In the family way

Not me, but Beth! She's "outed" herself to pretty much everyone, and certainly everyone who reads this and would care, so I figure I can pronounce it here because... I JUST WANT TO TELL EVERYONE. Even people who have no idea who Beth is (my sister, by the way)... or who I am. I'm just so excited that I will have a niece/nephew from my own family. I also feel it is my duty (although it takes no effort) to be extra excited on behalf of my mum, who I know is so excited that Peter himself is asking her to shut it already, Lois!, but can't be in her earthly body to express it personally. She's doing it through me instead (and probably Erika and Jannie as well).

So, now I get the daily calls from Beth (and I'm so glad that I do) telling me how she is feeling - how "blah" she is feeling (that was today's report), what she is taking, her plans etc.

From a totally selfish perspective, this means the following for me (and isn't this what it is all about?): (1) I get to delay going back to work until November or thereabouts to help her; (2) I get to spend time in Austin; (3) Hope and Baby Texan (what I am calling said embryo) will be exactly 1 year apart; and (4) I get to share parenting woes with my sister, and I have to imagine that sisters are the best people for most mums to share parenting woes with. I would love to be able to ask my mum a million questions about how she tackled certain things, but there is something very special about sharing the experience with my sister while we are both figuring it out at the same time. I figure that since we were both brought up the same way we likely will have a similar approach to lots of issues. I'm just really jazzed about sharing this with her.

News out of our abode today: Emily is turning into a child in front of my eyes. It's like I can actually see her brain cells maturing. Today she looked at me and said "Emmy frustrated." which of course sounded like "Emmy fustated." I also love it when it comes out like this: "Emmy fustating." So very true.

She is also telling me stories, and I can understand them and she can understand my stories. She can look forward to things in the future (next week, next Saturday, etc). She can give compliments. Yesterday after I went pee in Walmart (in the bathroom, by the way) she said: "Good job, Mummy." She has started calling me Mum. I'm trying to put a stop to it. I don't want to be called Mum yet. I want to stay Mummy for a few more years. I'm not trying to be all Mommy Dearest but I just like that my little toddler calls me Mummy. It's a little girl that will be calling me Mum. Of course, she knows it gets to me so she does it more often. The biggest sign of her growing up, at least this week, is that she is starting to try to trick me. Yup. It has started.

She hasn't been eating all that well lately unless it is dessert. She always asks for dessert. So, like most parents, I tell her she has to have x number of bites before she can have dessert. Yesterday I told her she needed to eat three more pieces of pasta before she could have her rice pudding. She popped in a piece of rotini, started chewing, put her hand in front of her mouth, took it away and said: all done! I told her to open her hand. She looked at me like I was some kind of Svengali. She opened it and of course, there was the chewed up rotini. I said: Emily. Don't try it. I've done it all.

Honestly people, she isn't even two and a half. What is in store for me?

On the Hope front, she's pooping well again. Finally. She's also teething like nobody's business. But in Hope fashion, all this means is a little bit of fussiness, lots of drool and wanting to gnaw my finger off at the joint. Pretty good really. What made me mad with happiness today is that she put herself to sleep twice today after I left the room WITH NO SOOTHER IN HER MOUTH. This wasn't intentional but the child is insisting on chewing on her soother rather than sucking on it and after several minutes holding it in place, I decided to throw caution to the wind and see what happened if I just went AWOL. Oh heavens, it was great to hear silence from the room. Not that she's a screamer but I didn't want to spend 20 minutes whispering, talking, cooing, holding the soother in today. Normally, I don't mind. But, people, I was up at 4:30 this morning and never went back to bed. Why? because I have two kids and this just sometimes happens.

It's one of those days where I have no interest in cooking (it is Friday, after all) so I'm hoping John has some inspiration that will not require me to do anything except drink my Friday glass of red wine.

I love wine. However, I'm breastfeeding and I try and keep it to a minimum when I'm breastfeeding. So, I have a glass of Friday red and that keeps me pretty happy. Okay, I'd be even happier if I had my daily red but I have a few months (well, several really) before I can do that again.

Weekend operation: buy a camera. Not much cleaning to be done because I did it yesterday (woohoo). Will try and sew curtains instead. If you're making bets, don't put anything down on that getting done.