I need to get it together and write a real post since I didn’t all weekend, but I’ve been battling some sort of stomach bug.  Just sick and nauseous on-and-off all day with a lot of stomach gurgling, etc.  Not pretty.  So most of you can probably sympathize with how hard it is to run a household and manage kids when you’re feeling like you might barf…obviously that means posts fall WAY to the wayside since I can barely get dinner on the table.  Maybe if my silly baby will quit getting up in the middle of the night, I could get a decent amount of sleep.  Actually, if my silly 3-year old would quit coming into our room at 2am (and 5:30am) that might help, too.  Don’t know what prompted him to come in and climb into bed with us, but after a couple weeks of it, it’s getting old.  Add to it that he will announce once he’s on the bed, “POTTY!” and start whining because he’s on the bed and not near a toilet.  Thank goodness we still have him in pull-ups at night or I think I’d have changed his bed and ours nearly every night.  Guess we’ll really have to cut back on fluids near bedtime to see if that helps.  Maybe if he didn’t feel the urge to pee, he wouldn’t get up in the first place.  Still not sure what that’s all about.

But I definitely need sleep if I’m ever going to get better.  At least I felt better today than I did over the weekend.  So as soon as I start feeling better and quit going to bed immediately after putting Cooper down at 9:30pm, I’ll get some writing done…I promise.

yeah, that’s how I feel.  Today is the third day in a row of rain (NOT that I’m complaining…), and Gavin, for reasons unknown, got up and climbed into bed with us around 1:45am last night.  Cooper got up at 2am and wouldn’t take “no food” for an answer.  Since it’s been raining, and both of my dogs (Maggie and Ginger) are princesses, neither of them will go potty…so at 4am I wake up to the sound of Maggie grunting/groaning at me and Ginger was standing on my chest.  At 6am Cooper was up again and managed to wake up Gavin sleeping in-between us since we didn’t put him back in his own bed, away from the baby monitor.  So I’ve not gotten very much sleep…certainly not enough to write letters (although I took mental notes to try tomorrow).

My lack of sleep also caused poor motor coordination and poor choice-making which nearly culminated in my phone almost hitting the toilet at work.  Yep, I almost pulled an Amalah.  I went to the bathroom and had my pink RAZR in the back pocket of my maternity pants (because pregnant post-partum chubby gals aren’t allowed to have front pockets, apparently).  At the last second, I opted to pull down my pants while facing one of the stall walls instead of the door (because I was remembering how Amalah dropped her iPhone in the toilet), I then swiveled around and sat.  As I was performing this move, my phone popped out of my pocket and landed flat on the floor next to the toilet.  I immediately yelled out a triumphant “HA!!!” while pointing at the phone, like “I got you!  No toilet diving for you!”  But then I realized that my phone, that I put next to my mouth and against my face, was on a nasty bathroom floor.  *sigh*

It is Thursday, right?

Oh, and I’m not sure if there is some Master List that I should be working off of.  I just liked the idea of a meme today and since I’ve been such a crab all week, it’s time I quit complaining and talk about things I enjoy (in no particular order):

1. Gavin’s belly laugh…like most young kids, it’s completely unadulterated and infectious.
2. Cooper’s smiles and laughs…especially since he’s still such a sensitive and serious baby.  I also love it when Cooper grabs his little stuffed frog and “eats” it…maybe one of these times I’ll get it on video.
3. Justin’s sense of humor…funny and warped.
4. Tuna Casserole…I’m not kidding…I could literally eat it several times a week.
5. Sitting and enjoying chilled white wine at the winery, or at home on the deck, or in my kitchen, or on my couch watching TV…you get the point.
6. Sleeping in, even if it’s just an hour.
7. Seeing a good movie at the theater while eating really yummy theater popcorn.
8. Sitting on the couch watching TV or movies with all my animals all piled around me.
9. Sitting and reading on the beach.
10. Reading…I really do enjoy it, although I never have enough time anymore…so I read blogs…that seems to help a little.
11. Gardening…although you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at my yard…new baby and drought have kind of killed everything.  I’ll be lucky if my drought-loving lavendar comes back.
12. Beautiful sunny days where the sky is that gorgeous, intense blue, and the clouds are white and fluffy.
13. Spending time with my family, doing anything…sitting around talking or going out to dinner or picking apples.

So there it is.  Me being nice and sweet and thoughtful.

 oh, here’s my official add-on:

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Okay, I’ m a bit annoyed a a few things. Maybe it’s because I’m tired (the perpetual disease of motherhood), undercaffeinated, or because I sat in traffic for nearly 2 hours because they closed down the expressway for over an hour. Or maybe it’s my normal level of crabbiness creeping up past my sometimes-sunny exterior. Either way, here they are in no particular order:

