In the Bleak Midwinter

And the day started out so well...

Despite the fact that my grand plans to get up at 6 this morning to get my workout on were foiled by little miss sugar pop who woke up at 1 and 3 last night, I still managed to force myself out of bed this morning at 7 as Scott was getting ready for work. In my bleary-eyed, foggy-brained stupor I gave Ethan (who by the way sets his alarm for 6:59 every morning so that he doesn't miss Arthur) the go-ahead to play some Wii before school, sluggishly put my running clothes on in preparation for Week 2 of the "From Couch Potato to Running a 5K in 8 weeks" program, and stumbled down to the basement where the treadmill and my iPod (loaded with the Saturday session of October's General Conference in an effort to get my day off to the right start) greeted me in the cold, cold, dawn.

But first things first. On Friday Jane had her 4 month check up. The doctor confirmed that she is indeed a fine baby girl and bestowed upon me the gift of the decade. "Based on her weight and age," he said, "she should definitely be able to go 8-10 hours without NEEDING to eat at night." With that jewel of knowledge glowing in my mind, I got home and made the executive decision that it was time for Jane to move on out. Of my bedroom that is. With every little noise of hers waking ME up all night long, and us having to worry about waking HER up every time we came in or out of the room, it was just TIME.

Not so sure about this new gig...

...and loving it.

4 month stats:
15 lbs. 4 1/2 oz. (85th percentile)
26 inches (90-95 percentile)

With Jane's transition came another -- perhaps BIGGER -- transition. Sophie is now living with Grace. Dun, dun, DUN. Hahahaha. We had been telling her that she could move in after her birthday (which is next month) but in the end I decided there are too many other things that are supposed to be happening when she turns 3 (such as finally pulling the plug and leaving her pacifier for the "pluggie fairy," potty-training, etc.) and I thought it would be best if she were already used to sleeping in a real bed and sharing a room with a real pest. I mean Grace. J/K. Kind of. No really -- Grace is incapable of falling asleep if there is anyone else in the room with her, and she kind of makes it impossible for anyone else in the room to fall asleep either. It's like it sends her party girl sensibilities into hyper-drive, or something. Nevertheless, they have to share the room, so with great trepidation on our part and exuberant jubilation on the girls' part, Friday night was the night. They were SOOOOOO excited for this first "sister sleepover" (or "sista sleepova" as my sisters and I called them growing up) that I knew we were in for a treat.

Night one resulted in me having to go in there to sit until they finally fell asleep around 10. Night two yielded slightly earlier results with Sophie falling asleep around 9 -- although this was only after we separated the 2 and made Grace get in our bed to go to sleep. Action had to be taken MUCH earlier last night after Sophie was on Day 3 without a nap and this time Sophie was the one to be put in our bed and she thankfully fell asleep a little after 7. The poor little super muppet is one TIRED little girl. She's taken to leaning wearily on any and all free surfaces these past few days, and the pluggie has been CONSTANTLY in her mouth. Let's just say I'm not looking forward to weaning that habit in a few weeks here.





Now back to my day. It is the bleak midwinter indeed. For some crazy reason I always psych myself into thinking that once Christmas is over, winter should be over as well. Apparently that is not the case. It is COLD here, and snowy, and wintry, and this past week -- BLEAK. The snow day from school last Thursday alone just about did me in with all 4 kids at home ALL day long, and the weekend didn't do much to improve things.

But at least this morning started out well. It should have been a sign, however, when Ethan came down to tell me that the baby had woken up about 10 minutes into my workout. And while he couldn't be torn away from his beloved Mario Kart, at least the girls were gracious enough to "babysit" Jane for me while I finished up the last 20 minutes of my "run." {Note to CPS, Jane was in the crib the whole time and all the girls did while "babysitting" was jump around the room like kangaroos to make her laugh. That and I'm sure they yelled "boo" at her more than a few times. And the monitor was on the whole time for Ethan to listen to them and come run down and tell me if the baby started to freak out. Which luckily she didn't because that little Janie Boo is good as gold. I really am a good mother. I promise.}

Unfortunately the circus started as soon as I came down with her, and although there were a few bright spots in an otherwise dreary day (we had a nice morning activity of playing with play dough and I thoroughly enjoyed nap time while the 2 big kids were at school and the 2 littles were in bed) all-in-all I wish it were spring. At least then I wouldn't have to hear Ethan freak out on a daily basis when I remind him he has to wear socks to school when it is 17 degrees outside.

Anyway, my early morning + GRACE + melting down children by the end of the day + a disastrous attempt at an FHE lesson tonight has left me physically and mentally exhausted and spouting lines to Scott such as "I don't negotiate with terrorists" in reference to child number 2 at bedtime. "She's not a terrorist" Scott tried to comfort me as I punched my time card out for the night. Perhaps not, but seeing as to how she has terrorized my day from beginning to end I would prefer not to deal with her til tomorrow. Because after all, tomorrow is always another day.




Oh, and P.S. I'm really not quite as depressive as this post might suggest. There are happy things on the horizon to look forward to -- such as Book Club later this week -- and I really do love my kids. All of them. Even, and perhaps ESPECIALLY Grace. Hahaha.

P.P.S I found a really good recipe online this morning for play dough -- it sounded weird at first because it calls for vanilla, but as the recipe author stated it really does improve the texture and makes it smell good as well.
Best Play Dough Recipe

In a saucepan, Stir:
1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar

Mix:
1 c. water
1 TBL. oil
1 TBL. vanilla extract
food coloring

Whisk wet and dry ingredients till smooth over Medium heat. Cook until nearly set, then remove from heat, and knead when cool. Store in an airtight container.