Rustica

Category: Twin Study; Subheading: Blueberry Yogurt; Time elapsed: ten minutes-

Note any, uh, differences?

I wish I could post a similarly aged picture of Patrick so we could do a singleton/gender/intrasibling/tidynik cross-analysis but there are no pictures of a toddler Patrick feeding himself yogurt. Because in a million freaking years it would not have occurred to me to hand Patrick a spoon and something slimy. I am not sure if I would have been more concerned about the mess or the fact that vital nutrients might fail to make it into my beloved knish but I know I continued to patiently spoon-feed him every bite well past the age that he could - probably - have managed all by his little self.

I used to think - as a youngest child myself; one whose baby book lists a birth weight and then leaps to kindergarten and whose early childhood was remarkably less photographed than that of my older brother - that first born children had lives made of awesome. That their existences were one sweet song, all undivided parental attention and toys without missing pieces. Has an eldest child ever had to play as a penny in Monopoly? No, they get to be the car and then mention is always made of some incident in the distant past during the course of which the youngest allegedly managed to lose/eat the dog and the thimble and the ship... anyway.

I now believe that there is something to be said for getting a broken-in parent. If it weren't for one of my three major (ir)rational fears (in this case: children choking to death; the other two are snakes and running into my ex-mother-in-law one day in a mammography waiting room - not necessarily in that order) Edward and Caroline would be able to eat complete meals without any interference on my part whatsoever. With Patrick I hovered like a hummingbird, cutting each bite into microscopic cubes and counting the number of times he had chewed before swallowing.

I am not saying that all first-time parents are tightly wound loons who demand zantac the first time Baby has a wet burp; I am just that I was. Tightly wound that is. Only Edward was on zantac and that was after his failed swallow study and frankly it was too late to help much. Now I am not so wound. Thus, Caroline plastered herself with yogurt but then cleaned right up when I accidentally let her empty a bucket of rainwater over her head.   

Live and learn. That's my point, one lives and one learns.

So if you studied the photos you can tell that I bought the first hanging seats I found at a local retailer, which happened to be made by Chicco. They seem fine and the likelihood that either Caroline or Edward is going to land on her/his head in the next few weeks has been drastically reduced. However, as a design choice I wish they had not opted to shape the table clamps like whimsical hippopotamuses. First, they have about a zillion little creases to attract the gunk splattering from gunky children (*cough* CAROLINE *cough*) and second, it was inevitable that Patrick would take one look at them before announcing with six-year-old gusto, "That hippo has a big silver pole stuck up its butt."

Which is true. Although we do not say butt. We say bottom. Patrick noted that at school they say pockets; as in "everybody sit on your pockets." Patrick suggested that the hippo has a pole in his pocket. I think this sounds even less appropriate than butt.

Patrick has his last day of school coming up on Friday. I wish I could say that this fact fills me with unbridled joy but it doesn't. It feels more like I have been given responsibility for ten additional manufacturing facilities with no increase in pay. Right now we have a weekday routine in place. First everyone oversleeps and then there is a mad dash to get Patrick fed and dressed and lunchboxed and take-home foldered, while Caroline and Edward totter around all bleary and hungry and demanding their damned breakfasts. Eventually Steve and Patrick make it out the door ten minutes behind schedule and Caroline Edward and I say, well, thank heavens that's over. Then some of us eat french toast and some of us drink tea. Then we play. Errands maybe. A walk. Lunch. Nap. All very civilized and leisurely. Patrick gets dropped off around four and depending upon his mood he is either a thing of beauty and a joy forever or forty-seven inches of grievance. Either way I give him a snack. Then the afternoon free-falls into sixty/ninety minutes of oh-my-god-shut-up-all-of-you- I-cannot-believe-you-do-not-shut-up while all three children decide they are hungry and a little tired and bored maybe and each one needs to tell me about their problems in agonizing detail; generally at the exact moment I am trying to move a cast-iron skillet full of hot grease. Or just as dinner prep reaches a crisis point the random starfish bath toy that has been lying under the breakfast bar for three weeks becomes as hotly contested as the Rhineland, with Edward screaming for it and Caroline running with it and Patrick swooping in to confiscate it without any authority whatsoever. The little ones howl and Patrick talks talks talks me to death about how, technically, it used to be his starfish bath toy and since he never officially gave it to them it is still his, so, really, he has the right to blah blah and the whole time he is holding it above his head and Caroline and Edward are jumping for it and screaming.

