I have three words for you--pain, pain, pain. Why anyone would pay someone $1200 dollars to put them through the kind of pain I've been through in the past week, is beyond me. I must have completely lost my mind. I'm less two wisdom teeth though and fortunately have no dry sockets. By the way, if a dry socket is more painful than this, I'm not sure how anyone survives having one. This has been lots more painful than recovery from my c-sections, though I'm not really sure why. The only difference I can see is that I rested alot more after having the girls. Oh well, it's sure to subside soon.

I know I haven't been posting as much lately and I'm sorry for my absence. I started the blog during the summer when there was not as much to do at work. Consequently, when things pick up like they have around here lately, I kind of drop out of sight for awhile. Never fear, I'll return in time.

Let me take a minute to ask you to please remember Marley in your prayers. At a recent hearing screening at her school she failed the screening for her left ear. She also partially failed the speech screening. Now, I really don't think that there is much to worry about with Marley's hearing. She is just getting over an ear infection and that may have affected the screening. I'm not sure I'm terribly concerned about the speech thing either. I really don't think she's far off track, though she doesn't pronounce some of her consonants. I just want to make sure that we make the right decisions concerning whether or not she needs therapy. I don't want to wish down the road that I had put her in therapy sooner, or waste money if she doesn't need it.

Laney is simply dynamite. If you could only experience the daily battle of wills I go through with this child . . .

Example: She likes to push one of the kitchen chairs up to the counter by the sink and play with the sippy cups I have sitting there to dry. This would not bother me if it were not for two things. 1) She often ends up leaning on the counter or misjudging where the edge of the chair is and falling. 2) She drops the sippy cups, their lids, and the valves that keep them from leaking on the floor, in the sink and various other places. She also carries several of them to undisclosed locations so that making sure all the sippy cups are assembled again in one place is like a minature rescue mission. What I really need is a group of Navy seals to come in each night and brave the mountains of toy blocks and oceans of playground sand (from their shoes--they don't tell you about the sand in the daycare brochures), to round up all the MIA sippy cups and their various components. But then again, who could stand all that barking? (I know that was pure corn. I just couldn't resist).

Anyway, one day not long ago I decided that I'd had enough. I made a policy. It's much like all the policies I've made over time. If the policy is not enforced in it's infancy it will not stand. For example, the "no socks on the living room floor" policy. I never enforced it and nightly I pick up all the socks--husband's and children's--and put them in the hamper. There's a "no chocolate milk after you've brushed your teeth" policy that is now entering it's second week. This one may survive. However, the "no standing in chairs playing with sippy cups policy" is going to be a very tough one. Mostly because enforcing it means that for about ten minutes each time, about three times a night, I have to stand on one side of the chair Laney is trying to move and keep her from pushing it from the other side, all the while saying, No, Laney. No! Laney. NO Laney! She pushes. She cries. She fusses. Eventually, she gets her hand spanked. Then she pouts. We make up and go do something else for about twenty minutes and then, there we are again--pushing, crying, and making up. It's frustrating, but I have to admire her determination.

That's one of the things I love about her. She is so strong-willed. That's a good thing, because if we teach her how to make the right choices, she won't be easily swayed. I'd rather her be that way than a people pleaser. In fact, I wish I was more like that.

We're off to the beach this weekend. I hope everyone has a great Columbus Day!