Toddler Lessons and Defiance

Jenny, much like Rescue Pack, has got my back

For those of you who have up-and-coming toddlers, I figured I’d share some of the day-to-day things that Jellybean and I are doing lately. For those of you who have older toddlers, I would respectfully like to ask for advice on dealing with the ‘I’m a stubborn toddler learning that what I want to do and what my mom wants me to do are sometimes two different things, so I’m going to take my sweet bippy time when she asks me to do something’ phase.

The first thing that Jenny is doing more of is ‘chores’. Also called, ‘helping around the house’, ‘earning her keep’, or ‘making everything take 8 million times as long to accomplish’. The upside to this is that it often distracts her from making a new, high-pitched whining noise that has developed recently; she LOVES to help. Also, she usually claps for herself when she’s done, which is hilarious. And I guess it’s teaching her some valuable skills or life lessons or something, whatever. The downside, as mentioned, is that I’m usually tired and grumpy and just want to get. Stuff. DONE., and having a little helper results in either a few extra steps, a few extra minutes, or a whole lot more patience (or more commonly, all three).

Here’s what she really likes to do, in order of preference;

- Put the little soap tab thingie in the little door in the dishwasher. If you buy the stuff that pours, and you’re going to have a toddler around any time soon, switch now. This is her very favoritest thing in the whole world, and it makes her feel like a total big shot. One caveat – she did eat one or two in the beginning, and I still have to keep an eye on her to make sure she’s not pocketing one as a snack to barf up later. But it’s very cute, she gets it out after carefully selecting the exact perfect one, sets it in a very particular position in its little home, closes the little door, and then closes the big dishwasher door. And then claps for herself while spinning in a circle screaming ‘Yah yah yah!’
- Put wet laundry into the dryer. This is a good one because she use to be a little afraid of the washer and dryer, so it’s nice that they all get along now. I especially like to have her help with her stuff since, hey, might as well get her use to it before she goes off to college. She’s good with any little items, like socks or her shirts or washcloths, and she’s very funny about making sure everything is nicely tucked in there.
- Close doors. Just make sure to remind them to WATCH YOUR FINGERS!!!! Otherwise this isn’t as much fun.
- Get the mail. It’s nice to get outside and get some fresh air, even briefly, and I hoist her up to the mailbox and let her pull it out and drop it all over the ground. Then we go back inside and sort it, and read through the catalogs and talk about stuff. I feel like it helps with language exposure (how else would she learn the word ‘gauchos’?), and it’s a nice quiet bonding activity when she first gets home before I start dinner. I read something that taking a few minutes like this helps avoid the screaming and meltdowns when the food prep starts, and it does seem to work sometimes.
- Clean up toys. I need to be better about this, mostly so that I can help her learn to pick her crap up but also because then I won’t sigh so much when I look at how messy my house is. I bought two huge tubs with rope handles at BJ’s, $7 for both, and toys get pitched in there. It’s easier and way less time-consuming than the prettier and more organized little colored-buckets-shelf thing. She’s also really good about putting away her crayons, but not so much the fridge magnets all over the kitchen floor.

Ok, now the advice time.

Here’s my issue – I don’t want to be a counter. You know what I mean; the person who says, ‘If you don’t blah blah blah (clean up your toys/come put on your shoes/stop putting that candy cane in your nose/get out of the bathtub this freaking second) by the count of three, I’m going to count to three all over again and then still won’t do anything’. Counters make me crazy. Admittedly, there are some people who count who then actually do something, but they are few and far between. I vowed I would never be a counter, but it’s REALLY hard not to do! So there’s Jenny, la la la la la, looking over her shoulder at me and smiling as I sit getting madder by the second with a clean diaper in my outstretched hands waiting for her to meander over to me like a docile little lamb. She sings to herself, and plays with her toys, and wanders around some more, and I simmer. The first time I ask nicely, with a ‘please’. The second time there’s no please. The third time I use her full name and my angry voice, and then I have to go get her. I’m not interested in spanking, so what else is there to do to make this a ‘significant emotional event’ so that she learns she should listen to her mother? My mum says that even asking three times is too much for a toddler, that she should get one chance and then I should give her a little swat on the hand or something. Ugh. Yes, I’m happy that she’s independent and this is an important milestone, yippee. I don’t want her to jump in fear when she hears my voice, and I don’t want her to respond like a trained animal. I just want her to get her pudgy butt moving when I need her to. So what can I do?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like OMG WHEN IS CHRISTMAS?!!!!!

