It's the little things

that keep me sane.

During snack time SkyWalker and I discussed what he wanted to get Vader for Christmas. He said "train." I laughed. Here we go again. I said "Are you sure he wants a train?"
"Yes. Gordon. Daddy and SkyWalker like Gordon."
Then I said "What about a CD?"
"A CD??"
"Yeah. Music that he likes."
"We have one CD, we don't need two" as he holds up one finger for emphasis.

This from the boy who wanted to get another Stepney train for his father's birthday.

There's all sorts of crap going on with FIL that I don't want to get into here. Short version: I don't think there's much time left.

The Princess has been rolling over on her tummy at naptime. What's so unusual about that? She's still FULLY SWADDLED. This is supposed to be impossible. At the very least it is not safe. So I've begun the unswaddling process... I tried cold turkey yesterday and nearly went insane. Today I've been leaving one arm out. It took her over an hour to fall asleep for her second nap. It was not a pleasant afternoon.

For those of you dying to know... I have chosen the celadon color for my matron of honor dress. Now I need to find a little dress in the same color for the Princess. Because I am one of "those moms."

Speaking of "those moms", I am wearing capris that don't look like capris because I'm so short and me legs are cold but I am wearing them anyway because SkyWalker picked them out. He picks out my clothes for work. Usually he's pretty good, but he insisted on the capris today. And a black sparkly shirt that he's been eyeing all week.

Both of them were up last night. I am SO TIRED. That is the hardest part about having two kids...trying to synchronize naps so you can get something done... hoping that they both sleep through the night. If one does, the other is up for some reason. Last night they alternated. It was ridiculous.

We need to leave the house at 8:45 tomorrow morning to make it to soccer on time. I will be getting home around 9:30 tonight, watching Scrubs and the Office and I'll need to shower. Argh. I hope they sleep tonight...

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Carpe Diem

All summer long I wore nursing camis. They were WONDERFUL. Easy.

Cami

I just undid the hook at the top, and I was ready to go. No playing with flaps or underlayers or any of that crap. But now, it is winter. And I am cold. Sigh. I cannot wear these without turning my heat up to 80 and I'm not ready to go there yet. I do have double zip sweaters (zip up from the bottom) and I wear these under them or a nursing bra, but it's just not the same. I need one of my knitting friends to knit me a sweater that's like the cami--that pulls down from the top. I'm pretty sure this is impossible. But I'm also pretty sure that if it's not impossible, one of my knitting friends could do it. They're pretty good.

The Princess had her check-up today. She is 15 pounds, 15 ounces, 25 and 3/4 inches. 50% both height and weight. She's slowed down in her weight gain (which is normal for breastfed babies and totally fine since she was getting to be a chunky monkey). She's got eczema just like big brother and Daddy. But doing just fine. SkyWalker got his flu shot without any crying. He winced, said "That hurt!" but took it like a big boy. I was so proud of him. Having Daddy there helped though.

You know when you start to feel bad for yourself and do a lot of complaining and then you hear something that makes you stop and say "What the hell am I feeling bad for??" One of my friends lost her uncle (father's brother) the other night--car crash. The very next day another uncle, also her father's brother, had an apparent heart attack and died in his sleep. He was making funeral arrangements. So now her poor father has lost TWO brothers in just TWO days. Can you even imagine? How horrible is that? My heart goes out to their entire family.

Carpe diem man. Carpe Diem.

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Little late

I got tagged by Bee back in October... oops.

Four Jobs I Have Had In My Life:

librarian
book store assistant manager
library page
um, yeah, that's it.

Four Movies I Would Watch Over and Over:

Something About Mary
40 Year Old Virgin
The Princess Bride
Anchorman

Four Places I Have Lived:

No
Way
In
Hell

Four TV Shows I Watch:

Heroes -- http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/
The Office -- http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/
How I Met Your Mother
Scrubs

Four Places I Have Been:

Hawaii
Poconos
NYC
Boston

Four of My Favorite Foods:

spaghetti and turkey balls (if I make it)
pizza 
baked ziti (if I make it)
cheese cake. :-)

Four Sites I Visit Daily:

gmail.com
vox.com
hotmail.com
private bulletin board of may/june moms

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:

i'm already home...
someplace warm.
a beach
Texas.

