Sleep talkin' man!

I swear I'm working on a post. I swear.

In the meantime, this is hilarious.

I could go my entire life without singing "Old MacDonald" and not miss it.

Blurry, but you can see the post-Christmas cookie scoundrel.

I can now tell you everything there is to know about 16-year-old Australian sailors.

In other words, I'm finding that "real" writing is getting in the way of my hobby writing. Spending each naptime researching pitches, writing pitches, pitching pitching, following up on pitches, re-writing pitches - or, yowza! - working on an actual assignment, leaves me pretty spent by day's end. Two years in, I still haven't found the balance between motherhood and work. Other parents manage to do it. Amy Sohn is plenty productive. But these days I find it hard to respond to email, much less blog past 8:30 (Owen's newly self-appointed bed time. Damn I miss 7:00.) Stay-At-Homers who freelance (seriously, there has to be a better name. Work-At-Homers-Who-Also-Raise-Kids? WAHWARKs?) how did you juggle? Or did you just throw up your hands and focus on the kids until they went to school?

Owen has developed a sudden interest in singing and, if you've never heard a proud (albeit bashful) toddler warble about rowing his boat down the streeT, I highly recommend. I can't believe I ever worried about his language development. All you mamas (and pops) who told me to hang on until he turned 2 were right, right, right. There's a lot of chat going on around these parts, mostly having to do with what his Chewbacca action figure likes to eat (chicken pot pie) and things that are spooky. Unfortunately a lot of things are spooky these days. Costumes. Hats. Swim goggles. Anything that is loud. Kids that are fast. Like I said in the last entry, I'm doing my best to reassure him without making everything a big deal but it seems like the fears are snowballing. He's got some separation stuff going on and I'm sure that's contributing but man, the constant reassuring gets exhausting. I can't imagine what it must be like for him...

Totally unrelated: What did Heidi Montag do to herself?

That's my cue to wrap it up and do the dishes. Anyone care to join me?

Stay away from those Slave Leias, kid.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wait, I'm late? What? Aw, crap.

I've really got to get more regular about posting. Especially if I want things like "readers" and "cash flow". Hope everyone rang in the New Year - new decade! - with all the requisite bells and whistles and balls and booze. Our New Year's Eve consisted of Chinese delivery and a disappointing Battlestar. Apparently Matt woke up for the Big Moment, but me? Slept right through it. Which is something, considering where we live. I yelled at him for not waking me up but he said he knew better. True, dat.

I now have a 2-year-old and you know, it's pretty cool. I keep waiting for the tantrums and the boundary testing, but aside from a definite uptick in anxiety things are pretty smooth. (Okay, about that anxiety... My son, who never met a stranger he didn't want to hug, now spends a good portion of his day recounting a scare he had a few weeks ago when overwound 5-year-old tried his damndest to terrify my kid. And guess what? It worked. Now whenever Owen sees someone with a scarf on their head - hello, winter! - he goes hysterical. Shaking, sobbing, the whole heartbreaking 9 yards. It's so hard being 2.) Still, 90% of the time things are easy, or at least rewarding. And even though he's all mama looks-wise, he's mini-Matt when it comes to interests. We spend hours playing with his Star Wars figures. "Ham Sowo" and "Fee-Da-Peeo" (C-3PO) are top hits. It's only a matter of time before they hit ComiCon together.

In other news, they've started doing separation trial runs at nursery school in preparation for pre-school next year and yes, I'm already wigging out. It's so hard to leave my kid! Even though I totally want to leave my kid! We separated for a half-hour this week and of course Owen was completely fine. But going from mama/baby to suddenly solo (even for 30 minutes) felt different than just leaving him with Matt or with a friend. It made me start to think about things. Stuff like "What do I do with my time once he's in school?" and "I really need to find a job" and "When did I get so old?"

Hmm. Methinks I'm in a mood. And how are things with you?