We had dinner with my mom and dad - or manga and pawpaw as they are affectionately known.

Had our second flu shot. Went to stay and play (think grassroots Gymboree), two playdates, and our regular Wednesday playgroup. Made dinner for a friend who just had a baby. Made dinner for Uncle Brad and Aunt Morgan. Visited the Science Center. Checked out some new books and movies at the library after story time. Went over to my Aunt's for a few hours.

Found, picked up, and sanded the perfect antique dresser (1903! for $60!) for Harry's changing table- am in the process of finishing the second coat of paint. Hung all of the pictures on Harry's walls. Painted both of the doors in the nursery and ironed the slipcover (which I wouldn't mention but it took me almost TWO hours...I thought 106" drapery panels were bad!).

Caught a cold mid-week that has us all kinds of stuffed up. Thought for a minute that I was in labor due the ridiculous cramping occurring in my lower abdomen- NINE wakeups (and bathroom trips) later I talked myself out of it.

Brian worked yet another 80 hour week and hasn't seen his children in days. Which means I am a single mom.

This is our 'normal.' It wasn't even a 'busy' week for us. As I get bigger and bigger, this 'normal' is totally kicking my ass. Good thing it's Friday and my husband works 30 out of the next 48 hours and I have to work my mom's group Holiday Bazaar (and bake for the bakesale). Oh, and then attend a few open houses for schools we're considering for next year, which is a whole post unto itself.

I signed up for all of this when I fell in love with a doctor-to-be. I can't complain. BUT sometimes, just sometimes all I want to do is COMPLAIN...and cry a little.

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On a completely non-whining note, we had a total breakthrough with PT#2. Three days ago I decided to let Fin be- no more nagging, watching, asking. An amazing thing happened. She started going. all. by. herself. We would be in the middle of playing and she would look up and say, "Mommy, I go potty," and then she'd run upstairs and GO. All. By. Herself. Just like that. Three days later and we no longer do pull-ups at naptime or when we leave the house and we are ACCIDENT FREE (except for one slight dilemma of saving our #2s for our nighttime pull-up. But for now, I'm totally OK with that!). Yes, there will be setbacks and who knows if the trend will continue, but right now, this second, things are looking GREAT!

Here we go again.

I suppose I cannot complain too much. Parker has been practically 100% potty trained since his first day out of diapers. We go months without a single accident. Sure, they still happen- rarely.

Finley. Oh, Finley. We ran out of diaper last Friday and I am refusing to buy anymore. Ever. Well, for her at least. There is something strange about wiping a little butt while said little butt is talking in full sentences and narrating the entire thing. I mean, if you can tell me in complete sentences that you are going, that you've gone, and that you would like to be changed, you are done with diapers. Period. End of story.

Unlike Parker, Finley requires a pull-up. From all the reading and research I did on potty training I swore that I would never ever use these. Parker didn't/doesn't and neither would Fin. HA. Finley naps and sleeps in them and when we leave the house I have been putting on her big girl underwear with a pull-up over them. The simple truth is that she's just not quite ready. BUT there's no turning back now!

From the past four days I can tell this is going to be a very long road. A long and messy road. From what I've read, a road that is no less messy now or in a year from now. Godspeed little girl.

Halloween is over. Thank God. Call me scrooge but it's just not a favorite. A whole lot of hulabaloo for two hours in a lame costume to get a few pieces of penny candy. Lame lame lame.

Thanksgiving is alright. I'm not big on turkey or pumpkin pie- or football. I mean a house full of family can't be beat but Christmas. That's what I'm talking about. A month of yummy food and fabulous parties. New Christmas outfits and pajamas. A house filled with people and lots of sparklies- smelling like pine trees. Decorating every inch of home inside and out. Ornaments to hang and lots of good carols to listen to. Wreaths and lights and singing and presents. Oh, glorious presents...big, small it doesn't matter.  Wrapped in beautiful paper with bows and ribbons. The excitement of Christmas Eve and jubilation of Christmas morning. Mmmm...I can smell Christmas coming. I can feel it around the corner.

I've started buying presents. I just can't help myself. The babes are getting soo many fabulous things this year- bikes, a dollhouse, a foosball table, a wooden train, dress up stuff. I cannot wait to see their faces...only 51 more days!

I'm hosting our first holiday party on December 4. Is it too early to decorate?! Maybe I'll just pull out the tubs to get a whiff of Christmas air...

Ok. So me and my blog have always had a love hate relationship. Now it has taken on a whole new element. As I'm sure you've noticed my blog has been undergoing a makeover of sorts. I had a vision (don't you hate when that happens?) of what I wanted it to be and then after finding someone who said they would do it for me at a set price by the time he was finished the price had tripled. My vision had not changed. Hrmph. Web people. Then I found someone else but they couldn't make it a reality. So now I'm doing it all by myself. When you want something done right, best to do it yourself...

I'm making a ton of mistakes and have succeeded in totally messing up my HTML along the way but so far so good. I've removed that terrible blue blogger bar at the top, changed my border dividers to be bigger polka dots instead of lines, removed the border on my header, and a ton of other things that you probably didn't even notice- the borders are gone from my posts. Never bugged you right? Well, these are things that keep me up at night...wondering what the right code is to change such small and ridiculous details.

No. I'm not done. My new title is totally lame and needs to be changed (which is good because I own a domain name on WordPress and they won't give it back to me to use on Blogger so I have to buy a new domain anyways...forget the hype WordPress blows).

I changed all my fonts to handwriting (which took me FOREVER) and then realized I hated it and had to delete all the HTML I had worked so hard to type.

I'm still in the process to adding links below my header- which I found is possible just slightly more difficult than I'd like. And then there's my header that I need to make into a link so that you can click to be redirected back home but when I try to do this it shrinks my image to a barely there speck of grosgrain...

All of this and you could could probably care less. I know, I know. But I felt like I needed an explanation to all the randomness...