Voyages in Parenthood

It's the holidays so Friday night in a small town means a holiday parade! First we had a little dinner. And Leda played with her new toy from Aunt Claire (which is SO cute - I really was going to be going out to get this myself - I am so happy I don't have to now! Thanks Claire!) Leda played this thing over and over and over again (Yeah, Thanks, Claire!) and danced and hugged it! It was so cute, I dug out the video camera (now, if we can figure out how to get the DVD play to record the VCR, I'll post it! ;-) We headed downtown to watch the "holiday" parade. We got the scoop from our neighbor, who is a Kiwanis member (Kiwanis sponsored the parade) and member of the church within Brock and I got married (not IN the church, the pastor came to our house and married us in the back yard), that the church was "sneaking in" a manger scene, complete with a pregnant Mary, her husband Joseph and the three wise men. So we were prepared. What we weren't so prepar...

It was a drive-by conversation. And not so much a conversation as it was Leda informing me of her latest calamity... Leda says to me, as she is walking out of her room, "Mommy, I fell down the stairs." I respond, as she passes me, still walking, "Yeah? Are you okay? Leda says, matter-of-factly, practically in the next room, "I cried." I look to Brock and say, "I am so blogging this." It was cute - doesn't translate as well in print, but it was cute. We are off to eat dinner and go to the Holiday Parade. May be more posting later, with pictures!

(This posting every day is HARD! I'm beat! Technically, two posts left to go, tonight and tomorrow. Then I'm taking a break for the weekend! And maybe several days next week! ;-) I'm digging into Todd's suggested topics for tonight's post. New Years' resolutions. I used to resolve to quit smoking every year for the somewhere around 20 years I smoked. Every.Stinking.Year. It took some time, but I did finally quit in 2004. As 2005 was about to start, it was the first year I decided I wasn't going to make any resolutions because I had finally accomplished the one that had been dogging me for years. I didn't make one last year either. I think I had decided that I needed another year of no resolutions. This year, I'm thinking of resolving to lose some weight and/or get an exercise program going. I think if I try to put an exercise program together for myself, I will start to lose some of the extra weight I would like to get rid of. That's really the o...

I just put Best of War and More on my Wish List. Seriously. On my way out tonight to hang with the girls and drink some wine and eat some good food, I heard " Spill the Wine " - everytime I hear that song (and mind you, it's an oldie, I know, so it doesn't get played often), I think, I gotta get that album. Well, I figured maybe I could download the song - but NO, I have to buy an album to get the song (and it's not even the right album) so I found the album on Amazon and I put it on my wish list. When I get it, I can play "Spill the Wine" anytime I want. And "Why can't we be friends" and "Low Rider". Awesome! Brock's gonna hate it - I'll put it on a playlist with "You're so Vain!" Cool! Seriously, someone get it for me!

Colleen tagged me with this meme last week. Being that I probably am going to need some ideas to finish out the NaBloPoMo month, I figured, what the heck. Then I realized, I was going to have to come up five interesting things about me! Well, I don't know if these are interesting, and I didn't apply a theme to them (I'm just not that creative!), but here they are: 1. In my life, I've played five instruments. In order that I learned them, I've played violin, piano, flute, piccolo and I recently was learning to play guitar. Well, recently - I was learning when I was pregnant. I planned on picking it back up, but, well, I had the baby! I've been a bit busy. I guess I could say I know how to play six instruments - if the recorder counts. Anyway, I can read music and play some instruments (although when I picked up the guitar, it had been probably about 20 years since I had last read music - it took me a few minutes to figure it out again!) 2. If you want to know who...

I figured this might happen...Leda is thinking more about using the potty since our trip to Florida. I figured that if she saw Sami using the potty, she'd start to realize that she's big enough/old enough to use the potty, too. However, I am not sure if it is a novelty for her or if she really needs to go when she asks to go. Sometimes, she does, sometimes she doesn't. We probably need to stay on top of her - taking her to the potty every half hour or so, regardless, so she gets the idea. I've tried to talk to her about when she feels like she needs to go she needs to tell me or Daddy, but not sure yet if that is why she asks or not - because most of the time, she's got a wet pullup on! That's another thing - she really wants to wear pull-ups - I tried underwear on Sunday and she went the whole into early afternoon before she wet herself ("I leak, Mommy") She didn't seem to upset by wetting herself either, except that she wanted out of the wet clot...

