???

20 minutes to get them ready
10 minutes of crying because they are too cold
20 minutes to clean up after they come in
2 loads of laundry
and about 15 minutes of actually playing in the snow. Is it really worth it? I guess a mom will do just about anything for 15 minutes of peace and quiet!

I guess I can't complain.... the boots and yellow pants are mine! :)

Quick update

We moved Miles down to the office and have been letting him cry when he wakes up at night.... he's slowly cried less and less each night (for the first few nights he cried from 2am-5am), last night he slept from 9pm-445am and only woke up and cried ONCE for just a little while! HOORAY!! I'm very happy - and not so tired! Hopefully it will last, but I think it will.

Sleep deprivation is no fun

Miles is such a sweet little boy. He is so happy and fun, goes down for his naps like a champ and is an all around easy baby. UNTIL NIGHTTIME. I seriously don't know how long it has been since I have not seen the clock at least 4 times during the night. I know it's my fault. He is still sleeping in the playpen in Brian and I's room - but our basement is cold and I don't put him in with the girls so they can sleep.... Once Brian is done with finals (tomorrow!!) I am planning on moving him into the office downstairs (with a space heater) and letting him cry it out. But as I've mentioned before the kid can cry for HOURS. Literally. I hate it. It breaks my heart. But I don' t know what else to do. He has made me into even more of an insomniac then I was before. I try to go to bed around 10:30 but because Miles always wakes up around midnight I rarely fall asleep before then because I just lay in bed waiting for him to wake up. So he wakes up and if I let him cry he'll cry for a few hours, or I feed him and lay him back down. Sometimes he goes back to sleep until 2ish, other times (like right now!) he cries, and cries..andcriesandcriesandcries...... So I lay on the couch if Brian is studying and wait for him to stop crying. But if Brian is in bed I don't want Miles to wake him up (because Brian's just gone to bed!) so I take Miles out in the living room and rock him until he falls asleep. Then we do it all over again. I lay him down in the playpen and I lay in bed wide awake.... and just when I start to get sleepy he wakes up. I know I've just confused the poor kid. Of course he's gonna cry until I pick him up because we're in the same room and he knows I'm there hiding under the covers! He doesn't know how to put himself back to sleep because I almost always pick him up. I know he's not sick or hurting beause he's an angel during the day. He's just spoiled. I really hope this crying it out thing works. FAST. But I really wish he had a binky. Nora was always a breeze to put to sleep. Binkies are SO worth it. Anyway, this is turning out to be a much longer post than I anticipated. But that's because Miles is in my room crying his eyes out and I can't go to bed. Maybe I'll start researching sleep advice books........

Silly girls...

A few funny conversations with my two girls

At the store with Nora, who is very upset that I won't let her get a gumball from the machine:

Nora: But, MOM! It's not fair!!

Me: Well, sometimes life isn't fair.

Nora: "MOM! I'm not talking about life. I am talking about those (pointing to gumballs)!!

At the grocery store with all the kids, Sophie is holding a box of drinkable yogurts:

Sophie: Mom - can we get these?

Me: Remember we got those last time and you didn't like them?

Sophie: I'll like them this time!

Me: I don't think you will, they are just the same as they were before.

Sophie: Please!? I promise I'll like them this time!

Me: Okay - but you have to drink them this time! (remember I am at the store with all three kids, this was the third place we'd gone, the lines were long and I was pretty much willing to buy anything if it meant we'd get out of there with no drama. And hey, at least it was yogurt!)

Sophie: I will, I promise......

No, that wasn't the funny part. It's coming up next. So we load up in the car and I get Sophie and Nora one of the yogurts to drink on the way home. I hand Sophie hers and watch her take a sip and then watched her wait expectantly for something to happen. Then she got a very disappointed look on her face and says, " The kid on TV disappears after he drinks these!"

A little distracted??

I've been busy working on some Christmas projects today........ Nora was playing with stickers behind me and for some reason it didn't register that she was putting them ON me. Sophie pointed them out after we picked her up from school. Oops! And I also just realized (looking at this picture) that I'm wearing the same shirt I was wearing yesterday! I'll blame it all on lack of sleep..........

just for laughs

Occasionally I get cold sores when I'm stressing out - and I just knew one was coming on yesterday! Luckily nothing serious was going on. Just the every day stressers that come with life right now had built up and a cold sore popped out on my top lip. Later that night I was putting something away in the laundry room and tripped on something or other (with the state of my laundry room right now it is impossible to find exactly which item it was!) I fell and smashed a box of ornaments (nothing irreplaceable thank goodness!) and fell onto the kids plastic rocking horse. As I fell on the back end of it the top end of it hit me square in the mouth and sent my top tooth through my lower lip and out the other side. Ouch. As you can imagine it was a rather loud noise but the kids were all upstairs in bed and Brian was in the next room on the phone so I sat there in the mess and had myself a good cry. Not really because it had hurt, but just because I needed it. And it felt good. So today I can laugh about it.
But I'm still not going out in public if I can help it :)

swollen lip with cold sore on top, swollen bottom lip with cut on bottom (that's the cut where my tooth came out)

I'm looking good I know.

But hey, it could always be worse --- like this!

Or this!!

Or this!
I feel much better about the top pictures now.