Exhausted...

For the last nine months Adell has been happy to have "a nurse and a nap" if it was time for her naps during the day. When she was looking/acting sleepy I'd scoop her up in my arms and we'd go have a snuggle and nurse in my bed. She'd fall fast asleep and get a great nap--morning, noon or night.

About two weeks ago Adell decided "a nurse and a nap" meant "harass and annoy Momma". Instead of snuggling close to me and falling asleep she would crawl all over the bed, crawl all over me and try to rip my hair out of my head.

I knew it was time for her to take her naps in her crib instead of my bed. More over, it was time for her to put her self to sleep at nap time.

So today when she started looking/acting sleepy I sang her a little song and plunked her in her crib.

She cried for 20 minutes.

When she finally stopped crying I checked up on her via the baby video monitor (one of my all time favorite craigslist purchases).

This is what I saw: (except on a tiny black and white TV screen--remember it was a craigslist purchase).

Do you see that?

My baby has fallen asleep folded in half!

Look at this--I think she is sucking on the bottom of her foot.

Don't worry, I moved her into a more comfortable sleeping position (after taking a bunch of pictures...)

Sweet dreams, Baby.

Aaaaaaand They're Off!

School started today.

What a morning.

I don't know where to begin in explaining why I was fraught with anxiety about this first day of school:

It has a lot to do with making my kids change schools--when I never had to change schools in my life. And a lot to do with Lorien being in 3rd Grade--which was a difficult grade for me. And a lot to do with hearing Wyatt mumble "I really wanted to go to Orion for 1st Grade." every day for a month. And a lot to do with the fact that our old school had 180 kids (K-5th Grade) and our new school has around a billion kids (K-3rd Grade).

Ugh.

But we made it to school and every thing was OK.

So what if I had no idea that the kids all got to hang out on the play ground until whistles were blown calling them to class.

So what if I had no idea where the "arbor" was for pick-up.

So what if Wyatt left his back pack and lunch box in the back seat of the van and had a nuclear level melt down when his class was called to line up and his Mother STILL had not retrieved his back pack from the car.

So what...

Well, actually that last one was a doozie. The poor kid was fuming mad and crying (on the first day of school at a new school) for a good 10 minutes. When I gave him his bag and left him in the class circle he shot me the most treacherous eye-ball-death-rays he could conjure up. I am telling you--his look could have incinerated a tank. Good thing I am made of stronger stuff.

I am home now with the little girls. The house is quiet and I have grand plans for all I will accomplish today. Wish me luck!

Any One Up For Some Dress-Up?

I always am...

I am a big fan of the show So You Think You Can Dance. I have a few friends who are big fans too--they are the same friends who like to dress up for movie premieres and go all out for the Miss America Party. So, for the season finale of SYTYCD we all met up at Emily's house dressed like the host of the show, Cat Deeley.

It was a hoot!

Obviously, I never fully recovered from my days of playing dress-up as a kid. I am so grateful for these girl friends who (still) love to play dress-up. It makes life so much more fun.

As if the photos were not spectacle enough let me just add this little story from the evening.

Imagine this:

Eight grown women sitting on couches wearing costumes that range from "appropriate for a business lunch" to "black trash bag mini dress with stick-on craft foam".

SYTYCD playing on the television.

Very loud lady-voices calling across the room in conversation about the dances, costumes, our children and husbands.

AND THEN...

A police officer knocks on the door.

I kid you not.

Apparently, he was driving around the neighborhood and noticed a parked car with the drivers side door wide open to the world. He does a little investigating (read: follows the crazy-lady-cackles) which lead to Emily's door. He just wants to know if the car belongs to any one...

Why yes, yes it does. The lady wearing the trash-bag-mini and stick on craft foam. It is her car.

So the kind officer escorts (Angie) the woman wearing a trash bag out to her car. All the while telling her this stop made his night.

We forgot to get our picture taken with him.

Up for Air...

I just don't know if I'll ever get my house back in order?

Last weekend, for the third time since we moved, I emptied my kitchen cupboards and reassembled them over the following week.

I am so over trying to figure out the best configuration of stuff on the tippy-top shelves of that darn kitchen.

I still have piles of canned goods on my counter today (Tuesday) and I emptied my cupboards on Friday...

On the plus side of life, we are lovin' the pool. I think I might get a tan on my legs for the first time since I was a pre-summer-job-teen.

Yipee!

This Will Only Take A Second...

The big kids are all at a friends house this morning. Adell and I are sharing bites of croissant for breakfast (plain for her--nutella for me) and so I imagine I have a few minutes to update the blog.

In reality, Adell is going to want me to pick her up in about two seconds and I should be unpacking instead of perusing the web. So I'd better get crackin'.

We are in our new place. It is an apartment so we are faced with the challenges of apartment living every day. So far the actual change of living arrangement has not been a big problem. In about two hours on the day we moved in our new living room went from this:

to this:

And the kitchen from this:

to this:

And the bedrooms from this:

to this:

We were all waist deep in boxes and had no idea where to find any thing. Optimistically, I thought it would take us another week to get all the way unpacked and settled. After all, we had worked really hard before the move to get rid of extra stuff we didn't want or need.

But in our very first night here...with ALL of our stuff still in boxes...with all of the kids sleeping on mattresses on the floor...

Wyatt woke up with the pukes.

Will and I didn't even know where a towel was.

And so the week continued with each and every single member of our family getting sick in turn.

You can imagine how many boxes got unpacked--at least the boxes with the towels did.

So here I am, a week and a bit later with my big kids away and my baby happy with pieces of croissant. I'd better go and make the most of my time.