Man, what a week. A good week, but what a week it’s been so far.

I spent last night in Yeager land, Sophia-sitting. I took the night shift. Jennifer had that look in her eyes when I saw her on Monday. It was the “I’ve hit the wall, I desperately need sleep, and I don’t know why my baby is so darn fussy” look. I figured I’m up a few times a night anyway with my own kids - I might as well act as night nanny for one night to give her a break. Sophia was very well-behaved but her poor tummy is upset from her formula and it binds her up. She makes these pterodactyl sounding screeches all night and grunts and groans a lot. She was very sweet to hold and feed and for a few seconds I actually felt sad that I wasn’t having any more babies. Then reality sank in and I was thanking god for inventing vasectomies.

I had Lily’s parent/teacher conference today over the phone with her head teacher, Ms. Allen. Ms. Allen told me that Lily was very advanced in the communication department. No kidding. Apparently this morning she came to school and told the entire class that she’d see Chicken Little and described the plot, including how the sky was falling, and that Chicken Little was sad because his daddy didn’t think he was good at baseball. She also told me that in terms of gross motor skills, they have trouble assessing where Lily is because she’s “done” with puzzles and when she’s outside, all she wants to do is play in the sandbox (as opposed to riding the tricycles). Ms. Allen also told me that she is sensitive and caring towards the other children, does well sharing, and is stubborn as a mule. Shocking!!! It was interesting hearing someone else talk about Lily and all of her cute little quirks - and some that aren’t so cute, including her latest - nose picking. We’re working as a team with her teachers to break her of the habit. They are now making her wash her hands every single time they catch her with her finger up her nose. She hates being interrupted to do that, so hopefully she’ll stop soon. I find her giggling about it when I yell at her almost more irritating than the actual nasty habit. I swear she does it just to get my goat.

The other hilarious comment Ms. Allen made was that Lily LOVES to dance. Whenever someone turns on the tunes, Lily starts shaking her tail-feather, usually with her boyfriend Adam in tow. She and I share a natural love for music and beats. We also are perhaps the whitest girls on the planet - not a drop of soul in our moves whatsoever. Just ask Sara and Jennifer, who yesterday were treated to the beautiful sight of me pretending to Jazzercise to some bizarre song on the Ellen Degeneres show (did I mention that Right Angle has a satellite office in Jennifer’s living room? We do.) I was world-famous in college for my patented “butt-dance” and Lily is heading down the same path. Poor, poor Lily.

Her birthday party is this weekend and we’re gearing up for it. Can I just gripe for a moment? WHAT IS WITH PEOPLE WHO RSVP 6 days after the cut-off??? I had to give a headcount to the place, as well as buy, compile, and label all the goodie bags. Needless to say, tomorrow night I’ll be heading back out to Party City to put more bags together. It’s just irritating. And what if people show up that didn’t RSVP? I won’t have enough toys for the kids. I just don’t understand what is so damn hard about letting someone know you are or aren’t coming to an event. Just a personal pet peeve of mine, I guess. And I hate to say this, but it seems like it’s even worse in the Southeast than it was up North.

Arden has lots of teeth coming in. She has a new habit of screaming at the top of her lungs whenever someone (for example, Lily, daddy, me, Judi, Delilah) removes her from something she’s playing with or takes something away from her. Or doesn’t feed her the right thing, or tells her no, or looks at her wrong. She’s very sensitive about being told no - Mike’s voice is kind of scary when he says it, and he’s very careful not to be too loud. However, she’s taken to throwing food on the floor that she doesn’t like, and we need her to stop. She knows what no means - sometimes she just ignores us. Tonight he told her “Arden, stop it! No throwing food on the floor!” Her bottom lip started trembling, she pushed it out, narrowed her eyes, and started bawling. It was really funny. Man, is she loud. I swear my eardrums are going to burst when she starts up with her indignant, angry crying. All I want for Christmas is some great earplugs . . . and a digital camera!

Some pictures mom and dad sent tonight. Most of these were taken at preschool before and during the parade and the last few were taken before Matt, Hayden and Lily went trick-or-treating. The one of Lily with “Buzz Lightyear” is really Lily with boyfriend #1 in what we assume to be a long line of them. Adam is her buddy and she is constantly telling him and anyone else who will listen that she loves him. Tonight when they parted ways, she gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. It was really sweet. The school put on a nice party this afternoon and the kids all chowed down and got hyped up on lots of sugar.

Trick-or-treating was cut slightly short because Lily was scared of all the “monsters”. We tried to explain that they were just other kids dressed up like she was, but after a half hour she was ready to come home and eat chocolate while resting safely in her mother’s lap.

