Trying to catch up

I feel like in the weeks following Christmas we have been running from one thing to another.  Unfortunately our house is paying the price.  Yes, the Christmas decorations are down, but that’s only because we had a real tree and it was starting to look pretty bad, so it had to come down.  The rest of our house looks like a tornado came through.  I keep thinking that if I have just a couple of days to get things back in order, then I’ll be fine.  Of course I don’t have 2 days in a row.  I only get 1 day at a time, so I clean what I can, throw some laundry in, run the dishwasher, and hope that by the time my next “free” day rolls around our house won’t be back to where it started.

I often tell Joe that I have no idea how I did everything when I was working full time.  I worked long days (sometimes 10 hours or longer), yet I feel like our house is messier now than it was when I was working.  Sure, we paid to have a lot of things done that I now do myself…Joe’s dress shirts used to be taken to the drycleaner, we used to have a maid (I miss her), we used to eat out a lot more, etc.  Now I get to do all of this…and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

All that to say, I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting you.  I’ll come up with something spectacular to write about soon (don’t hold me to that…we really have a pretty boring life).

In the meantime, here are some Ella-isms to tide you over:

The other night Joe was reading her Cinderella before bed.  She had several comments about the book, but my favorite was when Joe read, “Cinderella worked hard all day.”  Ella said, in her most sympathetic voice, “Just like you work hard, daddy.”

Last night I was modeling my new bridesmaid dress for Ella and Joe.  Ella said, “Mommy, you look beautiful in that dress!  I really like the bow!  Man, I wish I had a fancy dress like that." Of course she was disappointed that it's a "legs" dress and not a "no legs" dress.

After we got back from Disney World Ella would talk about it all the time.  One night before dinner she was sitting at the table staring at the picture of her and Cinderella and she kept saying, “I wish we could come back.”  Me too, Ella…me too.

Every night we have the same conversation:

Ella:  Mommy, I want to cuddle with you tonight, not daddy.

Me: Ok.

Wait 5 minutes

Ella: Mom, I decided that I want to cuddle with daddy now.  Not you.