A rare family picture

Ro & Ella

Ella Bella

Lollipop Love

Goodnight Moon - for Moms

In the messy red
family room
There was a telemarketer ringing the telephone
And a crying baby
because her brother just popped her
red balloon
And a picture of--

The cow jumping over the moon (which someone colored on with permanent marker)
And there was a missing
teddy bear, and a girl with
gum in her hair

And one to be scolded
And laundry to be folded
And a very hungry spouse
And something stinky in the house
(that no one else seemed to smell)

And a comb and a brush and a colicky baby who just won't shush
And a frazzled mommy screaming #*%#@

Goodnight messy room
Goodnight scribbled-on moon
Goodnight cow getting out while she can
Goodnight telemarketers and the
popped balloon
Goodnight long-gone teddy bear Goodnight cereal bar smeared all
over the dining room chair

Goodnight spitup
And goodnight leaky sippy cup
Goodnight much-too-little house and goodnight grumpy spouse
Goodnight comb and goodnight brush
And goodnight to a certain 4-year-old who just needs to hush right now I mean it

Goodnight Elmo
Goodnight toys we'll pick up tomorrow,
or the next day
Hello chardonnay and TiVo--
"me" time finally

- reproduced from Parenting magazine

Winter Blues

I hate, abhor, despise winter on the East Coast. Rowan spent most of his first 2 winters battling a never-ending parade of viruses. He was sick almost every week for months. Every week! Now it's Ella's turn. She's 5 months old and already on her 6th cold. And this one is so bad we can hear it rattling in her chest every time she breathes. She's had the loosies, a rasping cough, a terrible diaper rash and congestion so bad that she's lost her voice. And the really fun part for her is - every morning, I have to schlep her in 20 degree weather to the babysitter's house.

I think I'm getting very close to the point where I'm starting to think that we'd be happier living in a warmer place. My kids getting sick for months at a time is too high a price to pay to live here.