Thirty-one

So, I had my birthday on Tuesday. It started out great, but wasn't quite as wonderful by the middle. Three-year-olds and nearly-one-year-olds don't care that it's Mommy's Special Day and that she should get treated extra nice. The Little Man did sleep in until 7, so that was nice, though.

I'm struggling again with mood swings and anger and anti-social tendencies. The several nights of little sleep recently haven't helped, I'm sure. (We stayed up WAY too late at my party and got up early, and then Little Man has been teething and has some sniffles and isn't sleeping well the last few days). But I almost canceled my annual Mother/Daughter pedi-and-lunch-and-shopping trip yesterday because I didn't want to go out. Now THAT is strange for me.

So I'm hoping I'll start getting more sleep and things will even out, but if not, back to the Dr. I'll go. No fun, but neither is feeling so out of control.

Birthday weekend

Whew! We had SUCH a busy, fantastic weekend.

We spent the morning on Saturday getting ready for the rest of it. Daddy Fuss fixed the car (which ended up being a PITA, but it got done and all is well) and went grocery shopping and ran the have-to errands I hadn't been able to take care of yet. I finished packing and tried to clean up some more so that my mom and Gramma wouldn't have as much mess to deal with. I failed, but it was at least BETTER, so there's that.

We left the house around 3 and drove down to the beach. Over 4th of July we had left my husband's sunglasses at Cherry's mom's house, and Cherry just announced that she is pregnant (!) so I wanted to deliver some maternity clothes for her. We checked into the hotel and ended up in an upgraded room with a view and a little more privacy than originally expected and began to get dressed for our evening out. Our best friends picked us up (there were parking issues at the hotel) and we drove the throwing distance to the restaurant (I was wearing heels and there was a LOT of traffic, so we were lazy and drove instead of walked.) We had an excellent dinner and I got my Espresso Martini (theirs are the BEST thanks to Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka - yum!)

My cake turned out beautifully and delicious and I will certainly make the ganache topping again some time. Everyone loved the look of the cake, so I was happy that my second attempt turned out so nice.

We had a fun time with our friends - a few things got out of hand, we all drank too much, stayed up too late and the other 2 guys (not my husband) got into an argument that could potentially end up being really awkward in the future. But all in all, things went well and we had fun.

My mom and Gramma cleaned and scrubbed while they watched the kids and also set up the wading pool in the back yard for them. My fridge is spotless for the first time in a year (we had something very sticky spill and it was really a mess in there, but I didn't have the time or energy to deal with it) and and while both of them were exhausted by the time they were done, (my mom reported taking a much-needed nap Sunday afternoon) they all had fun.

The Little Man's face lit up and he practically swam across the floor to see me when we returned. He does good on the cup and bottle, but he misses his Mama Milk, too. He fell asleep in my arms after emptying my full-to-overflowing breast and slept for 2 hours.

We attended a friend's 1-year-old's birthday party on Sunday afternoon. It was fun, though I was a bad mama and forgot sunscreen and the Little Man got a mild sunburn on his back from being exposed while in the wading pool. It's so funny because I was SO good about coating Fuss when she was younger assuming that with her pale parents she would burn easy. Nope. My girl tans. And she tans beautifully. It's sort of amazing. She gets beautiful tan lines from a mild exposure to the sun, even with sunscreen on.

April gave me a bunch of clothes that she has shrunk out of (she looks amazing. I'm somewhat inspired) and I ended up with practically a whole new wardrobe. I had almost no dressy clothes (like nice pants and skirts, etc.) so her work wardrobe really filled in some gaps in mine. I am incredibly grateful!

We had a pleasant and quiet evening at home and my husband made dinner and it was great.

Accomplishments and plans

Ugh. My son is having more separation anxiety issues lately. And when I say separation anxiety, I swear it's like he doesn't ever want to be put down, let alone have me or whomever walk away from him. At this age, Fuss was walking so she constantly wanted to get down and run around - she had to be really tired to even snuggle with me.

Anyhow, we cleaned out our garage this weekend and I am SO happy with the progress we made! We have it all organized by category, and we know where everything is. I finally got the Christmas decorations box out of my bedroom. My laundry room is under control and I can walk in there without stepping on things. We'll be having a garage sale within another month (every weekend is booked from now until then with birthday stuff) and I am SO excited to get rid of STUFF. There is also a HUGE pile of garbage out by the road. Yay for dumping it!

My birthday party is at the end of the week. I'm going to be baking a lot on Friday - making the cake, filling it and then covering it with homemade chocolate ganache. Doesn't that sound incredible? I think so.

I have a bunch of work to do on my kitchen, I have to make the icing and color it for my class tomorrow and I have a Steering Committee for MOPS tonight (which I am nervous about because I have had NO LUCK finding group leaders) and I want to organize a play date this week for Fuss at the bounce-house place. It's gonna be a busy one.

Quick takes while the baby fusses at me

1. Apparently I'm only blogging every other day this week. In some ways this is a good thing. It means I am coming out from behind my computer screen and not glued to a chair. In other ways... I liked having a dedicated writing of SOMETHING daily. And also I'm addicted to Pinterest and am spending much of my computer time pinning stuff and looking at things others have pinned. There are good things there, too - I'm feeling the creative juices start to flow!

