Did You Ever Just Have One of Those Days?

You know the ones...where you feel yucky for one reason or another, and things just don't seem to go right, no matter what you do?

Yeah - today was one of those days. Mild stomach issues and dizzy spells took care of the feeling yucky part (I have an appointment with the cardiologist on Friday, Mom, I promise!) and the general whining from the CoasterKids, combined with poor service at a local restaurant at dinner time, took care of the rest.

Now that the CoasterKids are in bed and the house is quiet, I'm thinking some mindless TV and chocolate might be in order.

What's your standby cure for those days?

So I Don't Really Have Anything to Say...

But it's been a while since I posted.

Life has been very busy for the CoasterFamily. We've been preparing to host W.'s office Christmas party as noted previously, we re-decorated our living room, CoasterGirl has had 2 birthday parties plus a Christmas parade to participate in, and work has been...well...busy.

Thankfully, the Christmas party was postponed so that more of W.'s office mates can come, so I'm not nearly as panicked tonight as I would be otherwise. Still, there's plenty of work left to do, and of course the baking will need to wait until next week.

Speaking of baking, I managed to ruin a double-batch of cookie dough earlier this week by adding an extra stick of butter. Which wouldn't be so terrible, except I used 6 sticks of butter and 2 bags of sliced almonds in the batch - an expensive mistake! W. thinks it's funny that an accounting major screwed up the conversions for doubling a batch of cookie dough. Being the super-nice guy that he is, though, he waited to spring that one on me until after he'd consoled me about the cookies.

We did get a substantial chunk of our to-do list accomplished this last week. Christmas presents have been purchased, wrapped and shipped to the in-laws, the Christmas tree was procured and decorated, Christmas cards were designed and ordered, the living room was finished, and most of the rest of the Christmas shopping is complete.

I'm not sure I want to think about how busy we'll be this weekend trying to get the house clean and in presentable shape, though. It's amazing how messy it can get when you're super-busy with work and doing other things during non-work time.

Maybe I'll ask Santa for a housekeeper for Christmas.

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Today after school CoasterGirl proudly announced, "I'm growing up!" The latest milestone? She lost her first tooth today. As she grinned to show me the gap in her smile and held up the zip-lock baggie containing her first lost baby tooth, I felt my heart clench and my stomach roil.

Neither feeling was unexpected; this fresh evidence that my first-born is no longer my baby girl was sure to tug at my heartstrings, and me being me, make me nauseated. For whatever reason, the mere thought of a tooth wiggling around in a kid's mouth (much less being pulled) leaves me squeamish and faintly green. W. is getting a big kick out of this, I assure you. I have informed him that he is, from now on, in charge of all things related to loose teeth and the tooth fairy.

How on earth did I manage to make it through my childhood with such a phobia, you might ask? Easy: it didn't bother me when I was young. In fact, I have memories of pulling my own teeth and exploring the gaps with my tongue with no ill effects. Ah, well. Good thing I never considered a career in dentistry - I would never be able to complete an extraction!

CoasterGirl shows no ill effects from having lost the tooth, though; she's happy to be able to eat again, and anxious to catch up with her best friend, who has already lost five teeth!

Good grief. This childhood thing really does go by quickly, doesn't it?

So, I'm Back...

It's been a while.

Things in the CoasterFamily have been very, very busy. CoasterGirl joined the Girl Scouts - she's a Brownie! In the month since she joined, she's attended two outings and earned a badge already! Now if I could just figure out how to sew the thing on...

CoasterBoy has become increasingly obsessed with The Wiggles. His new favorite toy is his sister's old Wiggles guitar. That plays music. And makes sounds. Over and over again.

We re-decorated the powder room.

We've contracted with a fencing company to build a privacy fence in our back yard. That will likely be completed next week, and then we will need to stain and treat it - I'm thinking a Wagner power painter is in our immediate future.

And we may or may not be hosting the Christmas party for W.'s office at our home. Oh, my.

Anyone have any great ideas for decorating and/or party planning?

So Long, Summer

So this weekend was the unofficial end of summer. For the CoasterFamily, summer ended not with a bang, but with a slow fade. We're all getting a little tired of the hot weather, I think, and have gotten lazy.

We watched college football, kid movies, and the news on television. We played with balloons, legos, dolls and crayons. We avoided yardwork like the plague. Oh, we did a little cleaning, a little shopping, and a little home renovation, but for the most part, we just stayed around the house and took it easy.

