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Tue 11/06/2012
Eek

We have a mouse in our house. Specifically, in Patrick's room. I opened his underwear drawer and it scurried across. I screamed. Then left the room. Saw it again later as it ran across the room when we were playing trains.

We have a cat. Clearly the cat is useless.

Patrick named the mouse Mickey. (We are planning a Disney trip for January.) He determined it was a baby boy mouse and said he didn't mind (well actually he SAYS "I mind if..." but he MEANS "I don't mind if...") if the mouse lived in his bedroom because the woods might be scary and there might be bears and he might miss his family. Then he said the cat could be the mouse's mommy.

So. Adorable.

But. Traps have been purchased and set. 


Posted by Molly at 10:30 PM EST
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Mon 11/05/2012
Why We Hated Tee Ball

Gameday. Saturday morning.

0600. My alarm goes off. I have mistakenly set the radio alarm rather than the ocean sounds alarm that is set for 0700. I turn off the wrong one, set the right one, and doze.

0700. Alarm goes off. Audrey is hungry.

0725. Audrey is done eating and has fallen back to sleep for once. I use my 'free time' to start a load of laundry and do some dishes.

0739. James stumbles out of bed and into the shower. We need to leave by 0815 to get there by 0830 when we are supposed to be there. The game starts at 0900.

0755. Patrick is awake but watching cartoons in our bed. I take him breakfast in bed, an Eggo waffle with butter, to entice him to cooperate.

0805. Sorting laundry to try to find Patrick's tee ball pants, shirt and socks. Previously, I had been on the ball and gathered these things ahead of time but not so today.

0807. Clothes finally located. Patrick is screaming.

0810. Get Audrey dressed, diaper bag ready. Put on some clothes. Will shower when we get home.

0811. Patrick still screaming.

0815. James is forcing Patrick to get dressed. Still screaming. Patrick won't wear his tee ball pants and pronouces his jeans too short. Eventually we get him in Gatorade-stained sweatpants. Still screaming.

0820. Making coffee to go. James has taken the kids to the car to get them buckled in and warm.

0825. Out the door. Without my purse. Without the diaper bag. Oops.

0831. Patrick still screaming. Try to distract him with the news that we are going to the fire truck parade this afternoon. "I don't wannnnnnna go to the fire truck parade," Patrick wails. "I don't wannnnnnna go to tee ball. I want someone to cut tee ball down and throw it in the trash."

0834. "I need a drink," says James, heading toward Bojangles with thoughts of sweet tea in his head. "Um, did you bring your wallet?" I ask helpfully. He did not. No tea.

0835. "I want sweet tea!" Patrick screams.

0845. We arrive at the field. Patrick is screaming. It's cold. He's hungry. He's thirsty. I offer him some of my coffee. "I WANT SWEET TEA!" Patrick screams.

0849. Patrick's team is warming up. Patrick is stuck like a leech to my leg.

0851. We resort to bribery to get Patrick to play. "You can pick out a new train if you go up to bat with your team."

0900. Game begins, Patrick reluctantly at third base. "Watch the ball, Patrick. Patrick, watch the ball. Look at the ball, Patrick. PATRICK! Watch the ball. You're going to get in the head."

0903. "I'm thirsty! I want sweet tea!" Patrick screams.

...

Here is where I would put a picture of Patrick with his 'medal' that all the kids got for playing, but he refused to take it from the coach and he wouldn't even put it on for a picture when I just asked him 20 minutes ago. In fact, last Saturday, the first thing he said when he woke up was, "No more games?"


Posted by Molly at 8:37 PM EST
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Sun 11/04/2012
Outlander

Last night, or I suppose technically early this morning, I was reading the fourth book in the Outlander series. It's a time travelling historical science fiction romance kind of thing. My nook marked the time change by remaining 12:59 for an hour. I thought it was kind of neat, because I'm a geek. Two things to note, here.

1. The Nook is AWESOME. I was a late adopter to the e-reader. Why would you need to make books electronic, I wondered, curmudgeon-like. I like REAL books. Then, I got an e-reader. I LOVE IT. It is particularly nice when you have somehow become a bed-sharing granola hippie mom and your almost-four-year-old has taken to sleeping in his sister's crib in the same room as the two of you. (Oh, ho, there's a blog entry in the making.)

2. Jamie Fraser is somehow totally hot. I guess I really do have a thing for gingers. Of course I also loved Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod on the Highlander tv show. There can be only one. Swoon. Maybe it's the accent?

Embarrassed now. Off to try to finish two projects on Shutterfly within the next 107 minutes. HAHAHA. Like that'll happen. 


Posted by Molly at 10:13 PM EST
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Sat 11/03/2012
Day 3

So here it is, 11:12 p.m. I'm 48 minutes from screwing up NaBloPoMo on the third day. This clearly won't be one of my better entries.