Four Bloggers I Tag:
Nope. I'm a non-tagger. I break all the rules. ;-) 

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Stuffy

My head is stuffy. My throat hurts. How could I have gotten sick? I leave my fortress of a home so very little... sigh... the kids are not sick. So it must be this damn library that I work at a measly 2 nights a week. Bah! I was just remarking that this is the healthiest we have EVER been. The Princess is 6 months and has yet to have a cold... SkyWalker has been healthy in the same amount of time--no daycare does the trick. We do go to soccer and storytime, but I think daycare is the real culprit in the cold wars. Anyway, after feeding the Princess this morning and eating my own breakfast I went back to bed for an hour and a half. My throat feels a bit better but I still have that stuffy feeling. Naturally since Thanksgiving is coming up.

I've come to the conclusion that life is just too short for bullshit. For grudges and misunderstandings. For petty little problems. It's time to seize the day.

FIL is supposed to be released today. He's being sent home with fluids that MIL will have to give through a port. His left tube has been implanted but the right kidney is still not working and they're just leaving it alone. And that's all I know about that. I find myself thanking the FSM that MIL is healthy and can do all of this. I don't know what we'd do if she were to get sick as well... well, I do know, we'd have to consider a live-in nurse or nursing home or hospice, whatever. I can't take care of 2 kids, 2 dogs, and in-laws.

Vader has taken the whole week off and I am so excited. My original plan was to spend the entire day tomorrow cleaning. That may change depending on how I feel when I wake up. At least I'll get some more laundry done and maybe just the kitchen. The kids have their flu shots on Tuesday, as well as the Princess's 6 month checkup, and Vader is going with us. I was NOT going to take 2 kids for flu shots by myself. No thank you.

I am waiting for Bagel to come with a donut. Doesn't that sound funny?

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Tick Tock

This has been the longest Saturday ever. Probably not *ever*, but you know what I mean. If I were home right now I would be saying, "I can't believe it's after 3 already! I have so much more to do!" But alas, I am working and I am saying "I can't believe it's only 3!"

I just love parents who think the library is free daycare. And that I am a secretary who will go looking for a kid... if you're that concerned how about you come to the library with him? Instead of dumping him for HOURS?

Our playdate yesterday went well. We enjoyed ourselves and SkyWalker said he wanted to go back, so that's good. It's funny though, whenever I say "we're going to go play with [whoever it may be]" he says "okay. and littleman?". Sigh.

I've fixed the Princess's sleeping problem (eating at night... not eating during the day... then eating at night), but now she likes to wake up at 5:30, roll over to her tummy and SCREAM until Vader goes upstairs to roll her back over. Once she's rolled over she's usually okay to go back to sleep. I hope she remembers how to roll over to her back soon... she did that first but once she started rolling to her tummy there was no stopping her and she just forgot how to fix herself. Vader has to go up though because if she sees me she'll only want one thing. At least that's what I'm telling him...

We've gotten SkyWalker to say "Bada Bing Bada Boom." It is HILARIOUS.

We are leaving at 7 am on Wednesday morning. I think I might be crazy. But it works better for the kids to travel in the morning. We have 10:30 ferry reservations and hopefully we'll make them. SkyWalker did okay last time, not needing to stop and pee so it should be okay. If it's early enough he hasn't had a full day of drinking...

Pumping break is over... back to "work."

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Classification

SkyWalker has been practicing his sorting, classification and labeling skills. I.E yelling "That man has a bald head" in the middle of Denny's. Or storytime. I suppose I should be glad that in storytime he did not say "That man has a black bald head."

He loves to group people by their similarities--usually involving hair--but is also big into labeling boys and girls, men and women. The funniest though was this afternoon during snack time. I was telling him that I still needed to get ready for work and he said "No, Mommy NOT need to go to work." I said "Oh yeah, who's gonna pay the bills? You?" and his response was "No, my not a woman!" What the hell?? Only women pay bills? That's the funniest nonsensical stereotype I have ever heard.

