Cutting through the blah

Some days I feel like a loser. I don't feel like cleaning (=most days), I don't feel like cooking, I don't feel like exercising. And during those few fleeting moments of nap time, should they actually exist, I just want to curl up and sleep (this may have something to do with being up all night with Gabe on any given night. How do you get babies to sleep? SERIOUSLY, people! (P.S. Can you use horse tranquillizers at 6 months or do you have to wait until a year?)). I've figured out that there are things that help me change my attitude, and things that entrench me more deeply in my grey cloud of blah. Two things that help me feel better and re-energized are playing with my kids and taking pictures of them. How could these two dudes not cheer a gal up?

Jude loves to hold Gabe on his lap. However, the inevitable happens:

Gabe knocks Jude over. And Jude, squeals out from beneath his brother: "Mommy, Gabe knock Jude over. Gabe squashing me." (said breathlessly and wheezing as if a two-ton tractor had fallen on him)

Another thing that cheers me up is having conversations with Jude. A few choice ones of late have included:

Jude was petting my hair the other day and told me: "Mommy, you hair soft like a bunny." I'm starting the training on similes and metaphors early, my friends.

Jude, Gabe and I were sitting on the couch waiting for Mike to get home from school on a Saturday afternoon. We had just changed a round of diapers and Jude remained in only a diaper. He came up to me and said, "Mommy, Jude going bye-bye downstairs." And then he climbed on my lap, took my two cheeks in his hands and looked into my eyes and solemnly said. "Be brave, Mommy." And then he kissed my cheek and blew a kiss as he headed down into the void of our basement. I think I saw him salute just before the first step into the dark.

I was putting make-up on recently and Jude was watching. He asked why I was wearing make-up. I told him that sometimes women wear make-up. He replied. "Mommy a girl. Mommy a woman. Mommy a womanite." I'm guessing these stems from our discussions about Lamanites and Nephites.

Jude and I were hiding from daddy in the closet the other day and I asked Jude from whom we were hiding. He replied. "We hiding from a BIIIIIGGG monkey, a daddy monkey...with one fur...from the ceiling." At that point I trembled in fear.

And then there is our little teddy bear who is the most content baby during the day but is a terror at night. Luckily, he's darling.