Just like this.

I have no idea where this week has gone.

I feel as though its been a bit of a grey area between the ease and warmth and comfort of Jules in the above pic, and a veritable shit storm of poopa-palooza 2009, the gym, the yard, and the house.

I shipped off 22 of my cloth diapers yesterday to have them converted to snaps, as the Velcro was crying "uncle" after a year of heavy use by two babies. We played in our first golf outing of the season, and it was fantastic. It was a winning-ish week for me between that, and a lucky lucky bet on the Derby yesterday. It was a losing-ish week in that between poop-fest and yard work and yet ANOTHER new cell phone (My third in less than a year....drooly Julia gets credit for my first replacement, and my own stupidity ~ cell phone left on the deck in the overnight rain for the most recent one) it's just been a whirlwind.

Friends: Forgive me if I have not called you back/been thoughtful/been around this past week or two, I'm getting there.

Nate leaves tomorrow for almost two full weeks away from the kids. I am meeting him in FL for 4 days in between, as my Mothers Day get-away-kids-free-golf-extravaganza. There is a lot to do this week in preparation.

I am going to be blogging daily in the coming days to keep Nate up to date as I know that he will miss the kids like crazy........but at the moment I am seizing my opportunity to go to bed early.

Surgery

Baby Jules feeling pensive on the back deck

Friday afternoon book fest in the playroom

Julia, rocking the teeny tiniest ponytail known to man. We call her "Spike"

Julia's surgery is early tomorrow morning. I just tucked the sweet little thing into bed after giving her lots of extra hugs and kisses. I know that this is the right thing to do, and I know (in my head) that it isn't a big deal......but still...its the heart part that is hard for me.

I had thought that I was doing great with everything. Then, about 10 days ago CHOP called to go through the pre surgery information. I was doing fine, no worries, no fears, no hesitation. Then the nurse got to the part where she explained to me how they would put Jules in hospital PJ"s, and give her something to drink to relax her before taking her away from us. I started crying. I know its not a big deal. I just hate hate hate the thought of her not knowing what is going on. I hate the thought of having to hand my baby over, even with the knowledge that it is in her best interest.

Two days after that conversation I was back at the Dr's after 2 long nights and two days of 102 fever....and yet another ear infection was to blame. At this point, I am just dying to put these damn things behind us. Poor kid has had an ear infection since October, it seems.

Any extra prayers or good thoughts (or Valium?) that you have laying around would be much appreciated.

The Scoop on Poop

Luke, AKA the Mad Kisser, swoops in for another big wet smacker as Julia tries to get away :)

We are officially using free diapers from here on out. The money that I spent on the cloth diapers is now less than I would have spent on disposables over the past 5 months. With a little time under our belt now, I am thrilled to say that the decision to switch to cloth diapers was the right one for us. They are easy. They are cute. They make me happy when I put them on my kids, or pull them out of the dryer, clean and fluffy and warm. There is a little bit more grossness involved than when using 'sposies, but not enough to really bother me. Motherhood is filled with so much grossness anyway that after a while you start to get rather immune to it. We use several different kinds of diapers, bumGenius 3.0's, Thirsty AIO's, Happy Heiney's, Haute Pockets, Dream eez fitteds, prefolds, and Imse Vimse and Bummi wrap covers. There are some that I like better than others, but overall there is not one that I do not like. I am a convert, and so is Nate.

In other poop news, Luke now uses a potty every day. Maybe once, maybe twice, or even 4 times like a couple of days ago. I don't know what to think. I am proud of him, but feel a little (lot) blindsided by this. I'm not ready to even think about potty training Luke. At this point I'm just following his cues and not pushing anything (I have nightmares of hearing "Mom I have to go to the bathroom" for the next gazillion years whenever we are on long car rides or in stores or really just anywhere in general......I don't feel at all ready to go there yet.) Changing diapers may get old at times, but it doesn't even compare to dealing with "accidents" and disgusting public restrooms, and all that comes with the potty trained young child. Not. Ready. Am I a terrible Mother for not so secretly hoping that this is just some weird phase and he forgets all about his current desire to sit on and pee in a potty?

While on the "am I a terrible Mother" kick, I have another confession to make. I'm not excited about Halloween. I'm really just not. I have a little of the "want to be the perfect mother and hand make the perfect costume" bit in me. I'm not proud of it, I wish I didn't have it, in fact, but its there. Last year, with the ease of just one child, I actually did make Luke's costume. This year, it just ain't happening. So I trotted off to the costume store and picked one. Blah. Its just not as much fun. The whole idea of taking the kids out trick or treating isn't even exciting to me. Jules goes to bed at 6.45 ~ all I can think about is "Why am I planning on trotting my infant around in a costume past her bedtime, she has no idea what is going on, what is this all about???".

In other news, Julia has settled into her schedule. She sleeps from 9-11.30 or 12 every day, than again from 2-4. She goes to bed by 6.45 or 7. She sleeps straight through the night. BUT ~ she wakes up at 5.30. 5.30 is a cruel time of day. She is happy as a lark, and wants to chit chat, and nurse, and play grabby face with me, and crawl around and get into everything.......but the child is UP. Which means that the Mama is UP. And you know what, I hate it. I hate 5.30 in the morning. Its still dark for several HOURS. And with the Phillies in the world series and the late nights that watching that is demanding, I am toasted at the moment. Just bone tired.

Should the Phils win, my children are going to the parade with us.

Please win, Phils.

24

24 hours. That's the turn around time to get from in to out in Luke's little body. Winding from mouth, to throat, stomach, intestines etc etc.... to its final destination ~ a cloth diaper.

We now know this courtesy of the plum pit Luke ate the other day. A call to the Dr. reassured us that generally speaking, if it could get in, it could get out.

And get out it did. Although I was plagued with visions of Luke's little intestines shredded to bits by the foreign body, he seemed to be totally unfazed by the hard little pit winding its way through his body. After several diaper changes where I got to play "CSI diaper Mom" and inspect the output with the thoroughness of a forensic scientist, I was rewarded by finding the object I so longed to see...........a plum pit.

I doubt it will be the last time Luke eats something that he isn't supposed to.

Another box checked off, I suppose.

We are at the beach for the next 10 days or so. Luke's tanned little legs and skinned little knees make me inordinately happy. Seeing him running around mostly naked most of the time is great. There is just something so loveable about a little dirt on a kid, maybe a scab or a mosquito bite or two that makes all seem right with the world. He plays hard, eats hard, and sleeps hard.