Ugghhh...it's back to work after a weeks vacation! Boy did that suck! So, I am with little inspiration for a good post. Yes, I have been given ideas, and I hope to get to them before the end of the week, and I did get tagged with a meme , but I just don't have the wherewithal (Love that word!) to come up with anything intelligent that anyone would want to read! So, I thought I would post some of the most popular searches I have seen hitting the site in the past couple of months. Well, maybe not so popular, however there are a few that have been used more than once, by more than one person, in more than one country! They would be: Ferris Wheel searches: " how much to ride a ferris wheel " and " ride ferris wheel while pregnant " " his name was rico " - I've had probably about 10 or so hits in the past three months on this one - for what reason, I haven't a clue! " its gonna be a bright shiny day " - another one that I've seen s...

Okay, here it is, in all it's glory. Some of this is old news to some of you (as I emailed this list to a bunch of you family members in like OCTOBER because SOME of you needed to SHOP EARLY. You know who you are! And if you got something on this list, you know who you need to let know so that there are no duplicates! If not, let me know, I'll email you the email list!) Let's start with the easiest person in the household - Brock. Let's see, I know I must have his list somewhere around here...really, it must be here, I know I must have it, I've only asked for it a million and one times...seriously, where did I put that list?...Oh, That's Right! I HAVEN'T GOTTEN IT YET! Oh well, guess gold lamé thongs are in order this year (remind me to fill the rest of you in on that inside family secret/joke someday.) Okay, so let's go on to someone who made their list this year. Well, with much help from her lovely and wonderful mother - Leda: Leda has a Wish List at ...

We are home! Duff is very happy to have us home - I think the entire first layer of the skin on my face is completely saturated with Duff kisses! We made it as far as Fredricksburg, VA, last night before Brock decided he didn't want to drive any more. The drive from Jacksonville wasn't bad - we stuck to I-95 and really, the traffic wasn't bad. We found a hotel (I use that term lightly) with a king size bed for the three of us and we crashed out! It is amazing how even in a King size bed with the kid sleeping between us, I still only end up with about one foot of sleeping area - the kid, she likes to sleep right on top of me! We didn't sleep all that well - the bed sucked, the room wasn't all that much better and Leda spent part of the night coughing. We awoke around 7, Brock took a shower and I decided not to (apparently, not a bad decision on my part) and we headed off to Denny's for what had to have been the fastest served breakfast I think I have ever had at ...

Today is the last day in Florida. We are heading home to Pennsylvania shortly, after a little turkey leftovers lunch. We'll go as far as we can today. With Brock and now Leda not feeling particularly well, it will be doubtful we could make it all the way home without stopping for the night. At least, that's the plan. We'll see how far we get and how late it gets. In the meantime, Leda is having some fun running around with her cousins for a few hours and working off some extra energy before the long ride home. I think she will miss her cousins something awful. She has had a lot of fun with them this week. So, next post will probably be from home. Hopefully we will have a safe and easy trip home! We had fun in Florida, but are looking forward to seeing Duff and our house again!

What an awesome meal we had this evening. Aunt Aimee and Uncle Kurt and the girls came over and Uncle Jeff was here and Kay and Phil and their three girls came over (they are friends of Aimee and Kurt) and we had fried turkey and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and risotto and cranberry salad and two different stuffings and Oh. My. God. there was SO much food! There was Pie afterwards! Yumm! Aunt Diane and Uncle Tony came after dinner with Lisa and Randy and their two kids and we all had fun hanging out and digesting the wonderful food we had just ate! It was an awesome day (except for Dallas winning, darn Jets!) And the weather turned out not so bad, after some raining this morning. The girls watched Sleeping Beauty (or Sleeping Booty, as my daughter calls her) and then we poured them all into bed. Tomorrow we will get up, pack, spend a few more hours with Uncle Jeff and Grandma and Granddaddy and then we head home to Duff, who we miss a lot!

Leda made an apple pie with Grandma! Bob went for a dip in the fountain, while Auggie looks on!

