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I know.  You didn’t know I was gone.  Because I didn’t tell you.  Because I’m busy and negligent like that.

We took a weekend trip to Seattle to see the inlaws and grandparents.  The trip was great fun.  The plane rides were not.  More on that later.

But the best part is that we are childless for the week!  That sounds terrible.  Like we couldn’t wait to get rid of her.  But I will confess to jumping up and down like a kid in a candy store when I finally got out of bed this morning (at 10:30!!!) and realized that my day was entirely at my disposal - MUWHAHAHAHAHA!!!

LB is staying with her grandparents for the week and though we will miss her terribly, I think I really did need a break.  She’s been waking up entirely too early and been very MAMA-MAMA-MAMA-MAMA and sort of whiny lately and I HATE The Whiny.  It is beyond my parenting faculties to put up with The Whiny.  There is nothing about parenting that makes me want to walk off the nearest cliff like The Whiny.

I could tell that my temper was shortening by the end of our trip when we couldn’t have a dinner out without her throwing food everywhere and squealing at the top of her lungs, and then throwing a fit when she had to sit in the highchair and then sliding down and getting stuck in the highchair and then having a nervous breakdown because she was stuck in the highchair and we couldn’t get her out fast enough.  There’s only so much I can take and my fuse was cut pretty short.

Tonight we’re going to go this place called a “Theater” and we’re going to watch this thing called a “movie.”  It’s where you sit in these big chairs and watch a huge television that plays something other than Bob the Builder or Veggie Tales.  Did you know they made those?  And they bring you food and drinks (God bless Studio Movie Grill) whenever you want.  And there are no children around.  And you can get in for free with COUPONS which we happen to have a ton of and which expire this month so this will officially be Movie Marathon Week.

Honestly, I don’t know what we did all the time before we had LB.  I worked a lot more, and we saw a lot more movies.  But that still doesn’t seem like it would fill all the time.

Anyway, now I’m working on catching up with emails and comments and templates and blog reading.

BECAUSE I CAN…

This last week was my great uncle’s 100th birthday.  In addition to the family party that nearly drove my mom off the edge, the children’s hospital where he volunteers each week threw him a semi-surprise party.  They had a huge cake and 100 balloons and 100 Beanie Babies and a tub of 100 toys, all to give away to the kids in his honor.

It was really sweet and you could tell that all the staff there just loves him.  They even picked him up from his house and dropped him off each week before he figured out the bus system.  But they had to drop him off a few houses away because his ex-wife, who he still lives with, would get really jealous and make him miserable if she saw a couple of “young” women (as in late 40’s) hugging him goodbye.

A Channel 8 News man was there and he interviewed my great uncle briefly, so we got to see a little excerpt on the local news that evening.  I tried to get a few pictures of LB with him, but she was far too interested in the “CAKE!” and “COOKIES!” and “PUNCH!” and “CANDY!” and “TOYS!”  She operated on a total sugar high for a while and then crashed just as we were leaving.

And then she got her finger pinched pretty hard in the stroller on the way out, which led to a total freak-out session for my mom.

But that’s a story for another post.  My mom can flip out with the best of them…though I will give her kudos this time for not screaming and jumping up and down and drawing the attention of every onlooker within a 5-mile radius.  She displayed an unusual amount of self restraint, unlike the time a great dane attacked our dog and I happened to be standing within the danger radius when she started screaming and flailing.  I think I still have a dent in my head from that casualty.

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