I met my mom at Panera the other day for lunch. It was a brisk 44 degrees (unlike the 74 today), perfect for soup. Apparently everyone within driving distance thought so too because the line was backed up to the door at 11:45 a.m. Now, I do not get out much these days; too much hassle. So Panera is a bit of a treat. I have always loved their orange scones, and their decadent coffee drinks are quite good but oh how I wish they had never started posting calorie content. Anyway, I should have just ordered my scone and coffee when I finally reached the front of the line, but I did not.

Surely the line will die down, I thought. If I order the coffee now, it will be lukewarm when I actually drink it, I thought. In reality, after about an hour when we had finished our lunch, Patrick was whining, Audrey was screaming, and the line was still stretche twice around itself and out the door.

Sigh.

So I went to the McDonald's drive-through for a peppermint mocha. The girl at the window had rather exuberantly applied neon green eye make-up. As I was paying, Patrick piped up helpfully from the backseat: "Mommy! Why does that girl have nail polish on her eyes?!" 

Posted by Molly at 10:24 PM EST

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I think if nothing else NaBloPoMo has showed that when I go for quantity, I sacrifice quality. I like to think I'm a fairly decent writer, and I generally enjoy going back and reading previous posts. But this, this just feels like a chore, which is okay; it doesn't take that long, but it's something to check off. I don't know. I don't think this is super beneficial. I'll keep it up though.

Some people are clearly much better than I. They have a funny story each day. I am not sure I could even spin those, but I generally have no time, as Audrey is High Maintenance. As you may have gathered from my random thoughts yesterday. She's sleeping right now, not on me. I still can't think of anything good to write.

I need to do an update, I guess. I will try to do that next Tuesday, which is her official 4-month doctor's appointment. I seriously have nothing to say right now. My brain is just going 'blah blah blah blah blah.'

Sigh.

Deuces. 

Posted by Molly at 7:40 PM EST

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A little while after Audrey was born, I joined a breastfeeding support group on Facebook. People would post questions, not all breastfeeding related. One that kept recurring went something like this: "My child screams whenever I put him down and doesn't sleep. Help." And invariably, the answers would be: (1) babywearing and (2) bed sharing.

I do not think these answers are particularly helpful. I mean they help you get by but they don't provide a solution. I eventually un-joined because you could predict every answer. So, supportive, yes. Helpful? Not really.

Patrick was in his crib starting at 2 months, waking once. He started on formula when I went back to work when he was 13 weeks old. He wore disposable diapers.

Audrey has not spent an entire night in her crib yet. We bed share. She has had maybe 2 oz of formula, ever. She wears cloth diapers.

I don't know where this is going. I think it is that I am wondering if I am doing the right thing. Blah blah blah whine boringcakes. I will try to form cohrerent thoughts later.

Posted by Molly at 10:49 PM EST

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Totally not feeling it tonight. Here was Halloween:

Posted by Molly at 11:15 PM EST

Updated: Wed 11/07/2012 11:20 PM EST

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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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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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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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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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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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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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