Even so, I'm beat. Even on days when we're not doing much, there's still the daily business of potty training, attempting to feed the kids food that's actually good for them rather than succumbing to the siren call of the fast food joints for every meal, and trying to maintain patience in the face of whining, fighting, and misbehaving (but lovely!) children.

I'm looking forward to fall. I'm looking forward to cooler weather, long sleeves, and football games. To crock-pot meals and changing leaves. To chili. To planning for the holidays. To fires in the fireplace, and s'mores with the kids.

So long to the August doldrums. Bring on fall!

Snip Snip Sniff Sniff

CoasterBoy got his first haircut yesterday, and of course, I cried like a baby.

W insists that it was time - and he's probably right. The sides and back were getting long and unruly, but I just loved it when the hair in the back curled, and I liked to play with those golden curls. *sigh*

At any rate, the stylist, Nora, was very sweet and gave me a lock of hair to keep, and a card to keep it in. She left the top alone, and just cut the sides and back.

CoasterBoy looks so grown up now that he has a little boy haircut. It makes me sad in a way that his 2nd birthday didn't - why is that, do you suppose?

OK, So I Lied...

This entry will not be about our day trip to Napa and the rest of our San Francisco excursion. I may write more about our trip later.

What I want to write about tonight is my beautiful daughter. Her birthday is tomorrow, and she'll be turning six years old. Six! How can that be? It seems just yesterday that I was in the hospital room in Nashville, excited and scared and relieved and exhausted, having been awake since 3:00 a.m. in labor with my firstborn, but it was six years ago today.

The sweet, grown-up little girl sitting in the living room right now and cheering on her father as he plays Mario Galaxy bears little resemblance to the small bundle that was given to me after my unplanned c-section. That bundle was red and screaming and tiny; CoasterGirl is tall (nearly to my shoulders already!) and willowy and tan from two months of summer freedom and excursions to the water park. She is talkative and energetic and smart and much too mature for her age.

She constantly amazes me - she's reading on at least a 3rd grade level; she reads words like "elementary" and "underpants" and "unfortunate" without batting an eye. She knows things about ocean life that I never learned in school. (Did you know that the bump on a beluga whale's head is called a melon? I had no idea.) She thinks math is fun. She is interested in so many things, and has a drive to excel at whatever she does.

It's so hard to remember sometimes that she's only 5 - she's smart and sarcastic and funny and understands more than she should.

These six years have passed so quickly; I can hardly believe it. My mother warned me it would, but somehow you can't quite believe it when you're up for the 3rd time in the middle of the night with a newborn, or taking a toddler to the potty for the 2nd time since you were seated in the restaurant. All of a sudden, you look up and your little girl is no longer so little - she's a kid instead of a baby; a student instead of a pre-schooler.

Happy Birthday, CoasterGirl. Here's to the next year - may it be filled with happiness, learning, and new friends for you. And may it go by just a little slower than the last one did.

And So Ends Another Long Weekend...

Ahhh....long holiday weekends. Gotta love 'em. Time to sit back, relax and enjoy the family.

Or, if you're Mr. and Mrs. ChelleBelle, time to finish a redecorating project, host a party, and listen to the CoasterKids fight about whether they should be watching The Wiggles or Spongebob Squarepants. Or whether CoasterBoy is allowed to touch CoasterGirl's dolls. Or whether CoasterBoy will be messing up CoasterGirl's puzzle. Or...well, you get the idea.

CoasterBoy will be two in a few weeks, and the Terrible Twos have arrived a bit early and with a vengeance. His favorite word is already "No!" and his stubborn streak has become his most prominent personality trait, eclipsing his innate sweetness with astonishing speed. I think the highlight of the weekend was CoasterBoy crying hysterically because his cereal puffs were in a plastic baggie instead of in a bowl like his big sister's. Or maybe it was when he insisted on watching The Wiggles in Big Red Car for the bajillionth time ("Car! Big Car!! Car, Mommy!! Car, Car!!").

So now the kids are in bed at last, and the house is quiet. The dishes are washed, the living room is straightened up, and we're planning for the week ahead and the vacation that starts on Saturday. And as this long weekend finally comes to an end, I raise my glass to all my friends who are stay-at-home moms: Here's to you. You're my hero.