Fa-la-la-la...yeah, whatever...

Wednesday mornings are always a bit hectic around here.  It's trash day -- Charlie's favorite day of the week.  We spend the rest of the week explaining to him why he can't push the trash can to the street, but on Wednesdays it's all worth it.  Lately, though,  the cold weather and Jason's longer work days mean that I need to have him fed, dressed and bundled about 45 minutes earlier than other days...

Despite a second helping of oatmeal and lost mittens this morning, we were ready to go and Charlie and Daddy fully enjoyed trash --even getting the chance to chat with Bob! 

Around 8:20 I ran out to start the car, and as I was walking up the stairs to "seek" Charlie I was feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out when I was going to schedule his flu shot, finish the Christmas cards, buy eight more Christmas gifts, run by the grocery store, prepare an appetizer and dessert for tonight's Christmas party, a side dish for Saturday's Christmas tea and a dessert for Saturday night's Christmas party, complete my weekly report, clean the house for Sunday night's dinner guests, get the laundry done, get Charlie to/from school, hopefully run on the treadmill and if I'm lucky, wash my hair for the first time since Sunday...

About five stairs from the top, I spotted Charlie on the landing chewing...something.  He immediately raced into the guest room, where I caught up with him to discover he'd found a piece of gum -- and didn't really know what to think.  My frustrated morning appeared to be turning into a Hallmark commercial, as I took a deep breath, laughed and persuaded Charlie to spit the gum into my hand... Such a sweet reminder of the life experiences and laughter, right?

Well, unlike a Hallmark commercial, we had no fade to black.  Charlie immediately rushed away, yelling "poop" then proceeded to roll around like a maniac on his changing table while I tried to change him and keep us both clean.  He continued rolling while I shoved his feet into his sneakers downstairs then initiated a game of tag, yelling "I FUHnee" when I tried to get him into his coat.

After a battle to get him into the carseat, punctuated with "I Char-char" (meaning: I do it myself), I realized that I had failed to turn the heat on when I started the car, so it was still freezing and covered in frost...and the check engine light is on...  Ugghhhh...

So much for Hallmark...today is feeling more like one of those old Calgon commercials...but someone turned the TV off before I could be transported into a peaceful, warm bubble bath...

I'm convinced that the recent manic pace of our life is designed to teach me some sort of important lesson...but whenever I try to figure it out that annoying new American Express commercial keeps coming to mind (too much TV lately maybe?) where the lady is talking about how she's saving the world one baby at a time by developing her own highly successful and lucrative line of organic baby food, and she and her husband have enough AmEx points to pay for visits across the country to all of the local, independent, organic farmers that provide her fruits and vegetables... 

At first I feel like a complete slacker, because I'm having trouble keeping up with one child, a house, a job and some volunteer work during the Christmas season -- but then I come to my senses and wonder why on earth anyone would spend free travel dollars doing anything other than jetting straight to a private beach without phones, computers, grocery stores or battery powered toys, where she can just lay in the sun while her husband brings her fruity umbrella drinks and her son digs holes in the sand...

Obviously, I haven't learned my lesson yet, but I am feeling cautiously optimistic about completing my four hours of meetings, appetizer and dessert and possibly even squeezing in a shower before I get Charlie and whisk him off to the Christmas Party where we'll meet Dad who's coming straight from work...of course, if his runny nose turns into something more serious, I could get a call from school at any moment then everything will be tossed back in the air...so we shall see.

Oh, and I'm sorry for no pictures...Charlie's aversion to them seems to have passed, but I just haven't had time to take any this week.  I'll do better!