Man, has it been forever or what? Blog? Huh? Where?

I’m not going to make any promises about writing more since my product has recently begun barfing all over the place and doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon, but I felt like I needed to come and post and share and all that good stuff. I also posted two items I wrote a few weeks ago but never got around to posting because, for some reason, I have been hesitant to post. Why? Who knows what goes through the mind of a crazy woman stressed out beyond belief about work and working herself into a mess over Christmas.

I recently did another drive to Canada, which always gives me a good 20 hours (times two) alone with my thoughts. No, not really alone, since Jelly is in the backseat, but since the invention of the ‘Car DVD Player’, aka ‘OMG BABY CRACK’, I might as well be on my own for that drive. Jelly is such a freaking good traveler. She didn’t even poo in the car at all, waited til we got to the hotel or our destinations. Which was good, because at one horrible point I changed her on the floor in the middle of the dining area in a Wendy’s. With the exception of some seriously bad weather (as in, 'Well, despite the fact we are currently stalled across four lanes of traffic, at least we didn't go over that snowy cliff), the drive was fine.

Jenny was VERY happy to be home but has a new little habit that shows the trip got to her. Now every time she leaves a room she has to say good-bye to each and every thing in it, as though she will never see it ever again. It's a little heart-wrenching, except that it really is EVERY SINGLE THING. Like, 'buh-bah, tee' (for 'good-bye, Christmas tree, I've known you such a short time but I dearly love you and will miss you with every ounce of my being and OMG IT'S MORNING AND YOU'RE STILL HERE THAT IS SO FREAKING AWESOME!!!'). So it's making me a little nutty and I've had to add 10 minutes to the pre-nap and bedtime routine so that the coffee table and front door get the attention they deserve.

We are doing our best to get ready for the impending holiday season (oh, wait, it's here? whaa?), and managed to get lights up and bows on the porch columns and Jellybean picked out a nice tree.

Look at me, I'm walkin' in mah boots, I'm such a busy baby.

I am so far behind on baking and cleaning. My bedroom floor is not so much 'carpeted' as 'strewn with clean and dirty laundry in equal measure'. Isn't that one of the days of Christmas? I am trying to get together last-minute gifts for all my service friends who never get presents any more in this crazy day and age, like the garbage men/recycling guys (Starbucks and homemade cookie baskets), my lawn guy (Wal-Mart gift certificate), mail man (homemade fudge), plus I think I might give a random annonymous gift certificate to one of my nearby neighbors who lives in this tiny little singlewide trailer with two kids. I got a little Christmas bonus this year so am trying to spread it around, since so many people are so much harder up than me. Also, I don't want my good money karma to swing around; it's to the point of ridiculous now. Two months ago I was selling stuff on Craigslist to pay my electric bill, and last week I found $40 that someone left in an ATM (for the record, I called my bank and they said there was nothing they could do about it and I should keep it but thanks for my honesty - I feel bad for that person).

Jellybean met Santa, and decided she preferred him from a distance. Fair enough. I gave up when I realized I was bribing her with candy to sit on a stranger's lap, and that was just not cool. I can't argue with her instincts, he was a little weird (ie, 'stoned').


So we're just plodding along, adjusting to her new daycare provider (which means sobbing twice/daily for Jelly and a super crappy drive twice/daily in traffic for me, who has not had to sit in commuter traffic for like almost 4 years) and doing the bare minimum so we don't end up on 'Hoarders'. Eh, we're (mostly) clean and healthy and happy, what more can we ask for?

