Around the bend

People, stupid sibling rivalry in concert with seemingly unprecedented levels of talking and siren-sound making is driving me batty this morning. "He's touching my leg, mom," "I want that broken twig, it's MINE," "I can't put these colored pencils in the box"- cue dramatically tumbling to a heap on the ground...I tried to disassociate by making muffins- those pumpkin-plum muffins are the bomb!- and coffee. It's so interesting how much more intense and difficult things seem when you're solo-parenting. Tom left at some ungodly hour this morning and will be gone all honking week. Anyway, I have such a huge amount of respect for single parents- that's a hard effing job! Thank goodness for schools, extended families, friends and so forth.

Punk'd by Oliver?

I'm slightly steamed right now.  As you might know, last week was veerrry long with O sick and not sleeping. I was thrilled that this morning O seemed back to normal and eager for school. He had a great day, took a good nap and afterwards we took a walk to throw pennies in a nearby fountain. On the way home, he started complaining of a bad stomachache. I made him some toast because he hadn't eaten since breakfast but he wah-wah'd and wouldn't really eat it. He whined the whole way to get Jack, and I was so freaked out that I called the doctor and made an emergency appointment for the afternoon. We get to school, he jumps out of the car and starts dancing and says he's fine. Y'all, he better have had a raging case of gas. On the drive home, we had a big talk about not tricking Mommy about scary things like health. Good lord.

The energy of 5 year olds, vanilla cupcakes

I am telling you what, these kids have no idea how lucky they are to have the energy they have. One of Jack's best girlfriends is here for the afternoon, and they are absolutely darling. They've been "hunting" something in the backyard with a bug net and an old wrapping paper tube. Hilarious. Now we've got cupcakes in the oven, and they're making a mural. When I watch them, my mind immediately conjures an image of whirling dervishes. They're both beanpole-thin, the same height, arms and legs akimbo as they move and bounce, dance and tumble. You can see that they're perfectly at ease with each other, and it's very dear. And I like that she doesn't take any nonsense from Jack. Hilarious! While I did have an egg-free chocolate cake recipe, I didn't have a vanilla one. Now I do, and based on in-depth batter tasting by me and my spoon, I'll tell you that it's good. After we taste-test the finished product, I'll post the recipe if it's up to snuff. It's dairy-free too! I wish I'd had some shredded coconut to stir in but instead swirled in a ribbon of strawberry puree.