It is hard to think of a title

As I dive into the world of blogging, certain things that I had taken as easy are not. Titling a blog for example. It is really tough to come up with one line to summarize all that I am writing. Perhaps the issue is that I have yet to really focus on a theme. Perhaps they should all just be called, random ramblings as that, at the moment, is what they are!
-Today, I am at the library. I have Mary Lou all day today. The thought was that I would run errands in the am and then take Caroline to gymastics without disrupting Katherine's schedule. Well, Caroline has decided that "Gymnastics is over." For the past few weeks, she has had no interest in going. I am really bummed because I think she loved the actual activity of it but it was in a huge gym with lots of other classes going on at the same time and I think it was really overwhelmimg. Meanwhile, I can't find any other classes at other places that are at good times for our schedules- maybe another time...
-Funny Caroline comment... Yesterday, Caroline came home and said, "I had another bad day. Just like yesterday." I asked her if she had had a bad time or if she had misbehaved. She informed me that "she didn't want to talk about it." Thinking that this didn't imply anything good, I called Kelley to get to the bottom of it. She reported that Caroline's day had been just fine- go figure!
- Katherine continues to be a mystery. After sleeping 13 hours straight through the night before, she was up crying for an hour and half last night. Sometime I won't be tired, right?

I'm back

Well, the holidays certainly took the wind out of the blogging sails! It's funny, because I would have originally said that "the holidays" had nothing to do with it but I last posted on November 16th- probably not a coincidence of timing... Anyway, way too much to catch up- I most likely don't remember half of it so I'm just going to throw in a couple of highlights and hope to get back on track here on out...
- Katherine is crawling, pulling up, cruising and standing on her own occassionlly...
- Katherine got tubes this morning- hopefully this will slow down the nearly constant ear infections- I can't wait to see how happy our super happy baby is when her ears aren't filled with pus!
- Funny Caroline comment- we were out for brunch the other day at Westwood and one of the waiters was trying to entertain the girls by making a mouse out of a napkin. Caroline looked super distressed by the whole thing and finally turned to me and said, "Mommy, he is disturbing me." Disturbing me! She really is too much. The man even mad Katherine cry so I guess he must have been a little wierd!
- Caroline is finally back to school today after a two week break. It was not pretty- the girl does not do well without a routine- wonder where she got that from!
- We are guest free for the first time in 14 days- thank god! We need to do something so that this stops happening- it is just too much for all involved...
More to come...

Crawling

Katherine crawled today! She has been getting around for weeks now but today was the first day that it was real crawl. Before this, we really haven't been sure how she was getting from point a to point b- it was some funny combination of scooting and sitting up, then falling down, then sitting up to cover ground- rather creative really... Have to get off the computer now. I am re-reading Expecting Adam which is one of my all time favorites. Am reading for a new book club that I am joining. Read it the first time before I was a mom so I am very interested to see what I think of it now...

Take a deep breath

This afternoon, Caroline, Katherine and I went on our first About Town Moms tour. This is a great group that runs historical tours around town that are child and stroller friendly. I was so proud of us- we drove downtown and went on a tour of the canal walk- very cool. Caroline did great- she struggled at first because the guide had said that she could get out of her stroller which I didn't want her to do because of her tendency to bolt but I finally let her out and she did great! Well, then it was time to come home and I could not get the stroller back in the car. It took me a good 10 minutes to figure it out. By this time, Katherine, who never cries- is screaming so I am quite flustered... Then on the way home, someone will not let me switch lanes so I miss our turn. We end up having to take Broad St all the way home. I am getting quite exasperated as we sit behind many cars trying to make left hand turns. I hear the "Mommy..." from the back seat and say, "What" in that tired voice that I use too much. Caroline replies, "Take a deep breath, Mommy." Enough said.

Gymnastics

Again, really tired so I'm going to be short but...
Caroline had her first gymastics class today- she loved it! I talked to the teacher after class- not before (long story). I said something like, "How did she do? This was her first class." and she was shocked- she said, something like, "Wow, it seemed like she'd been doing gymnastics forever..." The place seems a little serious- her class was not but I sat with lots of moms of older children- I think this is where the "real" gymnasts go- a little bit scary. And Katherine- I woke up from her am nap to go the grocery store and then woke her again to go to gymnastics and she literally just played on the floor or in my lap, happily, the entire time. It was actually great because there were a couple of other baby siblings of other students there so it was like a little play group for her! More tomorrow...

I just want to be plain

Brains...
Please take a minute to discuss the results of yesterdays election with anyone that will listen. What an exciting change we have going on in our country!

Babies...
Yesterday, I asked Caroline to hold Katherine's bottle for me while I ran to get something for Caroline- an all to common activity... Caroline looked at me and said, "No Mom, I just want to be plain." I really think that she meant that she just wanted to sit and do nothing. She wanted a request of hers to not be part of a deal. To not be an ok I'll do it if you do this. The more I thought about it, two things came to mind. The first was that she really had a good point. How rare it is for her to ask me something and for me to just do it. To do it without saying, in just a minute, when I finish this, or if you do this- to just do it. Today I will focus on just doing it- when it is possible- so that she can just be plain. It also made me think about how rare it is that I can just be plain and how great it would it I could be plain more often. This really is at the crux (spelling?) of the tiredness, the stress of motherhood, I think. It is so rare to not be multi-tasking- if I am not physically multi-tasking, I am certainly thinking about something else, while I am doing whatever it is that I am doing. My goal for today, is to try to be plain more often. Will let you know how this goes...

Too tired

I really feel like I have a ton to say today but I am just so sleepy- we were up a ton with Katherine last night for reasons unknown and had our typical 5:40 am wake up call from Caroline. I need to go to bed! More to come...