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Tomorrow marks the beginning of my third week as a single parent.  How do I feel?  In a word: tired.  Oh my stars am I tired!  Did Charlie really have to pick this last week to push out his final top tooth?  Did I really have to pick this last week to give him beans every night?  He is and fidgety/crabby/whiny from about 3:30-5 every morning.  He's killing me.

We've had a few little amusing adventures:

The phone rang Tuesday morning and it was an automated call from a debt collection agency. (don't worry, not seeking us)  Mary listened for a moment and then hung up.  I asked who it was and she said, "They said 'We are calling about your dead,' so I hung up b/c we don't have any dead people in our house."

I've been experimenting with crock potting .  It seems the only way we can have decent, hot dinner while keeping my sanity.  Ever had crunchy rice pudding?  I now know how to fix that.

Our neighbor throws food out onto her roof for the birds every morning--seriously, things like leftover spaghetti and whole bagels.  Sometimes the birds drop their treasures in our yard on their way... home?  Anyway, yesterday the kids were out playing in the snow and Joseph came back in the house with a mouth full of something.  "What are you eating?"  "A sugar donut!"  he announced proudly.  "Where did you get it?"  (I still hadn't caught on.)  "I found it on the ground!"  Mary then got mad at him for eating her bird bait.  A bird dropped it, she put it in a "trap," Joseph ate it.  I... well, we won't go there. (Poor Joseph, he was so proud of himself.)

We have had a lot of snow.  Compared with last winter's 1 storm of 8 inches, we've been slammed.  Once per week.  Today's dose was 8" and it was beautiful, light, fluffy stuff.  It was almost fun to shovel!  I used to be a fan of snowman snow.  Until last week.  Dude, that stuff weighs a TON!

The news from Florida this week has not been good.  My cousin's sister-in-law just lost her 5 day old baby to a severe heart defect.  My grandfather is back in the hospital.  He's good one day, not so much the next.  He is having trouble keeping his oxygen levels up and when they get low, he gets very confused.  He has also been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and has fluid in his lungs. 

Charlie is "walking."  He figured out a couple of weeks ago how to pull himself up on everything.  Then he realized he could move as well as stand.  Tonight he stood up and pushed a stool across the kitchen.  What a delighted look of surprise lit up his face all the way.  Methinks I'm in real trouble.

I've got the knitting bug.  I'll not go into details--too many needles, too much yarn, way too many patterns.  I will say only that I'm going to make myself a scarf/bonnet and it's going to be spiffy.

Now I'll say that Charlie is up and screaming.  Enjoy the pictures.  Good luck figuring some of them out--I won't get to put in the descriptions until tomorrow.

'Night!