God I hate the hour before dinner.

This, incidentally, is what I am imagining all day, every day will look like come summer time. Screaming, jumping, tears.         

Although

sometimes they're as sweet as a musical comedy.

He brought home his progress folio from school which has samples of the work they have done this year. My favorite was a poem:

Playful
Astronaut
Try my best
Read
Icecream
Cats
Kind

Camp, though. I still think I should have signed the big one up for more camps.

I am obsessed with food right now. I go through stages when I feel like cooking something new and interesting and other (usually longer) periods when the thought of having to actually boil the water before I put the pasta in seems like almost too much to bear. What's wrong with al broken dente, I asked all winter.

But, as I said, at the moment I am all about the new and the swell (which might be why I am even more annoyed by the childish pre-dinner antics than usual - nothing distracts from the pleasure of putting together a nice meal quite so much as a Wall of Sound and multiple human bodies attached to your hem.) Caroline and Edward are still at the age when they will eat anything (um, mostly. Caroline has finally embraced broccoli but only once it is doing the backstroke in dip - Edward's favorite spinach she finds disgusting) so I am frantically trying to cram flavor into them before they realize a nice way to drive their mother crazy is to refuse to eat anything but bread.  

We put more early plants in the garden this year (strawberries, lettuces, the asparagus is finally on its third season) and I did herb containers on the back deck which are thriving so far. Something about fresh green things popping up that makes me want to marvel in nature's goodness and then eat them with vinegar.

    

Um, eat the plants. Not the children. All of which is to say that I am inspired to do some food posts soon and I will.

Question for you, now that I have gotten nowhere, slowly. I thought about this all weekend. I have a list of things I want to get done. Not the usual daily things like laundry and food and picking up toys but project stuff. I want to make the basement less Patrick-centric and more whole family-friendly. We have an entire giant play area down there (head-gentle carpeting. midget climbing toys) but it is currently covered in a billion of Patrick's little, dangerous (chokables, you know - I told you it was one of my major fears: I mentioned to Patrick that I might sign up to do communist play group with Caroline and Edward next Fall if I can get into the class they have at his school. Patrick said, "Are you kidding? Do you know how many chokables there are at my school?" And I quote. Chokables. He speaks my language) oojums. Also I am pretty sure the bookcases are not anchored to anything. And there is a bank of windows that Steve removed to create the breakfast bar that is just leaning against a wall. Anyway, it needs work. And every night I think, "Tomorrow I am going to go down and start on the basement." But then the next day arrives and all time gets sucked into a vortex of laundry and food and picking up toys. It never happens. Ditto sorting out the winter clothes, cleaning out my desk, emptying the junk drawer, taking the two laundry items I actually use and putting them into the cupboard that will have room for them after I first clear out the fifteen laundry items I bought in error... it goes on and on. I have a bag of glass tile samples in a kitchen drawer that irritates me every time I open it to look for tape or band-aids or the key to the safe deposit box.

Technically it is only nine o'clock so I could stop writing this and go downstairs for a few hours. But I am not going to do that. I have been running around all day and all I want to do right now is sit down with a glass of wine and watch something with Steve.

But, as I said, I thought about you today and I wondered if I am just preternaturally slack or if the rest of you maunder along like I do. Do you get Things done or do they just hang over your head for months and months? A sincere question. Steve thinks I have, ahem, trouble with my follow through so that I start projects and then abandon them to start new ones ad infinitum, thus never completing anything until whatver it was gets as messy as it was in the first place. Steve, however, is a crazy person who paints walls until four in the morning and who cannot stop slicing a tomato even when his spouse is being crushed to death by the dishwasher door. For example. Just saying.

