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.