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

I'm paying attention to the presentation, I swear

**Please note: This post is a few weeks old

Have you ever had a dream that was really super-realistic, and you woke up and thought, ‘Man, that was a really realistic dream!’, and then a unicorn ran past or you suddenly were swimming in chocolate syrup, and THEN you woke up? That’s how this whole past month has felt like. It’s hard to explain, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I’ve slept in like 15 different places in the past few weeks, and have been constantly packing/unpacking/repacking, and there’s been this super-weird mix of work/personal (parents visiting while I went on a work trip, bookend visit with parents on another work trip, etc.). I just looked around the room (me and 14 guys, where are all these women in the workplace I’ve heard about?) and thought, ‘Where the heck am I? Where’s Jenny?’. It’s very disconcerting. Last night I slept in a swank downtown Toronto hotel, ate dinner out and did some shopping. Tonight I’ll have a roast with my parents and baby, and sleep in the bed I had in high school. Tomorrow I’ll be in a small-town hotel in Pennsylvania, exhausted after a day of driving. Then I’ll be back at home, in my own bed, prepping for a busy work week and Jenny’s first day at a new daycare and trying to find time to get a Christmas tree and decorations up.

I don’t know if it’s just me and my incredible lack of focus, but I find it hard to pay attention to what’s at-hand at times like this. There are so many other things to be thinking about; remember to get the GPS out of the bag in the trunk of my car, which is back at the hotel in the parking garage on level B3. Don’t forget to do Jenny’s laundry and include bathing suits in a small bag for the pool at the hotel when we’re on the way home. And, uh, shave my damn legs this time. Get some of those scrumptious little marshmallow strawberries that for whatever reason are only found in Ontario. Send my edits for the upcoming product release notes, due hours ago, when I have internet access again tonight. Follow up with the Engineering team on what’s been dropped from the release, and what our revised beta plan is. Reschedule my dentist appointment. Make sure I have our passports. Confirm the babysitter for the show Dre and I are attending next week. Get to the bank. Will need groceries as soon as I’m home. Check the tires before I get on the road. Arghhhhhh. I hate that I get ahead of myself sometimes and can’t just be in the moment. Especially since I should really, REALLY be paying attention to this meeting. Which is SO. BORING.

I’m getting lots of grief about not spending Christmas in Canada with my family, and part of me is incredibly disappointed that I won’t get to see my niece and nephew, and hang out with my sisters. But a part of me is still excited that it will be just me and Jenny, and that we’ll get a good night’s sleep, and not have the stress of travel or the chaos of relatives. I feel like I haven’t seen her in forever, and it’s only been four days. The good news is, she’s had a LOT of fun with the grandparents; they got a little bit of snow and built a snowman with her, and put up their tree which made her LOSE HER MIND, and she’s eaten better and slept better there than at home in months. The bad news is, she won’t get to see them again for six months. SIX MONTHS. Well, 5 ½. But still. Thankfully she’s got a great Ta and Aunt Jen and lots of other people who love her in Raleigh. But they’re not Uncle Dancey, whom she’s grown VERY attached to, and who makes her positively howl with laughter.

So the next few weeks will be very work-busy, and Christmas-busy, and I’m already looking forward to some long weekends at the end of the month. And the best thing about this flurry of travel is that I’m wicked excited to settle back into my boring ol’ routine of weeknight Tivo ‘n Snacking and weekend Errands and Lunch With Ta/Playdates with the CSMs. Normalcy – mmmmmmmm.

Oh, and of course Jellybean was A TOTAL ROCKSTAR in the car. That kid is so freaking great.