(The title was suggested by someone else in the family - definitely one of those who was actually drinking the wine.) Today was a definite vacation day - one of those vacation days when nothing is planned and all there is to do is to sit around and do nothing at all. A really awesome day. We sat around and did nothing - Leda played and Brock complained that he's coming down with strep and I read my book. A good day all around! This evening, The Marson's came out of quarantine (turns out both Abby and Sami have strep throat, but they are on antibiotics now) and Brock made his famous Shrimp Soup (it's probably not what it's actually supposed to be called, but that's what we call it - it's awesome - you Kingsleys will understand!) and we had us some shrimp and bread and we had us some wine (the aforementioned wine) and we waited for Jeff to show up. Jeff did finally show up with Bob, his trusty Jack Russell and we all had a good time hanging out. This has been the ...

I find it funny that the people I am spending my vacation with feel the need to still check the blog to find out what I am doing! Very funny! ;-)

Today, we went to the Zoo! The plan originally was to take all the kids to the Zoo for the day with Grandma, but Abby wasn't feeling so well and needed to go see the Doctor, so just Grandma, Sami, Leda and Mommy and Daddy headed off for the Jacksonville Zoo. What a beautiful day we had. The sun was shining bright and it was warm! A bit over dressed I was for the weather (wearing jeans and socks! Would have LOVED to have my flip flops!) We saw the lions and we saw some snakes and some turtles and some carybaras (big rodents, yuck!) and anteaters and monkeys and gorillas. We even saw some bears and jaguars, but they were sleeping! Leda and Sami had lots of fun running around and seeing who could get Grandma to carry them the most! ;-) We got close up and personal with Gorillas, which was awesome. The Jacksonville Zoo is really nice - it's like walking in the jungle. And going on a Tuesday was a bonus - hardly any crowds (in fact, no crowds at all!) We rode the train to get some ...

We spent lunchtime and then some in St. Augustine with the Marsons today. Had a little lunch (and not enough sangria) at The Columbia and headed down to the old fort to walk off some of that good food! We didn't go into the Castillo de San Marcos but walked around the outside and the girls had a good time climbing on the old canons and the sea wall and watching some dolphins play off in the distance. St. Augustine is a beautiful place (at least old city is). I wish I had thought about going to college at Flagler. It would have been an awesome place to go to college. The old buildings and the old market area are just beautiful. Yes, it's a but touristy, but bearable. Especially on a Monday! Except when trying to find a parking place! The kids had fun together today. So much so they didn't want to be separated at the end of the day. But off to separate houses they went - Leda slept the whole way back to Grandma's and then went up to bed for another hour (or so, she'...

The weather is beautiful here! Today the sun shone brightly and the air was early fall or late spring like (well, early fall or late spring in the Northeast - they are used to this down here!) We left home around 8AM yesterday for Florida. We drove straight down I95, which is a surprise, because Brock hates the stretch between Philly and Richmond - too much traffic. But he figured it was the faster way to go, rather than drive 100 miles out of our way just to avoid the traffic. Leda was a trooper. Never complained once! Unbelievable. And we didn't give her the DVD to watch until 3pm in the afternoon! Due to the uncomplaining child, we had short stops and made it to Jacksonville by 8:30PM! There was lots of playing around with all the fun stuff Grandma has at her house, a little eating of something that wasn't road food and then we got into bed around 10pm. Leda was going to sleep in the guest bedroom just down the hall from Brock and I. She seemed to fall asleep pretty quickly....

We are out of here! Splitting like logs! Gone like yesterday! Elvis has left the building.... I think you get the picture. We are Florida Bound. T-minus 13 or 14 hours (give or take, most likely give!) and we'll be in Florida preparing for that Turkey feast! Leda's ready to go, Mommy and Daddy are ready to go. Duff, not so happy he has to spend the week with the cat at home! But our lovely neighbors will be looking in on him every day several times and he'll probably even get to go over to their house and play with the kids and the dogs! Next post, from Florida! Woooo Hoooo! Now, I am off to get some coffee and pour myself into the car! See Ya!

Earlier this week, I did attempt to start a post about who I thought would (or should) win Survivor. In that post I mentioned I thought Frosti should and might possibly pull off a win. After last night, I have scrapped that post. So, here's the replacement. Who do I think should win Survivor? Erik. Who will probably win (but SO doesn't deserve it)? That little weasel Todd. What a wanker. I really thought Frosti deserved to win it (was a little disappointed he tried to throw his former tribe mate Erik under the bus). I also think it would be nice if Denise the lunch lady won, but I don't think that is going to happen unless she starts thinking for herself. In all honesty, I'm starting to get a bit tired of Survivor. There are no surprises anymore - you pretty much can figure out who is going to be voted off about half way through because the way it is edited together, it pretty much telegraphs the one who is gonna get voted off. I'm stuck on CSI - I love that show. N...

