BFF

Big. Fat. Failure.

That's what the sleep fairy was last night. For a past few weeks Alyssa has been getting up at least once in the middle of the night. She doesn't seem to want or need anything, she'll just show up next to my side of bed and want me to walk her back to her room. Sometimes she'll let me tuck her in; sometimes she'll "make" me wait until she's tucked herself back in. Sometimes she'll ask for music, sometimes she'll ask for kisses, sometimes she'll asleep by the time we get back to her room.

So after a friend of mine had success with the "sleep fairy", I decided to give it a try. I bought a cute little trinket box and told Alyssa that I had run into the sleep fairy and that she knew that she hadn't been staying in her bed at night. The sleep fairy gave me a special box to give to Alyssa to put somewhere in her room and then told me to tell her that if she stayed in her bed all night long, she would leave Alyssa a special little present. I stocked up on cute little things from the dollar store and I was ready to go. I think she was up 4 times last night. *sigh* In her defense, one of the times was about 1 AM to tell me that Adam had forgotten to put a diaper on her when she went to bed and one of the times it was thundering, so I did let her crawl in bed with us.

Tonight I'm going to try putting a radio in her room and see if the "white noise" helps. Any other suggestions? Besides medication and locking her in her room?

It sucks so much that it took me a year to get Joel to sleep through the night and now he sleeps like an absolute CHAMP and his sister is a big pain in my rump!

Can any of the locals enlighten me?

If people decide to kick Fahey out of office, then does the ball park controversy "disappear"? This question kept me up last night for some reason. Maybe because I saw some people out "picketing" yesterday afternoon. I kind of wish I had paid closer attention so that I understood what all the hubbub is about.

Its official!

I'm officially a soccer mom! Alyssa played her first soccer game today. And Adam "assistant to the coach"ed his first soccer game today. It was an absolute riot. Unfortunately it was cold and windy today, so hopefully once it warms up it'll be a lot more fun for them to play ... and for us to watch!

To My Sister

What I would really love to say, but don't have the guts.

"You're lazy and selfish and you need to pull your head out of your ass and realize that their are other people in the world. Yes, you have a difficult life, but a large, large majority of it is your own fault. Deal with it. There are people a lot worse off than you through no fault of their own that would give anything to be in your shoes and have the opportunities you have dropped at your feet, but are too lazy to pick them up."

Note this is my OLDER sister. My sister who in 2 years will turn 40. It makes me sad.

Quiet

Alyssa has her first soccer "practice" tonight. (Five 3 year-old girls ... I'm betting it goes something along the lines of "this is a soccer ball. Try to kick it.") Adam took her so that he could help Amy coach. Should be an interesting experience for all involved. ;) Joel and I had some good play and cuddle time while they were gone, but he ready to crash by 7. Frankly, I was ready to crash, too. So I put him to bed and for the last 30 minutes I've been sitting here enjoying the silence. I never used to enjoy silence. I was one of those people that always had to have the TV on or radio on for background noise. Ah, how children change your life.

And with that thought ... the garage door just burst open. Back to the craziness!

Perplexing

Today while making lunch I found myself thinking, "Wow, I had forgotten how much I really love being a stay at home mom". The kicker is that I can to this realization after spending the morning running all around town. Strange, eh?

For those of you that don't know, I have daycare kids Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays, but still have Tuesdays and Fridays just for me and the kids. Most of my "mom" days just end up feeling like days that I need to cram as much in as possible. For some reason today was a "good" SAHM day and I was reminded of how much I miss those days. But again, the dumb thing is, we didn't stay at home. We all got up, had breakfast, got dressed and then made our first stop at the Y where the kids played (or sobbed in Joel's case) and I got a good workout in. We then picked up some groceries and stop by the park for a few minutes on our way home before heading home for lunch. Followed by that glorious thing known as naptime ... or shower and clean up the house time for mommy.

Anyway, today made me look forward to my "extra" kids growing up and going to school because in the back of my mind I keep thinking that I'll only do daycare for the families that I have currently and I'm fairly sure no one is planning on any babies coming along. But then I realize that when my last "extra" kid is in school, that means my baby will be in school, too, and then I probably won't know what to do with myself. Vicious cycle.

Alyssa Heard a Who!

I took Alyssa to see her first movie in the movie theater this morning. I was really impressed with how well she did; she started getting a little antsy about an hour, so I was worried if we were going to make it, but she pulled through. I thought the movie was really adorable and would HIGHLY recommend it. Alyssa clapped at the end, which I thought was really cute and she kept asking "where did the silly elephant go?" when Horton wasn't in a scene, so Horton was a big hit ... although she did ask where "Mayor" went a couple times, too.

Farewell, sweet Joey

Jocelyn "Joey" Pooh Bear
November 27, 2002 - March 8, 2008

Someday I may go into all the details of this past week/weekend, but for now, I'll just say this:

Goodbye, my sweet, wonderful, ornery, fuzz bucket. Thank you for being my first baby.

Daylight Savings

I know that I'm probably in the minority, but I LOVE "springing" forward. People grumble all the time about losing an hour of sleep, but if I get to get up to the clock saying 7:15 instead of 6:15, I call that a GREAT night no matter how many hours of sleep I *technically* got.

I love that Sophie came over to play with Alyssa and when Amy came to get her at 7 it was still light out. I hated going back and forth between our houses feeling like it was the middle of the night when it was actually only 6:30.

I love that I finished cleaning up supper and picking up the house and the sun was just setting ... makes me feel like I'm ahead of myself and can take the rest of the evening to just relax.

Now when Alyssa is up at 6:15 tomorrow morning and it feels like 5:15 to my poor body, I may not feel the same way, but for today, I say "spring" away!!!

Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!

To look outside it is the picture perfect day. Bright blue sky, sunny, no wind ... the kind of day that just SCREAMS spring. So I think that I'll be able to sneak the kids out with just a light jacket since they have sweatshirts on already and they won't be outside the car *that* long. And because I'm boycotting coats because I'm so tired of layers and bulk and that crap. Then I go to my handy dandy computer to look up the outside temp. Thinking it *has* to be at least in the upper 30s. Nope. 17. Feels like 5. Fudge.

Although I don't really say fudge.

I hate this winter.

Its not easy being "green"

Adam frequently talks about how he wishes that he could be more "green" in his day to day activities. I was inspired by him while grocery shopping a few weeks ago, so I bought some of the lovely canvas bags that our grocery store offers as a more environmentally friendly option instead of paper or plastic bags. Plus I get really annoyed when they will put a loaf of bread in a plastic bag and call it full so that I end up having as many plastic bags as grocery items when I get home. Anyway, yesterday I made a point of grabbing my bags before leaving the house to go visit Joey at the vet and then swing by the grocery store to pick up a few things. Per usual, as the checker starting ringing up my groceries she immediately asked me if I wanted "paper or plastic"? I proudly pulled out my canvas bags and she gave me a "good for you!" smile as she said "never mind!". I told her that plastic was fine after she filled up my two bags, but we both acknowledged that I probably didn't have much more than what would fill the two bags. So she instructed the bagger (who was about 12, I'm guessing) to use plastic after filling the bags I brought ... the poor girl was so confused ... she put my grapes in a plastic bag, then the bananas in a plastic bag, etc and then put all THOSE plastic bags inside my bag I brought into the store. The best laid plans ...