A Rather Big Nutshell

No, I'm not dead. Or sick. And I haven't been kidnapped by aliens.

Although, there have been moments when being kidnapped by aliens doesn't sound like a horrendous option. Like yesterday, when my husband called me from work to tell me that he was getting on a plane to Taipei this evening --yes, this evening--, and that he wouldn't be home until quite late. Again. Because three weeks or so of 10-12 hour days at the office wasn't a record worth changing, right? (He got home at 10:00 last night). So, yep. He's gone. A car picked him up from his office late this afternoon and whisked him off to Heathrow, not to be seen again until Sunday.

Sigh.

Of course, what this means is that I've had roughly three weeks worth of 10-12 hour days of single parenting, which can be rather draining. It's not like I can just go for a walk by myself to catch a break during the day. Yes, our boys are extraordinarily lovely and sweet and happy for the most part. (No, I'm not biased! Not at all! ;-) ) And we're lucky in that both seem to be particularly healthy in general and have always pretty darn good sleepers for little people. In fact, (--warning: brag alert, because I need something to brag about right now, and good sleeping habits work for me!--) both of my oh-so-lovely boys are currently out cold in their little beds, after a minimum of fuss. MF was so tired (he opted out of napping this afternoon), that when he started to fade at the kitchen table during dinner, I asked him if he wanted to go to bed, and he said 'yes'. So I quickly took him up the stairs, popped him into his pajamas, brushed his teeth, and then told him to finish up brushing his teeth and then go and get into his bed and I'd be in a little while to check on him. (I had to finish feeding Baby Boo who was still hanging out in the highchair downstairs.) And he did, with only one minor detour for a cup of water to take upstairs with him. When I went to check on him about fifteen minutes later, he was sound asleep.

Seriously. Out cold. That's my boy!

So I tucked him into his blankets and tiptoed back out of his room. A tired Baby Boo quickly followed his big brother into dreamland, after minimal fussing about it in his crib. (I've decided to re-break my husband's sloppy habit of letting Baby Boo fall asleep in the sitting room and then relocating him to his crib. He has to be able to put himself to sleep at night.)

Of course, the sleep thing doesn't work quite as well during the day because my boys are currently refusing to nap at the same time. No, apparently napping at the same time would defy the laws of the universe. I'm sure they've held secret meetings on the topic to ensure that they sleep at different times of the day. Baby Boo usually takes a nap mid- to late morning and one mid- to late afternoon, whereas MF takes his (if he deigns to take one) right around noontime. So I am currently not getting any real breaks save when MF is at nursery and I can get the Boo-ster down for a bit, usually in his stroller.

All this is the primary reason I haven't been on line much during the day. By the time G gets home in the evenings, I just want to quietly read a few chapters of my book and go to sleep. And this is the route I've chosen the past couple of weeks, instead of updating my blog or zipping around the internet. Plus, I think I just needed the break.

So, other things that have happened while I've been offline these past few weeks, some of which I might blog more in-depth about later if anyone is interested . . . :

♥ My current book is Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes, an Irish author I particularly like.

♥ I finally got my UK driving license, so I am now driving legally on the roads here. Yes, I had to take a d*mn theory test, hazard test, and on-the-road driving test to get the dratted thing. It was an, ummmm, interesting process to say the least. Perhaps I'll write about it later this week....

♥ We're still house hunting, but haven't looked at anything these past two weekends. Another thing I think we just needed a break from. We have liked a few recent properties we've looked at, but they may sit in floodplains, so we're going to check into that.

♥ We have about tons of frozen blackberries (brambles) in our freezer from all the wild blackberry bushes in and around Cambridgeshire. And it turns out that G makes a killer blackberry/apple crumble. Yum!

♥ G's parents were just here for a long weekend (they left this morning) due to a Cambridge alumni weekend. Needless to say, MF was absolutely delighted with all the extra attention he received, and Baby Boo seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit, too.

♥ Baby Boo has decided to make this year's Christmas photo shoot a difficult one. He's starting to crawl forward now...... Noooooooo!

♥ Since MF is now two, I think he is ready to truly appreciate the joys of Halloween, a holiday that they do not celebrate over here. Really. They don't. It's barely a blip on the calendar. Crazy, no? So, in order to ensure that he doesn't miss out on my favorite holiday, I've booked the four of us on a two and a half week trip to Virginia Beach to visit my mom in her new house. And, although there are still some 'issues' between my mom and I --including the letter I had to send her about a month before Baby Boo was born; the fact that she hasn't seen MF since he was 8 months old, in spite of numerous invitations; the fact that she hasn't come to see Baby Boo at all... sigh... I could go on, but maybe in another post... -- she was kind enough to offer us frequent flyer miles for all three of our tickets. (Baby Boo will be a lap baby.) So we'll be off to Virginia in late October, which should be fun.

♥ I have lots of wonderful updates (that I really, really should have provided sooner) to last November's post about pregnancies, non-pregnancies, and adoption news amongst my circle of friends. I'll try to do a big update later this week.

♥ Speaking of babies, I am embarrassed to admit that I'm feeling a little, errr, broody of late. No, I'm not pregnant. Good grief, no. I have a six month old, people! And I swore I'd never do another pregnancy, remember?! But, I have to admit, as we've had such a relatively easy time with the first two, especially The Happiest D*mn Baby in The Whole Wide World that is Baby Boo, the idea of a third wee one has crossed my mind quite a bit lately. And it's a little scary. So I've been trying to focus on how much I hated being pregnant the last time around. And the fact that I'm old, much too old to be considering another one. Seriously. Not a good idea. So why am I thinking about it? Could someone please explain?

♥ And, speaking of old, this '67 baby will be celebrating/hiding from her birthday in VB this year. A day after Slouching Mom, I believe. Any suggestions for restaurants in VB?

♥ But at least I'll be celebrating my birthday with my loved ones. My cousin, who has been trying to retire unsuccessfully from the navy for the past two years (stop loss) was recently sent to Iraq to head up a security detail. Let me reiterate: he's Navy. And he wanted to retire. He's been in for more than twenty years. But they are so.damn.short.of.manpower that our f*cked up government has been plucking people --lots of people-- from the Navy and shipping them off to do security work on land in Iraq. Because they're running out of Marines/Army/Reserve people to send and they're desperate for manpower. This is so infuriating and agonizing for his family, that I haven't been able to write about it yet. And perhaps it's not really my story to tell. But the details he's provided to date just emphasize what a horribly, horribly scary place Iraq is these days.

♥ This reminds me: I must ensure that I'm registered to vote from overseas for next year.

♥ In lighter news, squirrels have stolen MF's horse chestnuts. Twice. Poor boy, went out and collected a bag full of 'em on Saturday with G (kids call them 'conkers'), and proudly put them in his play kitchen out on the patio. Sunday morning rolled around and poof! All gone! Every single one of them was mysteriously missing, from the sink, the oven, the refrigerator.... So he collected another bag of them yesterday with his grandparents, and, again, poof! Most of them were gone when we got up this morning. I suspect the squirrels are probably queueing up outside the patio tonight for the remaining handful. heh heh

♥ And, finally, autumn has definitely arrived in Cambridge. Blackberry season is at an end; apple season is here; the leaves are starting to turn; there's a distinct chill in the air in the mornings; and I'm looking forward to getting fall pictures of my boys in the leaves, especially Baby Boo's first experience with the fall leaves . . .

♥ . . . because two years ago, I put MF in the fall leaves for the first time and took this:

Hmmmm. If I don't move, maybe they'll let me go.

So, that's my life in a nutshell these past couple of weeks. I hope to be dropping round your places over the next few days.... ;-)