PS I know that there is a possibility that Edward and Caroline will continue to eat tilapia and zucchini and curried wheatberries into their dotage. And if that happens it will be terrific. I'll be pleasantly surprised. When Patrick was their age I mistook his cheerful affection for all food as evidence of my superior parenting. Then I was unpleasantly surprised.

Comments

[Karen]

Yes, I meander. Horribly. I only get things done if I make a damn list. And even then it's not a done deal sometimes.

[Louise]

I got a sewing machine off of craigslist - for free! - 2 months ago, and I have yet to thread it and give it a whirl to see if it actually works. And I have only one child to keep me busy during the day!

[MJ]

I have really great intentions on putting away all the winter stuff in nicely sorted sized tubs and getting the summer stuff in drawers. I have had this goal for over a month ... sigh. I cant seem to mail somthign for the life of me ... why I often wonder do things that seem like they should be easy , never ever seem to get done unless its crisis mode.

[Meri]

Meander. And it drives my husband batty. He just can't understand the idea of a todo list with no end date.

I just finished embroidering a shirt I started 10 years ago, although I usually manage to get things done sooner than that.

[Laur]

Umm, meander. And wish I could wiggle my nose, and you know: just make things happen. I told my husband at the beginning of last winter that I could hem a pair of pants for him. We have boxes from our move a year ago that are not unpacked. I once thought it meant we weren't happy here, but now I'm not sure. I'm v efficient in my job; maybe I use it all up there?

[Betsy]

Our downstairs bathroom has been torn apart for eighteen months now because I had big plans to renovate it; but every single night after raising two small kids during the day, I am too stinking tired to work on it. It drives my husband nuts, which might make me feel bad except he doesn't do anything about it either.

Also, sorting out the toys in the playroom, getting the outgrown clothes to the donation center, doing something with the tubs of papers we have all over because every time we have guests we don't clean until so late we can only throw those papers in tubs and hide them, making a path in the garage where we could actually walk from one side to another, getting rid of the thirteen extra jars of cinnamon (for example) in my spice cupboard so I can figure out which spices I actually *don't* have, sorting out crap pile of sewing paraphernalia that just litters our dining room...

I meander. And nothing gets done. Ever.

[Aurelia]

I meandered for a long time until I got someone over to both watch the kids and motivate me. As in, I specifically hired someone to come in and help me sort and organize while the kids were away at school/daycare/out with Dad on a couple of different days.

And it rocked my world and I highly recommend it. http://www.napo.net/ to find one. Bags and bags and boxes of stuff got sorted and tossed and donated and organized. I never would have done it on my own. It was too overwhelming!

If anyone can't afford to hire a professional organizer, like I did, or pay a sitter, then get family and friends to help. Just pick the ones who don't give you guilt. Mothers and MILs can be bad choices for helping you sort and throw because of the guilt, but great for taking the kids. Friends who don't packrat or judge are good for helping with sorting.

I did Flylady for a while, but it took too long. I'm too impatient.

(And btw, for anyone looking for a new job path in this economy, check out that site. Even in a recession, it's a growing field because old people with houses full of 80 years of consumer goods are still dying and leaving all their worldly goods to unsuspecting children. Who drown in the crap.)

Soooo, hope that helps.

[minni]

i never get anything done other than the everyday minutae. oy. and i'm s'posed to be studying for the lsat so i can have a career again - my kids are 4 1/2, 2 1/4, 2 1/4 now. i don't know how people keep their houses spic and span, everything is organized, never late with mail...

if someone knows the secret - please do share!

your children are too cute! no wonder you can never tear yourself away from them to finish a project. :)

[Kath]

Nothing is completed at my house but I have a great list. I completely get the "they are in bed and all I want to do is sit" thing.

There is a great book kids and food "Hungry Monkey" by Matthew Amster-Burton (food writer/foodie talking about kids and food with some easy (but not dumbed down) recipes thrown in). Very low key and keeps it all in perspective.