The iPhone Review

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post that was neither baby-related, nor me whining on and on about my life in general and hardly saying anything about my baby at all. I try not to bore everyone who is only here for Jellybean details with miscellaneous other stuff, like how I’m excited I fit into a smaller size jeans recently (*edit – Uh, not so much anymore, after a visit from my parents and real non-Cheerios meals and then a week in Toronto on an expense account and a different awesome Thai restaurant every night) and how much I’ve secretly loved not having the nanny here anymore. However, I have a new love in my life and am just so darn happy that I had to share.

Before you get too excited, remember I titled this post ‘The iPhone Review’, not ‘OMG I FINALLY MET A DUDE’. I’ve been a Nokia girl for a very long time (even had the crazy 3650 with the circular key pad), and my N75 recently drifted off while I gently cradled it. Or, more accurately, the stupid power/lock/settings button broke a spring or a pin or something, and since that was pretty necessary to the general day-to-day functioning of the phone, I decided it was time to move on. Random strangers on the street have been peer-pressuring me for quite some time about the sly little i-device. Knowing my love of all things geek-y and make-life-easier-y, more than one person suggested I join the cult. Despite the fact that I tend to be an early adopter of some things, as far as cellular devices go I’m usually slow and steady. I’ve been doing lots of reading and news-watching of the iPhone for quite some time; I watched friends pay first-car amounts for early models, observed hackers jailbreaking (and consequently bricking) more than once, and was quietly jealous of a few really cool apps.

What made me decide to finally go for it? I was looking at buying a Garmin, and was fretting I wouldn’t have it before my next Canada roadtrip. Garmins are expensive. The iPhone has GPS. I saw how many awesome kids’ apps there were, and our gal Jelly loves her some cell phone. I got sick and tired of not being able to check email or movie times or anything browser-necessary. And I should be getting some Christmas money here soon, so I figured why not.

First, I gotta say it’s really, really awesome. Like, really. Just alone, on its own, with no downloaded/purchased apps, it’s a great piece of technology. Pretty, fast, functional. I still prefer a phone that feels like a phone, but this is no phone. It’s a space-aged communication device, and there are some things you just let go of when you have so many other things making up for it. Granted, there are some irritating ‘why can’t it do that?’ types of issues, that pop up when I least expect it. You get so use to performing certain tasks and finger taps that you come to a screeching halt when you can’t save a pdf attachment from your email, or copy/paste it somewhere else (I was trying to insert the upcoming local Christmas parade route into my Calendar reminder, obviously quite critical). And the camera is pretty crappy. But as far as what you CAN do – pretty sweet.

I’ve tried very hard to not go overboard with downloading apps, and have thus far been fairly successful (on this, our 1-month anniversary, only $22.70 spent thus far!). I find it interesting how little overlap I have among friends. It’s very telling about how personalized each phone becomes, which I think is the biggest draw of having one. I tried to keep the majority of the applications in the under-a-dollar category, if not free, and there have only been two that have fallen outside of that; an RPG I couldn’t live without because I’m a big dork, and Jamie Oliver’s cooking app (because I would pay any amount of money for anything he does, because he’s bloody brilliant and totally smoking hot). I’ve also tried to keep them organized, and are so far broken down into the following categories; Main Page (use frequently, like Phone and Email and Messaging etc.), Jenny (games and stupidity like ‘shake the phone and it will sound like a choo-choo and your kid will go freaking bonkers even though it was free and you paid all kinds of money for other stupid apps that she hates’), Games (stupidity for me, like Cow Bell), Functions (for travel, for shopping, for cooking etc.), and Tools (Flashlight, Calculator, Lighter). I’ve only had the phone one week so haven’t had a chance to get out and use a lot of the stuff yet, but I figure starting with next week’s business trip I’ll use the heck out of them and come back and do another review. (*edit – As I mentioned, I’ve had it a few months now, so have revised my top favorite apps based on some actual road-testing)

So far, based on what I’ve downloaded (and I’ve already uninstalled a few items), here are my Top 10 personal favorite apps:

