I tried to blog from the Richmond Airport while waiting for the flight to Detroit, but something locked up and I lost the entire post. Oh well. Richmond has wireless internet, and I hijacked Jennifer’s laptop while she was going back to the car to find things I had forgotten to bring with us.

It’s good to be back, although the event in Detroit went well. I met the world’s biggest jerk while there - he worked for the firm. He put a new face and meaning to the words “pompous”, “rude”, and “unpleasant”. I told Jennifer that my mission in life is to somehow use him as an example when training attorneys on how NOT to act. I will find a way one of these days - I guarantee it. Our latest e-alert that is going out next week was based on another unpleasant experience we had with a client - they got us involved at the last minute and then were complaining about their results. Duh . . . no planning at the outset means a crappy campaign, unless you get really lucky.

It was great seeing Steve, Kim and Vader. I crashed at their house in St. Clair Shores and drank their tasty carbonated water and played around on the MLS with Kim while she looked for a new house. I love their house - it reminded me of our first house back in the days when we could live in the city without even thinking about the quality of the schools. Our the proximity of Wal-Mart to our house. We’ll be in our current house for at least another couple of years. In the meantime I just try to breathe every time I get claustrophobic looking out at the cul-de-sac and my neighbors as they all frantically breed and upgrade from minivan to minivan.

Lily’s new trick is to take off her pajamas and diaper and poop on her quilt. She thinks it’s hilarious. Two nights in a row now - NOT hilarious. Mike finally swatted her on the rump tonight when she took her diaper off again. I don’t know what that’s all about. It seems to me that if she is able to take off her pants and diaper and needs to go to the bathroom, she should be calling our names. However, I guess it’s more fun to just poop on the bed instead. It gets us running, that’s for sure.

Arden is sweeter than ever - thank god. She’s really easy going and generally very happy. This week has been a test for all of us. Lily was so sick, with a high fever and a very bad cold that turned into an ear infection. So far Arden hasn’t gotten it. I had to leave for Detroit at the pinnacle of her sickness, which made me feel awful and I constantly worried about her while I was gone. Thankfully mom and dad pitched in and watched her so Mike didn’t have to miss work. Between his mom’s death, his “I don’t want no mo’ kids” surgery and Lily’s illnesses, he’s missed a ton of work. Lily is feeling better, but she’s very devilish these days and into everything. There have been many wonderful things about daycare. She is definitely more social, knows how to play with other kids, and understands the concept of sharing. She also knows how to spit, hit, and have temper tantrums. “No” is still her favorite word. I do think if my first choice preschool has an opening that I will move her there in the fall - there are some things I really don’t like about Tuckaway. Thankfully I love her main teacher and so does Lily. For now, it works out just fine.

We got to play outside today - the weather finally feels spring-like. Lily played on her swing set and I put Arden in the front pack and we watched Mike stain and seal the deck. We have so much yardwork to do - it’s not funny. I think we must have 100 bags of leaves to rack up and I’m not exaggerating. That and the normal mulching and digging new plant beds - it’s going to take some time. Did I mention I haven’t cleaned the house lately either?

Cristin is coming for Easter weekend. We’ll try to do some fun things and entertain her while she’s here. Mike even suggested getting a babysitter - wow, an adult meal without having to worry about coloring or kid’s menus?!? Sounds heavenly to me . . .

After a 24-hour stomach bug went through the Del Bueno household, we are all recovering nicely. Thankfully it only lasted a day because it was terrible. I did appreciate the appetite-suppressing side-effects of the virus - today is the first day since Monday I can really even look at food and think it might be tasty. I could lose some weight if I had a virus all the time.

Arden is still not sleeping through the night. *big sigh*. I’ve completely weaned her from breastmilk and she’s drinking the evil formula (can you hear my guilt?) - but it hasn’t helped. We tried more rice cereal last night and it just made her furious - she sounds like an angry bumblee when you make her mad. She still usually gets up around 2.30 and then will sleep til 6.30/7 (or whenever Lily starts screaming, literally, for us to come get her out of bed). Arden is a much easier baby than Lily in terms of temperment, but apparently we were spoiled by her sleep habits. By 3 months Lily was going from 10.30 til 6.30. Oh well. Sleep is overrated, right?

