Happy New Year:-)

2011 seems to have escaped us here, huh? That was fast...

Tinkerbelle and I have had a fun visit:-) We have done a lot of bumming around, some shopping, some visiting of touristy things that relate to some school work she just finished (Revolutionary War things), and some playing with babies. She is really growing up fast, and is definitely much more of a teenager and less of a kid every day. It is still interesting to see how differently she deals with things than Munchkin did at her age...Tinkerbelle is really much more of a normal kid, which reminds me of how unusual Munchkin is all the time.

Speaking of...sailing throughout the Caribbean all week and loving it...she suffers, doesn't she?

Nothing too exciting for New Year's. Babysitters are hard to come by, so we are going to a friend's place with the kids, and will probably be home by about 9:00 to get them into bed. I may go out after that to meet Smoking Hot Roommate for the rest of the night, and may or may not bring Tinkerbelle with me. Also, The Boy may or may not go out which means that I would be staying in...remains to be seen. Since we will both be within a couple of blocks, we could leave Tinkerbelle home with the sleeping babies if we both wanted to go out...we'll see.

And then back to work on Tuesday...

Memo: Toddlers will overeat if you let them

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas (or long weekend, if you are not Christmas-folk)! Despite the girls being sick all weekend, mine was relatively relaxing and wonderfully rewarding.

Friday was Big Sis' birthday, so we all went out for dinner (Frenchie went home in the afternoon, but Munchkin doesn't really get too mopey when that happens anymore)...did you know that the easiest way to eat ziti without a fork is to just stick your baby thumb into the little tube? Well, MA figured that out pretty quickly...and her sister followed suit. Unfortunately, something didn't sit well with LK, and she woke up at about 2:30 screaming bloody murder, and eventually threw up before she fell back to sleep.

We went to The Boy's parents' house on Christmas Eve...his brother was in town for the holiday with his wife and kids, and some other aunts, uncles and cousins were around, too. The girls ate varying (but large) amounts of cocktail shrimp, broccoli and cheese quiche, roast beef, potatoes, salmon, vegetables, bread, cheesecake, Boston cream pie, and cookies. What can I say, they are not picky eaters...

LK woke up again, in some kind of intense agony. I am not sure if her tummy hurt (hey, AM, maybe you shouldn't feed her so much!!!) or if she had a nightmare or what, but she was completely inconsolable again for a little while. And that, of course, wakes MA up, who went back to sleep, but not before she had to find out what was wrong...which means one of us takes one each and lays down with her in different rooms until they go back to sleep.

On Christmas Day we went to Big Sis's house with a bunch of the pretend family for a pretty low-key day. But before that, she and Smoking Hot Roommate came over for breakfast and so that Munchkin could open all of her stuff.  On the surface, this was for the purpose of having some quiet time to ourselves without too many other people around, but the real reason was to contrive of just the right way to give her the big present. SHR picked it up on Christmas Eve, and I let her know after we were home so she would drive it over and put it in the garage so that Munchkin wouldn't see it when we got back.

So her very last gift on Christmas as a very small box that had only the keys in it. She is pretty bright, so she figured it out quickly;-) We went down to see it, at which point she cried a little bit, which made the rest of us cry a little, and...oh, shut up...I cry a lot, get over it!!! We all took turns, and it really is just about the best present a 16 year old girl could get!

Continuing with the theme of the weekend, the girls ate an enormous about of lasagna, meatballs, eggplant parm and everything else they saw on Christmas Day...and LK woke up again screaming. This time, she went back to sleep pretty quickly, but MA was really fussy about going back down, and then at about 3:30, she emptied her whole little baby belly out in one foul-smelling wave of half-digested lasagna (too much?). Poor girl made herself and her father a complete mess:-)

They were both a little bit under the weather yesterday...little colds and a lot of excitement over the last few days, so we laid pretty low. Munchkin was out most of the day showing off her new toy to her friends (and learning that having a car with a stick means never having to let any of them drive it:-P) but was home before dark, per the first rule I have given her!

And that, I guess, was Christmas! Hope yours was as much fun as mine (save for the sick babies).

Merry Christmas!!!

In the hubbub of the next few days, I doubt I will take the time to blog, so I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry, safe and relaxing holiday. If you don't celebrate Christmas, then enjoy whatever year-end holidays you do observe, and hopefully take the time off to be with family, friends and loved ones.

And of course, a very Happy Birthday to my very favorite pretend older sibling, Big Sis. I don't get to refer to you as a Christmas present like your father does, but you are certainly one of the great blessings in my life, and I appreciate knowing you just about every day:-) See you at dinner tonight!

