Going Out of Business Sale

Someone tried to sell me (and Charlotte) a toy store yesterday. We were out taking a walk in Old Town when we stumbled across a going out of business sale. The owner, desperate to recoup his investment, had a 50-percent off sale. I bought a few things, finger paints, a puzzle, if only to help him out. I wish I could say it was an anomaly, but King Street is but a slice of the larger national crisis. I talked to several store owners on our walk. Everyone is suffering. Every store has whopping non-holiday sales, several businesses have gone under and more will follow. As I left the toy store the owner asked me if I wanted to buy his business. Funny and not so funny.

Minutes later I saw something in a shop window that I thought might please Paul for Valentine's Day. I went inside, saw the price tag ( too expensive) and began to stroll out. The shop owner asked me if I needed help. "No," I said politely. "I love the (sorry can't disclose said gift until after Valentine's Day). I only planned to spend X. But I'll be back to shop some other time," I promised. Without skipping a beat the guy dropped the price by half. "Huh? Are you having a sale?" I asked? " I don't see a sign." "No, he said, but it's yours." What could I do? Happy Valentine's Day Paul.

Stepping Out

The saucer is proving a big success. Charlotte definitely has happy feet. Let's face it, yellow socks make anyone feel like prancing.

Fabulous Four

Three cheers for Charlotte who has managed to navigate the waters of life and turn a healthy, hearty, barely-sleeping four months of age today. She marked the event by test-driving her Exersaucer with some help from the brother, who showed her how to kick the tires and all the 'bells and whistles' this plastic hand-me-down beauty has to offer. It's all yours girly!

I've Become THAT Mother

We've (I've) spent the last three nights Ferberizing Charlotte. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Richard Feber, he's the authority on getting your child to sleep (no matter how it kills you), the idea being you'll be better off in the long run if you can just make it through a few painful nights listening to a howling infant. It's not cold turkey. Ferber bases his methods on intervals (let the baby cry for one minute then comfort her. Then let her cry three minutes, comfort her, then 5 minutes, then 10....).

Charlotte has begun associating her bottle with sleep, thus she now needs it in her mouth to fall asleep, and despite her tender age, you can imagine we're developing very bad sleep habits (up every hour for a nip or she can't fall back to sleep). Yeah, no thanks. So three nights ago I began training her to self-soothe sans bottle. She's doing great. I'm the one who's near collapse. Last night we did exceptionally well until 4 a.m. when she was up for nearly two hours crying. I spent that time comforting her and bracing myself against the wailing (she sleeps next to me in a co-sleeper). Paul slept with a pillow over his head.

Feber's methods worked great for Harry. In three days we had him sleeping through the night. Already charlotte has eshewed all but one nighttime feeding. But Lordy I am just wasted, so trashed that this morning, as Harry chucked his crayons around the kitchen and dumped his lunch on the dog's head (see photo of Alphabet pasta stuck in Typo's fur), I became THAT mother -- the one who plops her kid in front of the TV for a few episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine so that she can regroup. Both the kids are down for a nap and what I'd give for a glass of wine. I will have to settle for a caffiene free diet Coke. Oh the humanity.

It's Not Easy Being Green

Where is it written that little girls have to wear pink or be subject to gender confusion? No less than three women asked me today how old my son was. Because she was wearing a green outfit. No, it wasn't a dress. But it was cute, kinda fem. Too girly for a boy. So I ask you, why? I was so rattled I bought her two dresses, perfect for the arctic temps we've got going on this week.

Snow Day

I call this "Winter Baby." When are they going to start making adult buntings? I'm rather partial to the footies and built-in mittens.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

We owe a debt of gratitude to Eliza and Jessica (grandmother and aunty, respectively) for breezing in from points north and northwest to watch over Harry and Charlotte while Paul and I escaped to NY for two days of rest. It was our first ever trip away from the kids. We needed to recharge our batteries. And so for two days we walked, slept and watched movies on the silver screen. It was glorious, and overdue.

We're told they had a grand time with the kids, minus the round-the-clock feedings (see a groggy Jessica featured above with baby and bottle) -- trips to the American History museum to let Harry drool over the trains and the super-kid friendly Building Museum, feeding the seagulls on the Alexandria waterfront and lots of episodes of Thomas...indeed that was Harry's first word when we reappeared Sunday night. Not 'Mommy, mommy!'....no, he grabbed the remote, handed it to me and demanded "Thomas!"