What is it about the end of a week before a vacation that brings out the nuts in clients? What a day. I was worked to the bone. I am just hoping I can make it to tomorrow evening. At that point, I am done until the Monday after Thanksgiving. Hallelujah! So tonight, I missed dinner with the family due to work, but had to finish up and take over parenting duties since Brock was going out to a car club meeting. Just before he left, I was woofing down my dinner when Leda comes running out of the bathroom asking for a lollipop. I ask for what, and she replies "for going poopy in the potty!" And I totally missed it. Brock apparently yelled for me but in my stuppor to eat the first thing I ate all day, I didn't hear him, so I missed the first poopy in the potty. Darn it! So I gave Leda her lollipop, and we praised her like crazy and off she and I went to finish watching the news while Daddy took off for his meeting. Leda was being a little crazy around the living room, bouncing ...

I loved the tune, I just hadn't totally watched the commercial - had me giggling! Jeep Commercial on YouTube Totally gotta get that song for my iPod!

Tonight's post is uninspired. Yes, I have a post waiting to be finished that would be a heck of a lot more fun to read than this one, but I am just not inspired to finish it. I'm ready for my vacation. Now. Seriously. I've been ready since the last vacation was dubbed the "week I spent at the beach but couldn't go because I HAD PNEUMONIA!" And I am three days away from that vacation. I am uninspired to do anything else but plan for my vacation. Plans have us driving to Jacksonville, FL, starting Saturday morning. The plan is to be there Saturday night (sorry, Mom) but if it starts getting late and we aren't yet there, to stop at a hotel and drive the rest of the way Sunday morning. It will totally depend on how Leda can spend a whole day in a car! Should be interesting. So I am charging the DVD player, stocking up on road snacks, thinking about packing and WHAT to pack - it's supposed to be in the low 70s during the day, but high 40s. And I just got us...

Might make a few of the rest of you cry too.... I was in my office, typing up tonight's post (which this is not - well, it is now, but it wasn't the post I originally was going to post) and Leda walked in and said to me, "Mommy, Daddy's Mommy is dead." I asked her to repeat, because I wasn't sure I heard her correctly. Brock was standing right behind her and he wasn't sure he heard her correctly either. She repeated it and I said, "Yes, honey, Daddy's Mommy is dead," to which she replied, "I can't go see her." That was about the time I started to get teary eyed. Leda walked off merrily and I looked at Brock and asked him where the heck that came from. Apparently today in the car as they were off to do errands, Leda asked Brock where his Mommy was. He tried to skirt the issue, but decided it was better to just tell her, so he did. It was cute and sad at the same time. She's becoming so much more aware of her surroundings and ...

One of the things I dreaded the most when we moved Leda into a big girl bed, was her being able to wander the house at will. It terrified me that she might get up in the middle of the night and wander out into the rest of the house and possibly hurt herself in the dark. In the past few months of the big girl bed, I've gotten over this fear. Leda tends not to get out of bed, but rather will yell for one of us (or both) or make sure we can overhear her when she's ready to get up. It's like she needs our permission to get out of bed. Which is completely fine with me. It had occurred to me that the child may end up with one of her father's weird behaviors of sleepwalking, but didn't think too much about it. She definitely talks in her sleep, that's pretty much a given with two parents who are known to have had full conversations with one another in their sleep. Last night, I got to thinking a whole heck of a lot about it! Some time around 3am, I heard someone walkin...

Last night was awesome. I truly think I was more excited about eating at Plush. I really love that place. It's so not what you would expect that it's really good. Basically it is a little dark bar in a shopping center. The first time we went in, like 4 years ago, it was dark and the area where they now have tables was mostly couches and chairs, places for people to gather. it was more of a night spot than a bar and restaurant. They had an awesome bar menu, but we didn't know anything of a dinner menu. Three years ago (actually it was probably less than that ago, I think Leda had been born) we had dinner there for the first time. And it was good. The service is good, the food is good, and the atmosphere is just awesome. We'd had dinner at a few other places around the Keswick (The Tavern, the Diner, the Greek restaurant) but Plush is the best of them all and is the only place we eat before a show now. We had steak for dinner - Brock had the ribeye and I had the filet mig...

