Life goes on...

My toe is recovering slowly...oh so painfully slowly. I can get around but too much walking means I pay for it later. However, if I rest it - as much as is possible with three kids in the house - nothing seems to get accomplished and I feel crankier so I am dealing with the pain as best I can. Ibuprofen is my friend right now. I'm not a very patient person about certain things and illness and injuries are the kinds of things that put a black mark on my permanent record. Pregnancy (aka Waiting For The Big Day) was another one. I'm so bad at waiting for things to happen. I'm very much a planner and when those plans get derailed, side-tracked, or the journey seems interminably long (like when your baby is born 9 days past the due date and only after many hours of attempts to induce birth - none of which seem particularly successful - and everyone including the midwife tells you this one will be "quick" because it is your third. HA!) . I won't say I need instant gratification but I guess I like to know where the end of the tunnel is located and how long it's going to take to get there.

So, I am hobbling along hoping that it starts to feel better sooner rather than later and I can start my daily walks again. Preferably before the snow starts to fly! I'm missing out on some nice crisp fall mornings - fall being my absolute favorite season - and it annoys the heck out of me. The weight loss journey is on a definite hiatus and it is so frustrating. I find myself eating without really feeling hungry AND I'm not excercising. Bad combination. And the holidays are just around the corner - damn. I can feel that some of the weight is back on that I lost this spring but I don't dare even bother to step on the scale because it all seems so futile and discouraging at the moment.

To keep occupied with something more sedentary I've been listing a few things on eBay. It's fun and I've made a few bucks in the process. I sold a couple of buntings - the kind that you put in an infant car seat to keep them warm without the need for jackets or snowsuits - and made a fair bit more than tag sale prices on them. Now I have a pair of toddler shoes (New Without Tags) and a gently used sleep sack/wearable blanket up for auction. The shoes were ones I bought for A but the size ended up being too small once the correct season rolled around and the sleep sack was something I only used for E so it's in great shape. It's fun to see how many people are watching an item and even better when the bids start rolling in. I have two bids on the shoes already but there are 13 watchers so it has the potential for going a lot higher than the current price. As I continue to clear out stuff for our tag sale I'm constantly on the lookout for things that might fare better on eBay or craigslist (for those large, bulky items that I'd rather not ship). At least it keeps me from going completely crazy during my convelescence.

And so, life goes on. The girls are having a great time at their respective schools. R has made fast friends with a girl in her class who is a 2nd grader. She lives in our neighborhood and from what I've seen of her she is a sweet, imaginative, polite, and gregarious young girl. We arranged for a play date this afternoon and she played very nicely with R and A for about 3.5 hours. Her mom got a break (since it was naptime for her 2-year-old brother) and I did too since the girls kept each other happy and entertained. Win-win situation. We hope to get them together again real soon.

A has a birthday coming up in less than a month (and having lost an entire week to my toe injury I was realizing in the wee hours of the morning as I nursed E back to sleep that I had yet to buy invitations or party supplies for the requested unicorn-themed birthday event) and she has already created her guest list. I limit the guests for birthday parties to no more than the age of the birthday child - so A will be allowed four guests this year. She named two friends from school right off the bat and then asked for two friends from outside of school and thus her list was complete. I ran hobbled down to the party store today and actually found appropriate unicorn-themed partyware - cups, plates, napkins, and banner and coordinating plastic table covering, treat bags and party blowers (or whatever these are called). I even managed to get a game (bingo) and most of the party favors for the guests and a few days ago I had picked out a beaded bracelet craft kit as another acitivity, time permitting. R is going to assist me in creating a "pin the horn on the unicorn" game and I need to figure out how best to accomplish a unicorn-themed cake (plastic unicorns placed on top of a straightfoward round cake, artistic attempt at creating a 2-D unicorn drawing out of icing on top of a sheet cake, or cutting a cake somehow in the actual shape of a unicorn and then using appropriate-colored icing and adornments for decoration? Decisions...decisions...time to search the internet for ideas). Aside from that, and the actual process of writing out and sending off the invitations I think we are pretty much ready for A's birthday party. E's special day is just shy of two weeks after A's birthday and I think we are going to go pretty low-key for that one. We will do a family party with my in-laws in which we have dinner together, help her blow out her candle and let her have her first taste of cake and ice cream and then open her presents for her while she shreds the wrapping paper into itty-bitty pieces and tries to eat it! It will be just right. And of course I will have pictures to share of both events, like it or not.

Speaking of the Littest Miss, we have a feeling that we will have another bipedal member of the family in very short order. E is standing quite well all on her own without holding on to anything and last night, in a vain attempt to steal the toothpaste cap from me while I held it juuust out of reach, she managed two very tiny steps. It's a thought that is exciting, scary, and bittersweet all at once. Some things will be made easier and we will move on to a new chapter called Toddlerhood but she will also be more of a menace and able to get into even more mischief than she is currently capable of...

...and of course it is one more thing to remind me that my last baby is growing up.

Indeed, life goes on.