We are putting a new floor in the living room. If by 'we' you mean 'Molly watches James, tries to refrain from offering "helpful" commentary.' In my defense, with Audrey attached to me at least 23 hours a day, it is hard for me to help. Also, I do not think I would be very good at installing floors, and James, he is a professional.

This all started well. I had been able to move most of the smallish stuff out of the living room during the week, and took everything off the shelves and such. So there was not much furniture to move. There was, however, the massive TV with its many many many wires and connections. So THAT was fun (for James) this morning. Unfortunately, when he unplugged the cable, there went our cable in the bedroom as well. This was unforeseen (and the first sign of temper, HA) and I was forced to entertain the children ALL DAY LONG WITHOUT THE USE OF THE TELEVISION.

James said it would be an easy installation. He'd be done by dinnertime. That should have been my first clue.

After much cursing and pounding and sawing, we are still without cable, my dining room still has couches in it, and the floor still is not done. However, we have survived, I have pictures, and the Steelers don't play until 4 tomorrow so there we go. Oh, AND we get an 'extra' hour! Score!


Posted by Molly at 11:19 PM EDT
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Fri 11/02/2012
Halloween Recap

This year, Patrick actually decided what he wanted to be, although I think had I cared I could have forced him into something for one more year. (Not that I have any great urge to do so; the theme of his previous three Halloweens were 'what kind of costume can I get that is moderately cute and cheap?') Anyway, he wanted to be Woody from Toy Story. I had this idea that I could be Jessie and James could be Buzz Lightyear,which would have been pretty freaking hilarious, and they DO MAKE ADULT BUZZ LIGHTYEAR COSTUMES but they are EXPENSIVE and he wouldn't have been into it, so the extent of our costumes was a sparkly red cowboy hat I located at Target. ("Is that for dress-up?" James asked interestedly, when I got it home, clearly NOT thinking of Halloween...) If I had thought about it earlier, Audrey could have been Bullseye, but -- let's be realistic -- I'm not that creative or organized, and I had also already got a zebra costume that was so adorable I couldn't resist.

Since I AM cheap, and since the Woody costumes (for kids and adults!) are horrible cheap polyester things, I bought Woody pajamas for 10 bucks. They were cute. 

Patrick has had different reactions to trick or treating. The first year, he was 10 months old so he didn't care. We took him around in the wagon to our neighbors who we like and showed him off and James got some candy. The second year, he was more into it, for about 5 houses. Last year, he was not into it AT ALL and cried after the first two houses so we went back home and I was fine with that because it was cold and raining. We handed out candy for a bit and then his friend next door came to get candy and he was SO! EXCITED! and we went all around the neighborhood again. Actually some form of that may have happened the last two years.

Anyway, he was super excited about the Woody costume, and we had procured candy to hand out to the trick-or-treaters, and we had carved our jack o'lanterns, so I thought it was all going to go well. We decided to try the 'downtown' trick or treat, because it was easy and early and we could go around the neighborhood later. Patrick's friend Will met us there. Patrick was super excited for about three minutes.

Then it was all, "I want to go home. Can we go home now?" James collected some candy for him with the help of a cute zebra and we were home by 6:30. It wasn't even dark. I went to light the pumpkins and both boys protested. They wanted no part of it. Audrey took the moment to decide she was hungry. So we shut the door, closed the curtains, turned off the lights and that was Halloween. 

Audrey is cutting short my blog time again. Will add pictures later. I hope. 


Posted by Molly at 1:27 PM EDT
Updated: Fri 11/02/2012 1:46 PM EDT
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Thu 11/01/2012
NaBloPoMo

Lo these many years ago, I attempted NaNoWriMo. I was single at the time and had much free time. (Oh I long for free time.) I did not get very far with my novel. It turns out I am not very good at fiction. Now, some of my non-fiction adventures would be good, but I don't have enough for a memoir ... and I couldn't name names ... but I digress.

As you no doubt recall, I had the brilliant idea to post a picture a day in October to jumpstart my blog. It started with a lot of promise. And then I got to the second week. Ha. HAHA.

Anyway, I've now turned to NaBloPoMo as my daily inspiration for November. Perhaps I will feel accountable.

And I owe you a tee ball story.

But right now, Audrey is crying and Patrick is looking pained and whining that he can't hear his cartoons over the crying ... "CAN YOU PICK HER UP MOM???" 


Posted by Molly at 11:01 AM EDT
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Thu 10/04/2012
Blah blah glamorous ... SAHM: Photo 4

 

This is totally my life right now. Let me explain, point by point. I got out the Halloween 'decorations' (top left, on mantel) today because OMG IT'S OCTOBER. Then I thought it was funny that I put them above the Christmas stockings. The Christmas stockings are there because I retrieved them from their upstairs storage when I received Audrey's new stocking, in order to compare them. (PBK's standards have clearly dropped A LOT since 2007. Just saying.) I put them up instead of back because I had to return Audrey's stocking (a story for another day) and I will want to look at all of them once the replacement gets here.