Shouldn't I be Christmas Shopping?

So, I have been amazed at the response I got from my last post...largely because it was all by email! Usually, in blog land, people are willing to share things with the masses, and in the past when I have invited people to share their thoughts on touchy issues, I get more comments than I do emails. This one, however, about the post-baby sex lives of couples, has touched on some very deep feelings, all of which are private.

Turns out that this is more of a problem than I thought, and that it affects almost everyone in degrees that vary from minor irritation to marriage-threatening. I got one very heartfelt response from a guy (most of my readers are women, but boys are always welcome:-)) who talked about the helplessness he felt in trying to convince his wife that she was still desirable...in the end, what she really needed was for him to carve out time for her to go to the gym...whether or not she actually lost any weight, it made her feel better. Seems really simple, but it took a lot to get to that point.

Anyway, really interesting...and I guess the message is that it seems to affect almost everyone, but it also seems really, really hard to talk about, either with each other or with anyone else.

And now...awkward transition time...who has read The Hunger Games? I have lost much of the last two days to it, and am probably borderline obsessed...

More on previous subjects

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Break!!!

Raise your hand if you are on a complete break until after the New Year!!! That's right...I'm done with school, and not starting work again until after New Year's, which gives me roughly two weeks to do nothing at all!!! Of course, those two weeks are filled with Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, a visit from sister #1's boyfriend and then a visit from sister #2...oh, and Christmas itself...so maybe "break" is the wrong word...

After her boyfriend leaves, and before she leaves for the Carribean for her annual winter getaway (really, she has a tough life, eh?) she is getting a super-awesome Christmas present from her pretend sisters. I won't give away the secret, but it is something she has desperately wanted for a while, and which will easily qualify as "best Christmas present ever". If you can't figure it out from that...

Totally random change of subject...I was out with a couple of friends the other night, both of whom have little kids, a couple months older than mine. They were both, in very different ways, lamenting the lack of/boringess/disinterested state of their sex lives. And both agreed that it didn't actually happen right after the babies were born. Things were still pretty good until closer to a year before it started to suffer.

I didn't really have an awful lot to offer...clearly, my sex life is less interesting than it was a couple of years ago...but I don't really have many complaints (The Boy just loves when I write this stuff! His sister even more so:-) Hi guys!). It is still healthy and spontaneous and he still makes me feel very desireable often:-)

So, I guess I am looking for input from others, either who are in that same stage, or remember it from some time ago. More specifically, friend #1 was complaining because she just never doesn't have much sex anymore, and friend #2 was complaining because she is suddenly very self-conscious that the sex is really boring and that neither she nor her husband still finds it even the least bit interesting. The rest of the details are not that important.

Thoughts? You can email them if you want to keep them private...

Lay off...I am in the middle of finals, you are lucky I post anything...

It occurs to me that those pigs would be better served if they relied less on TNT as an important piece of structural support.

Rested...for now

Mexico was wonderful...just the right length of time with just the right group of people. It was a pretty low-key weekend with too much tequila and entirely too much proximity to a nude resort;-) But the wedding was beautiful, the weather was great (breezy but warm and sunny!), we did some snorkeling, made some new friends and had a wonderful time. I was excited to see the girls when we got home, and got a gigantic pair of hugs that made my heart feel very warm;-)

Smoking Hot Roommate survived, and even reports that she had a lot of fun. She is, however, not remotely more interested in having children, which is to be expected, I suppose:-) But the girls were good for her, they got out a couple of times because the weather was nice and walkable, and she and Munchkin both report that the girls didn't have any "we miss Mommy and Daddy" meltdowns. Win-win!

And now, like a giant punch in the face, the Christmas season is here. Which means a million parties, and gifts and eating and suddenly there is no time to do any of it and oh, by the way, finals... Frenchie is coming to visit the week before Christmas, which will be fun, but is just one more thing to prepare for. Munchkin is taking a day off from school on Friday, and the two of us are going to try and do as much shopping as possible...it should be easier than trying to get it all done on a weekend day. Then we are going Christmas Tree hunting sometime this weekend, and will hopefully get the tree decorated on Sunday. And as much as I think it will be a chore, I do love having the lights and decorations up:-)

I should also come up with some kind of a manageable Christmas list, too. I feel like I go through this every year...I never know what to tell people I want or need. I always end up loving whatever people buy me, but I feel kind of guilty not giving and guidance because I know how frustrating it is to try and think of things. Any ideas...? Something really interesting that I haven't thought of? Anyone?