• FastContacts
• Maps (great as a simple local GPS; I decided I didn't like having my GPS and the iDevice in one unit, and The Ta sold me her Garmin for a steal)
• PackingPro
• Choo Choo
• Baby Piano
• Monkey Ball
• Grocery Gadget
• Yelp/AroundMe (I still haven't decided which one I like more; each one can yield different, extremely handy results. So for now I'm keeping both and we'll see how it goes)
• Alarm Clock
• Voice Memo/Dragon Dictation (still playing with these, but like that they're free and I can grab the phone and do a quick, 'Note to self')

I don’t like news, so there aren’t any news apps, although I’ve been told there are lots of great ones. I tried out TripIt and liked it, but didn't love it - I think there should have been more it could do as far as links and flight delays and stuff like that. I'll keep an eye on it. Leave me a comment if you want more details about any of these or how to find the exact versions. If you're my cousin reading this and your name is 'Jen', don't be horrified by this list. They are the things I use all the time that make life easier, I still have plenty of other crap on it.

Tired With a Chance of Impatient

Sooooo… yeah. Busy times, here. Little sleeping and lots of frantic preparation for the upcoming month of birthday parties, family visits, work travel, and holiday prep. My parents and brother arrive Friday (yay!), then next week I’ve got to fly out to Arkansas for a client site visit. I get back and we spend a few days getting hair cuts, some more professional pics for Jelly, her 18-mo checkup, the local Santa Claus parade, and then it’s off to Charlotte for Thanksgiving with some cousins. From there I’m driving up to Canada again with The Bean, because I am a crazy person and it’s been long enough that I’ve blocked out the incredible agony of that trip, and I have a client meeting in Toronto that is only an hour or so away from my folks so they incredibly agreed to watch her yet again. Then it’s the drive back, and hopefully throw a tree and some decorations up, and host a holiday party, and then it’s off to Boston for a week to the corporate office. And then it’s Christmas, and then I lay down and die, and finally get some sleep, the end.

Jellybean for some reason has continued to wake up around 4:30-5:30, fall asleep for another hour at most, and be up for the day. It’s brutal. I think I functioned better when she was a newborn. Ha ha! I’m funny. No, really, I’m once again totally brain dead and exhausted all the time, plus there are a gazillion different viruses going around that my system is constantly fighting. Little Snotty doesn’t help by licking random things and shoving them in my mouth. I’m back to Cheerios for dinner (they should have some sort of marketing campaign, ‘The Single Mother’s Meal’), which isn’t the most balanced diet, but it’s neutral and quick and easy and Jenny is guaranteed to want to eat half of mine so she’s at least getting something in the evening. The early rising is either a case of 'I'm Starving Because I Positively Refuse to Eat Dinner But Want a Gallon of Milk Two Seconds Before Bed' (which results in a ravenously hungry and soaking wet baby), or 'Why You Got To Keep This Damn House So Cold, Beyotch?' (baby is either cold, or too hot because I've put her in 19 layers of jammies and onesies and put a dangerous space heater on 'Grill' in her room because I'm freaked out that she will be cold).

I am ridiculously excited for the holidays, but am conflicted because work is just so grody. My Engineering Product Manager AND his boss just quit because of the craziness that is the upcoming December release, and you can imagine how awesome that makes my life. Anyone going to own this train wreck? Bueller? I feel like Jenny has had an unfair share of grumpy mama the past few weeks, despite continuing to be the relatively good-natured and well-behaved toddler that she is. Thank god I work from home and don’t have to get myself presentable, or have to be on time to an office after dropping her off at daycare. It is remarkably painful trying to get out the door in the morning, and I’m so short-tempered that a sudden mysterious disappearance of a shoe is THE END OF THE WORLD. I am keeping my crap in check, but I’m doing a lot of ‘get a grip on yourself!’ conversations in my head and taking a lot of Tylenol. Everything is just hard when you’re tired, know what I mean? The Halloween party we went to was a lot of fun, but my ears were ringing and I was nauseous and dizzy from lack of sleep, so that made the whole trick-or-treating experience sort of anti-climactic. Jellybean was great, though, hauling her fat little butt up those stairs and stretching to ring the doorbells all by herself. She had a blast. But now that the candy is gone she keeps asking for 'treat?' hopefully after dinner, and sobs when none are forthcoming.