Happy Halloween everyone. We had a Halloween-filled weekend with the girls, which including lots of non-Halloween tasks for mommy and daddy, including running all over with the girls. Lily got a haircut so that she doesn’t look insane for her portraits next Sunday, I cleaned the house with Mike yesterday morning, and we squeezed in a block party and the Halloween parade. Arden was a big hit as a lobster - people were pointing and laughing. I can’t wait to post some pictures of it.

Today is the Halloween party and parade at Lily’s school, so hopefully mom and dad will remember to bring the digital and I can post some pics tonight. More updates later. I’m technically on a conference call right now and not paying attention . . .

Judi greeted me at the door tonight with wry look on her face. Arden MAYBE took an hour nap today. She put her in her usual crib, in the room with Noah. 30 minutes later, Arden had taught Noah (who is 2 years old) how to screech at the top of his lungs and they were kicking their legs and making a ruckus on their respective mattresses. Judi had to separate Arden again and put her in her own room so that the rest of the kiddies could sleep. She said they made so much noise, you could hear them upstairs.

I suggested that she not bother with a morning nap since Arden rarely takes them and to put her down around 12.30 or 1 pm, and see if she fares better. That’s what we do and normally Arden sleeps at least a couple of hours. She’s going to try it tomorrow. Arden is way too young to only be sleeping an hour a day! Needless to say, I’ve heard not one word from her bedroom tonight - I think she passed out immediately. We are fortunate, knock on wood, that she doesn’t seem to get really crabby when she’s tired. She just gets a little slap happy and makes a lot of noise. Lily, on the other hand, is uber-crabby when she doesn’t get enough sleep.

Lily’s birthday party this year is going to be at Romp n’ Roll. I told all the adults to bring ear plugs - it’s going to be mass insanity. We expect between 15 and 25 3-year olds roaming around on their gym equipment, hopped up on sugar and hyperactivity, with Rompie the Dog leading them in song and dance. Should be lots of fun!

The project from hell continues, but will hopefully be over tomorrow. Or very, very soon. It’s one of those projects that the mere thought of it makes my stomach turn. All I can do is try to advocate for my client, who is also my friend, in the hopes that she gets some money back from the vendors involved. Speaking of projects, our new website is supposed to launch tomorrow. I was hoping it would launch today, but alas, it did not. It’s been a work in progress for the past six months are we are very proud of the final product. I’m just trying to stay focused on the positive at work instead of worrying about all the things I may not be doing. I miss Jennifer - a lot.

We actually went out tonight with the Pilcs - who possibly needed a night out more than we did. Or definitely needed it. We had dinner at a swanky restaurant (not a high chair in sight!), went to a photography show at a gallery, and lingered over food, the majority of which we could not pronounce.

Mom and dad stayed with the girls and had a great time with them. Both girls were in rare form tonight. Arden, after 5 days straight of being the center of the universe was completely fired up, screeching and flapping and waving at anyone who would catch her eye, smiling and giggling, and into everything. Lily convinced my mom to let her take a bath in “mommy’s big bathtub” when they got home from Ukrops. Apparently mom didn’t wash her hair like I do - she informed her that “no, don’t do it that way - mommy does it like this and does a really good job.” She proceeded to demonstrate on Grammy’s head how to wash hair. Mom was using her nails to scrub the shampoo in - I guess I just use my fingertips. Picky, picky! She also told mom, while sitting on the toilet, that “actually, I’m big enough to get on the potty without my stool, but I’m still too little for my feet to touch.” Actually??? Where does this stuff come from? They all had a great time.

Lily is doing exceptionally well at preschool and is happier than I’ve ever seen her. I keep reiterating this fact, but it’s so reassuring to me. She loves her teachers, she loves the other kids, she’s always excited about the things they are doing at school, and she appears to be learning a lot (including lots of new vocabulary words, most good - some not so hot).

Lily’s report card from today:

“Lily’s favorite word was “no!” but she was so cute it was hard to get mad. She has also decided that in the near future, she will never eat salad and she wants to go to the moon.” I guess she inherited her mother’s distaste for iceberg lettuce. They are having “vegetable” week at school and reading books called things like “The Enormous Carrot” and having veggie tasting parties. Today they made a salad - hence the anti-lettuce stance.

An excerpt from a conversation with Lily yesterday:

Mommy: “What did you guys do at school today? Ms. Hood said you learned about cows!”
Lily: “No, mommy - we MILKED the cow.”
Mommy: “You did? How cool! Did you like it?”
Lily: “mmmm-HMMMM! And guess what mommy! Did you know that um…um…that um…milk comes from the cow’s butt?”
Mommy: “I don’t think so, Lily.”
Lily: “Yes, IT DOES, MOMMY!!!”
Mommy: “I think it comes from the udder. Is that what you mean?”
Lily: “mmmm-HMMMM! Da udder. And the milk comes out of the cow’s butt.”

end excerpt.