Friday random

I just realized I haven't written Chloe's 6 month post. Or edited any pictures. Or thought about it pretty much at all. And guess what? OH WELL. I'm sorry Future Chloe. I really do love you as much as your oft-written about brother but adding you to the mix has made life busier. And me more tired. So so tired.

Let's see, what else is going on? Oh! We hired a new nanny/sitter/magician who is FANTASTIC. I kind of want her to move in with us and we can all raise the kids together. She's fabulous with the kids and knows how to handle me and does the laundry and the dishes and I HAVE NOT UNLOADED THE DISHWASHER IN TWO WEEKS. That right there is the best thing ever. She's taking the dog to the groomer next week and going to start experimenting with making Chloe baby purees. I KNOW. Are you totally dying of jealously right now? Too bad, you can't have her. She's miiiiinnneeee. Granted we pay for these services but when I walk in the door every day after work and don't have a pile of dishes staring me in the face or a million Legos all over the floor I send up mucho thanks to the powers that be (and a side eye to the Indian Hawk Guide). She makes being a working out of the home mother (to be PC about it) so much easier for me and it's worth every expensive penny. And she takes such good care of my babies. Obviously that is most important. But followed closely by the clean dishes.

Random segue but I read somewhere that the half ages are the terrible ones. It's like a wave where the trough is the full year age and the peak is the half year age and they're certifiably NUTS at the peak. Like little tiny maniacs. I believe this to be true with Noah. We just came out of a half year peak at 3.5 in Jan/Feb when he was a devil. He was defiant, mean, nasty, sassy, and an all around unpleasant little person. Not all the time but enough of the time to make me consider gypsies and front yard for sale signs. And then POOF! Almost overnight he became the sweet, kind, loving boy he used to be at 3. He's polite again, tells me I look pretty in my dress and is eager to please. I am going to ride this all the way until January when the evil half age version comes out again and I have to stop myself from posting him on Craigslist.

Another random segue...we signed up with Mint.com last week. I've heard mixed reviews but I was having a hard time sticking to our budget and couldn't figure out why. Well, now I know. It's FOOD. Holy hell do we spend a lot of money on food. With both Tim and I working downtown aka Land of Ridiculously Expensive Lunch Options we have been spending far too much on lunch. I also found out that Tim has a penchant for breakfast sandwiches/muffin thingies with large Diet Cokes in the morning and he has been put on notice. AND as much as I claim to hate grocery shopping I sure do spend a lot of time and money at Trader Joe's/Marianos/Whole Foods. Oh, and eating out on the weekends is a big chunk of that money. In summary, I am overhauling our food budget and attempting to get back into basic couponing and meal planning. Want to see our meal plan for this coming week? (It's just thrilling for you to come here, isn't it?)

Monday: Stuffed Shells
Tuesday: Coconut Curry Shrimp over Rice
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos
Thursday: Chinese Chicken and Broccoli over Rice
Friday: Pepperoni Pizza made at home
Saturday: eat out...maybe.

Now that I have sufficiently bored you to death, I am going to go eat this muffin that WORK paid for. Go team!

Easter 2012

Or, everyone looking like goobers.

For the record, I dyed those eggs ALONE on Saturday night because SOMEONE was so "sweepy" and couldn't stay awake long enough to help. That probably worked out in my favor since it was much less messy and I could drink lots of wine while dying them. I also experimented with white and brown eggs to get different colors and shades and YOU TOTALLY WISH YOU HAD MY LIFE. Scintillating stuff, I tell you.

Old

I ran into an old friend from college today while waiting on the train platform and I realized it had been almost eight years since I had seen him. We chatted about his new baby girl born in October, how they like the neighborhood since they moved here late last summer, our favorite coffee shops in the area and how we’ve been in the neighborhood since 2007. He was shocked to learn that Chloe was our second and that we’ve been in our house for almost five years. It became obvious, quickly, that time was rushing by and we had been out of touch for a while.

What I noticed even more than the lack of familiarity were the small lines forming around his eyes, the specks of gray touching his temples. The beginning signs of aging, growing older, most likely wiser. Coming away from our brief encounter I was surprised to find myself confused…wasn’t he just 22? Wasn’t I? When did we stop talking about last weekend’s adventures in the urban jungle and start talking about which restaurants allowed strollers? About how family-friendly our neighborhood is and how that coffee place has really great crepes? About how much we love our little girls?

Somewhere I have a picture of him and me, with a couple other friends, holding paint brushes and laughing because we had just painted their room in the fraternity house. I can see the photo in my mind’s eye and we look so…childish. Now we’re grown up, mostly, and it took me by surprise. I’m sure he noticed the lines around my eyes and the weariness that comes from sleepless nights holding the baby. I wonder if he thought the same thing…when did we get so old?