God designed families to have TWO parents for a reason!

OK, I have friends whose husbands travel for work quite often. I even have friends whose husbands would go on deployments for 6 months at a time. Mine was gone two nights last week, three nights/four days this weekend, and two nights coming up and I'm going bonkers!!!

Sweet Pea woke up sneezing this morning. She's had a runny nose for weeks, most likely due to those back teeth coming through... but the sneezing? So this morning, at church, I couldn't put her in the nursery. I've been hired by the church as the Nursery Director (sounds important, doesn't it) so I couldn't exactly set such a bad example and put a sneezing, snotty nosed child into the nursery now could I? So, I spent the entire first service walking around the outside of the sanctuary with her... I'm supposed to be there, working, through both services!!! But, since hubby is off shooting defensless birds, I had to go home with sneezing sweet pea. I made sure that the second service volunteers were all set and headed for the car with tissues in hand!!! Agh... this job, with my 'easy' toddler, is made for two parents!!!

Hubby has fall allergies... does sweet pea have fall allergies? Can they have allergies this young? Huh... remember that one to ask at her next appointment.

Sweet pea is a thumb sucker, has been since she started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks!!! Man, you should see her thumb right now. I expected the calous (sp? crusty bump on her thumb) on the outside of her thumb but she has a nasty scabby gross thing on the inside tip of it too! Ugh... yuck... ewwwwww.... another thing to ask the doctor. I really don't want to pay the $25 copay when it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all. She's still sucking away!

(7 weeks... my amazement!!! sucking that teeny, tiny little thumb!)

Friday night, sweet pea spent the night at my neighbor Jodi's house. I was running in a 20 mile race saturday morning and needed to be up and out the door really early... I put her to bed over there around 8:30 or so and she slept until 8:30 the next morning. She stayed in Jodi's oldest's bedroom, he was soooo excited to be sharing his space with Sweet Pea!!! The middle and youngest boys were extremely jealous so Sweet pea has to spend the night again and stay in their room! But, back to the point... she slept until 8:30!!! She's been up before 7 all week! I just must be the lightest sleeper on the face of the planet. Any squeak that she makes, I get myself up, get ready for the day, and get her out of her room. Jodi said that she woke up at 6am, fell back to sleep, and slept until 8:30!!! Then, she put her down for her nap a little after 1 and she slept until 4! She hasn't slept until 4 all week either! I think she needs to stay at Jodi's house next week too! Her husband will be out of town all week, she can handle it, what's 1 more kid when you already have 3? hee, hee. Needless to say, sweet pea was on her best behavior while being taken care of.

Sweet pea also went to her first kiddie birthday party yesterday. She crashed it too! Jodi's boys were invited to another neighborhood kid's 2nd birthday party, so Jodi took Sweet Pea with her and all of the boys. She got to hit a pinata, eat pizza, enjoy a cupcake, and get a baggy full of prizes to take home with her. It was a dinosaur party!!! Sweet Pea has little toy dinosaurs, a dinosaur pencil, and lots of candy now! Yeah!!! No pictures were taken, it won't be scrap-booked, oh well :)

Well, the house was cleaned from top to bottom on friday and it's still clean. Amazing what can happen when there's no hubby or dog to mess things up. I miss them both though and can't wait to clean up after them again!

By the way... 20 mile race is over and tapering has begun. I fully expect to put on 5-10 pounds before the actual marathon (three weeks away!!!). Mileage will be decreasing dramatically, so I'll have to watch what I eat a bit better than I have been, it's easy to eat cookies after running 7 miles because you know the calories were burned off! The 20 mile race was three loops around a lake. First loop - 1:05, Second loop - 1:15, third loop - 1:18. I finished about 18 minutes slower than I wanted and I also started out a bit too fast (fast being 'relative' here... ). I'm still learning, but time is running out. I guess my goal for marathon day has changed from 4 1/2 hours to a more realistic 4:45-5 hour finish. I can live with that!