Two Days and Two Glasses of Wine are Involved in This Post

We are watching the Netflix series "Narcos" right now and it's super good. The downside is it's largely subtitled so I can't get as much done on my laptop as I normally do when we're binge watching a Netflix series.

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Annnnd that's all I typed last night.

Now I'm on my second glass of wine while watching the GOP debate (we DVR'd it because I can't yell at the TV and drink while my kids are awake; this is my sports), so no guarantees about this one either.

Let's take it to the pictures.

I'm back at the barre! I still don't have a regular class and with the end of summer, I think my 3x a week subbing days are over, but I still get a class every week and have two this time. This is me on Monday.

I'm very in love with my clearance crazy pants and this top was in sale at Lululemon for $28. It's possible I bought them in three different colors.

My barre instructor pay pretty much equals whatever I spent at Lulu while using my instructor discount as an excuse to buy more. It's a viscous cycle.

But if anything, I'm even more in love with teaching lately. Making people's legs shake feels like my calling in life and I'm practically high when I get home. I'm so happy to have found this sweaty and creative outlet for myself.

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We went to a school picnic on Friday!

And we also maybe left our Third Baby at daycare past closing time. I was home at 4:30, cheerfully cleaning and organizing and catching up with the big kids, comfortable with the knowledge that I was getting way more done because Cora was still dominating the toddler room at school and James was grabbing her on his way home from the pool. The picnic was starting soon and we were all in our school shirts and James pulled up, exited his car without a baby, and I said, "where's Cora?!" And his face dropped and he ran back in the car yelling, "Call the school! I'm coming!"

Marching off to school; has no idea she might not be picked up

Oops. Sorry Cora!

The big kids and I walked to the school and James and Cora met us later. Cora was super unimpressed with the whole scene. I tried to please her by showing her a nice empty bounce house and she was so horrified by the questionable astrophysics applying to the bouncy situation that she demanded to be taken home immediately. James acquiesced and I stayed behind with the kids for another hour or so, not that they cared since they were way too cool to hang out with me. Neither James nor I were ever the center of our social circles, so it is with great bemusement that we watch our kids be the center of theirs. I was stopped by no less than 4 sets of parents telling me, "Oh, you're Landon's mom!! It's non-stop Landon-this and Landon-that at home." And Claire ran wild with her Kindergarten posse, dropping one boyfriend for another in the space of an hour, declining to eat hot dogs with me ("sigh... but my friends are over there mom."), and just generally rocking her school shirt at the top of the playground fort.

At one point I was talking to a mom and commenting that I hadn't seen Landon in a while. She gave me a strange look and said, isn't that him over there? Oh. He was literally 15 feet in front of me. He suddenly looks so old I can't even recognize my own child. What happened to the last 8 years? I also ran in to his 1st grade teacher who casually referred to the time Landon got a standing ovation from a 4th grade class. Um, what?? Apparently he wrote a story last year that his teacher was so impressed by she showed it to the principal who invited Landon to read it to the 4th grade (I think it was on something they were studying), so he went upstairs to a 4th grade class and read his whole story to them at the front of the room and they all stood up and clapped and he NEVER MENTIONED IT. We eat dinner together every night. We ask questions, we're involved, we talk to him, I swear. He just doesn't find these things notable. I wish I had the story.

College Day!

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Moving on. (Holy crap we're GOP-debating vaccines now. If polio become a thing again I want all of these candidates to get it. Except they won't. Because they're vaccinated. Though I did like Carly Fiorina's short but eloquent response to Donald Trump's "look at that face" comment. Well done. Overall I look forward to the next week of late night comedy. Moving on!)

Landon has reached the phase of boyhood where he is indefatigable. He can swim for 8 hours, run a few miles, bike many more, and still have plenty of energy to run a half-marathon after dinner. He's never squirms when he should be still, but give him a track at sunup and I think he could run until sundown. To help burn some of this off, James has started throwing the frisbee to him after dinner. Like you do with a puppy.

I love it.

The girls help. Cora runs, squealing and pumping her arms and little legs furiously between her Daddy and La-na. She claps every time someone catches the frisbee. Claire is the infielder, picking up frisbees that fall to the ground and throwing it back to James. I sit on the walkway and love every freaking second. Cora gives me drive-by hugs, Claire plops down next to me to tell she loves me and also she's hot and/or maybe a bug thought about biting her foot and can I look at it.

I love it.

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Cora has stopped eating dinner and any fruits, vegetables, and basically anything that isn't cheese or a slice of deli turkey. We've never had a picky eater- the big kids eat everything I make, no matter how many ingredients and vegetables and strong flavors, so this is new. We've stopped offering any option beyond dinner, and this week, I've cut out her after-school snack. She gets an afternoon snack in school, so she doesn't need it, it just makes her not yell at me while I cook dinner. And so tonight as predicted, she did a lot of yelling and then marched around the house with an empty plate she took from the cabinet.

Poor poor third baby.

Then dinner was served (beef tamales, refried black beans, scrambled eggs, tortillas, with cheese, diced tomato, and black olives) and for the first time in weeks she ate every bite. Sorry Cora, looks like 5:30 - 6:00 is going to be rough for us both.

Cora's new favorite toy is any toy the big kids have touched or are currently touching. Yesterday she appropriated Landon's Boogie Board writing tablet and marched around the house taking diligent notes with a pool dart she stole out of James's swim school basket.

She is a treasure.

(At a bounce house birthday party Saturday; after 44:30 minutes of sobbing at the failure of gravity, she decided bounce houses were not the devil's work and loved it for the 30 seconds of remaining play time)

22 months in and she remains the family's mascot and favored being. I'm sure there won't be any negative repercussions from the fact the two big kids give her anything she wants whenever she wants it.

Okay 11:42 p.m. The debate is over, my wine glass is empty (again), and it's time for bed.

But we need to talk more about Urban Fantasy books later. Remind me. Good night all!