Hopefully #2 will fare better than his sister.

[Carrie (in MN)]

I'm a meanderer. I meandered in this house for five years, but now that we've decided to try to sell this house, I've completed all those projects in a month. Every closet is spectacularly organized, outgrown toys and clothes are gone. Worse, home improvement stuff (painting the knotty pine basement) is done now for the (hopefully) new owners. Why can I only do this when moving?

[Stephanie O]

I have the same problems you do when it comes to the larger (but not actually large) irregular stuff. I have a one-month old, and before he was born I managed to get the summer clothes out for his two brothers, but the winter clothes are still (!!!) in piles on under-used shelves in the closets. When the baby was born and the Grandmas were out to help, they used some of those clothes, disrupting my wonderfully organized heaps. But tomorrow, I say, they'll get put away!

[Ellie]

Huh. You said maunder and everyone else is saying meander. But to maunder is to wander slowly and idly, while to meander is to wander aimlessly or casually. I think maunder fits better, personally, as you clearly have Plans, but are merely slow and thoughtful in the implementing of them.

Yes, well. I am clearly no help.

(Ex-mother-in-law? You were married before? I've read your blog for years -- how did I miss that?).

[Becky]

I tend to be the irritating sigh-er behind The Dave as he "forgets" projects that I have tasked him with. I end up doing whatever wasn't done after all. I'm pretty sure that's his Master Plan.

[S]

definitely meander.

Also..that hour before dinner? I so remember my middle son throwing himself down dramatically in front of the stove while I was trying to cook, yelling that he was "dyyyyying" "starvinnnnnnng" "helllllp".. ah the good old days. :)

[beyond]

things hang over my head. i am leaving for indonesia tomorrow which means that i finally unpacked the suitcase i used for a trip in march. i know, it's shameful. (everything inside was clean though!) things do not usually get this bad, i really really dislike unpacking. hope this makes you feel better.

[Alex]

I have no children. Today, May 31, I finally managed to get the dogs' 2009 license tags on their collars. Also their 2008 rabies tags.

Last November, my TV broke. I brought an old one (it buzzes and the picture is dim, but sort of works) out of the basement. For Christmas, I got a new TV. The old semi-working one is still sitting in the living room. I keep thinking I should *at least* move it over by the basement door, but so far, I haven't.

[bethany actually]

I'm a maunderer as well, and I only have one child. I tend to make lists of things I want to do, then when I have free time I look at the lists and think, "Eh, I'd rather watch this show/crochet this blanket/read this book."

[Amy]

Heh. Yogurt.

Ava is 26 months old and is still not allowed to feed herself yogurt after the one and only time I let her try it. Have you ever tried to do an eye wash for yogurt on a not-so-happy toddler? Worst thing ever.

I do let her eat most everything else herself. Unless we're running late in the morning - which is usually 3 days out of 5, honestly.

I maunder. I meander. I wish I could change but I think at 38 it's probably too late already. Old dogs, you know.

[NGS]

It took me nearly nine months to get my wedding dress to the cleaners. Then another three to get it to the consignment shop. Meanwhile it was hanging, in a big white bag, in our living room.

This did not please my dear husband. I'm a procrastinator with plans.

[Laurie A]

I have to have a deadline to get anything done - management- or self- imposed. Not sure if that makes me a maunderer or a meanderer.

I set forth an edict just this morning that we were "going to get this house cleaned up (decluttered) today!". I (a) folded and put away three loads of laundry, and (b) planted two planters full of annuals that I had purchased over a week ago. Lack of underwear imposed the deadline on task (a) and mother nature imposed the deadline on task (b).

I now sit here surveying my kingdom of everlasting clutter resigned to the fact that I AM the clutter Queen.

My husband thinks the kids have too much stuff but he's not here with them all day, everyday when they need entertaining. Some days a cardboard box will suffice, other days they actually play with the toy that came in it.

[Jennifer H.]

