It is a good thing that I am not married to Henry VIII

Today was the Big Sonogram. My sister Rachel was positive that we are having a boy. Katie was countering that, logically, given the number of girls we already have (4) compared to the number of boys (0), it is most likely another girl. Chris thought, for the first time since Katie, that a boy was at least a possibility. I think it's safe to say, though, that his family believes that we are destined to have all girls.

.......I suppose a drumroll would be appropriate...........



It's a GIRL, of course!

So, are we obligated to name the baby Therese? Or maybe I should draw from my literary background and name the baby Lydia. (If you've read the book, this is obviously a joke!) In any case, I guess we're in good company.

And at least I don't need to buy new baby clothes. :)

I have a huge backlog of stories to tell....

But first, here's one from this morning illustrating why I've been too tired to write this stuff down lately:

Abbie woke up last night at 1 am, then again at 2, 3, 4, and 5am. At 6 I threw her into bed with us, where she remained quiet for about twenty minutes. Then she proclaimed, "I take good nap!" which is her way of officially declaring that she is ready to begin the day.

I grunted and rolled over.

She gently patted my head and said, "I love you Mommy. I really love you."

So I grudgingly fell out of bed (that is really the most accurate way to describe it.) As we made our way through the still pitch-dark house, she again patted me sweetly and cooed, "You're so cute, Mommy!"

Yeah, right, kid. You're not slick enough (yet) to completely sucker me. But it did buy her enough goodwill to procure a cup of milk before I collapsed on the couch, closing my eyes against the flickering light of "The Upside-Down Show."

Addict

Claire is really jonesing these days. Our post-Halloween ritual has been set in stone from day one, modeled after my childhood memories of post-Halloween candy consumption.

This means that we celebrate All Saints' Day by gorging on candy from morning until night. After that, however, we have a strict 2-peices-of-candy-a-day rule, once after lunch and once after dinner (if they eat dinner.)

Claire just can't seem to get it this year, though. We did not have this problem last year, but now this little one wakes up with an intense craving for candy that lasts until we get a small respite when she goes back to sleep. Despite the fact that I have NEVER ONCE given in and let the girls eat candy before breakfast, Claire asks me for some every single morning. And she seems to believe that continued nagging might be effective in this situation, even though it never has to date.

Yesterday, I realized that we were dealing with something very serious. She asked for candy before breakfast: denied. She asked for candy during breakfast: denied. She asked for candy after breakfast: denied, and threatened with a time-out if she asked again.

Then I ran into the bathroom for a quick shower, feeling fairly confident that the issue had been handled, at least until lunchtime. As the water ran, though, I heard a tiny voice outside the door to the bathroom.

"What?" I yelled out the door. A mumbly voice answered something like "whiny whiny whiny MOMMY, whiny whiny whiny."

So I hopped out of the shower, unlocked the door, and then hopped back in. I then told whoever it was to open the door so that I could hear her, assuming that Abbie had stolen a toy, or someone wasn't playing with someone else....the usual stuff that suddenly becomes urgent when I want ten minutes to take a shower.

The door opened, and a spray of unruly brown hair peeped around the doorknob. A tiny voice asked, "Can I have some candy now?"

Does Hershey sponser some kind of rehab? At least we are now down to the yickiest leftovers, and hopefully once Claire gets past the shakes things will calm down.

Things that make me happy

1- Spending an hour wandering around a bookstore, all by myself.
2- Finding a new book of short stories by Susanna Clarke, author of this book
3- Coming home to the deliciously smoky smell of our first fire blazing in the fireplace!
4- Old Crow on On Demand!!!!
5- The really fake fire on the electric heater we have in the basement
6- Feeling the baby kick
7- "Fun size" snickers bars
8- My new tea pot's perfectly shrill shriek when the water boils
9- A clean house, courtesy of Merry Maids (and Uncle Kevin and Aunt Sally!)
10- Discovering that there is actually one more Jane Austin book that I haven't read!!!!
11- Anticipating the moment when I can curl up on the couch and read it!
12- Realizing that we need to paint the kitchen green, not blue, and imagining what it will look like when we do.
Bonus 13- Anything with pumpkin in it!!!