December 13, 2011 · 3:01 pm

Check

Thanksgiving…check.

Dylan’s “practice” birthday party…check.

Dylan’s BIG backyard drive-in movie birthday party…check.

Dylan’s birthday celebration at school…check.

Dylan’s “Mensch of the Week” project (Mensch is Yiddish for “a person of integrity and honor”) that required us to schlep around a one-eyed brown stuffed bear for a week, take pictures of him and Dylan all over town and write a story about it…check.

Homemade Hanukkah and Christmas cards for grandparents and cousins…check.

Thank you notes for Dylan’s birthday presents…check.

Christmas tree up and decorated…check.

Hanukkah menorahs out…check.  (In case you’re wondering, a traditional menorah has seven candles and a Hanukkah menorah, or Hanukkiah, has nine candles.  Dylan and Riley explained this to me.  All that temple pre-school tuition is paying off.) 

Dylan’s five-year check-up, including two shots and one finger prick…check.  (By the way, no one applied for the internship.  The Runaway Mama handled the whole thing on her own, thank you very much.)

Holiday shopping…on my way to the mall now to finish up some loose ends. My holiday shopping usually works like this:  buy a gift for someone on my list, buy something for me, buy a gift for someone on my list, buy something for me.  Dylan would call this a pattern.  I call it shopaholism at its finest.

This Friday is the boys’ last day of school before the two-week winter holiday break.  During that time we will build countless Lego cars and trucks, play Cars 2 Monopoly a million times, go to the zoo once or twice, visit with friends and play at the park daily.  We will also celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s.  It will be fun and exhausting, and by the time the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, I will say to myself (if I’m not already sound asleep), “Check please.” 

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Filed under birthday, Christmas, going to the doctor, Hanukkah, shopaholism, Thanksgiving

December 9, 2011 · 5:14 pm

I Have Something To Tell You

I’ve written before about the night shift in my house. Between Dylan, Riley and Harry’s nighttime escapades, getting a good night of sleep can be difficult.  Add to that my bouts of Anxious Mama insomnia and, well, forget about it.

At 5:40am this morning, I heard something moving around in my room.  Harry paces when he wants to be let out.  If we ignore the pacing, he scratches his collar, which jingles his tag and makes just enough noise to irritate one of us enough to get out of bed.

The noise this morning, though, was different.  Something was quietly shifting around the room.  Still, I assumed it was Harry and tried to ignore it.  Then “it” got closer to my side of the bed and the shifting sounded more like the scrunching sound a diaper makes when a little diaper-wearing person moves one pudgy, squishy leg in front of the other.  Then “it” said, “Mommy, I have to tell you something.”

“It” was Riley. What did he have to tell me?  “I want milk.”  It was 5:42am.

Normally this type of event would irk me, but lately I’ve had fleeting moments where I’ve realized the baby years I’ve been wishing away (because they’ve been so damn hard) are actually going to end soon.   I’ve also realized that, as my boys get older, so am I.

So, while Riley’s early morning appearance was unfortunate, it was also adorable.  It was the first time he ever got out of his bed and wandered into our room on his own in the dark.  I scooped him up and asked him if he wanted to lie down with Mommy and Daddy.  He said yes, but within seconds he reminded us that what he really wanted was his milk.

I have something to tell you.  The night shift just got more complicated in my house.  But it’s okay, because it’s a sign that my babies are still babies and that there’s still a chance I might get carded at the liquor store. 

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Filed under anxiety, Anxious Mama, sleep