I get everything 90% done. Its a real character flaw. My husband is the same way,so we are drowning in almost-finished projects. He has these great plans to re-build the deck, finish the laundry room (I would LOVE a finished laundry room) but all of the things he was going to get done last summer are waiting to be finished. It is an unending source of frustration, I wish I could just accept it and live with it, I doubt he or I will change.

[AussieAndrea]

Oh god, don't ask. I went to Spain over a year and half ago. All the maps, postcards, train tickets, photos etc that I collected to make a Spain album? Still in a box that has now survived moves from two houses...

Meander? I am the gastropod of meanderers...

The only times I have cleaned out junk drawers and dealt with taking clothes to charity is when I have moved house and the thought of carting it all to a new place made me cry.

[zerch]

I have had three completely different "test colors" on my kitchen wall for over a year and I still haven't painted. And although I have decided on the color, it isn't anywhere close the colors that are on painted on the wall. Yeah, and I still haven't switched over winter clothes. I'm thinking it will be here again in a few months, so why bother?

[Hetty Fauxvert]

Gott in Himmel, as a mom of 2-yo twins I NEVER get anything done. (Hah, except cut up grapes in itsy bitsy quarters -- "coupla gwape" in toddler parlance -- for the kiddos, since I am right there with you on Choking Hazards, as we term them at our house.) I have at this moment a veritable mountain of clean toddler clothes clogging the path in my bedroom -- mine, not theirs -- since I cannot seem to find a time to put the clothes away in their room. When they are awake, I am policing them lest they climb on top of the TV -- again -- and then fall off, gaining a split lip -- or similar activity. When they are asleep, do you think I am crazy enough to tiptoe around in their room and maybe wake them up???

Anyway, you're not alone in never getting anything done.

Re the Chokables-choked basement: Can you enlist Patrick as the architect of a plan to create some sort of East-West Berlin basement, with part or half of it given over to toddlerdom? It strikes me that if he comes up with the plan, then (a) maybe you could get him and Steve to work on it, which would be sweet! and (b) he would not fight you on it. Just a thought.

[Jujubee]

I was a real nutjob on the chokables as well. My husband likes to tell people that I diligently quartered blueberries. Actually, I take that back. I think I was perfectly reasonable given that my daughter really did seem to have trouble swallowing without hacking. Even whole blueberries.

And I love the pictures of Caroline and Edward smelling herbs. When my daughter was one-ish, I took her to Penzeys spices and let her smell all the sample jars they put out for smelling. It makes me smile to think of the way she so diligently took each one in.

Right now I don't have any unfinished projects, but that is only because we just moved into this place last week. You know what my secret is? Frequent moving. I start projects with gusto and then lose enthusiasm and they languish unfinished until it is time to move again and I either have to finish them or chuck them. Since this is our 10th apartment in 9 years (and I'm moving again in August!) it really keeps unfinished projects and clutter down.

[ivfcycler]

ex-mother-in-law?! is there an ex-husband then? did i miss something? story?

so greedy for details, your internet followers. :)

[sara]

We ALWAYS wondered who got the better deal. My babyhood is photographed in a way that you could almost make a flipbook animation out of the pictures...but my brother got to do EVERYTHING without a fight.

[Georgina]

I am good at getting the laundry done but there are now mountains of clean laundry everywhere upstairs. Everywhere. There are even bags of clean laundry up there that haven't been opened for weeks. I'm with Hetty. Upstairs things never get done because I'm usually downstairs with the little dictators or they are asleep upstairs and I'm not going to do anything to jeopardise that! Or that is certainly my excuse.

[CariP]

I am like Steve without the home improvement skills...my hubby is more like you. Meandering. The attic bedroom has been half done for...years. Ditto the kitchen. What was supposed to be a 2 week start to finish project is approaching its send summer with no end (or grout) in sight. Can Steve come over here for a week and I'll come there and clean out your junk drawer? I love the picture of Carolyn covered in yogurt...so many foods are good for your hair and skin and my daughter has discovered them all. Spagetti sauce for instance. Rice is another, surprisingly.

