Contrary to rumors I've heard are flying, I am still alive and still of mainly sound body and mind. Ok, so the sound mind part might be a bit of a stretch, but what's new, right? Since arriving home from North Carolina last weekend, I have been outlandishly busy with the norm, on top of playing fielder to my destructo four-year-old. Dominic has suddenly become fiercely independent and very... er... curious and "helpful" (his word, not mine). Let me give you a run-down of the past five days...



Day #1 - Dominic dropped a large-ish container of yogurt all over the CARPETED dining room floor. It landed in such a precise way that I am still cleaning up hard, sticky spots that have dried a good ten feet away from the area of impact.



Day #2 - During his "rest time", Dominic's four-year-old mind concluded that it would be a good idea to pour half a bottle of baby vapor bath down his drain (and, of course, inadvertently onto the carpet and every other surrounding porous surface) and dump a nearly-full bottle of baby powder down the vent in his floor. You can imagine the problems that I'm bound to encounter when the weather gets hot and I need to start running our A/C. Who needs air freshener? It's going to smell fresh as a baby's bottom in here for about the next 6 years.



Day #3 - Dominic got thirsty in the wee hours of the morning and decided that he needed a drink. I came downstairs the next morning to a skim of Juicy Juice covering an entire counter, most of the floor, and - of course - the areas between the counter and the stove and refrigerator due to the run off.



Day #4 - I vacuumed upstairs and forgot to bring the vacuum back down before Dominic's rest (read:terror) time. I went back upstairs some 20ish minutes into rest time and found the entire contents of the vacuum bag strewn around his room and a baby powder (in the vauum bag from day #2's incident) cloud hovering so thick that breathing was definitely difficult.



Day #5 - Dominic went into my bathroom in search of hair gel, apparently. He proceeded to find and spill the gel everywhere and also spray half a bottle of coconut-lime body spray and another half bottle of expensive perfume on himself and the carpet.

Today is Day #6 and I am living in active anticipation of the daily drama yet to unfold. So, I've been a little preoccupied and blogging has fallen a bit low on my list of priorities. Regular posting should resume when the children go to school or sometime in 18 years or so...

"All growed up..."

... As Dominic would say. And Adrian is, indeed, getting "growed up" faster than I would prefer! ;) He is officially too big for his infant carseat and now rides in the "big boy carseat" that Dominic went into when he was a year old. In the carseat picture, he is also wearing an outfit that Dominic wore at 18 months old! My chunky monkey got weighed on Wednesday and is 21 pounds. Whew! No wonder my back hurts! :)

Thursday

One kitchen table covered with markers, paper, empty yogurt cups, and Splenda packets, among other crap... Check.

One mommy with an unbelievably sore back and neck... Check.

One crabby, snotty, fever-y, teething baby... Check.

One wild preschooler who just "helped" me scrub the toilet (without my knowing, of course)... Check.

Ten loads of un-done laundry... Check.


This is the making of a bad day. I might just be able to justify a therapeutic trip to Home Goods.

You can tell me I'm a genious now or wait 'til later...

So, nothing makes me happier (well, except maybe cheesecake... or Vin Diesel, but that's another post) than finding a practical solution to an annoying problem. Yes, this goes hand-in-hand with my organization fetish. Want to make something of it? At any rate, I am marketing this one. I just solved every preschool mother's dilemma of little people washing their hands and then being too short to re-hang the towel that has inevitably been pulled off the rack and left on the floor on the counter. Check it out. I just never cease to amaze myself. :-P

Today we couldn't resist a trip to the zoo. The weather was absolute perfection and our zoo membership cards arrived in the mail yesterday. Seemed like a sign to me! We had a wonderful time - even little Adrian who rode in his stroller and didn't make a peep the 4-ish hours we were there.

Me and my cute matching boys! :)

Dominic - busy growing up!
Happy baby brother
Mpmmy and her "cubs" :)
This was just too sweet for words and I wish I could have captured it a little less "blurrily." Dominic and Adrian were riding the train and holding hands...

Ok, really... What is more frustrating than being wide awake all night when you are desperately tired and your baby is sleeping?! It's a curse, I tell you. This happens to me from time-to-time and really makes me feel like I am losing it. Adrian started throwing up yesterday evening proceeding a day consisting of much whining and crying. Mommy was spot-on, it turned out, with a diagnosis of "upset tummy." I think moms are built to intrinsically know when puke is coming. It's nature's way of sort of bracing us for the horror ahead. Puking kids just might be worse than insomnia. Anyway... Where was I again? Ahh, yes. Adrian puking. I think that my body was readying itself to be up all night with a throw-uppy baby and then... he slept. Well, he woke up twice in need of a paci reinsertion and that's where my sleep ended and my problems began. And now it is 5 am. I am tired. Yet awake.

In other news, one productive (?) thing happened during the night/my nap. I turned 26. Whoa. Didn't I just turn 18? Better yet, didn't I just turn 6? Why does that birthday party with the entire kindergarten class (sorry Mom) and sitting in the neighbors' tree house (something seems hazardous about 10 six-year-olds in a treehouse, but that's beside the point) seem eerily recent? Is this how people get old? Did I mention I have grey hair? I do. And not just one or two. Like, if I push my hair down against my scalp and look in the mirror there are at least six at any given time. Six thick, ugly WHITE hairs taunting my youth. I don't think that's gonna work for me.

So, I'm canceling my trip to the gym for today. I just made this decision in the last 34 seconds. I am pretty sure the whole grey hair thing pushed me over the edge and made me lose my enthusiasm. Well, that and the whole lack of sleep issue...

Did I mention I can't sleep?

Pretty baby