Things I Feel Guilty About Today:

1. I'm phoning it in with the meals lately. Or, still. It's just so darn irritating when I spend an hour preparing something and an hour cleaning up and all that happens is Jenny cries like I'm torturing her and stuff gets thrown out. She does seem to enjoy clementines, though, and I figure that's some good vitamin C, so it's not totally bad. I just think that if I ate better I'd feel better, have more energy, the world would magically become simpler, etc.


2. Money spent on Christmas stuff. Yes, there are a batrillion other things I should be spending my money on. But - Christmas! Shiny! Happy!
   
3. The dirtiest house in the world. I am trying to get bits and pieces done in the evenings, but that's also my only Jelly time, so then I feel guilt that I am ignoring her or that her mommy time is spent sitting on the floor by herself looking at books while I wash linens and swipe at toilets and ignore dusty window sills. Thank god my mum isn't all judge-y and won't criticize me if stuff doesn't get done, that would suck.

I don't know how much posting I'm going to get done in the next month or so, so please don't be upset and go away and never come back. I'm sure there will be PLENTY of stories after the holidays that will thrill and titilate. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to read the blog again and again. It will be just like 'Cats'.

Some Jellybean goodness coming your way;

This Is Halloween

I like to think that summer is my favorite season. I love the beach; warm sand under my feet, cool waves rocking me, a lazy benevolent sun on my face. I do not, however, like sweating. I don’t like $200+ A/C bills every month. And I don’t like a scorched, angry acrid air that punches you in the face when you attempt to walk out your door. So I may need to rethink this whole summer thing (check back in with me again in February, though).

Autumn doesn’t really get properly moving in North Carolina until late October. It’s a little slower, and a little more unpredictable than other locales. One day it’s 54, the next it’s 82. But when it finally makes up its mind to be sensible and settles down around 67-68 degrees, that’s when I’m happy. The house is cool at night, and I sleep better. I’ve finally been able to have a few al fresco meals, and drinks with friends in a sweet evening breeze. This body is made for jeans and sweatshirts, not shorts and tank tops, and I don’t faint with heat exhaustion toting Jellybean around.

This past weekend was the local mommies ‘Trunk or Treat’ event. For those of you unfamiliar with such a notion, it’s like tailgating for a sporting event but with less beer and more music and unsupervised children. Actually, the kids at the soiree this year were pretty well tended. Everyone seemed to be having a fun time, despite the suspicious amount of weird squeeze-tetra applesauce-like product. Jenny’s favorite treats were definitely the lollipops, although I had a moment of concern watching her run down a hill with one in her mouth. And I did lick some grass and lint off for her, which I thought was pretty gracious of me. I didn’t get as much time to hang out with my favorite cool mommies as I’d like, since I was Jelly-wrangling most of the time. That’s the frustrating thing about a non-contained event. But there were some cool costumes, and we got to see friends, and we didn’t roast like last year. And Jenny learned the joy of eating too much candy and not eating a single bite of dinner, which is very important.

This coming weekend will be another Halloween party, this time with my hacker friends. A couple who moved to Atlanta will be staying with us, with their baby in tow, and I can’t wait to see them! Hopefully Jelly will refrain from poking him in the eye, which she seems to like to do to some babies. I am going to take her trick-or-treating with some of the partygoers and then try to put her down to sleep there. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Speaking of sleep and not getting any, she’s had a nasty little cold and, despite me and Vick’s teaming up to do our best to keep her breathing at night, for whatever reason she’s woken up earlier and earlier the past few days. Saturday was 6:30, Sunday was 6, and this morning was 5:15. Yep, you read that correctly. Although it was partially my own stupid fault, because I woke up to pee and decided it was too cold and OMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN and went in to cover her up. Which of course woke her up and made her furious. I pulled her into my nice toasty warm bed in the hopes that she would be lulled back to sleep by my regret and sleep-deprived frustration, but no such luck. It’s a 9 pm bedtime for me tonight!

