Is it over yet?

Fun filled day today:

4am - Ant starts crying, gets up out of his big boy bed (HE made the transition about a week ago; asked to sleep on the queen sized bed in his room and so far has been pretty good about staying there with the threat of going back into his crib if he gets up). Mark goes in to comfort him and ends up sleeping in the bed with him.

6:15am - I wake up when the alarm goes off to find that Mark isn't there. I go into Ant's room to wake Mark up - no Ant, and no Mark. ??? Okay, maybe they went downstairs and are on the couch? Check downstairs, no sign of them. Back upstairs, look in Ant's room again, nope they're not there. Maybe Timmy's room? Nope. Ohhhhhkaaaaay. Maybe they really are downstairs and I just didn't see them? Check in the living room again, including the corner where they might be on the blanket. No. Basement? Probably not because it's cold down there. Okay, not there either. One more iteration - check in MY room because I'm starting to think I'm crazy - no. Not in Ant's room, nor Timmy's, nor downstairs, nor in the basement. Did they take the car somewhere? Nope, that's still in the garage. Now I really am going crazy. I knew it was unlikely, but the thought crossed my mind that they had been kidnapped somehow? Go to Ant's room one more time - there they are! Ant was camoflaged by his blanket, and Mark by the black comforter where he looked like a much smaller lump than I ever would have imagined. Whew!

7:45am - off to work.

3pm - meeting with my boss. Tell her that I don't want to go back to full time (I'm currently working three days a week by using my vacation time). She isn't as upset as I've imagined she'll be, says she'll see if it's possible for me to continue to work part time and will let me know. All in all a much better conversation that I had anticipated, and a big weight off my mind as I had been feeling like I was lying to her knowing that I didn't want to come back to full time but not letting on yet.

4:45pm - arrive back at home. Check the mail. Find that our estimated tax payment did not get picked up AGAIN! I had put it out for the mailman yesterday along with another letter - the other got taken yesterday, but of course, not the one to the IRS that HAD to get mailed. And today we didn't get any mail, and he ignored the flag. Crap!

8pm - kids down in bed, grab some supper and head out A) to return some clothes from Xmas / after sales that don't fit, and B) go to the South Station post office to mail the payment to the IRS. Use my GPS and miss the exit I'm supposed to take, so it ends up taking me about five minutes longer to get to the store than it should.

8:40pm - go to park in the garage at the Pru - $9 for 0-1 hour, and decide there is NO WAY I'm paying that much to park for 20 minutes. Drive around to find a parking space.

8:45pm - find the space, turn the car off, and go to get the stuff I want to return out of the shopping bag. Only to realize that I left one of the two shirts at home. Sigh. Off to the post office.

9:14pm - done at the post office, IRS letter duly postmarked. Turn on GPS to get back home. It doesn't tell me in time that I'm looking for a right exit to the Mass Pike; instead I get on 93 South because I can't remember if I need to do that or not. NOT would be the appropriate answer. More detours. Sigh.

9:20pm - Get off on the Mass Ave exit heading to Storrow Drive. Find that the exit I need to take to Storrow is closed. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? AND, my phone / gps is now dead.

9:30pm - Decide to take Mem Drive. Oooooh, there's a starbuck right there and I've been craving a frappucino, which I decide to treat myself to given the snafus of the evening.

9:32pm - Pull into the Starbucks parking lot to find that, jokes on me, it closed at 9:30. At this point I have to start laughing.

9:48pm - Woo-hoo the Starbucks on my way home is still open, much to my surprise. Head on in and ask if their frappucino machine is still on. Guy says, "Why wouldn't it be?" to which I respond, "Because that's the way my night is going!". He's a total sweetheart and gives me a free taste of their hot chocolate with salt and caramel (YUMMMMMMM), in addition to supersizing my frappucino.

10pm - the end. I hope!

Appreciate Schmappreciate

Despite my best intentions, the plastic jungle seems to get away from me on a regular basis, and there is just kid stuff *everywhere*.

I feel like I had many many fewer toys when I was growing up - and consequently that I appreciated them so much more. Of course I don't remember being two. But I do remember some of the toys that I coveted, and how much I enjoyed them when I finally did get them.

The one I remember most of all is a toy cash register. It didn't talk, it didn't have bells and whistles, it just had coins and paper money that could go in the till, buttons to push (no calculator), and a till that one could open up. I wanted it SO badly, and remember asking for it for quite a long time, until one special day (I don't remember if it was Christmas or birthday), it finally arrived. My sister and I played shop with it all the time, in one of our other favorite toys, a "log cabin" type building - similar to the little tikes houses, although it really did come as log-like pieces that we had to put together. Other favorites included tea sets, and of course, my favorite doll, which my mom and then I would make outfits for. (I longed for a cabbage patch doll as well, but never got one.)

We are relatively well off; certainly more so than my parents were at this stage in their lives - we can afford to buy just about anything for our kids that they might need or want. In some ways I think that's bad though - if we buy things for them as soon as they express interest, or even before that, how will they learn about delayed gratification? That they aren't always going to get everything they want (like my cabbage patch)? How will they learn to appreciate what they do have? If Christmas and their birthdays are always extravaganzas of presents (not necessarily from us), how do we teach them to be thankful? To enjoy their new toys rather than playing with them for five minutes and turning to something else?

I would love to hear if this is something that you think about too, and if you've come up with any strategies for dealing with it.

The toddler, the infant, and the trip downstairs

When I'm trying to get us ready to go out somewhere, I often find myself thinking of the old riddle of how you get a hen, cat, and corn across the river when you can only take one at a time. The hen will eat the corn, the cat will eat the hen... so how do you do it?

Except in this case you're trying to get two kids and a bunch of stuff downstairs and into the car to go out. You can't leave the toddler with the infant while putting stuff in the car because although the elder is very sweet with the younger, you just never know (like when he tried to turn the car seat over with the younger one inside).

And you can't leave the elder inside while you put the infant in the car, because you can come back to find him splashing happily in the toilet with the toilet brush; taking his milk out of the refrigerator, "Mommy, I got the cap off"; or scribbling happily on the floor.

The solution, of course, is to put the elder in the car first so he's strapped down, then deal with putting the accoutrements and infant in the car after that - but it did take me a while to come to that!

Interaction

Ant was upstairs in the hallway to Timmy's room the other night, throwing the balls from the ball popper against the wall, so they'd either come back and hit him, or fly past him. He was having a grand old time of it. I was holding Timmy, and brought him over so I could keep an eye on Ant. Timmy was keeping an eye on him too, because he totally started cracking up. Each time Ant would throw the ball, Timmy would let loose with a lovely giggle. He's been laughing for a while, but this was the first time he laughed when we weren't deliberately trying to get him to.

And I'm SO looking forward to more interactions like this!