Our living room ceiling is done! One week late, but the guys did such an awesome job, I don't really care! We'll be having them back to do more work on the house when we decide to do more work on the house! ;-) So, here's the before: Here's the after: We still need to put the plates up on the openings for lights, since we haven't quite decided or agreed upon what we will do with the lighting for the room. Brock got the wrong size plates, so we'll get them up this week. And, we cleaned and oiled the floors this morning, since there's nothing in the room yet! Here's a "split" shot - left side is oiled, right side not yet! It looks pretty darn good. Not moving the furniture back in yet, not until we buff the floors tomorrow morning. So I am off to clean the rest of the house so that our babysitters tonight have a clean area to be in while sitting with Leda. Yep, that's right, we are out of here tonight! Just for the evening. Arlo Guthrie is pl...

My brother-in-law Todd asked me to talk about my "five-year plan" as a topic for a posting. Well, that got me to thinkin' (yes, that was the burning smell you smell!) This was always a question I hated (no offense to Todd!). I guess I don't think much about the future as much as I tend to just live in the present. Or maybe it is because I want to leave my options open. I like that - keeping my options open. If I said, "Five years from now I want to have joined the circus and be a clown," then to me, that means I have to start working now to become a clown in the circus (and man, I hate clowns!) I also hate to quit, so I would feel like I have to spend the next five years working to be a clown even though I really don't want to become something I really don't like. Or, better example. I decided long ago I wanted to be a nurse. I was 8 or 9. So, when it became time to look for colleges, I was determined to go to a college where I could get a nursing de...

I used to like driving. Actually, I still do, but I wish I could drive where there were no other drivers. Because, if you haven't noticed, there are a lot of drivers who probably shouldn't be driving. In cars. Or SUVs. I'd even go so far as to say there are a few people I saw last night and tonight who probably shouldn't be let within 50 feet of ANYTHING with wheels. There are a lot of drivers who wouldn't pass a driver's test if their lives depended on it. There are drivers who are endangering the lives of others on the road, not to mention themselves and those who are in the vehicle with them. There are very few drivers who have any regard for anyone else they share the road with. That's right SHARE the road. What a freakin' concept. And I'm not talking about just the slow people. The guys who treat everything as a race are just as bad if not worse. I saw one guy who figured it was his right to travel at 95MPH in traffic going about 70 MPH so much ...

Not really, but I am in New York! I am actually in Queens. It's a first for me. Never been to Queens. In all honesty, not that thrilled to be here. I'm here to visit with a client. Can you hear the excitement in that sentence? If you do, then you are listening too hard! The drive up sucked, but was better than the alternative, which was to get up at O'dark thirty and drive up in the morning and attempt to get into the city during morning rush hour. It's bad enough I have to fight my way home tomorrow in the afternoon rush. Hoping against hope that I am out of here by 3pm or else it could be Saturday before I get home. Well, maybe not that bad, but it will be a pain in the you know what! So, here I am, posting late because I had to drive my sorry butt up to NYC. I wish I could say something along the way inspired me to write about it, but nothing did. Well, nothing that I could write about here without a heck of a lot of profanity! Traffic was a bear. Not heavy, but all ...

Today was that day. The day that if anything was going to go wrong, it did. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but it was one of those days that you think you are going to make headway on one project when another project rears it's ugly head and you end up spending all day working on a project that just doesn't seem to end. There's always something else to do. On top of that, the contractors who were supposed to be done the living room ceiling last Friday, then this Tuesday, then this Thursday (yes, Mom, I do believe this guy may be related to your contractor), doesn't show up to work on the ceiling until almost 2:30pm. So much for being done on Thursday. If he's done on Thursday, I'd be really surprised. Oh, and then, it's election day, so Brock is working the polls all day, so I am single mom. Had to get up early to take a shower before the kid got up, so I could run her to day care before work. Well, that didn't work too good - she was up about the same ti...

Maybe I didn't notice it last year or the year before (I guess I should look back a year ago and in 2005 and see if I posted anything) but this year the time change really seems to be wreaking havoc with Leda. Last night we went out to the Tournament of Bands at West Chester University to see John and Jennifer's nephew's band play in their division. What a flash back this was for me. Well, and I think John, Jennifer and John's brother Chris, as we all had been in marching band in high school. I think I almost got a little teary there on the first band performance! Leda seemed to like it. I think that she's still a year or so away from wanting to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. She almost immediately asked for her binky which usually means she's tired. We headed out for a quick bite before coming home and putting her to bed by 8pm. She went right to sleep. This morning, she was up before 7am. This child doesn't usually start making noise unti...

