Always a bridesmaid

Santa brought my daughter a doctors' kit for Christmas, and she saw quite a few patients this afternoon- most of them needing medicine and Band-Aids. In addition to my blood pressure reading, I was granted a glimpse of my son's future. While he was NEVER the doctor today, he was a nurse for a little while, until he put the otoscope in his mouth (and cut him a little slack- he is only 5 months old), and then he was relegated to "sick person" for the rest of office hours. I can see it now- sister is the teacher, he is the student- Mommy and baby- store owner and customer...he gazes at her with a look that quite plainly she might never see again from another person. He utterly and completely adores her, enough to always be the nurse, just to be in the same room, granted an audience with this amazing, amazing girl.

Porch Sitting

I found out about the Professional Porch Sitters Union, and I am impressed. Well, it is just not worth going into how I found out about this fine organization- the Porch Sitters' Union- and I am not even sure that I could retrace my path through the mass of debt reduction and body part enlarging information that is the Internet. When a baby who was crying is not crying, and it is 2:00am, you do just about anything to keep up the not crying, including sitting very still, holding said baby until he finally decides that it is in fact night time, and he might dane to nap a bit. About a month ago, Son and I were doing this 2:00am thing, and I was poking around and reading all sorts of stuff (I can now make both an origami Christmas tree and a Perfect Manhattan Cocktail, should I ever need either), when I came across the NPR piece about the PPSU. (this part I can retrace- I was thinking about taking a class in Louisville and was wondering what there is to do there, other than study). I must confess, we do not have a porch as such. We have a sort of concrete slab type thing with a couple of stairs leading to a sidewalk. As we are now renting, I have no intention of building a porch onto this sort-of-ugly house. But, should our house EVER sell, we will get a nice big porch, with a swing or a little settee and some chairs. Until then, we have declared our slab to be a porch surrogate, and have have created PPSU chapter 712. My daughter is the Chair of the Committee for the Selection of Acceptable Snacks, my son is the secretary, which works out well, as I have no interest in keeping and reading minutes, and he cannot yet hold a crayon. My husband sits on the snack committee, and I am in charge of everything, as it should and always will be. Today our chapter is on a bit of hiatus- it is brutally cold, and the snack Chair noted that the porch makes her fanny cold. But, the weather here changes like, well, the weather, and we will be back outside this week. This really is a fine idea. It's funny how we all need a reminder to sit a bit, chat with neighbors- even now that I not working, and just raising kids (JUST raising kids, so funny, oh my I may have to sit down it is so funny).

I just got an email advertising travel to tropical climes. It describes "lush Aruba"; Ooooohhhh..."lush Aruba"...it just sounds delicious..."lush", rather than, "the low in the mountains tonight is 24 degrees, with a 60% chance of snow".
I definitely did not fully grasp how cold it would be here in the winter. I mean, I've been here in the winter- I've been to Chicago in the winter- to Boston in the winter. For crying out loud, I've been skiing and it was really really cold. And not all of Florida is without seasons (which are overrated if you ask me)- North Florida gets pretty chilly. But this is day in and day out cold. So far we've had snow angel cold, which is sort of charming, all frosty and white, and knock a toddler off her feet windy cold, and my least favorite, and yet somehow most popular with mother nature- Rain with no end in sight cold. So, wet and cold. Cooped up inside, or completely wet and cold.
There is nothing lush about wet and cold.

30 minute dose of peace

Both babies asleep- in their own cribs!!!! Not a common occurance, as they fall asleep really well next to each other, and then I have to be (mostly) vigilant about big one not smothering little one, and little one not snatching big one bald, and neither waking the other one up. Now I am listening to music that has blessedly few, if any, mentions of cars- Big and Red or otherwise. Quiet, for maybe 30 minutes.