talk about non-fiction books is probably not the best way you can think of to spend seven minutes. If you know us personally, and have met Harper, you may find it entertaining. My favorite part is at the end when she starts giving tips for parents and husbands. I also think there is something kind of profound to her idea that learning more about your fears helps you not to be afraid of them.

This wasn't scripted or rehearsed in any way - if it was I probably would have thought of better questions to ask her! Perhaps another book talk or two will show up during National Blog Posting Month...

Stormy Weather

Last night the dog was acting WEIRD. He was barking at nothing, walking around with his tail pinned down, unsettled. I took him outside to see if he was having an urgent bathroom need and he stood in the center of our driveway, noise pointed upward, tail down, on ALERT. I had to drag him back inside. I told Matt we were either going to be surprised by an earthquake or a HUGE storm was brewing. But I was also kind of waiting to be jumped by a vampire. Dog pacing does not inspire security, you know?

Shortly after taking him outside a weather advisory was issued for high wind through tonight. So no earthquake for now.

It is pretty weird to have the tornado sirens sound at the end of October. Watching the weather on television I actually called Michael's preschool (he eats lunch at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays) to see if I should come and get him early. I was worried, based on the long line of red barreling toward us on the radar, that we might not be able to get him at his regular pick up time. The director said it wasn't like they'd kick him out at 12:31 and we decided to leave well enough alone.

Can you imagine where Harper and I were at the 12:30 pick up time?

Huddled under the table in the basement, listening to the wind howl in the chimney, almost drowning out the wailing of the tornado siren. Harper snuggled up against me, whimpering, and asking when it would be over. Poor girl couldn't even manage to get her lunch down.

So we did retrieve Michael about 1/2 an hour late. The kids and teachers had also done some time in their "safe zone" - a bathroom - but were settling in for naps when we arrived. Michael didn't seem any worse for the wear and maybe now he will believe me when I tell him all his preschool friends (the ones who stay for extended care) take naps when he leaves.

Fortunately we didn't have any damage here, just some blown over patio chairs.

And maybe a few shaken nerves.

Fall Festivities

Ah yes, the Halloween season is again upon us. Do I need to remind you how I detest Halloween? And how having a child with food allergies has not helped matters? I mean please, peanut butter cups were one of the only redeeming qualities Halloween had to offer!

I will admit that I look forward to roasting pumpkin seeds, but the process of cleaning them off... don't get me started!

Friday night, for Family Night, we gussied up a couple of pumpkins, potato head style. My mom gave the kids these kits last year and it was a brilliant choice. Harper clearly loved revisiting her witch kit.


Michael was pretty excited about things as well. As the pirate pieces fell into place he kept exclaiming, "Mah punkeen bootifoo!" (My pumpkin's beautiful!)


Then we made him go to bed and he cried. Sadly every night can't have a happy ending.

Harper, on the other hand, got to stay up a bit later and "help" me make potato soup. She worked on peeling potatoes. She'd never peeled potatoes before. I don't know if you have ever peeled potatoes with a five-year-old, but it is quite a task. I use little baby red potatoes for soup so peeling is probably more difficult.

Maybe I should have started her on carrots.


Harper peeled potatoes at the rate of about one every ten minutes. It. Was. Agonizing. But you can't learn without doing it, right? And all the other tasks involved chopping things with very sharp knives and I wasn't eager to visit the ER.

Harper sticks her tongue out when she concentrates.

Even though things went along a little more slowly than normal I really enjoyed my kitchen time with Harper. She was just so happy to be able to help and she was cracking me up with the things she was saying. At one point she commented, "This (peeling potatoes) is a great thing to do while you're just hanging out and chatting." She also said something about the potato skins being students and she was like the bus driver taking them to school. She followed that comment by reminding me that she has a really big imagination.

Today Harper helped me make a loaf of bread to go with the soup and Michael helped me make brownies. Maybe the two of them will open a restaurant one day!

Hakin

Hakin. That's Michael-speak for hiking, which is a loose interpretation of what we did Saturday morning.

I've written before about how incredible our metro park system is - we have a glorious assortment of diverse parks to visit and it's pretty shameful how few of them we've actually been to see.

There is one park in particular, that I've been semi-aware of since my college days, that is only minutes away from our house. Saturday was cool and sunny, we had no morning/afternoon plans, and we decided to head out.

To be fair, last year at this time (or even a couple of months ago) we really would have needed a stroller to take any kind of long walk. Neither Matt nor I every had much luck w/ baby wearing and I do think it limited us a bit in where we were able to take the kids. BUT Michael is a hardy explorer these days and Matt agreed in advance to carry him if he really had a difficult time. We decided to drive to a parking area near a "trail head" and just see how things would go.