I am mostly done with my Christmas shopping and those that I haven't bought for I at least know what I'm doing for them. I bought my Christmas Eve pajamas for myself, as well as the slippers I asked Vader for since I saw them while I was shopping. I've asked him to do my stocking and to get me one thing that's a surprise. He has no idea what to get me. None. I could walk around in a bathrobe with holes in it and he would not think to get me a new robe. I could say "Wow, I wish I had a cheesy bracelet with my kids names on it" and he would not think to get it. Unless I say "Buy this for me" and give him explicit directions, he just doesn't pick up on "clues." And even if there aren't actual things that I could use (like a nice new black bathrobe) or want (like a cheese bracelet), I am OBSESSED with Buffy and Wonder Woman. At the very least he could get me some silly Buffy thing and I would be happy.

The Princess is 6 months old today. I can't believe that 6 months have actually passed... it seems like just yesterday. We celebrated by making out, our usual afternoon activity. The problem with making out with a 6 month old is that she takes it too seriously and always tries to stick her tongue in my mouth. Or spit up on me. That was gross. Oh, gross that's a g-word. Anyway, she loves it when I kiss her neck and chin and she giggles and it is the best thing in the world. No, the best thing in the world is when she sneezes and farts at the same time. THAT is hilarious.

One of Vader's friends has volunteered to feed the dogs in the evening and MIL will do it in the morning, so it looks like we'll make it to Thanksgiving on LI.  Which is good since I need to have my "measurements" taken for my matron of honor dress. I need to decide on a color since I'm not too fond of the buttercup yellow that the other girls are wearing...  consensus seems to be with a light green or blue... I need to go through the 18 or 19 suggestions of my friends and see which one wins out. ;-)

There is a bag of cheese doodles on Bee's chair. I swear to you, it is calling to me. I'm trying to ignore it, but, oh, the temptation is strong.

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Perspective

My best friend is a million miles away. Or so it seems. But, we live in an age of e-mail and cell phones and blogs and there are things in the air that take you places.

Yesterday was a holiday. In the past I would have had to work since the library does not believe in holidays. But not anymore... so instead of working and watching other people enjoy the day off with their families, the entire Jedi clan went to the science museum. SkyWalker loved having his Daddy there (although he did mention Littleman), the Princess actually slept for 30 minutes !in public!. And earlier that day SkyWalker swept the garage with his Daddy. We ate dinner together. It was lovely.

The neighbor canceled our playdate yesterday so we'll have to set up a new one. But we have others lined up with our old friends (who have a son SkyWalker's age and are in the same school district).

SkyWalker did wonderful at storytime today. He did ask if Littleman would be there, but he didn't let his absence stop him from having a good time. He stood up and danced and answered questions and walked AWAY FROM ME to dance with other kids. It was thrilling.

After storytime we went to Wal-Mart so SkyWalker could pick out a Christmas present for his sister.  He really wanted a Winnie the pooh rattle like the Tigger rattle she already has but they didn't have it. So he settled on a regular rattle and a Pooh doll. It was so cute seeing him looking and having him say that "she needs a Pooh rattle".

When we got home and the Princess took a nap we went outside. We crammed everything we could into half an hour. He had to pee so he dropped his pants to pee in the grass. I was holding him and pushing his heiney so he wouldn't pee on his shoes... and he farted into my hand. Twice. Good times.

But they are good times... I am home with my children. I can enjoy the day instead of hear about it from someone else. For the first time in AGES I am not worried about the winter. If it's snowing, I'm already home. I just have to worry about staying warm when he wants to play outside. And I'm sure I will feel bad for The Nice Librarian and Bee but if it's snowing and there's any kind of accumulation there's really just no way I'll make it to work... for Vader to leave his high paying job early enough to come home and plow so I can drive for an hour to work 3 1/2 hours makes no sense. And if it's bad enough for him to leave early, it's too bad for me to drive. So for the first time I'm just not worrying about snow. If I can't get out of my driveway and there's no one home to watch the kids, um, yeah, I'm not going in.

I have a wonderful group of friends who may be scattered throughout the country, but are close in more important ways. We share secrets and support each other.

I have great co-workers... who are friends... even if we'll never be able to do anything because they're always working. ;-)

And I have wonderful siblings. Siblings that make me miss Long Island. And who the hell would miss Long Island?

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