Here are some pics of my favorite pet.

Jelly hangs out with some friends, Kai-Lan and Oscar

She's a good sharer, my Jelly; 'Here, doggie, have some!'

Jelly and Jellybean Mama, in a rare photo together

And just in case you'd forgotten (or never saw) last year...

Happy Halloween, everyone!!

It's Not You, It's Me

Omg I'm a terrible blogger. I've become the blog person I hate - get people interested, then leave 'em hanging. Will you ever forgive me? Are you even still checking? I'm sorry! Things have actually settled down a bit - Jenny is doing ok at the in-home daycare, but still cries when I drop her off so that stresses me out despite the fact I know that SHE'S FINE. Yes, normal separation anxiety, it's all very healthy, normal to be still adjusting, whatever. It's still a sad little face boo-hooing when I have to pry her off my leg. And I've been reminded that I still need to find a permanent solution come January. Which stresses me out all over again, especially when I realize that due to my parent's Thanksgiving visit and some work travel, Jelly won't need care for 3 weeks straight, and if I were smart I would have her finish at Miss N's in mid-November and start her in the new place when we get back in early December. Which would mean I would need to find her new place, uh, next week, prior to paying Miss N for November. I would personally prefer to pretend that I don't have to deal with any of this at all, and that childcare fairies will take care of things. Or I'll win lots of money despite never playing any sort of lottery.

I went on another lame internet date, and realized the problem is not the lame internet dudes - it's me. I like the nerdy boys, the nerdy boys aren't exactly social butterflies, therefore I get all irritated on dates when they don't ask me any questions about myself OR MY PRECIOUS BABY. Seriously, it's a game now. If an hour goes by, I casually mention her, let it hang there, and move on. Wait a few minutes, then do it again. So far, neither guy has asked me about my job, or Jellybean, or how I came to be such a gorgeous total package. It's making me crazy. Also, last night, my jeans were unzipped for most of dinner and I accidentally blew a snot bubble in mid-sentence. None of my pants fit right - I sit down, and the zipper gaps open. I was like, 'uh-oh, I'm out!'. Luckily I was wearing a long shirt so could make it to the restroom to wrangle some pants control. And blow my nose. It's this crazy weather, not my fault!

Work has stressed me out to the point of shut down, which is never a good thing. I play Facebook apps and wake up in the middle of the night from dreaming I've missed an important conference call. Any tips for re-focussing would be greatly appreciated (like, reminding me that it would really suck to lose my job maybe?).

Jenny continues to morph into a toddler. One day she LOVES something, the next she DESPISES it. This is true of television shows, food, ponies, clothes, toys, activities, and clocks. Yes, she hates the kitchen clock suddenly - I have to take it down from the wall and put it in the pantry or she won't eat that 1/2 piece of teeny tiny boiled carrot that she calls dinner. She's also throwing more temper tantrums, which personally is pretty hilarious. I'm not insensitive - I offer to lay down on the floor and cry and kick along with her. She does not think I'm funny. Her new favorite thing EVER! is to play in the car. She can get the keys in the ignition and turn on the radio, so I figure she's almost ready to move out on her own. Her language skills continue to explode - people's names, phrases. She likes to point at things and say, 'See!' to get my attention. Which is WAY better than grunting, and cute as a button.

The next few months are busy ones - it's apparently birthday party season in my awesome mommies group, and there's holiday stuff (Halloween, Thanksgiving - and then - CHRISTMAS!!!), and we went to the fair, and the cooler weather is freaking fantastic. Except for the extra boogers.

And now, to copy my sister, say 'Click'!