We could not have picked a better day for our mini-adventure. What is it about being in the woods? The sound of our feet crunching the carpet of leaves, the smell of earth and cool weather, the gentle noise of birds and wind in the trees - it was heavenly.

This is something I want for our kids. To know the particular kind of light that filters through tree tops. To understand what it is to enjoy being outside, to appreciate their surroundings, to delight in the world with out needing other stuff for entertainment. To enjoy walking and talking and laughing together.

Harper stubbornly turned over log after log, searching for slugs. Michael tried to pick up a daddy long legs and jumped about twenty feet when it scurried away. They threw leaves and gathered sticks. They tripped and fell and survived it. Michael actually did a fairly hilarious face-plant into the leaves but carried forth like the trooper that he is. He earned his story to tell, "Me hakin! Me fall down!"

We threw things into the water and watched to see what happened. We marveled - the children at the world, Matt and I at the children.


As we walked there was actually a golf course running along one side of the park and a fairly busy road on the other. It didn't matter. We were in our own little world. When Harper and Michael remember these times, they will think we were in the middle of nowhere.


Lucky for us, nowhere is only about five minutes away. We plan to go back often.

Just for Fun

Okay here are two things for you:

1) Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading

This book was so much fun. I read everything I could get my hands on from about second grade on and this book brought back incredibly fond memories. It's worth checking out if you were reading young adult literature in the 70's and 80's.

2) Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

I thought that video was both adorable and hilarious. It is safe for your kiddos to watch with you. The first time Harper watched she wandered away after about a minute saying she didn't "get it" but has found subsequent viewings highly enjoyable.

You're welcome.

Wisdom for a Sibling

Tonight Harper turned to Michael in the bathtub and said, "Michael, you never poop in the bath. If you do that your bath will be over."

It's nice that she can pass this stuff on to him, right?

Thank Goodness They're Funny

Wow - as soon as we have a moment where I feel like we're all existing pleasantly the kids go completely bonkers. Right now the difficulty is this: if I want to get anything accomplished during their waking hours I have to deal with the chaos of them fighting and breaking things and screaming and did I mention the fighting?

Michael has developed some sort of sudden onset toddler psychosis - which happened approximately one day before he hit the 2.5 mark. (In case you haven't been hanging on my every word for the last five years just know that from age 2.5 to 3.5 was by far the most difficult year, for me, of Harper's young life.) Michael was apparently visited by the testosterone fairy because he is suddenly prone to throwing things, hitting, and vehemently disagreeing with us.

And Harper, while she is enjoying school immensely, is sort of over it by the time she gets home, and can be generally tired, hungry, and cranky.

Kids!

Anyway, it helps that they occasionally say things that make me pee my pants laughing. Here are a handful of examples from the last month or so:

1) Michael learned a song about a turtle that ends with hand clap and enthusiastic, "Pop!" But Michael has, among other speech quirks, trouble with final consonants so when he sings the song it comes out, "Pot!"

We were singing the turtle song on the way north for our Michigan trip when Harper piped up and said, "Wow, Michael's really going to know how to say 'pot' when he gets to college!"

Of course she meant because he'd said it so often singing the turtle song, but that's not why we laughed.

2) Michael and I had dropped Harper off at school one morning and were discussing where everyone goes/what they do during the day. Daddy is at work, Harper goes to school, Michael sometimes goes to school, etc.

I said to Michael, "I don't go to work anymore, what do I do during the day?"

To which he replied, "Keen uppa duh pyates!" (Clean up the plates.)

And I do.

3) Yesterday Harper was looking at the sudoku book I have been working on and read the title, "Light and Easy Sudoku, Volume 2." She paused for a moment and then asked, "Does that mean it is only a little bit loud?"

Because of the word volume...

I laughed for about five minutes and then she looked at me and said, "Are you going to write that down?"

Feeling Seuss-ish

Harper 5.10

Her tongue sticks out when she concentrates - dribbling on the basketball court and coloring at the kitchen table. She sleeps with a light on beside her bed. She still says "lusually" and "amblee-ance". She reads big kid books by herself but still likes to play with the Little People toys. She is scared of bugs but brave in a swimming pool.

Almost six.

Dry Spell

Oh hi! How are you guys?

A couple of days ago a friend of mine called, just to make sure we were okay, because it had been so long since I updated here...

Oops.

We're all fine - though I won't lie, things have been a little cranky lately. After Michael was sick Harper was sick, and I was away for the weekend (Reuniting with college friends!), and then my mom was here. I just sort of walked away from the blog thing, but I missed it and now I'm back.



We'll see how the rest of the month goes.