[Marsha]

My husband and I start exchanging an e-mail list for the weekend no later than Thursday morning. By Friday at 5p the lists are so jokingly optimistic/ambitious (paint bedroom! fix chainsaw! can year's supply of strawberry jam! finish those four sundresses! write to elderly relatives!) that we chuck the whole thing and end up sitting on the back porch drinking vinho verde while trying to con the kids into weeding.

We're not our best friends in these matters. For months and months I've been planning to decorate our bedroom (the last in the house which has received no aesthetic attention whatsoever) in dove grey and plum. I think it would be pretty and so I've bought paint samples and fabric and and and. This weekend we were out and spontaneously bought a duvet cover in NOT grey and plum but rather red and gold. So we're back to square one on the bedroom and the finish line has never been more out of reach. Nevertheless, the weekend list read at #1 "paint the bedroom". We are, however, down two bottles of vinho verde at the dawn of Monday.

[marta]

i used to think i was a slacker about projects, but as it turns out, i was just a mom with a young child. now that i'm a mom with two school-aged children, i tear through projects like no one's business. i would cut myself a little bit of a break if i were you.

[Karen]

Oh do I hear you! My theory when the kids were small was I'd always have a house to clean, but I wouldn't always have babies to love, cuddle, and referee for. I was right. The house still needs cleaning.

I have two boys. Life with teenagers is a whole other kind of stress than early toddler stress. Less concern with chokables (there were NO balloons anywhere near my boys), more concern with smokables, and uh, drinkables, ya know? I am always behind, always-laundry, dishes, stacks of things that might be bills so I should go look at them. Clothing all over my room. And lord after working all day long then coming home and cooking, I am tired by 7 and it's still daylight, but who wants to clean the garage/basement/spare room then? No one, least of all me. I've been this way since they were born, boys 2 1/2 years apart=chaos. The house is somewhat better now, although I've shed a husband along the way and sent one kid to college so that tidies things a bit.

Love your pictures, always. Cricket and Edward and Patrick cheer me up at work some days. I was looking at old pictures of mine over the weekend (cleaning the garage actually, yay) and heavens they were delicious.

It's a roller coaster, hang on and enjoy the ride is all the advice I've got.

(PS I checked the organizer site listed above, the closest one to me is about 40 miles away...and (irony anyone?) her site which is over a year old has two sections still under construction. Good to know that it's not just us.

[Cookie]

My oldest (who is almost four) never had a zeal for a large variety of food. The selection of items he will eat is very limited, and it makes going to any restaurant (even McDonalds) a trial. My baby (at 14 months) still seems to eat almost anything, and I'm really hoping it stays that way, because I really worry that I am doomed to make nothing but Mac and Cheese or PB&Js until they're grown.

As for projects, I have so many. The one that irritates me the most are my pictures. I take lots of pictures. I get lots of pictures developed. I store lots of pictures on my computer. And none of them are organized. It drives me crazy! But yet, by the end of the day the last thing I want to do is a project.

[Kristin]

Oh God, I totally know about the massive suckage of time. If I could be guaranteed even one hour of uninterrupted time, I could get so much done. It just doesn't happen though. I have lots of grand intentions and its so hard to get around to all of it.

[Rebeccaof8]

I am a chronic listmaker. Pregnant with my 4th child, I keep blaming it on nesting, but projects seem to be my focus right now. Problem is...it's at the expense of the "regular" stuff I do everyday (you know: laundry, cooking, making sure people are clean). I dream of having a life where someone says "let me watch your kids for the day/week so you can finish that painting project" - but then I wake up. Lived here for 6 years. Was out in garage last night opening some boxes that haven't been opened since (getting ready for rummage sale). Seriously. The newspaper in the box said 2003 and that we were at war. I need to simplify and declutter! As far as the basement goes...we just did ours this winter. Cameron shelving from Pottery Barn...chokables in the top cubbies away from chubby hands. Also, the oldest with the majority of them (Legos, etc.), has a small stash of toys in adorable canvas totes that neatly fit under his bed. We try the guilt tactic to keeping things clean. "Pick up that choking hazard or your siblings could choke and die!!!" Nice. I'm sure I'll be receiving the therapy bills later. And for the record, according to my 2nd child's baby book, she only has 2 teeth. Oops.

