A Mall Hijacking

So, I was at the mall today (which thankfully is a relatively rare event). And as is usually the case when trying to reach a destination in the mall, I put my head down and moved as quickly as I could (with a stroller and a 3 year old) and tried to keep from making eye contact with any of the kiosk workers who might try to sell me something. But, at the end of my necessary errand, while carrying the baby and a shopping bag while still pushing the stroller, my defenses were down and I was caught.

The lady lulled Duffy in with promises of giving her princess hair. (Of course, it didn't help that she was still dressed in her leotard and sparkly tutu from ballet.) Fine, sure, why not. So with her fancy curling iron, she gets to work. I'm sure that when she found out I had 3 girls all with lots of hair, she had found her target consumer audience. I nodded through all of her fancy talk about negative ion technology, beautiful, shiny curls, no heat damage, blah, blah blah. I'm bouncing a crying baby, trying to be nice. Meanwhile, Duffy is smiling and admiring her fancy hair in the big pink mirror the lady handed her. She starts telling me how much money I can save on salon visits by doing the hair myself. (Uh...this would only be true if there actually were salon visits. Hello, they are 8 and under. I don't even go to the salon.) Anyway, I tell her thank you and I will have to think about it. So she offers me her 30% employee discount. Then she tries to draw me in by throwing in a $75 bottle of hair serum - for free. (Now at least I'm starting to be slightly interested in her offer.) Then she starts whispering to me about how it's a little more complicated but she can make it look like the last person who bought a whole set, just added mine on as an extra - for a great 2 for 1 deal. Okay, isn't this getting to be just a little dishonest? But mostly I'm just thinking how grateful I am that my livelihood does not depend on me being able to make a sale from a kiosk in the mall. (No offense to anyone whose livelihood does depend on just such a sale - but for me it would be miserable.) In the end, I escaped the hijacking, without making a purchase - relatively unscathed even. (I am considering it - just like I said I would - just not very seriously. I can probably never get back to that great deal again, after all.) I lost a bit of my valuable time, but Duffy did still end up with her beautiful princess hair.

I'll let you know if the curls actually last for 2 whole days even after they've been combed. But the price is going to have to come down a bit before I actually consider buying it.

An Early Christmas Present

As a general rule, I don't like to get ahead of myself on holidays. No Christmas before Thanksgiving and so on. But for quite some time now, we have been suffering with a very slow computer. I have loved my iMac, but I've had it for 6 or 7 years, and we had maxed out the memory and who knows what else. So with the touch of every button, we have played the waiting game - never knowing just how long it would take for the computer to actually respond to the command. And too many commands at once or too many open windows would shut the whole thing down. We've been talking about a new computer for months, and something must have nudged Shawn a little. (He may have finally lost patience with the computer.) He decided we needed to go computer shopping, and once he makes that sort of decision, it's time to act, and so here we are with our early Christmas present - the new computer.It is of course, a new iMac, but the screen is huge. When I asked Shawn why I needed a screen this big, he just looked at me like I was nuts. Why wouldn't I need a screen this big? I was afraid the computer would overwhelm the space on my desk, but now that it's here I don't mind it.
The keyboard is much smaller and since everything is wireless, with no extra speakers, I actually have more desk space than I used to!

It's kind of like David and Goliath (only we like both David and Goliath in this story.) And I guess that now I can see what the kids are working on from clear across the room. Two iMacs - one for the kids and one for me (and Shawn). I think we're all happy with this, but I can't get the kids to stop playing with photobooth on my new computer!

7 Months Old

This post is about 2 weeks over due, since Peter turned 7 months on Halloween, but here it is. I can't believe this little guy is already this big. I can't believe how fast it has gone. He is such a sweet baby for the most part. He cries when he is hungry (you would think his heart is broken the way he cries if I decide to change his diaper before feeding him) and when he is left alone in a room. He just likes to have people around him I guess.

At 7 months, he sits up very well. He is very smiley and social. He refuses to take a bottle, and has decided he hates all baby food. He gags and chokes on whatever it is I try to get him to eat if it comes in a baby food container. It's getting pretty tough to feed him appropriate foods. He seems pretty interested in whatever we eat, but I don't really know if he's ready for pizza - although he seems to like the taste. Sleeping hasn't been going so great, but there has been some major improvement and I have hope again that we will all survive.
His first tooth just broke through 2 nights ago. I'm sad to see his sweet little toothless grin disappear, because it will never be the same, but I am still loving watching his personality emerge and I can't imagine our family with out him.

