88 Iced Mochas

-I have spoken on Facebook of Beach Macy. Mellow, happy, easy-going Macy. I would post the pic of Typical Evening Macy, but it is on my phone and not on my computer. Yes, I threw my hands up in surrender, sat her down on the floor, and took a picture of her screaming. First of all, she is the lightest sleeper on the planet. This is fine during the night - she usually gets right at 12 hours of sleep because the house is quiet. At school, however, now that she has transitioned to the toddler room where they sleep on mats and have one common nap time for all the kids, she gets anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of sleep every day. Second, she cannot kick this ear infection. The good news is that it hit me that maybe the state of Beach Macy is attainable. Beach Macy was also under the influence of antibiotics, so maybe once we meet with the ENT tomorrow and develop a plan (um, tubes YESTERDAY please), Beach Macy will make her way back to us. I really hate the thought of my daughter being left behind in Lower Alabama, of all places.

-My kid is better at most things than your kid (JK), but your kid is also better at mine at some. I would wager a bet that yours is better at puzzles. Poor little Liam can carry a tune mighty well, but put a puzzle in front of him, and he absolutely cannot get the concept. He was working on a 24-piece Toy Story 3 puzzle the other day. He put Jessie's face together, and I was thinking "WE HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH!!" Then he starts trying to put all these pieces together that just DON'T GO. Not even close. I was feeling this huge bubbly feeling of frustration inside me as I kept trying to guide him, and I tried oh-so-hard not to let it show in my voice. After about 10 minutes, though, I look up at him and see his eyes start to turn red around the edges and his lower lip start to tremble. I felt so awful - I imagine he was feeling both his frustration and mine. I am sure that he is going to have an epiphany one day and it'll all click, but in the meantime, I should probably step out of the room.

-The boys are at church. Macy has been asleep for the last hour and a half. I drank coffee. By myself. I am sitting here blogging. By myself. This is what it is like. I wouldn't trade those kiddos for anything, and it'd probably get old fairly quickly. As long as it is such a novelty, though, I will enjoy it while it lasts.

-We still have Macy rear-facing. I imagine she hates it. I hate it, but we're trucking on as long as we can. Sometimes when it is just me and her on a short trip, and since Liam's straps adjust from the front, I will put her in his car seat (shameless plug for the Evenflo Triumph Advance. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE this seat? I say this also as a Britax owner). She looks like such a big girl in there. I often would look back at Liam in his car seat sleeping (well beyond age 2, so I'm not saying this as a judgment on turning your kid forward at whatever age), and see him just folded up in a position that can't be remotely comfortable. I always wonder what would happen if we got rear-ended with him in that position. I remind myself of this when I get tempted to revert to the old conventional wisdom that had Liam turned around at 11 months (shh - don't tell). Besides, life's too quiet without the sound of Macy's chronic whine.

-I just booked our rental car for our trip to visit my grandparents. Since WHEN did it cost close to $400 to rent a car for two lousy days? As I recall, it cost me $30 a day when I had a rental after the FBI agent broadsided me. And I wasn't even 25. I will have to skip my next 88 iced mochas to make up for it. Or not.

-One of my best memories is the semester I spent interning with the GBI. LOVED those guys and girls. Thinking back on it gives me faith that I CAN perhaps one day have a job where I wake up in the morning feeling excited to go to work. I just learned that one of the agents in the office at the time I was there took his life earlier this year. When it comes to suicide, I am conflicted between feeling sad and feeling angry. I guess you can feel both simultaneously. It makes me angry, though, to think of the pain that you leave your parents behind when you do that. You leave so many other people behind with pain, too, but there's no reason to rob your mom of her child. Still, I am sad, and it is just heartbreaking any way you look at it.