[Pam L]

Hey, are both Caroline and Edward left handed? Do they always use that hand, or interchange it? My first born was decidedly so by 6 months, my second, right handed.

If it's MY project that I really want to do, I will work it until it's done, like Steve. If it's "a" project, that I should do, or one that *someone else* gives me, it could be a while. About 6 months ago I steam cleaned the bedroom carpets with the idea of doing the loft, hallways and stairs right after. Right. Now I have to start all over again, but this time I will start with the common areas.
Love the pics of the basil sniffing kiddos.l

[Barb]

I guffawed at the playing-Monoply-with-a-penny comment. I'm the 4th kid. I didn't even get a baby book. And there are about 10 pictures of me, total. Or at least I'm told they're of me. They could have been of my sisters and they're just passing them off as me to shut me up. My son is an only. He's now 20, and I'm feeling guilty about the only child thing in a way I never felt while he was smaller. Oh well. There's not much I can do about it now. I'm not about to add another child to the family at age 47. :-)

I procrastinate. Is that the same as maunder and meander?

And EX-MOTHER-IN-LAW? What?!! Why didn't I know about this?

[katherine]

Yeah - ex mother in law? The hell?

[aliceaustralia]

Wow, Patrick looks about forteen in that picture (of him and Caroline). When did he get so grown up?

Also, ex-mother-in-law? I'm adding my voice to those of us who would love to hear a story or two there.

Cheers,

[Toni]

I get bursts of energy - and I clean/fix/do things that make people stare (not because I'm doing things - but I turn into your Steve and just KEEP ON DOING THEM no matter what). But I've always been that way and don't sit well in general.

Lately (due to the fact that I'm filled with Boy and definitely wanting him out sooner rather than later), I'm more of a sitter. I'd love a glass of wine and a good movie - but am settling for reruns and water.

PS The hippo chairs are awesome - but two warnings. 1) Take them off and clean them occationally - you'll be amazed at what gets under those hippos. 2) Cover them with something washable. The last one I had, the seat couldn't be washed in the washer and it got covered in yuck. I ended up putting towels in it to cover the seat.

Good luck with summer. I've come up with theme weeks as the girls are home with me until end of July due to logistics and the Boy coming. Ugh. I'm thinking more camps now too!

[Kim]

OK, I heard a theory that when children are small they are more open to different foods because it is evolutionarily beneficial for them to trust their parents. But at some point, little ones start fending for themselves, so they have to be more selective so they don't eat some poison berries or something.

We all meander around here. It drives us up the wall, especially by 4 when nothing has gotten done.

[Barbara]

The hour before dinner was known as "The Gangrene Hour" in our house. I'm trying to remember how old my kids were when it got better, maybe, say when the youngest was in third grade? My brain has sorted this into the unpleasant-memories-we-have-no-need-of category and dumped it.

Now that the local Farmer's Market is open and greens, asparagus, and strawberries are in season, I feel an urge to cook too--something yummy like asparagus and smoked salmon frittata, say. Your herbs and children both appear to be flourishing.

[Chris]

You speak of projects and time constraints that plague us all....ah the misery and weight of it all! :) I equate the daily schedule to the days of the week.

Wake up/breakfast time is like Monday - I am never quite sure if am going to make it up at all...and frequently think "I cannot do this". Thusly (to use your word), I have started jogging again - forcing myself to wake at 6 and do something for me first thing.

The 3 hours between breakfast and lunch are like Tuesday...kind of humdrum and just trying to get through it all - particularly if I have errands to run with the 2.

Lunch time/going down for nap - Wednesday. Kind of a relief to be halfway through and have a break of sorts.

After lunch - Thursday...you are kids of looking forward to dinner/bed - you knwo the weekend is coming kind of feeling.

Dinner/bedtime. Friday. Relaxation is here.

