All I Want Are Some Turkey Dishtowels and a Few Other Thoughts

I set off to Target earlier this week on a mission. Turkey dish towels. Like these, only preferably not for $13. No such luck. It's all Christmas baby. There were no turkeys to be found. Apparently no one decorates for Thanksgiving anymore.

I guess I'm as guilty as the next guy (see above). We went to the mall today for the playground and the bookstore, passed Santa, who Ellie begged to see (what?). Nineteen dollars and ninety five cents and fifty percent of my children later (Leo was at school, Lucy was asleep), there we were.

To be honest, I love this time of year. I'm a Jew who loves Christmas. I love Christmas music (confession: I listened to it today on Pandora and love that thanks to Pandora I don't have to wait for the radio stations to play it). It's weird not being in the city and feel myself missing the hustle and bustle a little, or at the very least being able to complain about all those dang tourists crowding around the tree at Rockefeller Center.

In other news:

-Speaking of turkeys, I finally finally hung my little "art garland" (to hold seasonal kid art) that I've been meaning to put up for, oh, five months (hi babies!). It's nothing big, it's just twine and cutie mini clothes pins and with a couple of nails it took all of three minutes to hang. It will be a welcome spot for all the art we do around here or the stuff that comes home from school that I feel guilty instantly recycling (we are clutter central, suddenly). I really can't go on enough about how accomplished I felt having crossed that To Do off my list. It's astonishing how challenging it is to finish a goal or project around here lately and that's been hard for me not to get itchy about. I assure you I'm getting better though ("lightening up," as my mom would say.)

-Leo finally started private speech therapy. Let me just say that 5 p.m. is not an optimal time to be loading up four children and setting off in the night for said appointment. The babies want to be asleep at 5:30, or at least on their way, not sitting in an Italian restaurant waiting for take-out food for their older brother and sister. That's what Ellie and I did while Leo was at his appointment when I determined there would be no time for dinner prep when we walked in the door at 6 p.m. and the babies were cuh-razy and exhausted. This extra speech for Leo is such a worthy cause, but I'm pretty sure if they can't find a better time for his appointment (earlier, please), it's going to shave a couple of years off my life.

-This maternity leave has been sadly TV-less (what a surprise, right? It's not like I have anything to do). In an effort to amp up my television viewing, I'm trying to get "into" a show. That show is American Horror Story. Wow. Anyone else watching? What do you think? I can't look away. It's so bad it's good.

-These babies are getting chunky and sturdy and holdable by the big kids.

And I'm pretty sure these two are in love.

Random thoughts on a Rainy Friday.

It’s Friday (yay!)

It’s raining (boo!)

I am wearing a non-maternity shirt that looks maternity and therefore makes me look pregnant. (why!)

I’ve grown to feel that my Danskos are clunky (though I still like them) and insisted on wearing ballet flats (so not rain-proof). My jeans are wet up to the calf from the puddles on the way from train to building and my shoes, well they are just wet. Oh well.

I am loving and devouring The Book of Dahlia. So disturbing and sad and funny and moving. I feel myself bounding through it too see how it will end (well I think the girl with the brain tumor is going to die, duh) but I also find myself stalling. It’s the book that I don’t want to end. When I really enjoy a book and it’s over, it’s almost like a loss. The people, the characters in that book are so real that I am sad to see them go. And I love how it makes the commute fly.

But the real news is that Ellie slept from 9:15 to 7:15 last night. Not. A. Peep in between. But of course, because life is like this, guess who has decided to have nightmares two nights in a row? Yes that would be Leo. Poor guy. He goes right back to sleep after a few minutes of comforting, but the fact that I have yet to sleep blissfully through the night, well I guess if it wasn’t so ridiculous it would be sad. I know I know, we should all have such problems. In the grand scheme it’s not that big of a deal and it is so much better than it was even just a few weeks ago. I am just so excited about Ellie sleeping that a little Leo wake-up seems negligible.

I still can’t get used to the whole both-kids-in-bed-I-have-the-night-stretched-out-before me-thing.

Well to be fair it’s hardly “the night.” By the time I have showered, unloaded/loaded the dishwasher, gotten bottles ready for the next day, sorted the laundry and picked up the toys it’s practically time for bed. I won’t even tell you how much DVRed stuff there is to watch. I remain at least a week behind on Top Chef and I still haven’t watched last week’s America’s Next Top Model(never mind that they announced the Wednesday night—ssshh don’t tell me!). I vote for the Big Girl but I doubt she got it.

It’s hard for me to settle down and relax; for fear that someone (um, Ellie) will start to cry. And sometimes when she goes down I think I should just go straight to bed, to seize that sleep time. But if she is serious about making a habit of sleeping through the night, then I might have to rethink that urge. I might have to actually consider Doing Stuff at night. Last night was my favorite night of the week: Grey’s Anatomy. I actually watched it live (ok it was a bit delayed as I watched it late so I was still able to fast forward through the ads). I am loving the Hahn/Torres Sapphic thing. I just hope they don’t make it into some big joke. Ha ha they’re not really lesbians. I mean I don’t care if they’re really not but I just don’t want it to be a joke—something that will just get laughed about. I give the writers a bit more credit than that though.

On tap for the weekend: a lot depends on how this weather turns out. Right now it is looking suspiciously like my hometownout there and that does not bode well for the outdoor activities. Still no fence and still no word from fence guy which is a little troubling.

And where oh where is my tax refund?

I leave you with cute Ellie news. I had been talking with a work colleague about Cute Things Our Kids Do and realized I am so busy with having two that I don’t pay attention to the minutiae the way I did with one. Maybe it’s because I was constantly analyzing and assessing Leo and with Ellie I am more relaxed. But I realized I didn’t know if Ellie could give hugs or kisses, heck I found out she could wave by complete accident. So this morning I asked her to give me a kiss and guess who leaned over and planted her wet little mouth on my cheek. Well to be fair it was more like she planted her whole face on my cheek, but I think she gets the idea! The kissing!

I could not be more proud. The sleeping. The kissing. What more could a mother ask for?

Pictured above (since I haven't taken any good pictures lately this one will have to do) is Leo at the park on a weekend a few months ago when the weather was much nicer than it appears that it will be this weekend. It was only a few months ago but he looks so much younger there. Maybe because of the bowl hair cut?