Anyway, for our last dinner together, she got the girls bathed and in their PJs. Then the three of them made breakfast for dinner (brinner) together. We all sat in our jammies and ate some bacon, eggs, pancakes, home fries, and biscuits. Delicious!

We were also joined by two of the girls stuffed animals who got a special invitation after there were too many place settings at the table. Seemed appropriate for brinner after all.

We also decided to let Fifi butter her own bread. That may have been a mistake given how much butter she decided to use (see below). Between her chronic butter eating and Hailey’s bacon obsession, they’ll both have clogged arteries by the age of seven.

So now you are wondering if I’m getting the baby fever? Is my biological clock tick, tick, ticking? Am I getting the baby itch? NOPE!

Ok, maybe a super tiny bit. Wait. Did I just write that? Crap. Don’t read that part. Because now you all are going to be asking me when we are going for number 3, and the honest answer is that we’re not. I think there’s just always a piece of me that wonders what another baby would be like. I mean look at the first two!!! Could they be any more different? Would the third one have red hair? Be a boy? Be like Fifi or like Hailey? Who knows. We’ll likely never know, and I’m really ok with that.

I don’t know if you know this, but having a baby is a huge pain in the ass. Yeah, it’s true. I would have to carry that thing around in my belly for 9 whole months plus probably a few extra weeks because my kids have tardiness issues. Then, you have to go through that messy process of having the kid, and let’s not go into much detail on that nastiness. Oh, then there’s the sleepless nights and the constant feedings which comes complete with a whole lot of pain and suffering for Mommy. Tack onto all of that another 18 years of worry, whining and wickedness. It’s a wonder any of us do this at all. There. Talked myself right out of that tiny inkling. I feel better now.

BUT, I’m also enjoying sitting and reading a book, which is something that I very rarely get to do when Sophia’s around. It’s not that she tells me that I can’t read books (although I’m sure that she would if she had thought of it). It’s just that she still needs a lot of attention, which means that it’s hard to get anything done around the house when she’s around. Which means that all of those house chores have to wait until she goes to bed. Which means that I’m so burned out by the time I’m done with all of the house chores that I just collapse onto the couch completely spent from my day.

Well, maybe it’s not all her fault. Maybe it’s just that I work a full time job which I’ve been on vacation from for 4 days. So, I have a burst of energy on my one day back.

Anyway, I’d like to say that I am actually enjoying the Steve Jobs biography much more than I thought I would. I’m not into biographies much, nor am I particularly into Steve Jobs. We all know that I’ve even cursed him a few times on this blog (which in retrospect seems in poor taste). Regardless, the book is really interesting. He was a strange and complex character with a really amazing story. So, I’m on page 267 or 567 pages. I wonder if I can finish before Sophia gets back since I’m blaming her for my general lack of reading time.

She seems to be having an amazing time at the beach being completely spoiled by Grandma and Papa Harry. I can’t even imagine how demanding she’s going to be when she gets back. Grandma likes to brag that she hasn’t even been in time out once. Uh huh. I want to say, “then you’re doing it wrong.” Clearly there will be much work to be done when she gets back so I suppose I better go and finish that book soon.

So, I’ll try to get back into the groove of writing more often. There’s lots to do today, but then I think we’ll be back into the normal routine of life. Then, Sophia will come home and the whole thing will be thrown off

All of that is to say that we are going to be just fine (plus, it’s 70 here so let’s stop feeling bad for us). However, it does bring up an important point which we should all remember, which is just how fortunate we are. I mean, I was able to pay my bill, I can afford to go buy space heaters, I could even stay at a hotel if it really got unbearable (which it won’t if you check the weather forecast). But there are thousands and thousands of families living here in Atlanta and across the country that don’t have any of those options. It’s times like this when you get slapped in the face with a little inconvenience that you realize how very fortunate you are.

So, I’m trying hard not to beat myself about the account number thing. I’m trying to just keep it all in perspective, be thankful for what we have, help where we can, and enjoy some bad microwave meals and cold showers for the next 7 days.

Oh, and before you think that I’m some type of zen guru, I’m about 5 hours past the point of shock and anger on this thing. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that there is nothing I can do tonight. I’m just going to try really hard to keep everything in perspective (at least for tonight).

11/2/2011
On a completely random note about the evening, I’m teaching myself a valuable life skill – hula hooping. Hailey is talking in a British accent and Sophia is learning to whistle by screaming in a high pitched voice.

It was a completely accurate reflection of what was happening in our backyard at the time.  It was one of those Mommy moments where you look around and think, “Wow, this is so not normal.  What on Earth is happening here?”

And yet, I loved that we were all learning different things (however strange they were) all at the same time.

I’m so disappointed with my organized self. Apparently, there was a major system fail here. I blame Outlook because when I tried to book the second play date, it didn’t even tell me that I was booking over another appointment.

In case you were wondering, yes, I do book play dates and family functions in my work Outlook. I do. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane, and I’m booking about 3 weeks out for play dates now. The earliest time I could rebook the one that was double booking was Nov. 19th. So, when you don’t hear from me for the next 4 weeks, it’s because I’m attending play dates and double-checking my booking system so that we have no more failures in the future!

Yes. It was the littlest monster who got up at 5am to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, she cannot go to the bathroom with out taking all of her stuffed animals off of her bed and moving them to the floor outside of the door. Why? I don’t have any idea. But this is a very long process that involves a lot of climbing into the bed, jumping off the bed, slamming doors, dropping toilet seats down, etc. My bedroom just happens to be right below all of this commotion.

So, you can see why I had to kick Luke out of bed at 5am to go put her back down. That seemed like a good plan at the time until I still heard a lot of noise at 5:40. That’s when I turned off my alarm and headed upstairs to take care of the situation. Oh yeah. I was not having any of that. I promptly, VERY PROMPTLY, put each of the girls in their own bed. Yes. They were both awake and playing on top of a sleeping Luke. I’m not going to have that. So, we all slept in until 7:40 when my phone started ringing (Thanks for the wake up call, Grandpa). I’m proud to say that Hailey’s first tardy ever came on my birthday. What a momentous occasion.

Then, there are the dark nights. Maybe I’m just a little tired, or god forbid, burned out. I don’t know. All I know is that it started with Fifi crying in the car, then moved to Hailey crying in the car, then Fifi crying at home, then Hailey crying on the porch. Oh Lord.

After all of that crying, we still had to do homework. Then the crying really began. “I don’t want to do homework. I don’t like homework. I can’t spell right. This is never going to work.” On and on and on. Homework is supposed to take 15 minutes. It took at least an hour and it was half assed.

Moving on, then there was more crying, not listening at bed time, etc, etc. Did I mention that it was one of THOSE nights?

I know one thing that will make me happy…