Jekyl and Hyde...Trevor is killing me. Last night he heard the water running upstairs when Hayden was in the bath and started saying "tathbub, tathbub, tathbub" and trying to strip his clothes off. He was just so darned cute that I took him upstairs to give him a bath. So he was totally sweet and delightful while he was having his fun in the tub. I let him play for while after the scrubbing was done and kept the water running so he could fill his cup over and over.

Then, when he was shriveled like a prune, I turned off the water and scooped him up with a towel to dry him off and get ready for bed. Holy moley! He starts screaming and hitting me and trying to bite me. Shouting "TATHBUB! TATHBUB!" After he hit me I told him to go to time out and he went and stood in the corner (wet and naked) and I breathed a sigh of relief that he had calmed down and then I see him starting to pee. So now I've got a puddle on the wall and carpet and so I take him out of time out and try to put a diaper on him and he starts the hitting again. So I gave up and turned him over to Sean for the pajamas. I just don't understand how he can go from this sweet pleasant angel boy to this nightmare monster child in half a millisecond.

New template...I was getting tired of the look of the blog so I switched to a new template. Please also note a few new links on the right side. Check out Michele's blog and give her a little encouragement on the new site.

We're done! The last stamp has been stuck and the last envelope has been licked and the Christmas cards are in the mail. All it took was 3 nights in a row of being up till 2-3 am. Sean is miserable as he is every year when we do the card frenzy, but when you receive your card in the mail, hopefully it will all have been worthwhile. We got thrown off course this year when Trevor had a cold on the designated picture-taking day, but it all came together in the end. You know it's killing me to not be able to share previews, but I always like seeing something for the first time when it arrives in the mail.

Now I can get to work on the website. I did manage to create a page and post a link to a single picture (http://www.life-lens.com) but it's far from impressive at this point in time. I think the software I have exceeds my needs anc capabilities, so I just used the freeware that comes with my hosting package but that is really limited. I hope I have time over the holidays to work on things, but at the same time I could use a little rest & relaxation with Sean and the boys. We'll see how it goes.

First Parent-Helper Day...Well, I won out (or so I thought) and ended up getting to take the first McLaughlin parent-helper day at Poe-Co. Since the school is a co-op, each family takes a turn at helping out once every 16 school days (since there are 16 families). We started off OK, had to get there early to set up snack and tidy up a bit. The whole philosophy is "your child-your lap" so you get to do whatever your youngster wants instead of having specific assigned tasks as teacher's helper. So I just followed Hayden along and played with him and his little pals.

Here's what I realized...I'm not just one of those people who generally likes just every single child I encounter. I love mine an incomprehensible amount and I like many others, but there are some I just don't like at all. I won't name any names, but I'm not a fan of:

• boys who throw sand at me and shout "pooh-pooh" constantly
• children who weep incessantly at the slightest little thing (like crying because a boy who said "roar" while pretending to be a snow monster)
• nose pickers

Also, I found out that parent helper day ends with:

• washing dishes
• sweeping, vacuuming, mopping
• cleaning all tables and chairs
• cleaning two toilets
• taking out trash

I don't do any of these chores at my house, how come I have to do them when I'm paying good money to send my boy to a fancy preschool? I liked having Hayden in my lap today, but I think Sean is going for the next parent-helper day.

Two things...I was about to make a nice post and then I just got really frustrated about something. So I'll start with the nice stuff before I vent.

I'm starting to adore the little language that's developing in my house that I call Trevie-speak. His vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds, mostly sounding like real words, but he tends to pepper the conversation with his own made up words that he uses consistently. Examples and their translations include:

• Bo-Bo: Pacifier
• Bow-Mi: Please open this for me?
• Tath-bub: Bathtub

The boy continues to melt my heart every day.

