Not Today

The great baking marathon that actually had been planned to start yesterday, then got bumped down today took another hit today and maybe will begin tomorrow. Provided I feel better by then.

Not sick - just so darned cold all day today and tired, really, really tired. What sucks about the "tired" business is that I was asleep last night before 2 a.m. and didn't get up till shortly after 7 a.m. so that should have been a decent amount of sleep - a lot more than I get some days, for sure! But my system just was not cooperative at all about the baking idea even though I used it as a form of bribery to try to appease Maya, calm her down from the meltdown she went into today when Mandy left for work.

She wants -every day now - to go with her mother when she leaves the house. Thankfully, she wasn't as wild and ornery today as she was Saturday -I wasn't taking any chances that she might run for the door and head for the great outdoors so I was holding her, trying to use the pressure of my holding her tightly to me to ease her anxiety. Poor kid though, I really do feel bad for her as she just sobs and sobs - repeating over and over "I go wif Mommy; see you later. I go wif Mommy; see you later." Then when I suggested we could bake some cookies tonight, it all changed to "I bake cookies wif Mommy." Getting her to talk in terms of doing things with me, with her sister Kate and get her mind off her mother's absence can be quite the daunting task at times.

She is fascinated though by the Christmas tree as well as some of the other decorations Mandy and Kate put up around the house. However, her fascination there isn't always shown by her standing back or near the tree and observing it - no, she will -when she thinks no one is looking her way - reach in and remove a couple little ornaments and then, likes to fondle them. The trick here, if you happen to see her doing that, if you use the wrong words when telling her to leave the tree or the ornaments alone, you have to watch for any signs that she is about to pitch whatever it is she has in her hands cause she does have quite an arm there and can provide lots of flying objects if she gets into that mindset.

This afternoon though, she took a fancy to the stocking holders Mandy got to put up on the mantel. Four large letters with a big hook on the bottom that you can sit on the mantel and hang the stocking from them. Set up it spells out NOEL. Kate and I had a piece of garland wrapped around the edge of the mantel to weave in and out around the letters and it was sort of anchored on each end by fairly large candles. Maya had removed one of the stockings from the hook on the "N" holder but in doing that, it pulled on the whole set up and sent the candle and two of the letters crashing to the floor. Thankfully, nothing broken there - the candle holder was a heavy glass one at that. But then, she took the stockings and was putting the two she had gotten off the hooks on her feet -like they were red plush type boots ya know.

Needless to say, we no longer have the garland across the mantel nor do we have the stockings hanging in front of the fireplace either. Just too much enticement there for a little girl who loves to take things down.

And that's about it - can't you tell I got a whole lot accomplished today? So tonight, I'm heading to bed even earlier in hopes I'll be able to get SOMETHING done tomorrow.

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men, huh?