1.  Because Kaitlyn LOVES drumming.  Earlier tonight she picked up the drumsticks and yelled “I WANNA ROCK”. How awesome is that? Plus, I got this photo of her which totally rules:

2. Because one of the things you can do in Rock Band 2 is give your band a name, and Ryan named his “Teh Rofflewaffles”. Their motto? “Rock Hard. Eat Waffles”. And if that isn’t awesome, I don’t know what is.

edited to add: Please stop by MomReviews and check my review of “Eagle Eye“, out on DVD and Blu-Ray today!

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I still have the bad cold. Last night I had horrible, horrible dreams all night that I’d rather not think about, like, ever again. I would love to say that I’m making today this magical day for my sweet girl who will officially be three at 12:49 p.m., but it’s more likely that I’ll spend the day under a blanket on the couch. However, I did get an email this morning from M80, a social media company in Los Angeles that I’ve worked with many times, asking if I’d like to check out this really fun new widget called The Aleve Good News Choir. I guess the idea is you take Aleve when you don’t feel good, then you feel so much better that you feel like singing! So you go to the site and type in a 50 character message, and The Aleve Good News Choir sings your message for you:

I have to admit, that’s cute. You can make one of your own by going to http://www.aleve.com/choir. Also, pamper yourself this holiday season by entering for a chance to win a $250 Spa Finders Gift Certificate plus a gift card bundle including $100 from iTunes, $100 from Macy’s and $50 from Bed, Bath and Beyond! Visit blogher.com/good-news-sweepstakes-aleve to sign up.

And stay tuned for an upcoming birthday tribute to my special girl, who has lots of presents waiting for her to open and a big scoop of of strawberry ice cream to eat. Just as soon as her Mom can muster the energy. Oh, and remember, my Holiday Gift Guide posts will be running from now until December 19th, so watch for those too!

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a big thank you to Lisa who provided the post title in an IM chat last night after I told her this story and she said I HAD to blog it!

For a little backstory, on Thursday afternoon I knocked our only a few months old Plantronic phone off of the sideboard and the handset somehow broke inside, because no matter what my husband and I tried, we could not get the phone to turn on again.  We keep an old “real” phone, the kind where the handset is actually attached to the base with a curly cord, for such emergencies, so Chris plugged that in for me.

Yesterday after an early lunch, I had just given Kaitlyn a bath and dried her off when the phone rang. Because I couldn’t walk around with the phone in my hand, I had to stand there talking on the phone before I had a chance to get Kaitlyn dressed. Fortunately it was a warm 72 degrees in the house. So there I am, on the phone with Ken from Oh! Toys, talking about an upcoming product review I’m doing for him on MomReviews, when Kaitlyn runs up to me and yells,

“Mama! I’m Nakey! Can I stay Nakey for a little while? Please?”

Oh, yeah. I said into the phone “I am so sorry about that, Ken”. And fortunately for me he said “I’ve got two kids. I remember those days”.

I thanked him and we continued on with our conversation. I kept looking down the hallway at Kaitlyn, who was still Nakey, feeling very frustrated that I was tethered to the phone. I could have asked Ken to call me back on my cell phone, but something is wrong with it and everyone who calls me says it sounds like I’ve got cotton stuffed into the microphone. Which I don’t, so it’s kind of weird.  I hear Kaitlyn come running down the hallway, she darts into the bathroom, and then Ken and I are treated to her yelling,

“Mama! I went pee pee on the potty! I’m potty training! All by myself!”

This time I decided what the heck, Ken was finding out first hand just what it’s like to work with a work-at-home-Mom, I’m not even going to pretend to be embarrassed.  So instead I just said to him something along the lines of how much easier it was to potty train kids if they don’t have clothes to deal with.

There’s almost never a time during the day when I can participate in a phone call uninterrupted. So just want to warn you, if you call my house wanting to talk about business, you might hear something in the Too Much Information category coming from my three year old daughter.

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In less than a month, Kaitlyn will be three. And yet sometimes, I catch an expression on her face and see the woman she will become. Look at this face:

I want to keep her right where she is right now, making up silly stories and jokes, carrying around five blankies at once, tucking her dolls into a makeshift cradle and singing a lullaby to them in her highest-pitched voice. I don’t ever want her to know about the horrible things that happen in the world. I want her life to be rainbows and cotton candy and ponies. I want her face to look like this, all the time:

That’s not so much to ask for a parent, right?

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Those of you reading this who are able to stay organized and on top of things, would you PLEASE tell me HOW you do it? Because Donna Reed I am NOT. Chris has been in Toronto since last Thursday and gets home this Friday, and it’s going to take a freaking miracle for me to get this house clean enough so he won’t feel like he can’t ever leave town on business again for fear of losing his children under a pile of dirty dishes and coffee-table piles.

Every day I get up and I make a big mug of coffee, and I think about my day. I think about reviews that are due and giveaways to start. I think about dusting and vacuuming and putting in another load of laundry. I think about the fact that my daughter is watching TV all day (that’s right, I’ll admit it. Kaitlyn watches TV for most of the day, when she isn’t jumping off of overturned laundry baskets or drawing on her Aquadoodle mat or dumping out a board game or galloping up and down the hallway). I think about the dishes in the sink and the piles on the end tables and the fact that I haven’t seen the top of my desk in months.

I look at my email inboxes.

I think this image that I found on Google images accurately depicts how I feel:

And then I take a deep breath. All I can do is the best I can do. My kids are safe, loved, have plenty to eat and clean clothes that fit. They have warm beds to sleep in at night. They have toys and books and video games. I might have a lot to do, I might be failing miserably at housekeeping, but stressing out about it doesn’t help anybody. I got behind on my reviews and giveaways because I procrastinated, plain and simple. So now I just need to make a list and write them one at a time until they are done. It might require me to post 3 or 4 or 5 times a day until I’m caught up.

And that isn’t going to include Saturday, because my husband will be home and I intend to give him my undivided attention. He needs to know that he is more important to me than email inboxes and dropping Entrecards. After all, those won’t spoon me at night while I’m sleeping

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