This afternoon I was kneading pizza dough when my brother told me he was going to happy hour with a couple of his new Houston friends, so I considered it for about .3 seconds before offering to have them dinner. I finished the dough and nestled it into our toaster oven and sat down to nurse the baby. It felt leisurely enough. I started caramelizing some onions for topping and thinking about a salad.

Before I knew it, it was 5:45 and I'd told my brother we'd eat at 6:15.

So I cranked the oven to 500, ran out to douse the toddler in bug spray because he insisted on staying outside despite the legions of mosquitos. Jacob got home, and I barked some orders at him before plopping the baby in a high chair and running to the bathroom for a very overdue shower. I turned on the water in the shower and grabbed some toilet paper to wipe off the sink and the toilet. I saw that Jake had broken the soap into eight pieces and apparently had spilled water all over the floor.

Like all over it.

Like I was standing in a pool.

That's when I realized that, in a rather unfortunate coincidence, the shower liner wasn't draped inside the tub and the water was aiming right at the curtain. Flooded bathroom. All my fault. No time to think about it now. I adjusted the shower head and threw three towels on the floor before jumping in the shower to clean the veritable grease mop on my head (my slicked back ponytail wasn't fooling anyone) to the tune of a toddler yelling about how hungry he was. Out of the shower, I tossed the sopping towels into the tub, threw on some clothes, and strapped the baby on my back before returning to help with the dinner prep where I found my husband elbow deep in dough and my son temporarily pacified by the pizza sauce dregs.




There I stood with my hair dripping onto the kitchen floor, and I checked my phone to see a text from Rob since he and his buddies decided they'd just eat out.

...

...






I sit here hours later, and it feels so far away. The world seems so simple now in the lamplight of a Friday evening spent at home. I've eaten my weight in pizza. The children are asleep. And my bathroom floor is freshly shampooed. 

Linking up with Blythe because One Hot Mess.

7QT: Weather, Coffee, Child-Rearing, Broken Records

- 1 -

The older child has been running me hard this week. The terrible twos have overall been pretty great, but I hope the business of this week isn't a harbinger of what the threes have in store. The worst moment was when I had to pop his balloon as a consequence for running away from me in the library parking lot. (He was running on the walkway next to the parking lot and not in the parking lot itself, but still...) I popped a little boy's balloon, and it was the saddest thing. We both cried. 

- 2 -

Weather here in Houston has been amazing. It's almost like...we're living in Los Angeles again.

But unlike Los Angeles, this weather won't last, and while Houston only has an excuse for a winter, it certainly has a grueling summer that will probably start sometime next week. So we will carpe our mild sunshine and picturesque evenings for the next five days or so.

- 3 -

I keep running into posts about laundry recently. Laundry is pretty close to my heart and, unlike cleaning the toilet or mopping, is actually something I enjoy. I grew up folding a lot of our family's laundry. I spent many an hour with Anne of Green Gables beside a mountain of towels, gym shorts, and T-shirts. My mother used to tell me how good I was at folding. I was pretty proud. Now of course she had major ulterior motives for that encouragement, but she was right. I am a badass folder. And it's a competency that will probably be more consistently valuable to me than my master's degree.

- 4 -

Speaking of master's degrees, I love staying home with my kids.

I'm nervous to say that out loud. I'm nervous that the joy I'm experiencing will magically pop as soon as I admit to the world that - at least for now - I'm more than happy to be home with my kids.

With a big fat caveat: WHEN THEY NAP.

The mornings are so full of hope, you know?? And then that afternoon nap strike makes the whole rest of the day a big poopstorm. (SO sorry about that word. It's just that I'd already used my colorful word for this post, and that was all I could think to swap it with. I'm a first time potty trainer, you'll remember...and it's amazing how much literal and metaphorical excrement I have to filter while blogging about our life. Shocking really.)

- 5 -

Someone's being too quiet, so I'm going to run see if today was a naptime win.

Oh, most definitely a win.

- 6 -

Lucy June is still the awesomest baby. I'm experiencing her babyhood so differently than Jake's. Every time I try to write a post about the difference I start crying.

But it boils down to this:

Jake's infancy = emotionally tough
Lucy June's infancy = sugar and spice.

Except that she's recently become uber attached to me. When she's cranky - so in the evenings when there are finally other arms that can hold her - she wants me and only me. I find it endearing, and I love it, and I want her to outgrow it immediately.

- 7 -

Next weekend Jacob goes from working half days on Sunday to not working on Sundays at all. An (almost) real weekend!! I'm so excited for him. And for me. And for our kids. And for me.

Off to Jen's for more Quick Takes.