Hallelujah!

Everyone slept. All night. In their own beds. Now I have to take Megan to McDonalds, but it was worth the bribe just to get a little sleep.

Update #2

That's it!!!!  I'm moving out - at least for the nights.  Either that or giving away a couple of kids.  The 3 and under crowd are not earning their keep around here.  It's never good when you need a nap before 7 in the morning.

Sleep Update

For those of you who may be wondering how my night went, (see previous post) here is the update:  The baby slept all night.  (He woke up at 5:15, but as long as there is a 5 as the first number on the clock, I count it as morning.  Plus, I can just feed him and then he'll sleep for another hour or two.) But Megan.  Oh Megan.  Apparently my mere presence in the house puts her in some sot of hypnotic haze and she needs to seek me out.  (I can just here the thoughts in her little brain.  Must be with Mom...  Must be with Mom.... Must always be with Mom...Not really much different from her daytime thoughts - hold me, hold me, hold me...)  But still, she only got up once, and that is a huge improvement.  I just need to think my positive thoughts a little more strongly, I guess.  I have to admit that when Amelia asked me if I was going to sleep at the hotel every night, I was tempted to say yes, just so they would think I wasn't here and stay in their beds all night.  Here's hoping for more good nights.

Ah....Sleep

This is not my bed, but it is where I have slept - alone- for the past two nights.  Why? you might ask.  Well, because for the past several weeks, sleep has been rather sparse for some of us around here.  Most nights, I get up 2 or 3 or 4 times with Peter. Then I also get up 2 or 3 times with Megan, most often having to take her back down to her bed and sit patiently by until she falls asleep again. (Because I know there is no chance of me sleeping at all if she climbs into my bed.) Add on to this the occasional night where Amelia also gets up to go to the bathroom and starts crying because she doesn't want to go into the dark bathroom alone.  And Samantha waking up and crying because her teeth (recent dental work) or her legs hurt. And then sometimes the dog starts barking to go out or to come back in, which necessitates a rapid response so he doesn't wake up anyone who might still be asleep at that particular moment. And so it has been going for night after night, after night for weeks and weeks. Some days I feel like I can barely see straight and I find myself just dreading the nights because I am so desperate to sleep but am not hopeful that I will be able to do so. This has also led to an almost constant headache, continual loss of coping skills, and apparently to my being a less than perfect mother and wife.  (Go figure.)  

Now I know that I need to let Peter "cry it out" at night, but he is usually so sweet and pleasant during the day that I just can't bring myself to be mean to him like that.  But it turns out that I'm married to a pretty great guy, who came home on Thursday and told me that he had booked me a room for Friday and Saturday night so I could get a little sleep. (In Shawn's defense, he is perfectly willing to get up with kids at night but he just doesn't wake up.  And usually by the time that I get him to wake up enough to be of use, I'm awake enough myself that it defeats the purpose, and then often, whichever child he may go to try and help, will scream until I show up anyway.)  So anyway, I was feeling very guilty about leaving him with the kids while I went off to sleep. (But not guilty enough to stay home.)  He said he would take care of the whole crying it out thing with Peter and I could be sleeping soundly somewhere else.  So off I went.  

What do you know, but apparently all it takes to get all of my kids to sleep through the night is to get me out of the house. Both nights, no one got up.  No one. Seriously?  Even the baby slept until 5:30!  He managed, by sheer will alone to get all of the kids to stay in their beds asleep all night.  (Sheer will is also how I believe my brother Rob has managed to keep all of his hair when all of my other brothers are losing theirs - but that is another, unrelated topic.) Apparently my power of positive thinking is not nearly as strong as Shawn's.  I guess I better work on that. And now that I have tasted of the sweetness that is a good night's sleep, I am pretty sure I don't want to go back to that getting up 7 or 8 times a night - ever again.  Wish me luck, I'm off to bed for a glorious, sleep filled night.  (See me being positive?)  They will all sleep tonight.  They will all sleep tonight... They will all sleep tonight....