This morning Leda and I made Oatmeal Cookies. Several times during the process I had to remind her NOT to put her fingers in the mixing bowl (one, to keep her from eating the batter and two, to keep her fingers from being mixed into the batter by the mixer!) She helped put the eggs in and she helped put the flour mixture in and the oats. Then came the best part of cookie making: Well, and then the actual eating of the cookies themselves: It was a fun morning! Shhhh, we'll be sharing some of the cookies with the Durhams later! We are off to a marching band competition tonight and then off to dinner out with the girls (Leda and Paige). We'll be home for the game because I have already told Jennifer I refuse to watch tonight's game with her. I love her to death, but she has really bad taste in football teams (she's a Dallas fan - yuck!) Well, that and the fact that I have rubbed the last couple of years when we did better than the Cowgirls in her face. Guess I deserve a li...

She remembers the placement of everything! Two examples: 1. She has a wooden table and two chairs that she got for her birthday that have been sitting in the living room since her birthday. They sit right in front of the bay window, next to the TV. The Friday before the living room was emptied, Brock put the table and chairs away in Leda's bedroom closet until the living room is done. The kid came home from daycare, walked into the living room and the first thing she says is, "hey, where's my table." She had been in the house for approximately 30 seconds. 2. Tonight we went out to dinner (yeah, yeah, so much for my cooking - I did make the salsa though!) We went to the Fountain Inn, a very old restaurant in these parts (George Washington slept there - this is most likely true, seriously) It has a dive bar and restaurant in it that is to die for - nothing fancy, just really good food for fairly cheap. Brock and I used to eat there once a week for like a whole year or s...

I've been cooking lately. Mostly on the weekends, when I get a good idea, I make a dinner all by myself! Brock gets to stay out of the kitchen. It's not that I can't cook, that's not the amazing thing, it's that I really didn't like it. I get very tense about the measurements of things, how long to cook stuff, how it doesn't look right, that it might taste bad, all those things. I still feel that way, but for some reason, this past summer, I really wanted to spend time in the kitchen making stuff. A few weeks ago I decided I needed salsa. Not just any salsa, no store bought stuff. I wanted nice, chunky, fresh salsa. I did a quick google search and didn't really find anything I liked, so I figured I would try something out, based on some of what i did find on the internets. I made my own recipe for salsa. Yes, you heard me right. The one who is terrified of not measuring exact and following the recipe to a 'T' made her own recipe. Of course, it wa...

Thank Goodness it's Friday! Wooo hoooo! What a week. It was a crazy work week. Lots of things to do and just not enough time to do them in. Oh, and of course it all needed to get done now! Gotta love those kinds of weeks - NOT! I was looking forward to cleaning our living room from floor to new ceiling this weekend, but our new ceiling is not quite done yet. Oh, did I fail to mention? Yes, we have had workers in the house all week putting a new ceiling on our great room. It's apparently a good thing we are having them do this, since the insulation that was up there is about 40 years old and had started to breakdown. The idea was to put insulation up there and electrical boxes for once we decide to agree on the type of lights we want to put up. All that is left to put up is the drywall and paint, which apparently will have the job done on Monday or Tuesday. At least the guys are doing a good job! John (Durham) had graciously come over on last Sunday to help move all the stuff ou...

I almost forgot! Not an auspicious start to the National Month of Blog Posting when I am supposed to blog every day of the month. Including the first day! Duh! At least I remembered before the end of the first day! Becoming a parent did this to me. Makes me forget everything (and I am sure there might be some people who are close to me who would beg to differ, but really, I am MUCH worse than I was before I gave birth). I totally get my Mother now. Not that she forgets everything, but I can totally dig why we would drive her nuts. It's what kids do, apparently. Seriously, until you have a kid, you don't get how hard things can get. Everything becomes magnified. You worry about things you wouldn't have thought to worry about (and believe me, I'm the worrier of the family, so if it can be worried about, I probably worried about it tenfold.) You find yourself at your wits end because the husband needs something, work needs something, the offspring needs something, the dog...