Back home on the range

All is well here. My guys and girl did fine without me this week... of course... but I think they were happy to have me return. I know I was. Working nights is not all it's cracked up to be (I know, no one cracks it up to be good - but it's even less appealing than I thought it would be). I spent a few days supporting the transition from paper documentation to electronic in a level three NICU. This means a bunch of tiny, sick babies and very intense nurses who (rightly so) were very nervous about the transition. All in all, everything went great. But, it's a stressful environment and I'm happy to return to working remotely where I can answer questions via phone and email while in the buff my sweats. And can hide from physicians.

On the home front - the kids continue to get closer and closer to outsmarting me. Brother spent the day building things with hammer and nails, creating race tracks with multiple loops and watching the third Harry Potter movie - which I'm pretty sure I wouldn't "get" even if I paid closer attention. He's also jumped full on the Bakugan wagon and amazes me with his understanding of the point systems and memorization of all their names. Fear Ripper, Diablo, Dragonoid... who can keep that straight? All I know is I was almost that woman on the local news in Charlotte this week when I went to Wal.Mart to try to buy him one as a surprise and the lady who arrived to the aisle seconds before me had taken them ALL off the hanging pegs and put them in her cart. She had twenty or thirty packages of them for her ONE child. Two other moms and I were able to pry a few away from her. Not physically... but I might have gone that route if needed.

As far as the Little Bitty - well, she is speaking in full sentences more often that not and has started telling me repeatedly the Daddy is her "best friend". I really find it completely endearing and don't have any jealousy over this. In fact, I firmly believe that if Daddy stays her best friend through high school - and even college - we will have a pretty smooth run through those teenage years. Just think... "Hey, you coming to that big party after the game?"... "Sure, just let me swing by and pick up my best friend - Daddy." Or - "Hey - do you want come to my Fraternity dance with me?"... "Sure, but my best friend, Daddy, is in town - do you mind if he comes too?"

One other tidbit that I don't want to forget is the fact that as I lay listening to her sing along to our nightly prayers, I realized that instead of the traditional prayer closing of "Amen"(in our little song it is a drawn out "aaahhhh mennn") she sings "Ohhhh Mannnnn". How cute is that? I kind of want to change the words so that we can always sing it that way.