:::sigh::: what a day

It actually started out as a pretty good day - I was on a roll, getting all my normal stuff done. We had ballet this morning and we got out of the house with plenty of time to spare, even managed to pack a drink and snack for Chloe, stop and Wal Mart and the bank, and get her dressed once we got there without rushing. I thought things were going well - minus the fact that Chloe got in trouble (again) at dance for not listening and being too hyper.

We got home, had lunch, did some phonics lessons, etc. Then all hell broke loose. I'm not sure what happened, but I think we were just all having an off day. Cora didn't actually take a nap today, which isn't particularly good for a two and half month old baby. She got up before 8 and I put her to bed at 7:45 tonight. She slept for a whole ten minutes in between that. Instead, she cried for the last half of the day. I couldn't put her down without hurting her feelings terribly and starting another screaming session. It was easier just to hold her and cuddle her than let her start crying, because once she did, it took half an hour to stop her.

And Chloe - ugh! I'm not sure what got into her today. She was hyper and rambunctious - even more than normal - and was ultra-sensitive. If I said 'no' about something, she fell apart. I accidentally barely stepped on her fingers, after she tripped me by throwing herself on the ground in front of my while I was walking. She cried and cried, way more than was necessary, and kept bringing it up all day about how mean I was and how I don't like her because I stepped on her fingers. I apologized, kissed her fingers, hugged her... that should've been plenty. I barely even stepped down before I realized she was there. It was just one thing after another with her, nonstop today. Most days she's outside from the moment the frost melts off the grass till dinner time, playing with the dog. Today Izzy knocked her down - a common occurrence when you mix a 30 pound kid with a 90 pound dog. But she decided Izzy is mean and she didn't want to play with her anymore, so she was inside and whining all day long.

I finally kinda lost my temper with her at dinner time, when I was trying to make soup with a crying baby and whiny kid hanging on me. She kept going on and on about how horrible the kitchen smelled (I was cooking chicken. It smelled like cooking chicken.) "I don't WANNA smell dinner cooking." "Mom, the kitchen SMELLS bad." "I don't WANNA eat dinner tonight." "I don't WANNA go play in my room." Oy vey! I snapped at her, told her I didn't care if she ate or not but that she better stop whining. She cried for twenty minutes in her room before I could get her to calm down, and she kept telling me how much I don't like her because I'm so mean to her. I felt kinda bad, but my nerves were shot and she just wasn't helping!

At seven o'clock she asked if she could take a bath and go to bed because she was tired. She wasn't kidding - she was asleep five minutes after she laid down, which might actually be a record for her. Cora finally let me nurse her to sleep a little while after. Andrew was in bed at 7:30 because he has to be up for work.

So I poured a glass of Sangiovese and knitted all the way to the heel flap of Monkey before I decided that it's really turning out too big and I needed to change to smaller needles. So I ripped and ripped and ripped and hours of work is now a brown blob of yarn once more. I'm going to start them again, this time on size 1 needles. My gauge on 2's worked out fine, but for some reason it didn't work out once I started knitting the actual sock. So now I'm going to use size 1 needles, which somewhat resembles knitting with toothpicks, only they're not quite as sharp. But the lace pattern is gorgeous, and is easy to memorize (an important factor when I'm interrupted constantly and can't keep track of stitches and rows.)

Here's to hoping tomorrow's a better day. I need it.