Brain dump.

* It has been a severely whiny day in this house, by baby and toddler. I need a drink.
* Blowing raspberries is hella hilarious to a 5-month-old. Especially when you do it the second the spoonful of oatmeal & carrots touches your lips and food spews all over the unsuspecting person that is feeding you. When I tried to scold him for it, he gave us the best little belly laughs - something we've only heard once or twice - which then made us all crack up.
* Also hilarious? The Super Bowl.

* I'm considering giving up baked goods for Lent, but I don't think I could do it. I still crave sugar. Like pregnancy-crave. It's bad news bears. I honestly think going cold turkey for a month and a half would kill me.

* Speaking of sweet, this picture pretty much kills me every time I look at it. Because the sweetness factor is through the roof.

* I've completely skipped Valentine's Day this year. I know, it's not until tomorrow. But I've barely given it any thought. I'm not opposed to it; I'm not an "it's a made-up Hallmark holiday" hater or anything. I see no problem with a day that reminds people to tell others that they love them. But I just didn't prepare for it. There isn't a single Valentine's Day decoration up in our house. I don't have outfits planned out for the kids to wear. I have a small gift for Brooke, but I'm not sure if I have anything for Joe (hmmm, I guess I should get on that.) I just don't have the energy for Valentine's Day this year.

* This little fella drools a lot. I'd love to see a tooth pop up to justify all the drool. (And the whining, for that matter.)

* I am sooooooo ready to night-wean. Joe only eats once (and has since the beginning - he spoiled me big time) but I'm just done with it. Brooke used to eat multiple times a night, so weaning her from middle-of-the-night feedings was a project. I feel like I could knock this out with him in a couple of days. Of course, it would require an incredible amount of patience at 4 a.m. and since I haven't slept in, oh, 13 months, patience isn't exactly my specialty.
* Speaking of things I don't yet have the patience for...we've gotten nowhere on the potty training front. She seems super disinterested, and I'm not gonna push the issue. All of this pressure that I've been letting get to me to do it? Pushing it aside. She'll do it when she's ready.
* Picking out the night's pajamas to a 2-year-old is a VERY BIG DEAL. If you don't pick the right ones, it can throw off the whole night. At the moment, we're cycling through 2 pair of "comfy jammies" (i.e. fleece footed pajamas) and her "cookie jammies".

* I'm tired, y'all. Like, super tired. I can't even remember the last time I slept more than 3 hours in a row. Joe hasn't had a good night of sleep since Thanksgiving. And I have a 2-year-old that rarely sleeps all the way through, which is fun because then I get to get up with alternating children every hour. And then she waltzes in our room at 6:45 a.m. ready to begin the day. And they don't nap simultaneously, so midday naps are out of the question for me. I'm tired. And I don't care if this sounds whiny - like Leslie Gore said, it's my blog & I'll cry if I want to.
* A family friend said to us the other day, after seeing us out with the kids, "Having two kids is hard work." For some reason, I really appreciated this. I think what struck me the most was that this was a father of three saying this to us. He didn't go on with "Just wait until you have a third..." or something similar. He just acknowledged that what we're doing right now is no easy task. And while having just one wasn't a piece of cake, and I'm sure adding a third or more into the mix would be a massive challenge, what we are in the thick of right this second is hard. Raising two kids is hard. I don't know why that affected me the way that it did, but I will always remember and appreciate that he said it.