I got an email from a friend today in which she said…

“Mind you, my house is still a wreck, piles of laundry, tree needles everywhere still from the fall [yes the Christmas tree fell over in the middle of the night], I haven’t mopped in two weeks, no sheets on the bed, the bathroom is a science experiment, and the dog smells like a gym sock.  I just need ONE MORE DAY!”

I think everyone is probably feeling a bit like that right now.  I know I am.  I’m several weeks behind in reading my usual blogs.  I can barely keep up with posting on my own.  Piles of laundry?  Can I get an Amen!  I’m putting the fact that we’re probably moving soon so far from my mind I almost forget about it.  I have partially vacuumed the house twice this week, and by the time I find the vacuum cleaner to finish, enough has been tracked in that I may as well start over anyhow.  BUT, my tree is still standing, so I am thankful for that!  The tree falling over was about the only thing that didn’t go wrong last Friday though.  I just haven’t had time to sit down and write about it.  So pull up a chair.

Last Friday.  Yes last Friday.  It was actually the 12th, but it may as well have been the Friday the 13th.  As you may remember from the last time I have a few free moments to blog, we went shopping the rain last Thursday.  My mom came down and stayed with my dad (he has an apartment close by for work during the week).  She told me she was heading home Friday and wouldn’t have time to stop, so I took her at her word, and left the mess Thursday night on the assumption that I would have all day Friday to clean it up.

My mom called Friday morning and announced that she was leaving as soon as the dryer was done and would stop by for a little bit.  Yay!  And by Yay! I really mean Ugh!  Caleb and I rushed out to the bank after breakfast so we could get back home in time before my mom arrived.  We waited five minutes for the bank to open.  Ran inside, as we didn’t have any deposit slips, and talked with Scott’s nephew’s wife (got that?) since she works there.  We headed down the street to pay the natural gas bill.  Waited 15 minutes on them to open.  Go inside, get in line with the other people who were waiting.  They don’t take debit cards.  Super.  Go back to the bank, take out 3/4ths of the money I just put in.  As I was pulling out of the bank, I dumped my wallet upside down between the seats.  All my bank cards, change, etc went down in the crevices by the console.  I just started to laugh.  I didn’t know then that it was only the beginning.  We paid the gas bill and ran back home, thinking my mom would be there within five minutes.  An hour and a half later, she arrived.  Even though she was “walking out the door” during my second trip to the bank.  And it is a 30 minute drive to here from my dad’s.

Caleb. was. horrendous.  No butts about it, he was a total Arse.  I wanted to strangle him by the time my mom left.  I felt like it was my first day parenting or something.  And my usually -trying, yet manageable- child had been replaced with the devil himself.  He talked back, slammed toys around, screamed, he was just out of control.  And  my mom was watching disapprovingly.  There’s a lot of back story there that I won’t get into, but it was just humiliating.  When she left, Caleb was in time out for the third time in 30 minutes, and I just sobbed.

I snuffled my way through lunch and came in the living room for something when I was done eating.  I heard a noise behind me, and I turned around just in time to see a coffee mug jump off the desk at the sight of me and the obvious curse looming over my head fall off the desk and break.

Finally, I opened Yahoo and saw the answer to my day.  The moon.  Not only was it a full moon.  It was the biggest full moon since 1993 [read article].  I honestly breathed a sigh of relief.  I felt like there was a reason.  Someone, or some-thing to blame!

I had been hoping to get out of it, because the day had already been so long and trying, but never-the-less, my brother in law and his wife came over Friday night to work on a DVD project I’m doing for them (and should be working on right now).  We spent three hours going through pictures, picking out songs, etc.  I was an hour late getting Caleb to bed.  I was grumpy, I was ready to go to bed myself.  Finally, I wound down about 12:30 after a few laughs during Will and Grace.  But there was one last thing to do.

I wanted to see this moon that had been the thorn in my side all day long.  It was in the 20′s and I didn’t particularly want to go outside.  I went around the house peeking through blinds and standing in chairs with my nose mushed up against the window, but I couldn’t see the damn thing.  I decided, it being such a monumental event (the biggest moon in 15 years), I could stand the cold for a minute to see it.  But my day was not done with me yet.  I purposely didn’t turn on the porch light, as I was already in my pajamas.  I unlocked and opened the door, which makes a fair amount of noise.  At least I thought it did.  I opened the storm door.  Aaaand stepped on the cat.  Turns out that brown cats blend in with brown doormats in the dark.  Especially ones that are sleeping so soundly that they do not hear the door open, and they are laying flat enough for the storm door to pass right over them.  Well, in an effort not to kill the cat, I fell across the porch and slammed my fingers into the railing and almost broke a rubbermaid container, I stumbled into it so hard.  The cat took off like a bat out of hell around the corner of the house.  I looked up at the moon, which by 1:00am when it was directly overhead, really wasn’t that spectacular.  I crossed my arms and sighed as I headed back inside.

Scott asked what all the commotion was.  I said “I stepped on the cat, fell across the porch and about broke three fingers.”

“Well is the cat okay?!” he replied with the utmost concern.

For all of those quietly wondering just that question, yes, the cat is indeed fine and was right back in the same spot five minutes later.  I’m fine too, thanks.

