Oh, girly…I bought this shirt for you when you were 16 months old…and we took you to Canada. And you’re wearing it today for the first time…So glad I didn’t buy the 4T, you’d have worn it when you were twelve.

Ellie wakes up this morning, stumbles out of her room into the computer room and says to me…”mommy, where’s daddy”. I reply “at work”…meltdown #1. Perhaps I needed to say that more gently? Maybe next time I’ll try “honey, he’s at work, but don’t worry…he still loves you although he leaves you here with me during the day.”

We’re watching morning cartoons, playing with babies..and mommy is rocking baby Evan to sleep…Ellie is dancing…has to go potty. I decide not to ask her to go, after all, I won’t be around everytime she has to go. I just wait. All of a sudden, she drops everything and runs to the bathroom. Starts screaming…wet her pants….meltdown #2.

Evan, not sleeping anymore, starting meltdown #1 of his own in the crib.

Left him there, trying to find sanity of my own.

Making lunch, occassionally checking in on Ellie who is standing in a clothes basket right in front of the television. I ask her to move back…and to sit, if anything, in the clothes basket. Meltdown #3.

Evan, still on meltdown #1, but its gone on long enough to qualify now as #2. Eventually he did fall asleep…like 20 minutes before I was going to feed him.

Thank goodness for having to work, for jobs, for sanity breaks, for day care providers who like my children.

We stopped at a McDonalds on the way home from Janette’s house after Christmas for my annual shake. It was about 10:00 AM so I figured it would be as quick to go in as to sit through the drive through, so we stopped and I went in while Janette and the kids waited in the car. When I got there there was one person waiting for their order and 6 employees standing around around behind the counter and by the drive through window. After waiting at a cash register for what seemed like a long time and being completely ignored by the lady behind it I finally asked, “Should I come around and help myself?” She looked at me like it was the strangest question she had ever heard and said, “He’ll be right back.” I’m not sure who “he” was but apparently she decided she would attempt to take an order. I asked if they still had Eggnog shakes, and she looked at another gal who said they did, so I asked for a small. Then she tried to wring it up (the other gal also told her it was a special shake). First she had a medium shake. Then while she was trying to remove it she got two medium shakes. Finally someone came over and showed her how to change things to one small shake and we got it paid for. Next she attempted to make the shake. First she had to ask someone what button was the “special” shake button. Then she had trouble figuring out that you have to have the cup all the way in the shake machine for it to work. Finally she got shake coming out and into the cup, but apparently she didn’t have the right size because it didn’t stop when it got to the top of the cup. I was beginning to wonder if I should have skipped the Eggnog shake this year. Finally some guy showed up that looked like a manager and took over for her and successfully finished making the shake.

Janette had a little quick shopping to do, so I stayed in the van with the kids and shared the Eggnog shake with Ellie. When I gave it to her she got a little bit and said, “Mmmm, it’s yummy! What is it?” I told her it was an Eggnog shake, and that it’s kind of like ice cream. I figured it was Christmas so it’s okay to have ice cream at 10:30 AM. She proceeded to tell me how much she likes Nogegg shakes and rave about how good it was. I’m not really sure if she likes eggnog, or if she just likes having ice cream before lunch. At one point she was trying to show me the egg she found on the cup, which would have been great if there actually was an egg on the cup.

Overall, it was a good eggnog experience and hopefully I’ve started Ellie on the tradition of loving a good eggnog.

i feverishly washed what i needed, got out a bottle, explained to husband what needed to be done with the bottle in order to feed it to our son, grabbed lunch (still in the restaurant container), put it in a target sack, threw in my belt and my sister’s book she let me borrow and ran out the door.

i get to work – on time…but barely, start to take my lunch out of the target sack and realize everything in there is wet. alfredo everywhere…in the sack, on my belt, and soaking my sister’s book.

the best part…wait for it…the book is titled “mommies who drink.” now that’s poetic…