Facebook is killing my blog

So, I basically stopped updating this when I joined Facebook (ostensibly to keep an eye on Katie, but the truth is I probably now spend more time on there than she does.)  After my initial FB enthusiasm, though, I also stopped putting updates on there. 

So, sorry.  I'm still not sure how to handle my kids getting older and reading over my shoulder constantly.  Plus, getting older seems to mean that we are much busier, a phenomena the other mothers of pre-teens wisely kept from me when I thought I couldn't be busier with all the diaper-changing and Little People playing I was doing.

Here's a quick story about Ruth before I go back to brooding over what I should post and then not posting it.

Ruth is very attached to the blankets I used to swaddle her as an infant.  We have three of them and they are a light, airy, soft fabric that she just loves.  She always needs one when she goes to sleep, and she will often carry one around with her for big chunks of the day.

So, last Sunday we were all in mass when Ruth began to squawk.  Loudly.  I tried to assess the situation, wondering if she was hurt, and Claire leaned in and whispered to me, "I think she wants my skirt."  Ruth was increasingly getting frantic, though, so I ended up just grabbing her and heading to the back.

I didn't put any stock in Claire's idea.  Ruth is still in the, ahem, learning phase of mass attendance so needing to haul her out of the church is pretty standard.

Once she calmed down, I tried to bring her back to our pew but she immediately started to yell again.  I noticed, as I frantically swooped her up and left, that was in fact pulling on Claire's skirt.  I couldn't figure out what her problem was.

Fast forward to the moment after communion, when I tried once again to rejoin the rest of the family.  Immediately, when I set Ruth down, she began to pull on Claire's skirt and yell, "My blanket!!!"

It was then that I really looked at Claire's skirt for the first time.  It was a pretty, delicate swirly sort of skirt, layers and layers of a thin white material.............a material that looks exactly like Ruth's swaddling blankets.

I grabbed Ruth and set her on the other side of me, as I finally processed what was happening.  Ruth thought that Claire was wearing her blankets like a skirt, and like the wicked stepsisters in Cinderella, Ruth was determined to get back what was hers, even if it left Claire in tattered rags. 

And I started to giggle.  The idea that Ruth thought it was plausible for Claire to take her nasty, milk-sodden security blanket and wrap it around herself for an afternoon on the town was just too much for me.  I could not stop laughing.  Ruth, toddler-like, became distracted by something and finally settled down, and the one causing a disturbance was now me as I tried to bite back giggles and ended up just snorting and gasping for breath.

So:  I looked pretty bad.  Claire managed to keep her skirt intact, though, so here's hoping we will manage to curtail Ruth the next time she wears it.