Eye teeth

Robert is learning to give kisses and they are the sweetest, spittiest little kisses any baby boy ever gave, mmm-mah!

Robert is cutting his eye teeth and at least one molar. Ouch. Last night he finally fell asleep around midnight, I think. Jordan has always been the primary baby cuddler and puts Robert to sleep each night. He is awesome like that. The way Robert has been lately, if he does fall asleep we're afraid to put him down in the bed. That'll probably wake him up, and he hasn't even wanted to nurse to sleep at night lately. I feel bad for him, because clearly the poor little guy is uncomfortable a lot of the time and there's only so much I can do to help.

It's been hard for the rest of us, too. It's hard to juggle baby cuddling, meal preparing, spending time with my girls, homeschooling, cleaning, and other assorted projects I must do. We've been taking a break on the homeschooling. I am sure the girls would love for me to read to them more, without the baby whining and crying at us. Jordan does most of the cooking. The house gets really messy sometimes. Do you know how many dirty dishes and dirty clothes a family of five can generate? It's nuts! By the time I've dealt with all that, I barely have any time or focus to tackle what I call second-tier cleaning jobs. You know, things you say you'll do once the laundry is put away and the floor isn't covered in toys. Stuff like cleaning out the craft (crap) room, going through the kids' outgrown clothes, clearing the dining room table, or seeing if I can find the top of my dresser. I've been thinking about making a list of all these tasks I'd like to do and checking one or two off every week. Maybe then I could eventually work on third-tier stuff like reorganizing and decorating.

By the way, I am still skating! I love and need this in my life right now. Here is what's going on with derby.

28

Suzi made me this birthday card--a picture of the two of us.

Today is my birthday and the kids are driving me crazy. I was downstairs making coffee by 6:00, but Suzi was joining me 15 minutes later, wanting to finish a sewing project we'd started the night before.

I dropped what I was doing and finished it with her, and finished Ivey's too. It was fun. I loved seeing their smiling faces when Little Johnny Bear (Suzi's) and Mess Bear (Ivey's) were ready to cuddle. Unfortunately, spending time on this before doing any of the usual morning jobs got the day off to a hectic start.

And everything just spiraled from there. Fight after fight after fight. No naps. Whiny, uncooperative kids. There is nothing quite like a full day of fussing at your children every three minutes. I feel like a referee. Where is my whistle?

There have been some good parts, though. A lot of good parts. In a day that has made me so stressed and tired, the good parts could easily be forgotten, and especially since it's my birthday I thought I'd write them down here.

1) I loved making those bears with the girls. Suzi sewed a lot of the edges on hers, and Ivey picked out all the things to go on hers and stuffed it.

2) I got phone calls from my mom, my brother Paul, my grandma, and my mother-in-law. It was nice to talk to them even though I had to close the other ear to hear them over the screeching children.

3) Suzi asked me to spell baseball and when I got to the second B she asked me "B again?" Like it was just ridiculous for a letter to be in a word more than once.

4) Suzi saw my frustration and said "Mom, if there's a big problem, just call me and I'll get out of my work, and come help. Okay?" She was working at her desk.

5) We made our favorite oatmeal cookies. Ivey was in the kitchen helping me when I came to the sad realization that the chocolate chips, pecans, and raisins for my double batch were not going to fit in my mixer. I took the bowl off the stand and started to squish it up with my hands. When Ivey saw what I was doing, she growled "ohhhh." So I had her wash her hands and let her squish a little. While I wasn't looking she licked her hands off, so I had to tell her she couldn't help anymore.

6) Suzi fed Robert and Ivey talked to him while I was busy with cookies. "Here comes Mr. Bat! Mr. Bat is flying into the bat cave! Swooooop!"

7) A chocolate-covered piglet, enjoying his cookies.

Toofies!

8) And then, cookie drunk. If you have never seen a baby fall asleep in a high chair, you should.

He leans to the side...

Did I doze off?

There was no real nap following this cuteness though. I took him out of the high chair, changed him, and nursed him. Then he was ready to roll again.

9) Jordan finally came home and he knew I was having a hard day because I'd called him a time or two, so he came over and gave me a hug. I whispered in his ear, "the baby smells like puke, and he needs a bath." It's my birthday. I'm cashing in my get-out-of-baths-free card.

Ohhh boy I'm tired. I hope derby practice goes well tonight.

P.S. If you'd like to read more about roller derby, my fresh meat teammate and I are blogging about it here on the URGE blog.