State of the Family Address

That time of week again. . . What have we been up to?
Well, little Miss Thumb Sucker continues to do well with sleeping in her own bed. If I didn't have to get up so early to go to the Y, I would almost get a full night's sleep. I have to wake her up at 445 am to feed her before I go run. Now I just hope she will sleep later than that on days that I don't go! She is also really into her toes right now. She discovered them a while back, but lately they seem to be made of chocolate. It is stinkin' cute! She even grabs the outside one and plays with her toes while she nurses. And every once in a while we could replace her Thumb Sucker nickname with Toe Sucker! Like I said, she thinks they are made of chocolate or some other yummy stuff lately!
Miss Firecracker has been full of TNT the last couple days. I ran into a friend at Walmart who told me to "spank it out of her" now and she would turn out great. Yes, I think this is great advice! Time outs don't phase the girl, spankings do (for the most part anyway). Earlier this week I caught her hiding in the hallway closet with a piece of candy that had been left in an Easter Egg basket. As soon as I opened the door she knew she was had. She looked up at me with blue robin egg smeared across her face and said, "I not want a spankin', mommy!" and started crying. I took the chocolate away, cleaned her up and tried not to laugh. She is going to be the end of me. She has also taken to blaming things on others this week as well. Either her brother or the daycare kids. . . it is a tough one for me. She doesn't seem to quite understand the concept of lying and telling the truth when I sit her down and talk to her about it. But hopefully it will sink in before I pull out all my hair.
Noisy Man is freaking out about me throwing stuff away lately. It is rather amusing! He has had quite a bit of trouble lately cleaning up after himself and his toys. Even if everyone else in the house is cleaning, he finds something else to do to try and get out of it. So, I stooped to the level of saying one of those things your mom always said to you, but you swore you'd never say. I told him I was going to throw away all of his toys if he couldn't learn to clean them up when he was done. I have never seen the kid move so fast in my life. It was funny for a split second then I realized he was almost in tears, so I felt a little bad. "No, mommy, please don't throw away my toys!" "Well, then clean them up like you are told and I won't have to!" (One of those lovely conversations.) It was classic. He also "caught" me throwing away some of his preschool papers (I take pictures of them and then chuck them, cuz I can't stand the clutter. Some of the really nice memorable ones I keep tucked away). So, he dug them out of the trash and I told them he better keep them put away and off my floor or they would go right back in the trash. So, now he is always asking me if I am going to throw things away, but he is doing better at keeping his stuff cleaned up! (oh yeah, the papers still ended up in the trash and he hasn't missed them. One was just his weekly schedule - come on!!)
The hubby has decided he would like to take up a little running as well. . . he has run 2 miles (one mile at a time) in the last 3 weeks. We'll see if he keeps it up. He did have a pretty good idea on how to pull it off though. If I go run my first miles (however far I am going that day) then come back to the house when I have a mile left and pick up him and the kids in the strollers, we can run the last mile together. We haven't done it yet, but hopefully later this week. I figure I probably won't be going too fast for him by mile 6 and his legs are a foot longer than mine so he'll be able to easily keep up. I hope he sticks with it - Family Run Time would be fun!! (and maybe I could stop getting up at 445 am!!)
My new mission in life (OK maybe not in life, but for the time being and until they are all gone) is to unwrap a Cadbury egg without tearing the wrapper. Yes, I need something better to entertain me (like 3 kids of my own and daycare kids 3 days a week isn't enough), and yes, I shouldn't be eating that many Cadbury eggs, but I love them and this is the only time of the year you can get them. I don't think they freeze too well. Have you ever tried to unwrap one without tearing the wrapper? It is darn near impossible, especially if some of the filling has seeped out and the wrapper is stuck to it. I think I only have two left and have only accomplished unwrapping 1 so far (I will NOT confess to how many I have eaten this year, mostly cuz I lost track, but also cuz it would be down right embarrassing and tell you exactly why I the last 10 lbs from Miss Thumb Sucker aren't gone yet). I will probably cry after eating the last one, thus having to wait a full year before getting another one. But my butt will be thankful. I just have to keep telling myself that.
Oh yeah, I did 4 loads of laundry this week and only have 1 left to fold and put away(I won't mention the 3 that still need to be done)!! Just thought you might like to know since all my other updates have given reference to my laundry issues. But most likely you don't really care! :)