1. I am really annoyed about MRSA, partly because I’m in the DC area where there’s been a sizable outbreak in the “community” version of it and one high schooler has died, and partly because there is an infected baby in Cooper’s class at daycare. I mean, the baby hasn’t been back to school since his/her infection was detected, but it still gives me the heebie jeebies, and I have been, as I mentioned to my SIL, inspecting every little scratch on Cooper to make sure it doesn’t turn into something scary and nasty. I really just don’t appreciate this obnoxious strain of Staphylococcus aureus entering my inner-circle.
2. I am also annoyed at my baby monitor. I would think when you pay $80-something for baby monitors that they would work correctly at least for the first year of the child’s life. Not so. One of my fancy, highly-recommended Graco monitor parent units is acting like it’s not getting charged, so I am never able to pull the thing off of its base to carry it with me to another room. I have tried turning it off while it sits on the charger, I have tried plugging the power cord directly into it, and I have tried the Fonzie method, but no dice. Good thing I bought the service plan when I purchased them in July…too bad I’m too tired lazy busy to go to Babies R Us to deal with it. Maybe this weekend since I need diapers and I have a coupon for diapers that expires on the 31st.
3. I am really tired of my commute. Not just because they closed down the expressway, but because on a Saturday, I could get to the office in about 35 or 40 minutes. During the work-week, it is now about 80 minutes to work and 90 minutes home…and this is utilizing the HOV lane. Someone mentioned that daycare may be slowing me down a bit, but I paid attention to it this past week or so and usually I’m only in the daycare center for about 5 or 6 minutes to drop-off or pick-up BOTH kids. Obviously if I come to get Cooper and he’s just started a bottle, that’s a whole other ball of wax. But I am really, truly tired of being in my car 3 hours a day. We get home around 6:30pm and see other families out walking the neighborhood, kids playing, etc. because they’ve already had their dinner. I really want to be able to come home, eat, and spend more than 15 or 20 minutes with my kids before I have to toss them in bed and start the whole mess all over again.
4. I’m also getting tired of my job. I’ve been in this particular position for just under a year and I have yet to have enough work to do to keep me busy for an entire day, and that’s not because I haven’t asked. But after the first 3 or 4 months of bugging my boss for more work, I stopped asking because (1) I got tired of asking and rarely getting anything, and (2) I kind of need this job so I didn’t want to set myself up for getting laid-off or anything. I mean, the people I work with are nice and busy (with the exception of the other two people in my team…they are not busy, either, but they have been not busy for a lot less time than me). It doesn’t help that I work for a company that is very picky about who’s doing what work, in that I have offered to help out others who are busy, but because they are not in my group (even though we are under the same director), I am not allowed to do it because it is outside of my job-function and some garbage about budgets and other crap. So I can’t even try to be a team-player for the bigger team (which is what I used to do all the time in my previous position at a subsidiary). I keep looking at the job postings to see if something comes up at the office location closer than what I’m commuting to now, but haven’t seen anything. I kind of don’t want to leave the company entirely because I am getting good pay (especially for just sitting around being ready for work), and I have really good benefits (even though I grouch about them sometimes…like when it took my benefits office a month to add Cooper, so all of his hospital and pediatrician bills were getting DENIED left-and-right and I had to make 20 different calls and re-file, etc.).
5. I am tired of wearing maternity clothes. Now I know my baby is only 3-1/2 months old and I’m very lucky that out of the 37 pounds I gained with Coop, I only have about 7 left to lose. But. I only have 2 pairs of “normal” pants I can wear. I had three other pairs, but they’re now too big and hang all sloppy and fall down and make my butt look bigger than it is. My other pants that I can’t quite get into are waiting there in my closet…nice pinstripes, nice greys, pants that are the correct length, pants that have zippers. Not that I think I’m ready for zippers because I can’t seem to remember to zip them up after I use the washroom at work. I’ve been in elastic-waist pants for nearly a year and have gotten out of the habit. Case in point, last week I was wearing a basic black knit top and dark khaki pants that had two buttons and a zipper. By 11:00am I had deodorant on the outside of my top (from pulling it off to pump at work) and was walking around with only the top button on my pants fastened and the other button and the zipper wide open. Yep. I was seething sexiness in the office. And the best part of it was that I didn’t actually notice what a mess I had become until I went to the ladies room around 3:30pm. In-between 11am and 3:30pm I had walked around the building a few times, checking on things, ran to the store, and talked to my boss. Four-and-a-half hours of flashin’ the maternity panties (yeah, still wearin’ those) and rockin’ the deodorant zebra stripes. So maybe I don’t deserve to wear normal clothes yet, but I’d kinda like to be in them.
6. I kind of hate admitting it, but I’m tired of pumping. Tired of getting up 2 or 3 times a workday to go sit in a tiny, dark office to pump. Tired of getting half-undressed and getting deodorant on my tops (since I’m a klutz). Tired of getting frustrated at the meager amounts of milk I’m able to procure for my son. Tired of carrying my pump (which I LOVE…it’s great) to and from the office. Tired of washing pump parts each night. But I’m afraid if I don’t pump during the day, I will risk not having any milk for my baby come dinner and bedtime, and I’m not quite ready to give that up.

So I think that’s it. For now. Gimme a few days and I’m sure I’ll have more to crab about. Like it took me 2 hours to get home, and this time there weren’t any road closures…stupid DC folks and their non-raining driving skills. *sigh*

Never thought I’d see the day where I ran out of things to talk about.  But I think I have.

And I’m not sure what’s going on with my calendar over there————>  so please don’t ask.  I need some time to kick it in the butt.  I just don’t have any time since I spend most of what I do have in the car, seemingly.  Today I spent part of my lunchbreak running errands that I don’t have time to do on the weekends because getting both kids up, fed, organized enough to run to two or three stores is asking a LOT.  Even on a good day with only Gavin, I can usually only do 2 stores and maybe the drive-thru lane at the bank.  And they better be efficient shopping trips…no looking for stuff…just go straight to what you need and go.  But with both kids I just don’t have the gumption and motivation.  And I admit I am a BIG wimp…there’s plenty of other Supermomsout there who have a lot more kids and who stay home with them, so they have no choice but to do their shopping with some or all the kids (and they do a dang good job of it too…better than I would).  I am not a Supermom by any means.  I am a whiney mom, and actually kind of proud of being a whiney mom…not sure why, though.

*sigh*

maybe I just need some sleep and then I could form actual thoughts and sentences.