The monkey chair is there because the other day when I was washing the couch cushion covers after yet another chocolate milk incident, Patrick complained that he just absolutely could not sit on the couch with the covers off the cushions. Instead of telling him to suck it up, I grabbed his chair from upstairs. (It's one of those kids ones that is made all of foam so it's easy to cart around.) The covers are back on the couch cushions, but now there is a train track where the chair used to be in Patrick's room (see also: I'm lazy) so it's still downstairs.

The little bouncy seat on top of the monkey chair is somewhat self-explanatory. It's for Audrey. It takes up a lot of room. I had to plop it on top of there to make a path to the mantel to put the Halloween decor out. Buzz Lightyear, ditto. Patrick's toys are supposed to be contained to three shelves of the bookshelf to the right of this photo, but that is a losing battle.

The pink swing frame is another attempt to get Audrey to sit quietly FOR JUST 10 MINUTES, PLEASE which also usually fails, however, I had to wash the cover because the cat likes it (for way more than 10 minutes) and it had nasty gritty particles that may or may not have been kitty litter, and ew.

There are cheez-its because who doesn't love cheez-its?


Posted by Molly at 8:41 PM EDT
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Wed 10/03/2012
My Glamorous Life as a SAHM: Photo 3


 

So, I originally took a photo of the dirty dishes piled in my sink. I really don't like doing dishes. I mean, I would rather clean the bathroom. So I took a picture of the dishes, then when Audrey was sleeping, I started washing them. And I thought, "Hey! I can do a before and after! It will be neat!" And then I thought, "HEY! I can do a before, DURING, and after, and THEN write about how I need to do dishes more often or get a bigger drying rack, haha." Then I thought I would write about how every time I can actually put Audrey down, I have so much crap to get done that I am paralyzed by the overwhelming sense of it all AND CAN'T A GIRL GET A LITTLE ME TIME?

Then I realized how truly pathetic all that was.

I took my mom to the airport tonight; she's on a flight to Seattle. (Which, Seattle, wow. Still brings back the memories. Did I ever tell you about that? I don't know if I'm even ready. It's written down somewhere, never fear, but it probably shouldn't see the light of day, ever.) Patrick wanted to go to the observation deck. I didn't. On the way to the airport, he fell asleep. My mom said, "Hey, now you won't have to worry about going to the observation deck." I said, "Oh, you don't know Patrick. He will wake up as soon as I stop to let you out, and the first words out of his mouth will be 'I wanna go to the observation deck.' "

Game, set, match to me.

Also, the dishes are still "during" so hey! Look at the neat airplane and the neat clouds!

Funny aside: there was a dad and his two kids there. They were waiting for someone's plane to take off, much like we were. (Aside aside: We just needed a damn American Airlines plane to take off, I have no qualms about passing it off as Grandma's plane even if it's not, and it took 50 minutes before one single stupid AA flight left.) The dad said, "It's about 25 minutes." The kids had no concept of this. Dad: "It's about one TV show from now." I said to him, "I'm glad I'm not the only one who tells time by TV shows."

Okay, wow, now I'm even more pathetic. I will go before I think of something stupider.  


Posted by Molly at 9:32 PM EDT
Updated: Wed 10/03/2012 9:39 PM EDT
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Tue 10/02/2012
My Glamorous Life as a SAHM: Photo 2

I almost skipped posting today. I had many photo ops but settled on one that most likely (hopefully) will not recur this month. I had the photo taken before 1 p.m. But, you see, we had tee ball practice tonight, and that puts everyone in a bad mood.

 But then I thought it would be bad form to fall behind already, on just Day 2.

So here we have a photo I like to call "thank goodness the cushion covers of our cheap furniture are washable." There's only so much chocolate milk they can withstand.


Posted by Molly at 8:42 PM EDT
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Mon 10/01/2012
My Glamorous Life as a SAHM: Photo 1

In an effort to make myself blog more, I have come up with A Plan. I will take a picture of my (new) Glamorous Life as a SAHM every weekday and post it. Now, I am not promising I will actually post every weekday. I mean, that's the goal, but look at my history here, right? But I WILL take one every weekday, because I am taking at least a picture a day, every day, of Audrey, because I did a Patrick Project 365 and by God I will do the same for Audrey. Note to anyone considering this for their first child: DON'T DO IT. It's neat and all, but 52 Weeks works JUST FINE.

Anyway.

Today: Laundry. I don't have an official laundry day. I usually end up doing it at the end of the week and then sort of throughout the weekend so I have a clean slate on Monday but clearly that didn't happen this past weekend. Actually, somehow going to two children has increased the amount of laundry I do by about fivefold and that's not even counting the cloth diapers which is only 2-3 loads a week so not really that bad. Anyway, I don't really mind doing the laundry, up until the putting away part. Um. Obviously.


Posted by Molly at 8:12 PM EDT
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