The Daily Toilings Of A Part Time Stay At Home Mom

Sometimes I complain that pre-school is only 3 hours long and that I can't REALLY get anything accomplished in that short amount of time.  Well all it takes is school vacation to show me how worth it those 3 hours are.  Not that I don't enjoy long morning hours of screaming, running, jumping, and typical three year old shenanigans but cripes I was ready to strangle that little monster this week on more then one occasion.  He does have a way though, of making you forget what a terror he is being when he stops to say that he loves you as high as the moon and falls to the floor in fits of convulsive laughter when you respond that you love him as far as Uranus.  Definitely my kid...who doesn't love a good Uranus joke anyways? Poor Noah though does take the brunt of the punishment around here him being the oldest and a insanely hyper 3 year old.  His sister, 13 months,  is a leg clinger and constant whiner when she is not getting her way.  ...

Today Dov finally found some of our old pictures from our last laptop.  For people that have moved every year for the past ten years this is HUGE. Within these pictures are shots dating back to our very beginning.  When I got to thinking about it, Dov and I have lived in a lot of places. Our first apartment was an illegal little studio apartment in the crappiest section of Marlborough.  It was a whopping $425.00 a month so it fit the budget and the real kicker was the rent decreased to $325.00 for the second 6 months if you lasted that long.  I can honestly say that I have some great memories from that apartment.  It is where I met my first real prostitute...running around my hallway screaming for Stony (my chain smoking neighbor with a ZZ top beard) to give her back her *expletive* clothes, and where I learned a whole bunch about being an adult. In the end, the only reason we left after the first year was up was...

This weekend we were able to have my mother in law watch Noah overnight to give us a little break.  At first I wasn't too excited since we would still have Bell so it wasn't "technically" a kid free night.  I dropped him off Friday and drove the hour back home to New Hampshire with Bell.  WOWZA, had I forgotten how easy it was to just have one kid!!  Dov and I were able to go out to dinner, with Bell, and it was not the horrible, embarrassing, fight producing extravaganza it usually is when we attempt to go out with both kids.  She sat contentedly in the highchair and nibbled on whatever we put in front of her while flirting with the waitstaff.  Now if Noah had been there I know for sure there would have been some climbing under the table, talking at ear piercing decibels , possibly some crying and about four unnecessary trips to the restroom (you know restaurant bathrooms are very interesting to 3 year old boys...I think it is the urina...

This little girl right here is trouble.  Case in point.  This morning she wakes up at 5:45 am and Daddy brings her into bed with me.  After he leaves for work at 6:15 am I have to get in the shower.  I set her all up with her blankets and PBS on the television, put the baby gate up between the bedroom and bathroom, make sure the door to the spare room is closed (which is attached to our bedroom) and proceed to get in the shower.  Now let me explain that there are two doors to our bathroom, one that leads to the bedroom and one that leads into the hallway.  This 13 month old girl managed to open the spare bedroom door, walk through that room, open the door that leads to the hall then open the bathroom door in the hallway and greet me as I exited the shower.  Needless to say taking a shower is about to get a lot more tricky.  You would think with skills like that she would have mastered the stairs but we all know how that played out. ...

I have a problem.  I always wondered why the hell anyone would want to feed wild birds. Why they become obsessed with various seeds, feeders, and the types of birds that were eating in their yard, well I have become one of these assholes.  I actually started out with a bird feeder from the Dollar store and when that of course broke before it even got out of the bag I stepped it up to a cedar one from Walmart (oh la la) that cost a whopping 10 dollars.  I wasn't even really that excited about it until I actually saw the cutest little birds enjoying the fruits of my feeder.  I saw at least 6 different kinds until I spied the squirrels circling the perimeter.  There were at least 3 of those little bastards and I knew their plan.  It was not more then a day of joyful bird watching before the yard rats moved in to destroy a beautiful thing. So I went crazy.  I immediately got on google and researched how to keep squirrels out of your bird feeder....

Saturday around noon I got a hankering.  The kind of hankering that you only know when you have lived very far from the thing that you lust after.  Petey's seafood chowder, the stuff that I craved with a ferociousness when I was pregnant living in Virginia.  My husband and I had found this place on our very abbreviated honeymoon in Rye New Hampshire where we stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast located on Ocean Boulevard or Rt.1A.  I have always loved seafood and living in inland Virginia surrounded by cows and corn in every direction there was virtually NOWHERE to get fresh seafood, yes you could get the frozen bagged crap at Walmart but there were no fresh seafood counters at any of the grocery stores.  Needless to say now that we live a measly hour away I was not letting this craving go unfulfilled.  The kids were packed and loaded in the car, all chores were put on hold and we drove to Rye for some chowda and a...