7 Quick Takes Friday

My brain is mush. I can’t even think of a unifying theme for quick takes this week, so I’m just going to write. And this post is likely to be neither witty nor interesting, but I can’t let another Friday go by without quick takes. (After you read my uninteresting post, go visit Jen at Conversion Diary. Her posts are always interesting!)

To all of you who have sent/given us gifts, diapers or clothes since Liam’s birth, I promise you I have received them, am grateful, and have a stack of thank you notes ready to be written and sent to you. I’ve just had babies rotating through my arms all the time. But they will get done! Hopefully before November. So please don’t think I’m ungrateful!

Speaking of babies, I can’t believe how much Charlotte, as a 21-month-old, is still a baby. Before Liam was born I had really begun to think of her as a toddler who really didn’t need to be held, cuddled, read to, sung to, and generally fussed over all the time. And before Liam was born, she didn’t need those things. Now, however, she sits at my feet and cries every time I hold him. Yesterday she actually tried to push his head out of the way so she could sit in my lap. Also yesterday, she fell down and bit a hole through her lip, so today not only is she still feeling neglected but she can’t really eat anything except yogurt and soft cheeses, leaving her even crankier. Any of you moms out there who have dealt with similar issues, I welcome and crave your advice. I imagine this situation is something like having twins, except one of them weighs 25 pounds and likes to sit on the one that weighs 10 pounds. I feel like there should be a form I can fill out, or a department I can complain to. I didn’t sign up for this!!

In the midst of all this insanity, the Ogre and I completely forgot about Parent-Teacher Night at Sienna’s preschool this week. And, obviously, we missed it. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal because Sienna’s teachers are very sweet and understanding, and all I really need to do is go apologize and ask if there is important information we missed, but given the current rotating-baby situation at our house the Ogre has been the one taking and picking up Sienna…and since he thinks that Parent-Teacher Night is pointless anyways, getting him to follow up on us missing it is impossible. So here I sit, chewing my fingernails (when I can reach them) and fretting over Sienna’s teachers thinking that we don’t care about our kid.

I need a vacation. If we won the lottery and could miraculously afford a vacation, I would totally go somewhere alone. But not to a beach…beaches are sandy and salty and require horrible apparel like bathing suits and shorts. No, I’d go to a nice hotel in a city where it rains all the time so that I’d have an excuse to sit in said hotel and order room service, drink champagne, and watch TV. For a week. That would be awesome.

Have I ever mentioned that we don’t own a TV? Ostensibly this is so our children will learn to use their imaginations and do archaic things like read, but really it’s because I have a TV addiction (see last week’s post on Dr. Who) and TV would only allow that addiction to escalate until it became uncontrollable. My children already recognize the theme songs for House, Dr. Who and Chuck just from my Netflix habit. Can you imagine if we had an actual TV?

I can. It would be glorious.

If any of you out there are thinking of buying Liam a present, just buy him a TV. I’ll keep it safe until he’s old enough to use it. Promise.