Way late Halloween Photos of Crazy Buzz Lightyear and a very sad giraffe.

Caitlyn thought it would be a great idea to stand up in her crib and shriek at the top of her lungs at 3:30 this morning. She found it even more amusing to wake the entire house up. What I heard was the glass breaking screech followed by an almost identical one from Eddie. I had just fallen back to sleep as Ed got home around 2:30 from work.

I ran in to their room like a crazy person. "Mommay!!" Caitlyn is screaming. "Get meeeeeee out" Eddie is saying. I got Eddie out and plopped him in bed next to Ed. He cries for me for a minute, but Ed managed to calm him down. Caitlyn is still screaming. "Screw it" I thought, and went in to the kitchen and made a bottle. What a horrible lazy mom I am, I know. She shrieked like a banshee the entire time I was out there. As I walked back in to her room, she laid down go back to sleep. When she saw me again, the screaming started back up. She took the bottle though and was quiet until 6:00.

I went back in to my own room to retrieve Eddie. Ed tells me that we need a towel. What??? Eddie has peed out the side of his diaper making a huge pee puddle on my bed. Glorious. Cleaned him up and cleaned the bed up. Got him back in bed by 3:45.

When my alarm went off at 5:42 it felt like I hadn't slept at all. I'm really glad today is Friday.

On a recent particularly tiring day (as if any one of my days is not tiring...) I finally got Eddie in to bed around 9:30.

He carried on a bit...

"I don't feeeeeeeel good. I have to sleep in yoooooouuuur bed"

"I'm not ready to go to bed yet", I say, "I have some work to do"

He becomes more insistent, and I begin to lose patience. I bargain with him.

"You stay in here until I'm done working, and if you're still awake, you can come in Mommy's bed"

He agrees, but only after I promise to come back and check on him in a few minutes and give him a football to play with.

I putter in the kitchen, feeding the cats and putting dinner away. I wait a few more minutes and go in to check. He's still awake, of course and asks "Are you workin' in the kitchen?" We talked for a few minutes, and I told him I'd be back after I was done with my work.

I sat down on the couch and settled in to my work which consisted of watching Seinfeld and paging through a magazine. He played quietly in bed for what seemed like hours. Finally, he became quiet, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I waited a few more minutes, shut down the house, and headed to bed myself.

As I passed his room, he stirred. I stepped in to check on him and he rolled over and looked right at me. His face, round and pale as the moon, and his sparkling blue eyes shone up at me. He held his football up, smiled and in his so cute, so sleepy voice said "wanna play catch Mommy?" He tossed the ball up, grabbed it, and rolled over back to sleep.

I don't know what it was, but in that moment my heart swelled. "God, I love this kid", I thought. Minutes ago, I had been irritated and just wanted "me" time, and now, I just wanted to scoop him up and hold him forever; wanted him to be just this age forever.

I stayed in his room and watched him sleep for a few minutes, and then finally went to bed.

How lucky am I to have two wonderful, sweet, and healthy kids? I take it for granted so often, and lose my patience and get nasty. Moments like that one can be so humbling. It caused me to take a step back. I pray for the presence of mind to step back before reacting negatively. I pray for patience. Most of all, I pray that Eddie and Caitlyn remain exactly as they are today....a prayer I know is useless...but I still pray.

Funny...

It’s funny, this job; the job of raising a family. I don’t mean funny/weird, I really mean funny. We went to The Taste of Buffalo last weekend and before we left, I was telling Eddie where we were going. “We go to Taste of Buffalo Mommy?” Yep! “We gonna eat the buffalo Mommy?” No, we’re not eating buffalo. “We just lick them?” I nearly died laughing, and have been telling the story constantly since then. The way that his mind works amazes me. I just love his thought process. I’m not sure what we ever did for entertainment before we had kids, but I am more entertained now than I’ve ever been in my life.

Good news- Eddie has gone on the potty 5 whole times now!! We’re very successful if we put him on right before his bath while the water is running. Two times ago, he thought he was just ‘tooting’ and actually pooped. He was so excited to see his ‘toots’ in the potty. There was no explaining to him that even though he thought he was just tooting that poop came out. Now he thinks he gets a sticker if he farts while sitting on the toilet.

Caitlyn is just being Caitlyn. When we put her in the pool outside, her main goal is to get out and power-crawl down the driveway. There seems to be some sort of game that I’m unaware of, where you stuff as many driveway stones in your mouth as you can in as little time as possible, while a frantic Mommy runs after you. I wonder if she learned it at daycare. She still refuses to walk-crawling is just faster. Her favorite word is still “EDDIE!!” Oh, and still with only 2 teeth, she is boycotting all forms of baby food. I have my work cut out for me with this one.

There isn’t a whole lot more going on. It seems like the summer is almost over without ever really beginning. Before we know it, we’ll be in winter coats and hats. Time sure does fly!

P.S. Here is a picture of Ed and me from my high school reunion. I can't believe it's been 10 years!!!