Now the venting. I called the doctor's office today to schedule Trevor's 18 month check-up. Guess what? They don't have any appointments for THE REST OF THE YEAR. Not just for his pediatrician, but for any of the 10+ pediatricians in the practice. So what about January, because Hayden needs his 4-year check up at the end of January too? Guess what? No appointments with his doctor in January either! He's only in the office through the 9th and then out through the end of January. They could schedule me with someone else in January. But I said that Hayden only sees his doctor once a year so I'd prefer for him to see his actual pediatrician. So what about February? Oh, they don't have their calendar open for February yet. But maybe his nurse could somehow manage to fit me into his schedule at the beginning of January if I talk to her. So I said fine, connnect me to the nurse. "Oh no, she's out today, you'll have to call back tomorrow". I said, just connect me to her voicemail. "No, regulations don't allow our voicemail to store messages overnight so you if you leave a message it will be deleted overnight"

ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Must be nice to make yourself completely unavailable to your patients but still stay in business.

18 months...Just a quick post to share my lovebug at 18 whole months old. Isn't he a cutie? I had to go to Dallas today and so I missed most of the day with him, but got to see a little of his red-headed charm this evening.

Diving in...Well, I did it. I bought a domain name of my very own and subscribed to a web-hosting service. What in the world do I need with my own domain name, you might ask? Hmmm...anything goes. I'm going to start with it as a place to post photographs. Of the kids, friends, etc. Then we'll see what happens from there. Maybe people will like my pictures and want me to take their pictures. And maybe I'll want to.

Of course, before any of this happens I need to figure out how to get from stage 1 - buying the domain to stage 2 - putting something on the domain. I've got the software, just not the know-how, but I'm smart enough to figure out the basics, right?

More to come on this subject, I'm sure. It will take a few days for the domain to get up and running and I'll post a link once I've published something. I just wanted to let you all (is anyone out there other than Mama T?) in on my new adventure.

Lock-Down...Sean had a rather bizarre experience when he went to drop Hayden off at preschool today. Just as he went inside, they did a "lock-down" drill and he had to stay inside with the kids (and Trevor) until the drill was over. During the drill, the teachers bolted all the doors and the kids had to go to the innermost corner of the room and sit quietly while the teacher read to them very softly. The drill is supposed to simulate the procedure if there's some sort of terrorist threat in or near the school. Which is really a scary thing to think about in the base case that our children have to worry about classmates with guns or terrorist attacks which are things that never crossed my mind in elementary school. But here's the intensely shocking part: This particular school does these drills because some psychotic parent actually came to the school with a bomb and blew up himself, his child, and several other people some 50-odd years ago. Here's what I found when I Googled the subject . Scary stuff, huh?

Pampered Chef...I went to a Pampered Chef party today. First time I've ever been to one of these things. I think that up until now people have looked at me and said "She doesn't belong in the kitchen". Unfortunately, Michele doesn't agree and so she invited me. So now I've got $100+ of kitchen gadgets on order that I guess I was struggling to live without up until now. Like some doo-dad that cuts the crust off the PB&J sandwiches and seals the edges for you. Oh well, I'm an easy sell. Now we know why I don't leave the house with the checkbook very often.

By the way, as a follow-up to the ornament post, the person who received my ornament literally said "Ooooohhhhhh!" as she pulled it out of the bag. It was like there was a script for the whole thing. I received a caterpillar and a mermaid ornament. Sounds odd but they were pretty cute. I think I said "Ahhhhh!" Gotta go with the program, you know?

Nothing is ever as easy as it seems...I do a little ornament exchange with some girlfriends every year. It gives us a time to get together and have a nice lunch without going broke buying gifts for everyone. We set some dollar limit ($15 this year I think) and you buy one ornament and we pass them around till each person gets one. Sounds simple, right?

I went to 4 stores today before finally settling on some ornament which I think is pretty lame. There's just so much pressure. We all open these things in front of each other and everyone is supposed to "Oooh" and "Ahh" but I couldn't find anything that seemed worthy of "ooh"ing at. So I settled on something which came in a nice box. I mean, if I'm not going to impress anyone with the ornament itself, at least I should get to avoid going to the effort of wrapping.

When I got home from Midland last night, the boys were pretty excited to see me. I guess absence reaaly does make the heart grow fonder. But it quickly became apparent that Trevor reaaly didn't miss my company, per se. I picked him up and he immediately tried to pull off my jacket and insistently started repeating one word: "Milk, milk, milk". Would it kill the boy to drink a bottle while I'm gone? Apparently so. Oh well, I guess it's nie to know you're irreplacable in some regard.