Night worse than expected, good dinner though

I don't even know my name right now, but I do know that I feel like I've been pulled through a hedge backwards, and that's never a good thing. Oliver threw an unprecedented tantrum-in-the-middle-of-the-night which involved begging for cold water, me stumbling downstairs and getting said water, bringing it back up to him, returning to my bed and listening as he yelled that he wanted bubble water and threw the sippy cup over the edge of his crib. Times like these are when I feel no guilt in calling one/both of my children buttheads. Jack was up several times, and our nightlong date culminated in me drawing him a hot bath at 5:15am, instructing him to NOT put his head in the water, and crawling back into bed with one eye shut,  trying to rest but actually nervous about leaving him in the bath alone. Fortunately he wanted to sit directly under the faucet and rest his face on it, so there wasn't so much to worry about. When do you stop worrying about stuff like this? Will I ever let them take a bath alone? Ever let them walk to CVS by themselves? Not sure, so great is parental concern even for the relatively laid-back among us.

Anyway, I'm sucking coffee right now, feeling thankful that I'm big on cooking large quantities of good breakfast items and freezing them, and will definitely approve a smattering of TV shows throughout the day.

On a positive note, I made the pan fried Brussels sprouts again last night and this time, thin on the sprouts component, added some asparagus. Nice! Also pretty!

10 hours to go, friends.

Apoplectic O, sick J, slightly ragged E

Oh my. I'm not sure I've ever seen Oliver throw a tantrum like this. He's not much of a tantrum kid; in fact, he's pretty laid back nearly all the time. At present, however, he's crazy as Chucky, as different from his usual self as Jeckyll was from Hyde. It was literally impossible to brush his teeth, so I finally just put him in his crib and left the room. He's screeching about wanting to get out. Really, intensely nuts. In my non-reactive reaction to him, I was reminded of how differently I'd have behaved, probably did behave, with Jack. First child-second child. Interesting. In the meantime, J has quite the fever and feels awful. I gave him a hot bath and some medicine but I don't have high hopes for tonight. Fortunately, I got to sneak out for a pedicure this afternoon - A Oui Bit of Red is a terrific new OPI color - and am feeling damn lucky about that.While I thought T returned home tomorrow around 2, it's actually closer to 5 or 6. Fantastic.

Off to put something together for dinner and enjoy a glass of wine.

Jam is delish, inauspicious start to day, at least the sun is out

People, at 4:30 this morning, I felt something hard boring into my back. It was Jack's knees. I know not when or why he moved into bed with us, but when I came to, I realized that I was sandwiched between him and Tom and both were snoring to beat sixty. At 5a, Oliver started singing about wanting to eat and go to the bathroom. At this point, I threw in the towel and headed towards the basement. Percy was pacing frantically by the door, so I let him out only to watch has he ran to one of my low-slung flowers and pooped directly on top of it. In defeated irritation, I called him in and crawled into the basement bed, never to return to sleep. Despite this ridiculous opening act, I finished the early morning session by cooking and canning the gorgeous mess of strawberries, rhubarb and lemon that macerated overnight. The boys said it was awesome, and while it is on the sweet side, the flavor is wonderful. Melissa Clark, you've done it again.

After getting Jack to school, I thought it only just to stop off for a round of my beloved Apple Streusel bread. I mean, I did have to pick up a challah as I'm Shabbat mom in Oliver's class later this morning. This bread is making me very happy as is the fact that T took O to school, and I've got two hours of quiet ahead of me. Amen!

Going to walk the darn dog -my love for him is really on the outs right now- and then settle in to work up this madeleine recipe. In the wee hours of the morning I became certain that an espresso dipping glaze would be a wonderful accompaniment to the little cinna-cocoa cakes. What do you think?