Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

I'm out of titles for the blog posts.  But when I'm trying to come up with ways to make my girls smile (or even just give me a disparaging look, in Alex's case) for the camera, I come up with random phrases, usually uttered in a ridiculous sing-song voice that would make most adults cringe.  "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" (in a British accent of course) is a great one.  It worked once.  My jokes are only funny to them one time.  Sometimes I can make Kathryn giggle, so of course I try to repeat whatever nonsensical thing I was doing that tickled her funnybone, only to get the most deadpan expressions, and I just know she is already embarrassed by me.  

In other news:

Kathryn has her first ear infection.  Only three weeks in daycare and already on antibiotics.  Lovely.  (She's fine!  In fact, I didn't even know she was sick, poor thing didn't get diagnosed until her well-baby visit.  She is such a happy baby, she didn't even show any signs of fussiness!)

We will be trekking back to the old childcare place near my work.  We have mixed feelings about the place they have been in for the last few weeks.  The infant teachers have been great, but Alex's room is in a constant state of moving teachers back and forth between rooms (and children too) to keep the minimum State Child/Teacher Ratios.  Instead of hiring teachers for each room according to the enrollment of that room, they just move kids and teachers around into other rooms when they exceed their minimum ratio.  It doesn't sound that bad, but it ends up with Alex being shuttled into the one-year old room half the day and there just isn't any continuity of care.  They also gave her foods that she can't eat (she's on this no-fruit diet right now due to a pretty unfortunate bout of Toddler's Diarrhea.  ugh.)  And a few other little things that have just added up to a general feeling of unease.  So we are pretty excited to take Alex back to her old teachers and friends, and also to introduce Kathryn to some of Alex's former infant teachers who we all loved. 

I didn't get laid off.  I came back to work from maternity leave on August 1st, only to learn that my company was doing layoffs on August 18th.  Not stressful at all!  But luckily I'm still employed.  This is the 3rd layoff in 7 years with my company and I have somehow managed to escape them all.  This has nothing to do with my level of skill--I really do believe it is a matter of luck.  Lucky us!

Alex is talking up a storm.  She has a personality that makes us laugh (and pull out our hair!).  She is in the full throes of the terrible twos.  Lots of tantrums and stubbornness, followed by the sweetest periods of gentle loving.  It is amazing how quickly she can go from happy to angry and back again!

We are all generally doing great.  Rich has been working very hard, but we have been getting a babysitter sometimes so that we can enjoy date nights again (yay!)  I'm really close to my pre-pregnancy weight.  So close that I'm losing my willpower since most of my clothes fit me (though I wouldn't say they are all comfortable!)  My goal is to stay focused on the diet until my birthday (in about a month) and then try to maintain from there.  But my obsession with baking is not helping things.  Ack!

Kathryn rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time yesterday! She has been so close to doing it for awhile, and she was very pleased with herself!  

That's about it! 

And for your viewing pleasure...........