Torn

First of all, an update: Michael is feeling so much better! He actually slept through the night last night. He made it to school today, had a great day, and is taking a good nap. Praise the Lord! (Oh man though, I'm really nervous about cold and flu season, having pneumonia when it's barely September does not bode well for the rest of the school year ya know?)

Okay, in no particular order here some things I'm feeling conflicted about:

1) How much to politely interfere with Harper's kindergarten experience.

Based on the work they are doing (and I know it's just been a week) it may take Harper's teacher a very long time to figure out that the child can read and decide to do anything about it. I don't want her to completely change the curriculum for Harper. Trust me, there's plenty of kindergarten stuff she needs to learn. BUT if Mrs. H does have some methods for making adjustments it might be helpful if she had a head's up about Harper's skill level in that area, right? On the other hand, when I taught, sometimes I would get that kind of information from parents and it would actually feel more like they were saying their child was too smart for the grade level and I shouldn't be making said child do ANY grade level work. I really don't want the teacher to think I feel that way about it. (Yes, I'm open to suggestions here.)

2) Television.

Not for the kids, for me! I feel like if I am not watching television at all, it isn't hard not to watch it. If I am watching it (there are many TV series I like, I'm easily entertained) I tend to watch a lot of it. Television and I have kind of an all or nothing relationship. Of course I would still watch football, even if I did stop with the week to week stuff. Do any of you watch TV? What do you like? I'm not too worried about example setting here because I primarily watch after the kids are in bed.

3) Speaking of staying at home...

I loved the job I had last spring, LOVED IT. Have I mentioned how much I loved it? It honestly felt like I was finally doing the job I was meant to do. (Er, unless relaxing in a hammock and reading is a job, in which case that's what I need to be doing.) But I hated the feeling that there was not one second to spare when it came to all the things that needed to be done at home. And it seemed like doing things I really enjoyed doing (writing, blogging and blog reading, reading, etc.) all came at the expense of sleep. And I hated trying to figure out what I was going to bring for lunch every day.

Now I'm not working. And I actually have a little free time. And I kind of love that too. I love that I'm blogging at two in the afternoon. I love that I read at least 50 pages of a book today (and did some laundry). I love that I can go volunteer for the PTO fundraiser tonight and not have it mean that I won't see my kids at all today. I love dropping them off and picking them up from school. I love that we didn't have to rock-paper-scissors to see who would stay home with a sick Michael last week.

I have a degree and a job that I'd really like doing, but I'm actually enjoying being a stay-at-home mom more than I ever have. Something that started to feel true last winter, just before I got my long-term sub job. I do feel like it is the right thing for me and our family for me to head back to work at some point. I would have gone this year if I could have found something. But now that I'm not working, part of me feels like it would also be okay if it took five years to find that job.

*****

I think that's enough to ponder for now. What are you hemming and hawing about these days?

Discouraged

Oh you guys, Michael has pneumonia!

Thank goodness our pediatrician is open on Saturday mornings or things may have grown much worse before we realized. He's had a fever for four days now and his sleep is all messed up... Last night I was up with him from about 10:30 until 2 a.m.! Neither of us was at our best this morning that's for sure.

Most of our family plans for this long weekend have been derailed. Fortunately Matt has been willing/able to take Harper out so she hasn't missed all of the festivities. They went to a high school football game Friday night, to a festival yesterday, and tomorrow will head to our local parade - the Labor Day Parade is HUGE in our city.

I have been the official toddler-snuggler/nose-wiper/medicine-dispenser for the weekend. Poor Michael is so pitiful when Matt and Harper are leaving to go somewhere fun and he looks up at me and says, "Me go too?"

At this point I'll just be happy if he's ready to go back to school Tuesday.

90210

We've been back to school for exactly seven school days and Michael was home sick today!

Le sigh.

It was not a great day, and the crowning moment may have been at dinner when Harper somehow went flying from her chair. FLYING - feet above the chair - arms flailing - its kind of amazing no bones were broken/no blood shed.

Sidebar: Do others of you have five-year-olds who cannot, for the love of all that is holy, sit still at a dinner table?

In the process she knocked her full cup of milk into the air and it gracefully showered Michael before landing all over the kitchen floor. So in about .5 seconds we went from relatively peaceful dinner to two scah-reaming children, one of them covered in milk, and one dog lapping up milk puddles which would likely induce vomiting.

Have I mentioned that Matt wasn't home?

So, uh, yeah, that was today.

BUT today was also two phone calls from far away friends, and a few miraculous minutes in which to conduct them in peace.

My complaints are few, truly, though I wouldn't mind getting through tomorrow without anyone being showered in milk.