When you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

So, I won't.

Lucky

I have a phenomenal husband. His time and opinions are much sought after. He works hard, strives to do his best, is always anxious to learn something new, and makes me laugh every day (even on days when I don't particularly want to laugh.) No matter what, his family is his top priority, and he takes the time to let us know that. Check out his fantastic blog post on our kids blog. He is, hands down, the best dad of his generation!

How did March get here so fast?

Somehow, another month has flown by. I always get to this point in the year and feel like life starts moving in fast-forward. March is always a hectic month at work, and equally hectic at home with two birthdays speeding toward me in the next three weeks. So, as I always do when I'm feeling slightly out of control, I will make a list.

Things I must do (and want to do) in March....
1. Plan "Olivia" daycare party for a 2 year old without driving myself to the point of self-critical insanity.
2. Plan & host a sleepover party for 8 year old girls without spending more money than our tax refund will allow.
3. Make 3 well-visit doctors appointments. This means not only being organized and planning ahead, but actually having all of the kids "well" at some point this month.
4. Start collecting boxes in anticipation of the big move -- but don't start packing them yet.
5. Do some "fun" reading. I just finished "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." As much as I loved it, I need something a little bit lighter.
6. Plan primary music ahead of time so I'm not seething with resentment on Saturday nights.
7. Figure out what the strange smell coming from behind the washing machine is.
8. Stop taking a cookie after lunch every day.
9. Enjoy the company of good friends.
10. Take a picture to send into Cute Day. I try to have them, but documenting them is tough.
11. Sit down and plan out what needs to happen at work between now and June. I've checked out a bit and need to get my game on.
12. Dang it.... make a treat to send into Play Group tomorrow. Better run!

Stop complaining

The problem with taking a moment to complain about some annoying thing your kids do like I did in my last post, is that as soon as you do, something worse will happen. I guess that's Karma, huh?

While Harrison, our 4 year old, put me on the ledge by making me tired, Norah, our not-quite 2 year old, pushed me over. Does anyone else out there have a two year old who rejoices in nudity? Well, our Norah does. She can get naked in less time than I can hang up my coat and take off my shoes at the end of the day.

Now, nudity really isn't the problem for me. My problem lies in the fact that she now gets naked in her crib. I've found her naked and shivering on a couple of mornings, but two nights ago was the worst. About 2 hours after I put her to bed, Harry came downstairs to tell me that "Norah's naked, and she smells like poop."

My heart sunk, my stomach clenched, and I had a sinking feeling I knew what awaited me upstairs. Sure enough... naked Norah sitting in her crib and a very dirty diaper that had turned into a substitute for playdough and finger paint.

It's interesting to respond to a situation on so many levels; laughter, nausea, exasperation and exhaustion. But mostly, I was just peeved that it upped my cleaning chores.

Needless to say, she's wearing her PJ's that snap up the back now. She hates them, but they stay on.

I guess I need to start thinking about potty training.

Defensive Sleeping

Our four year old has the nasty habit of sneaking into bed with us in the early hours of the morning. Now, I'm grateful that he spends most of the night in his own bed. We've worked hard to get him to this point. But I have to spend a moment complaining about that little bugger's pointy-pokey knees and elbows. I find myself waking up in the morning in a defensive position, with my arms crossed across my chest, my hands in front of my face, and my knees pulled up so they form a blockade between his thrashing little body and my easily bruised limbs. Spending any amount of time trying to catch some "z's" with that kid in my bed is dangerous business. I watch my girls as they sleep, still and peaceful, and wonder why one of them can't be the one that worms their way into the parental bed.

Even when he's sleeping in his own bed, my boy is a menace!

Ah, guilty pleasures

I just love watching the Oscars. As much as I enjoy the movies and the acceptance speeches and all that, it's really all about the clothes. I hope that E! does their "shoe-cam" again.

We're ordering Chinese and making a night out of it. The poor kids are going to be neglected and bored off their rockers. Is anyone else shirking their responsibilities tonight?

Things I JUST CAN'T STAND

1. Making school lunches for kids who go to a school with a "nut-free campus."

2. The sound of a vacuum cleaner. It gives me shivers and makes me throw temper tantrums. Such a shame, because I love the look of a freshly vacuumed carpet, but we live without that in our house.

3. The fact that my 23 month old has learned to open refrigerator. I keep finding apples with three bites taken out of them, and gnawed on string-cheeses still in their wrappers all over the house. She's fast, sneaky and unrepentant.

4. The smell of processed meat. Canned soups, sandwich meat, left-overs... anything with meat that has been previously been cooked makes me wanna barf. The remnant of three really hard pregnancies.

5. Mornings. I've always hated mornings. Somehow I ended up with a life that requires me to be at work, cheerful and ready for the day, at 8:00 am. Every morning is torture, no matter what I do.

6. Knowing that we're moving, and having to wait to start packing. I'm ready to throw things away and start selling the rest on craigslist, but we've got 4 months until I can start doing all that stuff.

7. Trying to convince a kid to take a nap all day, and then having them fall asleep 15 minutes before dinner time. I just know I'm in for an impossible night.

8. My eyebrows. I hate tweezing them, but I detest the way they look when I have them waxed in a salon. They always end up taking off too much and I look like I have tiny dashes on my forehead.

9. Cleaning the lint trap on my dryer. It's one of the badly designed ones that gets dust all over the top of the dryer when ever you pull it out. Makes me crazy.

10. Soccer on TV. I can appreciate a soccer game in real life, but on TV it's just a combination of annoying and boring (monotonous drumming, no scoring.) Sorry babe, but that's how I feel.

11. Picking up legos and playmobile. Why is every tiny piece so important that it must be saved, but not important enough to be taken care of properly? If I vacuumed, those little pieces of plastic would be toast.

12. The fact that it is so much easier to come up with a list of 12 things that I hate than it is to come up with 5 things I'm grateful for.

(Oh, and a kid who thinks that spitting is funny, it's not.)