On Turning 5

It's been over a week, and I haven't even written about Caitlin's birthday! Probably because it's taken me until now to recover from it all! I'm not sure why I agreed to letting Caitlin have a sleep-over, even if it was with only 3 other friends. Probably because her older brother got to have one for his birthday. I'm not sure why I agreed to Brandon's request to have his friend J spend the night during Caitlin's party. Probably because on of Brandon's friends came a long distance for his sleep-over in September, so I added in the friend's little sister (a friend of Caitlin's as well) to sweeten the deal. But I do know why I was exhausted..... too many kids!!! :-)

So, as you know, Caitlin requested a sleep-over for her birthday. It was more of a requirement, actually. She came up one day and announced the names of the friends she wanted to invite to her sleep-over. Excuse me? We're having a sleep-over? In the end we agreed, and managed to whittle her list down from just about everyone in her school to 3 close friends.

We did the party the Friday before her birthday. My preference would have been doing it the weekend after her birthday, but I was gone that weekend, so that wouldn't work. Doing it when we did meant jumping into birthday planning with both feet right after returning from our holiday trip. Nothing like sending out a birthday Evite a week an a half before the event! Crazy at it all was, it went pretty well. We are all aware of the bossy friend, and the quiet friend, and the rambunctious friend. I now know which of Caitlin's friends doesn't do well staying overnight, and which ones will eventually go to sleep if Brian plants himself on the couch at 10:00 pm. I even managed to plan a menu that worked well with nut and dairy allergies. Go me! I sometime think we're the only family around without any food allergy issues. I also know that having a friend over for the other sibling isn't necessary, just fair. But now we're all even, so I don't need to do this for a loooonnngggg time.

Caitlin's sleep-over was a success, and I brought snack to her school the day before her birthday. We were all set to bring snacks to AWANA on the night of her actual birthday, but the crazy, fast, windy, blowing snow got all evening events cancelled. We did managed to celebrate her birthday with Daddy after he arrived home almost 3 hours after leaving work. I'm sure his co-workers were thrilled with the 3 dozen frosted cupcakes he brought to work the next day. I was happy to see them leave.

I'm also happy that I don't have to do another birthday party for 9 months. Yay!

Roar!!!!

I finally got it scanned! This is what we did over Thanksgiving. Crazy, huh?

What About the Big Yellow Chicken?

Obviously my children did not watch enough "Sesame Street" during their formative years. Caitlin was doing a maze in a Sesame Street writing skills tablet during homework time today. She turned to me and said "Hey Mom, am I suppose to get this big yellow chicken from here to there?" Big yellow chicken? She knows who Elmo and Oscar the Grouch are, but Big Bird has apparently not made much of an impression.

Trapped in the Body of An Office Worker

I had a massage today. It was wonderful. Then again, is a massage ever not wonderful? I woke up in the middle of the night last week with my lower back in pain. I must have done something to it, but I don't know what that was. All I know is that I woke up in a lot of pain. Enough pain to get up and turn on the closet light in the middle of the night to look for my heating pad, knowing full well that I might wake up Brian in the process. That kind of pain.

Although the back is slooooowly getting better, I'm still in daily pain, and a massage was in order. So I made an appointment at a place nearby. The woman was great - I'm sure I'll go back. And, she does mostly massage therapy, which works better on my neck (and back) than massage for pure relaxation. About half way through the massage, at the turning point from front to back, she asked me how many hours I spent at work in front of the computer. When I told her I didn't work, she seemed surprised. She said that the muscles of my shoulders, back and neck feel like those of someone who sits and works a full time job, usually one in front of a computer.

Great. So, I'm a stay-at-home mom trapped in the body of an office worker? How fun for me. I've been working hard at home to get sore muscles and a tight back. I've tried hard to get sick, to stay up late and not get enough sleep, and to not exercise. It's been rough work the last few weeks to get me into this condition. Maybe now I can trade in the mom jeans and over sized sweatshirts and get me some office clothes. Anything to look like the person whose body I have. Bleah. Maybe next week, after Caitlin's birthday/slumber party is finished, I can get back to the mom routine I had prior to the Christmas break. Things are starting up again. School's back in session. Things are looking up.

Way to be Prepared!

Caitlin went through her school backpack yesterday and pulled out her extra set of clothes for school. These are emergency clothes. The kind you only use if you accidentally wet your pants, or spill a vat of paint all over yourself. Those kind. In the year and a half that she's been in preschool, she's never used them. However, I like to be prepared. Obviously I'm not, since this is what she pulled out:

Lovely. A size 4 t-shirt and some size 3 leggings. She's a tall girl, and has been almost completely out of size 4's for a couple of months now. And size 3 leggings? Geez!! Good going, Mom! Way to be prepared! Good think she hasn't needed these in the last month. Seeing that it's currently a whopping 8 degrees outside right now, there are 4 inches of frozen snow everywhere, and we had a high of 15 yesterday (for a whole 20 minutes, I think), I think I should dig through her winter clothes and come up with a few we can put in the extra clothes bag. These ones wouldn't cut it in the snow and ice we've had the last few days.