Maja: my tooth is broked

Katia: what?!? what happened? which tooth? LET ME SEE!

Maja: right there — it’s broked.

Katia: broken. [might as well insert useful grammar lesson as I frantically think of all the issues a broken tooth can cause...]

As I finally peer into her mouth I see: a molar peeking through her gum! Normally this is not that exciting, but Miss Maja is a very late teether and this is only the 3rd of her two-year molars.

Katia: oh! your tooth broke through. Maja! You have a new tooth!

And of course because we like to work in themes:

I think Madeleine is teething too because last night she woke up every hour and cried for about 5-10min. before falling asleep again. Every. Hour. Which meant… Katia woke up every hour. It was a long night. And while Richard woke up too, he also was snoring 1 minute later… so totally not fair.

No one can ever say that I don’t “know” my daughter. I dare you to test me on this someday. This morning I hauled myself out of bed at the crack of dawn and began debating what to wear to work: skirt or pants. There were good arguments for both, but eventually the skirt won because a) it’s supposed to be nice outside; b) I have no clean pants that fit me (note to self: start exercising!). I took a skirt down off a hanger and again I thought long and hard about wearing it because I knew that if I wore a skirt then Maja would want to wear one too… and I wasn’t sure if she had any. I was loathe to set off a whining session before she was even awake.

I put the skirt on. I went upstairs to get Maja up…

Maja: mom! you’re wearing a skirt! I want to wear one too. The yellow one, with the polka dots.

Me: Oh, that skirt was from last summer, I don’t think it’s in your dresser anymore because it’s too small. [Actually, I got rid of it because I hated it].

Maja: I wannnaaaaaaaaaaaaa wear a skirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt!

I tried offering a dress, but that was a no-go. It had to be a skirt. In an act of desperation I reached in to the closet and pulled out the garbage bag full of summer clothes that I had hauled up from the basement a few weeks ago. I tore into it and pulled out dress after dress after dress. And one skirt. It looked very big… I held it up to Maja and told her she could wear it but that there would be no running because it would fall down around her ankles then she’d moon everyone at the park.

Bottles. More specifically: bottles with BPA. We (as in ALL parents) have been so blissfully ignorant, but after hearing all the latest reports I can no longer in good conscience continue to use the Avent bottles. I can’t. I was fine with it on Monday, but the fact that I sent Madeleine to school with them today is weighing heavily on my mind.

After much research I have found that I don’t need to spend an arm & a leg to get more bottles. I basically have two options, Gerber Gentle Flow or Born Free, if I want to keep the Avent nipples (I’m probably going to get TONS of spam now that I typed that). Hopefully Madeleine will be oblivious and won’t notice the loss of flavour that the bpa additives have been providing. Eh, my grandchildren will probably all have 2 heads.

Sometimes being a mom is ALL about the food and feeding the hungry wee ones. Emerson has learned where to place himself on this food chain.

I’ve got one waffle… who’s hungriest?

Maja shares… or takes.

Emerson is very patient. Next time I’ll put a little towel down to catch the drool.

Yesterday I was hit by an illness that came on like a freight-train and left again just as quickly. I woke up in the morning with a backache, and thinking that it was a result of bending over (gardening, washing the stinky dog, picking up too many children), I popped two tylenols and soldiered on. It got worse and I ignored it. I came in to work… and 20 minutes later I announced to my coworkers that I was a-goin’ home (this was at 8am). Home I went, straight to bed, and except to make a trip to the ‘loo I did not get up until 4pm when I had to take the dog out.

The worst time was in the evening when Richard got home with the girls and I could.not.get.out.of.bed. I could not help; I could not take care of my children. Being the super-mom that (I think) I am, this did not stop me from trying. I stumbled downstairs to oversee something (I think I heated up some leftover mac’n'cheese for Maja — most pathetic dinner ever, but she ate it) while Richard took Madeleine with him as he walked Emerson, I had the chills the sweats and began hallucinating (where am I? who are these people? where’s my mommy?). I went back to bed.

Near the end of the evening Maja arrived at my bedside and crawled in to bed with me and a book. Ostensibly I was to read her a story while Richard put Madeleine to bed. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t open my eyes. I couldn’t lift my arms. Thankfully Maja was able to ‘read’ the book to herself (it helped that it was a picture book) … and when she got to the end all I could say was: “can we read that one again?”

I do not know how single parents can raise children alone. What do they do when they get sick? I can’t imagine how I would have gotten through the evening if Richard had not been there. I can only guess that single parents have a different set of resources that they can draw upon — other family, friends.

Sorry folks, I have no pics of my haul to share because I didn’t take any yet. Instead, here are some pictures of my beautiful children:

Madeleine’s face is covered in pear pulp.

I was having a rough week last week. I admit it. And then Elyn showed up on Friday with Clare, my birthday was Saturday AND I went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. Yes, I spent my 35th birthday at the 35th MDS&W festival traipsing around in sheep related things: yarn, roving, lamb-related foods, and … sheep poop. It seems I cannot escape poop.

Anyway, there were sheep:

And more sheep:

And sheep being shorn:

And sheep being herded:

This was really neat to see. The sheep dogs were awesome. I want one to bring to the playground for child herding. Is that legal?

Tomorrow… pictures of my (small) haul.

The other evening I was home with the girls trying to get everyone fed (it was Friday. The day of early pickup, doctors, dinner on-time, and Elyn pickup) and things were going ok… not terrible, just ok, when I heard the glorious sound of Richard’s keys in the front door.

Katia: oh, thank God.

Maja: mom, that’s not God, it’s Dad.

I was inspired by catalogrrr and her Walk to Work photo essay, so yesterday I did one of my own for my walk from work to home. Click the photo below for the slideshow.

I love walking to and from work. It gives me 15-20minutes 2x a day to think my thoughts. By myself. Sometimes the walk is therapeutic as it gives me some time to wind down; sometimes the walk is stressful as it allows me mentally stack up the million+1 things that need to get done or the million+1 things that should have been done. Either way, though, I think the walk is good for me.

Of course this morning I thought about a million things. And the question I keep coming back to: why does everything have to seem so complicated? Life is not that hard: eat, work, sleep. It’s all the extra stuff that gets in the way — all the deadlines and timelines. Take today, for example. If you work the day backwards, there is little wiggle room:

7:08pm : be at airport to pick up friend

6:30pm : leave for airport. I plan to bring Maja with me so that Richard can get Madeleine to bed at a reasonable hour; that means in order for Maja to be relatively pleasant we have to eat before we leave.

5:30pm : preferably have dinner ready and start eating.

between 4:00pm and 6:00pm : pick up plants from plant sale. I only had 2 choices for this — tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow, though, is booked solid with an event that only occurs 1x a year. So, no flexibility there.

2:00pm and 2:15pm — girls have doctor appointments

1:15pm at the latest! — start drive to doctor. This means having them in the car and driving out of the parking lot. So, I have to be AT school at

12:45pm — be at school to pick up the girls. Gather sheets, clothes, bottles, etc. and get everyone/thing into the car.

12:30pm — leave work. In order to avoid being ‘charged’ a 1/2 day sick time I can only take 2 hrs off work… so that means I have to work a 5hr day. To leave by 12:30pm I need to be at work by 7:30am.

7:30am — be AT work. This didn’t happen. See? The day was shot to hell before it even started!

To top off the chaos, I didn’t remember last night about the appointments. So I had no snacks or activities packed for this afternoon — all that had to get done this morning amidst the usual morning chaos. This frustrated me to no end: how could I be so stupid?!? Probably because by the time all was finished last night I was too tired to think any further. Time for an overhaul in the organization department.