Laundry Basket Fun

So, the new game is Olive sitting in the laundry basket with Marc or I swinging her back and forth until our backs give out while she shrieks with glee.

Actually, she's been especially stubborn lately and has been in timeout many, many times. I think it's just the age. And the availability of plentiful candy this time of year. I confess that I bribe her with M&M's in the mornings sometimes. Trust me, you'd do it too.

I did get my first official door slam the other morning. It was one of those milestones... First step, first words, first door slammed in your face... Olive is NOT a morning person and she was very unhappy that I woke her up to go to daycare. She scuttled out of bed, ran to the door and slammed it and screamed "Not time to wake up yet!!!" I couldn't help but laugh at it. When she's 15, I'm sure I won't find it so amusing. But for now, it's pretty funny.

Big Girl bed

Setting up the Big Girl bed today... Very exciting. We went to Ikea with Grandpa George and bought a mattress. I have her bed ready to go, but I may need to wait until Marc gets home to start moving furniture around. (He's at a nerd tournament today in Rockville. Exciting, I know.) She's getting Rainforest sheets and a comforter for Christmas, and we are thinking about painting a Lemur mural in her room. It's got to be biologcally correct, so we need to find other native Madagascar animals to put in it. Marc nixed my toucans becuase they are Amazonian. Anyway, we are still hashing out the details.

I am not crazy!

Am I the only person on the planet who only wants one child? What is the deal? Nearly everyone who was in my GBMC mom's group already had their second (or third) one or are expecting it soon. Really? Global population control, people. There are too damned many of us already. I know I am a wee bit defensive on this subject, but I'm so sick of being asked when I'm going to have the next one I could scream. Being an only child is not like being chained in some sort of solitary confinement. You have friends. It's not so bad. Why does everyone automatically assume only children are lonely? I wasn't lonely! I have tremendous respect for my Mom for having put up with all this pressure when she had "only" me. Especially being from a Catholic family in the seventies with four siblings of her own. I'm sure that was a tough position to defend.

Financial considerations aside (no small matter in and of themselves), I can't deal with sibling rivalry. The constant whining, the "Mom, he's touching me!" "Am not!" "Am too!" would put me over the edge. Again, I tended to only see the bad parts of sibling relationships because I had none of my own to compare it to. I'm just tired of feeling like there's something wrong with me because I only want one. Like I'm somehow not a nurturing person or that I'm just being selfish. You never know, I may change my mind eventually. But there's no rule that says your kids have to be exactly 2 years apart. Or a rule that says you have to have more than one in the first place. I think this is just me being hyperdefensive, but that's just how I've been feeling lately.

Ladybug Halloween

Ladybug!

Well, here she is in her slightly too small ladybug suit... She wasn't terribly forthcoming with the picture taking this particular evening, so I don't have a lot of great shots. But here she is, looking adorable with her little basket.

Want some cheese to go with that?

Lately, Olive has been, in a word, WHINY. I don't think she's feeling very well, but I can't seem to pin point anything. Very restless, all she wants is to be held, and then you pick her up and all she wants is to get down. She wakes up at night and is cold, but screams whenyou put the covers back over her. That kind of thing. She was supposed to get her H1N1 Vaccine last Thursday, but she was running a slight fever the night before and they wouldn't give it to her. So, they rescheduled for today. She's still whiny and cranky, but not running a fever, so we have to do it. It's too hard to get the vaccine, I can't afford to pass it up. So, I am leaving work early (yay!) and I'm not sure if I'm coming back. I don't have much to do really, but I could use the hours. We are very slow; it depends on who you ask, but things feel pretty precarious to me. I've been knitting together my loose safety net just in case. Marc is working at center Stage and liking it a lot, he's only been there two days. I miss set painting. I don't miss the hours and the pay, but I miss the painting.