Caleb’s bed is temporarily in our bedroom.  I got in bed and I began to snicker.  Snickering turned into giggling.  Giggling turned into laughing.  I was afraid I’d wake Caleb up.  I had to get up and come back in the living room because I started laughing hysterically.  I had tears streaming down my face by the time I made it up the hall.  Scott looked at me as if I had totally lost my marbles.  But really, I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

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Oh, hi.  Sorry didn’t see you there.  I really do know how to count, I’m not practicing.   I’m just trying to keep myself from blowing a gasket.  Again.  I’ve been doing a LOT of counting to myself lately.  Is it something in the water?  See I’m all about the positive “no.”  Saying no in a positive way, or putting a positive spin on it.  When he asks something like “Can we get this car at the store?”  I say something like “Well let’s ask Santa for it for Christmas,” instead of just flat out “No.”  Well it seems I’ve been positively saying no so long that he has forgotten what the hell it means!!  I find myself just blurting out the word loudly more times than not now.

By bedtime the other night, my last nerve had been long since gone.  Probably lost it around lunch that day.  We were sitting on his bed and I was lecturing, for lack of a better word.  “Let’s try to have a better listening day tomorrow.  I need your ears open, when I ask you to do something, let’s get it done quickly on the first try so we can go do something fun……………”  He interrupted my rambling with this smart ass tone and said “Just let me go to sleep now.”  *Eyes bug out of head*  Does he tottle off in the middle of the night while I’m dozing to some little class that teaches him this stuff?!  I wanted to scream!  Sometimes things like that catch you so off gaurd that you cannot even react properly.

Thank GOD he’s cute.  He can sense when I’m at my boiling point and need a break unbelievably bad.  Like right now.  He decided not to nap today.  His little heiny is laying in there with the door shut anyhow.  On strict orders for it to be silent and not to budge from that bed.  He had better not breathe off the side of that bed!  Now I’m left debating whether to take him outside.  On one hand, I want to take him out and get some of that energy out, but I told him he needed to go right to sleep so we could go out when he woke up, and as far as I know, he’s awake.  We shall see when my last glorious twenty minutes have passed.

Lightbulb moment: There is a full moon coming up in three days.  Perhaps it is contributing to his ability to pluck all my nerves by 11am and my inability to hang on to my nerves.

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Okay I think I’m pretty convinced now. Julie over at A Celebration of Our Journey has written about the full moon and new moon having an effect on her son, and we had discussed it some through email. We have Windows Vista, so I found a moon phase widget to put in my sidebar on my desktop. I was even able to enter the exact longitude and latitude of our location. It changes throughout the day and I can click on it to find out the illuminated fraction. I have really enjoyed having it there. The dates of the next two new moons and full moons are listed. Today is a new moon.

The moon is the darkened circle next to the info

Last night when I put Caleb to bed, he was very restless. I spoke to him several times before just starting his CD of music over and leaving the room. He started crying after a few minutes. I put him in our bed and laid down with him. All in all, it took me an hour and a half to get him to sleep. I mentioned to Scott before bed that it was probably going to be a bad night. And sure enough, he kept me up until 3:30am tossing and turning. I carried him back to his bed because I was so tired and frustrated. He was back at 6:00, wanting to get up for the day. I felt like I had just laid down. We did sleep until 8. I didn’t want to get up then, but 8 seems to be the time by which we need to be up and potty-ed to make sure he’s dry. Much later and I’m washing sheets.

When I’m not completely exhausted, the moon thing is just fascinating to me. He drove me nuts on Friday too. Obstinate would be a good word for it. He’s honestly a really good kid overall. But we all have our days.

While I’m rambling I’ll just go ahead and tell you, I have now nicknamed him Chatty Caleb. If you will listen, he will talk. Nevermind your shopping. You can do that later. Complete strangers. He talks their ear off! Most giggle and humor him but we actually had one guy run from him in Lowes the other night. And don’t even try to ignore him. He will put you in your place.

A little girl, probably about 5, and her mom were on the paint aisle in Lowes. Caleb walked up to the little girl and said, “Hey!”

She smiled.

“You have Dora on your shirt!” he says, just busting all up in her personal space and poking at her. She had already back up against the shelf as far as she could.

She still didn’t say anything.

“Seek (speak) to me! Mommy why won’t she seek to me?!”

We all began chatting about our chalkboard paint and her daughter’s room. She asked several questions about brush and roller types. Meanwhile Caleb continued to chip away at the little girl’s shy shell. Finally he just got a paint brush and started painting her. That got her giggling and with Caleb stirring the pot, they both turned into little trouble making wild indians! Climbing all over stuff and painting all us parents with brushes and rollers. As we were about to part ways, I said “Come on monkey.” The mom said “Monkey. I call her monkey sometimes too. Well a friend of mine does.”

Little children are always quick to correct, “Not a friiiend, your boooyfriend,” she exclaimed.

Her mom told me it hadn’t been long, she still just wasn’t used to saying that yet. We chuckled together at the honesty of a child.

At the playground a few weeks ago, Caleb was flagging down every passerby to talk to him. As he chatted up one lady, she asked how old he was. “I’m free years old, how old are YOU?” No secret is safe, no question shall go unasked by an inquisitive three year old.

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