Cabin Fever

I don't know what possessed me, but I put the graham cracker crumbles left in the bag into Phoebe's bowl. This is Sydney eating them. drat.
A Sydney, Eliot, Tim love sandwich. Eliot's response, "I don't like it, Daddy." Too much love for the little man, I guess

Alright, I'm starting to go bonkers. Sydney was really sick last week and then I got sick and now it's dumping snow and we can't really go anywhere. It's really pretty out, but I think our house is shrinking.

I think I got spoiled being home with my whole family in one house for a week. Now, the sound of the heater is my constant companion. I did a really nerdy thing this morning and visited blogs of other mommies who are friends or friends of friends of friends of mine (what a terrible sentence). These other mommies seem like people I'd really like to hang out with--creative, crafty, spiritual--and I started fantasizing about them living next door or going to my church. So sad! I'm used to having this great network of girls, but now my girls are spread from Seattle to Arizona to Massachusetts, which makes getting together for coffee or a walk very troublesome. I keep praying that God will send me replacement friends (no offense to my trusted gals), sometimes by name, like "God, please send me a Jenny or an Amy. Just one! Even someone half as loyal as Suzanne would do..." God seems to be ignoring me on that front, but I have found some solace today in the fact that friends of my friends seem really cool and inspiring. I have joined a mom's group and am hopeful that I will develop real relationships with some of them, but it takes so long when you only see people for a few hours once a week. And, the mean girls clique is so scary (that can be a whole other post).

Part of my craziness is also that we've entered a new phase of parenthood/childhood. I loved that first part where all you really need to do is love them, love them, love them and meet their basic, physical needs. Now we are entering the phase wherein my little angel is developing a will and is crazy busy and I think I need to start trying to mold her into a wonderful human being (eek, the pressure!). She is obsessed with what lurks behind the kitchen and bathroom cupboards no matter how many times I say, "Sydney don't touch that" and has little interest in all of her awesome new toys. Lately when I say in my nice mommy voice, "Let's say goodbye to the alka seltzer and the hand lotion" she arches her back and kind of growls at me. scary. I keep playing with her Little People SUV and her new dollies and stuffed animals and I think they are very fun, but she only thinks they are fun when mommy makes them zoom and dance. Otherwise, she only has eyes for the salad spinner. Alas. This would be okay if we could get out for a nice, long walk everyday and go to mom's group and play group and church 1x each a week, but all those things are off with the holiday break and our snotty noses...
Okay, sad mommy rant over. I am grateful that the internet has provided me with faux friends today and an outlet for my crazy.