At least for this week. She’s been staying with mom and dad and literally eating up the attention with a spoon. Normally Lily doesn’t allow much attention to go Arden’s way, but this week, the brown bear is safely ensconced at preschool and Arden is all alone with grammy and grandpa. She was so fired up and excited yesterday that she refused to nap in the afternoon. She just wanted to keep playing. . .

Lily did better at school yesterday and saved up her temper tantrum for us when we tried to feed her dinner. I don’t even know what set her off and it really doesn’t matter. She eventually calmed down around bath time and we ended up have a great snuggle fest where she looked lovingly into my eyes, said, “Mommy, I love you”, and petted my cheek. That’s my little schizo - zero to evil mood in 60 seconds! She is hilarious with her vocabulary and says all kinds of things to me, usually at night before bed. Last night she told me to squeeze her and then said, “Mommy, do you not have me in your grip?” This is a reference to the old days when we would wrestle and I’d tell her I was a big python and was going to get her in my grip and squeeze her. She sang the entire “Twinkle Twinkle” song complete with hand gestures and kicking legs, then told me that she “played and played and played today, and had just a wonderful time”. I don’t use those phrases so I assume that was a grandama-ism.

I have to say that at least when the tantrum is over, she keeps me laughing . . .

It finally happened. Lily’s level of comfort with her teachers has enabled her to now have full-blown temper tantrums. Yesterday she decided not to use her “listening ears”, so Ms. Allen told her to listen up and come outside with the rest of her group. She decided to stiffen her entire body, hold her hands out in front of her (she looks like a zombie or frankenstein when she does this), shake and scream at the top of her lungs. Ms. Allen wrote me a note at the bottom of her daily sheet about Lily having a fit . . . she handled it like a champ, however, and handed Lily a tissue, told her to get it together, and when she stopped crying to join the rest of her class outside. Lately her tantrums don’t last very long, especially when ignored, and she was back to her normal, cheerful, listening-ears-on self in a few minutes.

I felt bad for Ms. Allen, however - she just got married and returned from her honeymoon. Her first day back and it was truly back to reality. Nothing removes all the relaxation of vacations like a screaming 3 year old. I’m sure she wasn’t the only child to have a tantrum yesterday . . .

I’m trying to convince Mike to let me buy a digital camera so I can be better about posting pictures on the blog. I always forget when I send them away to be developed - and then I have to remember to bring them to work, scan them, and upload them. I may have been converted to the digital age - we’ll wait and see. Maybe I’ll ask him that for a joint Christmas present.

We’re going out with the Pilc’s on Friday - can’t wait - we could use some time with adults, especially after this week. I think we’re going to a gallery opening with them and dinner afterward.

I spent the night at my parent’s house with just Arden last night. It was heavenly in that I got to spend some time with just Arden. Usually Lily blockades me from Arden any time I try to get near her, but ha! She was gone. Mike took her home last night and will take her to her “school” today. Arden’s daycare provider is on vacation this week and we had forgotten that minor detail until Friday when I picked her up, and Judi mentioned something about vacation. Ooops. Mom is helping out as is Vicki. Thankfully Mike and I both have light weeks in terms of meetings or out-of-town commitments.

We had a nice weekend and were able to spend lots of time with the kiddies. Mia, who has been visiting while her mommy and daddy are in New York, spent a lot of time roaming around the yard, chasing squirrels, and trying to goad Delilah into playing with her (Delilah, alas, was having none of it). Mia is a shar-pei, one of those cute, cuddly wrinkly dogs. Mike has decided that on shar-peis, the wrinkles should be renamed “Stinkles”. She’s quite odorous but we love her. Delilah isn’t much better. I took some pictures of both doggies playing the yard, but since we don’t have a digital camera, I can’t post them until we develop them the old-fashioned way.

So much for my hopes that Lily would enjoy gymnastics. After cutting a $60 check to preschool for their “gymnastics” program, and Lily going one time, she decided that she no longer was interested. It’s actually gym-bus - a mobile gym on wheels that has a bunch of stuff inside for the kids to maul. She threw a fit on Friday and refused to get on the bus. Her teacher is going to try again this Friday, and if she still refuses, we’ll get a refund of our money. It’s strange considering she has been going to gym bus for quite some time - they had it at Tuckaway, too. I think she was just busy playing with something when it was time for gym bus and decided she would not be interrupted.

Steve and Vicki have renamed us “Biff and Muffy”. They gave us relentless amounts of crap about the duo Volvos in the garage now. I know, it is pukeable - we live in the suburbs, we have matching Volvos, and two small children. Did I mention the flag that changes with the seasons? All we need now is a garage full of crap. Oh, wait, we’ve got that too. How the mighty fall.

I’m going to attempt to work - it’s difficult since I’m not in the office, and I can hear Arden cooing and screeching downstairs. I’d much rather head down there and play with her . . .

Apparently Lily inherited my fear of the camera, but it’s strange, because normally she is a total ham. Today was “school picture day” and she came completely unraveled and made one of her teachers hold her hand because she was scared of the camera and the photographer. I’m sure when I get the proofs back, she’ll be tear-streaked and beet red. Poor thing!

She’s really upset about the new car and keeps telling me to give it to someone and get the gray car. How do you explain selling and trading things? She becomes very attached to things, even weird things like cars - and she doesn’t like any sort of disruption to her normal schedule. The white car is freaking her out every night when I pick her up from school and we continue to have the same discussion over and over again about why I can’t have the gray car anymore. This too shall pass. When I show her the third seat, she might change her mind about the white car - it’s a pretty cool feature.

I had an insane day today trying to get the money for the Subaru, work with Kelly to get the title for the Volvo, and try to work and answer phone calls between all of this. I didn’t accomplish half of what I needed to today, but instead of working tonight, I’m going to watch “Lost”. At least I got to see Amanda for lunch today. I haven’t seen her in ages - she used to work with me at Witt Mares but went back to law school and is now working at a large firm, waiting to see if she passed the bar (which I’ve no doubt she did on her first try). It was great catching up and NOT having a networking or business meeting at lunch. I’d sort of forgotten what it was like to relax and have friendly conversation since I haven’t had lunch with Jennifer in months - and she’s usually the only non-work lunch person I see.

Speaking of, I saw a bunch of people in Carytown today going to a 9.30 yoga class, and it occurred to me that since I work full-time, I should stop denying myself the ability to work out or take classes. As soon as I get some time I’m going to check out the schedule and start taking a pilates or yoga class at least once a week during the day. I can always go back to the office and change. I realize I need some stress relief and god knows my body needs the workout.

My Subaru, effective tomorrow, is history. Some young guy who wants to take it “off road” bought it. I just wanted something to haul crap in. So here it is, in all of its glory. I’m a little sad about it, but I’ll get over it. I just think about when I bought it and Mike and I called it “The Lily-Pad” since the only reason I sold my convertible was to prepare for the arrival of Lily.

But . . .

HELLO Volvo! For a wagon, it’s fairly sexy . . . Kelly upgraded to a BMW X5. It ain’t no X5 but it’s a whole lot swankier than the Subaru. AND it doesn’t smell like a combination of smoke and french fries (not yet at least - although I don’t smoke). Now if I could just keep those pesky critters from messing up the back seat . . .