Not enough hours in the day

So I finally got a haircut.  It was only 8 months of denial in the making.  Ha!  And I got it all cut off.  Seriously it is short.  But I love it.  My mornings are definitely better without 15-20 minutes of painstakingly blow-drying my hair with a round brush trying to not have a nappy head.  Light spray, quick tousle with a blow dryer and I'm done.  It's awesome.  And even though it was totally evident that my oldest son was coached, nothing beats walking in the door and having William tell me that I look beautiful.  So sweet.  Especially since at that moment, I kinda hated my hair.  ha!!  I always do.... and then within 24 hours I'm in love.  This time it only took me fixing it to love it.  I like it messy - not quite perfect.  Ok.  That's enough about my crazy red hair.

William has decided that he absolutely positively HATES tags in his shirts.  This poses quite a challenge.  I cut one tag out and then when we realized he was going to pitch a fit about every tag on principle - we stopped.  It's getting out of hand.  He asked me to cut out a tag on a shirt that was tagless this morning.  I think he's hoping I'll let him stop wearing shirts...  Naked William is cute but shirts are unfortunately required at school.  Well, I'm assuming they are.  I've never tried to send a half-dressed child to school...

Patrick is a hoot.  I can't get over him.  Such a happy joyful child.  Makes my heart so happy.  And he is far too big.  He now gives hugs and kisses to Sam and I in the morning, waves goodbye and then happily goes off to play.  Not a tear or frown in sight.  I'm not ready.  Just one sniffle is all I need - but nope - he's much too cool and well-adjusted for that.  Sam tells me to be proud that I am raising such a great independent happy kid.  I'm trying.  Honestly.  But I still kinda want him to be my baby.  Yes, at the ripe old age of 15 months - I'm afraid I'm losing him.  When he finally becomes a teenager, I might just have to crawl in a corner, huddle in the fetal position and having a coming to Jesus moment & good cry to get through it.  haha!!!  My sweet baby is growing up.  I do not approve.

We leave tomorrow night for Cleveland to do Christmas with my family.  It's going to be awesome.  It will be just us.  No extended family, just my brothers & sisters.  I can't wait.  And I talked Daddy & Sara into doing pizza instead of a traditional dinner.  I'm so pumped.  I foresee a new tradition.  Atleast I'm hoping for one.  And we're having a cookie day on Saturday.  Just like when we were little.  Sara would throw a huge neighborhood cookie party.  Everyone would look forward to it each year.  Then we all grew up, moved away, and scheduling became impossible.  William is going to love it.  So... lots of Christmas fun next week.  Hopefully I can keep myself sane enough to blog it a little so I don't get totally behind...  Best laid plans right?!

So I did some math - really simple counting but still...  On a good week day, we see the boys awake for about 3.5 hours.  How crazy is that?!  How wonderfully unfair that in order to put a roof over their heads, clothe, feed, and provide for their basic needs - we have to let someone else spend the majority of the day with them?  I really try not to think about it too much because it just makes me sad.  It also makes me want to try even harder to make sure that those 3.5 hours matter and that I'm doing my absolute best as a parent.  I also need to figure out how to make the hour-ish in the morning count a little more.  Not sure how with showers, getting ready, packing lunches, etc. but I definitely need to squeeze in some more quality time with them in the morning besides being silly while I get them dressed and shuffled off to watch Super Why.  Maybe extra time will suddenly appear now that I don't have to spend all that time on my hair.... LIGHTBULB!! haha!!!

Loves.