8-10 No kids. Quiet house. My Sat/Sun equivalent...because on Sat/Sun I still have 2.5 yo twins to care for.

Ultimately, though, it is all Sat/Sun because all day long they do funny things and give me sugars, and that is all I really need to be a happy girl.

While on the topic, are you 2 psycho on Friday? I don't know what it is, but the moon manages to go retrograde every Friday at my house.

My husband is a teacher and home for the summer. This Friday I am leaving in the morning and not coming back until - lateish.

[Dara]

I was one of those nervous first time moms. Now with our third I am really relaxed about soooo many things!!

I mistakenly thought it would be good for me to return to work after having our third child. So, I did....and I could kick myself every. damn. day. 7 years, 5 years, and 17 months worth of children, piles of clean, unfolded laundry, and a messy husband equals one cranky mama. I think I will hire someone to help me wade through it all.

I have a playroom designated for our girls and all their teeny, tiny Barbie shoes and MLP stuff. Nothing is allowed downstairs where the baby has his own area. It works...for us. After three kids, I still fear the chokables.

Ex-mother-in-law!!!??? Spill it!!! I want to hear all about it. I have one as well. Wouldn't want to run her over , I mean run into her either.

Our your twins left handed? Our two oldest are right handed (me) and our baby son is a lefty (husband).

[Dara]

Are...are your twins left handed.

Need more coffee.

[throwingutah]

"The Gangrene Hour?" What a perfect term!
I'm just now starting to come out the other side of a very unmotivated first six years of motherhood. The younger one is about to turn three, so now they can fight relatively harmlessly while I do whatever it is I need to do. I'm finally scraping and painting our front porch, which hasn't had a screen for about ten years.
As for the long summer stretching ahead; do you have a community pool? I signed us up for my childhood pool and off we went on opening day. My 5yo whined and moaned about not wanting to swim, so I told him he could take a book and read if he wanted to instead, but he was going. We stayed from 3-5:30, and when we got home, both boys flopped on chairs in the living room and were totally quiet until bedtime. Crickets were chirping; I was grinning. When I told my mom about it, she said, "You were one of four - why do you THINK we spent every day of the summer at the pool?" So there you have two generations' worth of testimony for the Power of the Pool.

[chanzi]

My kitchenaid mixer has been broken since December and my sewing machine since before then. October, I believe? I keep meaning to get them both fixed but somehow haven't gotten around to it yet. I also have some window trim to touch up where the sticky tape for my weatherizing plastic this winter took off some of the paint. I hope I get around to that before it gets cold again and new plastic needs to go up. Anyway, I don't even have kids, so I don't know what my excuses are.

[Kelly]

I don't have any children (well, I have a 22 year old step-son who occasionally wanders over to rummage through our fridge and spill crumbs on our sofa) and I still can't get crap done. I do have a lot of pets which takes up quite a bit of time but still, much like Julia, I have a junk drawer that needs cleaning out, winter clothes that need to be sorted and put away, bills to be sorted and shredded, new door handles to be put on the kitchen cupboards - the list goes on and on and yet I never seem to find the time. It drives me crazy. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who maunders.

I did a double take when I saw the "ex-mother-in-law" comment as well but then I just assumed she meant it was a fear to meet an ex-mother-in-law at a mammography waiting room; not that she actually has an ex-mother-in-law. Cause we all know fears are rarely rational. :)

[jen]

It is not just you. I barely get the normal things done. As in, just last night I changed our sheets for the first time in, well, I don't really want to admit how long. I have to many bigger projects (hemming the black out drapes to the correct size, planting the herbs outside, and on, and on) that I never seem to be able to get to. Also, I only have one child who goes to bed around 6:30 p.m. I have no good excuses other than wine and a movie beat out planting herbs every single time.

[Laura C.]

I maunder. Maunder maunder maunder. I buy prints on Etsy and take YEARS to find frames for them. I bought two dining chairs from Target and waited 18 months to assemble them, by which time they had discontinued those chairs so that I cannot get another two. Etc. Etc.