2. The TV in my living room is currently playing some sports news show (Mike and Mike maybe?) because Fuss is on TV restriction for coloring on her brother and I am too lazy to get up while I'm computing and turn it off/change the channel.

3. I was awake at 4:00am last night making a grocery list and planning what I wanted to do for my birthday cake. I probably should have been sleeping. Current thoughts on the cake: Butter yellow cake w/ chocolate fudge icing in the middle and chocolate ganache topping. There will likely be some sort of floral decoration on it, as we're focusing on advanced flowers in class right now.

4. My house is a disaster, but I am going to do something about it this weekend. Right now, though I am SO OVERWHELMED with the mess that it is creeping me out to look at it.

5. Going shopping w/ my SIL and her best friend today to take advantage of the ax Free weekend and get Fuss some new Crocs (at minimum) since she lost one on our trip. Love to shop, but A and LP tend to be shopping marathoners, so I anticipate being very tired this evening.

6. My mom and I are planning to make back-to-back hair consultation appointments some time soon. I am excited as I am completely bored with my hair right now.

7. Fuss peed in her bed last night and came to ME when she woke up wet. She usually goes to my husband in the middle of the night, so I don't get it. Ah well. I set her up on the couch because I wasn't going to change her sheets right then at 5am with the baby likely to wake any moment.

Bits and pieces and stream of conciousness

Things have been so busy!

Had my Dr's appt yesterday and my BP is back to normal after 2 weeks of no BCP, so no more estrogen pills for me, I guess. Going back on the mini pill and hoping it works. (80% effective) Also had them run a pregnancy test since my periods have been so wonky, but it's negative, so big sigh of relief. (I want another baby, but not NOW)

However, I got the word today that my oldest friend, Cherry, is pregnant with her first and I am so excited for her! Happy times! She's due just before Fuss's 4th birthday! I'll be passing her some maternity clothes, etc. I also want to throw her a shower, so I'll have to get with her mom on that. Exciting times!

Things are coming together for the Little Man's 1st Birthday party! I have ideas for favors (still need something for the baby set, though) and I've ordered stuff from Etsy that I'm totally excited about. I got confirmation today from my pastor that he will be able to come and do the baby dedication at the same time. Things are really working out nicely. (Though I found out awhile ago that my BFF and her family will be out of town that weekend, so I'm bummed that they won't be there, but you do what you can.) I still need to design the cake and buy some plates and such and finalize the menu. (I was just reminded of "puppy chow" which I love, but is it a bad idea to have something so yummy that my older child can't eat because of her peanut allergy?) I also need to find a pinata because I want to do that, too.

I'm back - here's what you missed....

• So we had a great, if exhausting, trip to NC. My kids played with their cousins and had so much fun. There were fights and arguments, but mostly they got a long and everyone was happy.
  
• I have become a Pinterest addict. I'm gonna need a 12-step program if this continues. But I'm finding some awesome stuff, some great ideas, and some fun dreams, so overall it's a good thing, right?
• My birthday is right around the corner. So is one of my closest friend's, Little Man's, etc. I am also enrolled in class 2 for cake decorating and I am so psyched. My cake turned out very cute at the end of the first class and I was so proud of myself for being one of the only ones to have come up with an original design.
  
• With all the driving time we had, my husband and I spent a lot of time talking about our lives, our goals, our dreams. We are on the same page in so many ways and I am looking forward to implementing the ideas and plans we worked out. Goal #1 is to simplify our lives by purging the quantity of stuff we own and get into more of a rhythm with what we do. Goal #2 is to take some regular time to stretch my creativity. I miss being a creative person, something I once prided myself on. I will be getting back to my drawing, my scrapbooking, and I'm obviously getting into my cake decorating.
  
• A garage sale is in our future. I can't wait to dump some of this stuff.
  
• I'm trying something new with my hair - it's really more function than "pretty" per se, but until I get a haircut, I'm going for function.
  
• I got cute new tennis shoes yesterday - I had admired my SIL LP's so much that I had her pick up some for me when she was at the store last night. So cute.
  

In review

Wow. So I've been ignoring my blog lately. I don't know what it is exactly - a combination of things, really, I'd guess. I'm busy with stuff - we had VBS and now we're leaving for a working vacation of sorts, my cake class, just all sorts of stuff really.

The kids are doing great, though the Little Man seems to be starting either a cold (runny nose, cough, cranky) or another tooth because he's been cranky and not sleeping well again. Fuss has been a handful, but she's also been a joy. When she is being good, she is SO much fun. She sings and dances and is just a major entertainment. I love it. She's curious about everything, she's learning her letters, she's been playing with her friends and she is just a ball full of energy.

It is dreadfully hot, so I pretty much hate doing anything outside. We're planning a couple of play dates indoors soon - bowling, the bounce house place, etc. Should be a good time.

We leave tonight after my final cake class. I wish I could say that the teacher had improved, but I can't. She's scatter-brained and rude to the students, though I have learned a lot about beginning cake decorating. I look forward to tonight's class and putting together what we've learned on a big cake.

I'll be gone all week on a trip to North Carolina. Looking forward to seeing my SIL and nieces. Also hoping to get some reading done, though I won't hold my breath.