Preparations, etc.

Okay, I guess I can sit down, now.  Write a blog post, etc.

So, um... Hi!

Yes, my boys are in bed, my dishes are mostly washed, goats milked and fed, bathroom clean, various and sundry other chores done or partly so, laundry unfolded but oh, well, AND I baked birthday cake (and 20 cupcakes).  So glad my Mom talked me into baking cake tonight.  I always think that whipping up a little cake batter and baking it is no big deal, but it is. It is!  I would so regret doing that tomorrow and then waiting for it to cool so that I could frost and decorate it and then people arriving and babies crying and stress levels ramping...

We are preparing for a birthday.  How did my first, sweet, little baby get to be six?  I dunno.  It's a mystery to me.

I am also preparing for a hugeamongous number of people to be here.  How did that happen?  I meant for a small, shortish birthday party consisting of cake, presents, playtime, badabing, badaboom, (almost) everyone out in two hours.  But it morphed into 17 (!) children and all their parental people (it's really only three families, but they're big ones) and hot dogs at the firepit, and it looks like it's going to rain.

We're gonna have a blast!

So I baked cake ahead of time. Phwhew.

And most of the time I was baking, cleaning, etc., I had a small bucket of tears following me around.

He doesn't look so teary there, does he?  He's trying to fool you, see.  Actually, he's mostly naked, and that makes him very happy.  Tonight, after a solid hour of crying (following supper, which was preceded by eons of crying), I finally undressed him to get him ready for bed, and then he happily crawled off to play, naked.  Why didn't I take off his clothes long before?  Sometimes it helps just to pull off his socks.  It doesn't matter how cold he gets, he'd rather do without clothes.

My poor little guy is kinda miserable these days.  'Member what I said about him being able to eat without any trouble and my thankfulness for it?  Yeah, about that.  I was fooling myself.  It became harder and harder to ignore, and now the fussing, night waking, bowel troubles, and horrible rash made me face the facts:  this baby needs some digestive assistance, stat.  So we're working with a wonderful naturopath who has a good plan and we're praying hard for some positive results and relief for our poor, rashy, little crabby-pants.

To top it all off, we're ALSO preparing for a road-trip next week for a visit that I'm sure will be fun and wonderful, even if the actual road-trip is not.  I have some anxiety, I will admit.  Okay, a lot of anxiety.  And I don't have very much time to get ready, and I'm not even close, and I'm sleep-deprived, and I have a very crabby baby to deal with... Breath in, breath out.  It'll be okay, right?

 But I'm not going to think about that!  I'm going to think about partying with my delightful six-year-old!  Focus on the fun stuff!  (Birthday pictures to follow soon, I hope!)