Weaning Arden to formula was a hard decision to make. The breast-feeding nazi within me wanted to go for at least 6 months, until she’s eating solids. The business owner in me wanted to stop being embarassed by having to ask total strangers for a place to pump while out for meetings for the day. The kicker was when I had to go to Leesburg for a potential client meeting at a law firm there. The partners there are completely lovely, and one let me use her office to pump. However, I had to pump again before we left for Richmond, and she had been in meetings with me for the previous 3 hours, and needed access to her phone and email. So she sat in her office while I pumped. Meanwhile, her paralegal came in and out with files and messages. It struck me then that I could have never imagined I’d be sitting in a prospect’s office, with my chest exposed to the world, while hooked up to a glorified milking machine. I think I decided on the way back to Richmond that I was done, and for purely selfish reasons. I want a consult with a plastic surgeon for reduction, and I want to be able to schedule meetings during the day without worrying about how I’m going to pump. I guess I feel entitled to a little selfishness after 2 1/2 years of basically nursing what seems like non-stop and letting my body go to the dogs. Abdominoplasty and breast reduction, here I come.

Here’s a picture taken while Arden was in Mexico by my cousin Cristin - I felt compelled to share it with everyone. I know I’m biased, but she is pretty cute.

I know it’s been forever since I wrote, but we’ve had quite a month. First I went to Mexico for Dan’s wedding, which was a ton of fun. I took Arden and she did very well - a much more flexible traveler than her big sister, especially since I didn’t have to deal with trying to feed her Mexican food. When I returned, I was home for two days before Mike’s mom took a turn for the worse. I headed down Thursday with my sister-in-law and she passed away on Saturday. Thankfully Mike came down Friday afternoon and Lois, his other sister, on Saturday - so everyone was there for her. We stayed until Wednesday as the funeral was Wednesday morning. Much as you hate to see anyone in your family pass away, the alternative for her was living with a horrible, painful disease - and I think we were all glad that she died peacefully at home with minor pain. I saw first-hand how hospice works and how amazing those people are. It almost made me want to change my job - but of course I’d be terrible at helping people to let go and die - I’d be bawling my eyes out and begging them to stay most of the time.

Lily, Arden and I all got stomach bugs - Arden has been throwing up and Lily has it on the other end. Mercifully Lily’s was short-lived and mine only took a couple of days. I hope that by tomorrow Arden is feeling better. Arden has really begun to develop a personality, and it’s totally different than Lily’s. She’s calm, easy to please, and tends to be very laid-back. In general she loves people and goes to anyone who wants to hold her (except for Mike’s Aunt Arlene - for some reason, she was petrified of her, and she’s the sweetest lady on the planet).

Mike is doing okay and I think getting back home and to work has helped him feel more normal. Neither of us slept much in North Carolina and we were both very emotionally and physically drained by the end of the time there. I think his dad will move up here eventually, which will be great for the grandkids. The trip down to where they live is closer to 5 hours than 4 and it makes visiting with young kids very difficult.

Seeing my mother-in-law in the condition she was in when we got there made me want to clean up my life - get healthier, work out more, eat better. Of course I’ve never been a smoker but cancer scares me to death. My friend Julie’s father passed away on Monday, just two days after Susan - he also had cancer. It’s just a nasty way to go, and if there’s anything I can do to prevent myself, and my family, from getting it, I’m going to. I have a sneaking suspicion that so much of the cancers these days come from all the weird processed crap we eat. I hope not, because that means I’m doomed . . . but seems like it’s pretty rampant.

We all hope that March is a better month than February, and I’m so glad I got to attend a family wedding especially in Mexico so that a month of bad news was peppered with some great news as well.

The other day I came home with two sick children. I was standing in the kitchen deliberating who to take care of first when I heard Lily digging around in the bottom kitchen drawer that we let her play in. Next thing I know, I feel a sharp pain on my leg . . . turns out Lily had found a meat tenderizer and had walloped my leg with it. She thought it was hilarious. I have the bruise to prove it. Needless to say I took THAT toy away immediately.

Arden has some nasty cold thing - Lily had another ear infection on top of the one she had just gotten rid of. I took Arden to Patient First after swearing I would never again go there. I still think I was right the first time. The doctor told me there was nothing wrong with Arden before he had even looked at her and told me the reason she was screeching and writhing in pain all day was “colic”. At four months?!? WHATEVER. His personality left MUCH to be desired. He took my $50 copay and glanced in her ears, gave me a condescending glare, and insinuated I was an “overprotective” mother. So Arden is home again, supposedly with a clean bill of health. At the moment, she’s not crying.

We are still in toilet-training hell right now with Lily. We bought her some Dora underwear and she loves it. Although she knows what the toilet is for, she hasn’t quite mastered the idea of going to the toilet BEFORE she pees. Yesterday we had two mishaps with the new “big girl” underwear and today we had a #2 incident in Dora pair #3. Ugh. She is doing better sleeping in her toddler bed, however. At least at night. The nap time is a different story and I can’t even begin to count how many times she has torn her room apart.

Here’s to hoping that this week will be better than last, that all four of us will be healthy and that I will actually get some billable work done. . . I guess I should go watch the Superbowl with the rest of the universe now.