A Day In the Life...

I woke up this morning in an awkward position on the couch, with the laptop still sitting on my upper legs, the screen showing the sign-up page to blogger. It was half filled out, and as soon as my vision came into focus, my fingers went to work completing the form. I vaguely remembered the same thing happening at least three times before, approximately at 3, 4 and 5am. Each time I got no further on the form because I just kept falling back asleep. You'd think I'd be smart enough to just turn the thing off already, right?

I think it was the 3am awakening when I finally resigned myself to the horizontal position. How come you keep falling asleep sitting up on the couch you ask? Well, we just got a new couch...rather a new old couch. The one we spent the first three years with in this house has about had it. It was old and used, and I might add ugly, when we first brought it home to begin with. It's only gotten worse since then. I can't count the amount of times it was peed on, spit up on, had food spilled on it. I'm sure many other unspeakable things have happened to it as well.

Almost 6 months ago we welcomed Ginger & Miracle into the house. That's when things got really bad. These two dogs had a bad lot in life before they came to live with us and we just didn't feel right refusing them this one specific comfort of joining us on the couch. So that they did. From time to time we thought better of it and tried to enact a new rule that The Dogs Are Not Allowed On The Couch. Yeah right. The girls didn't go for this. And we are suckers.

So it was starting to smell pretty bad and we decided that as soon as this addition is done we were going to get a new couch. I had already saved up almost half of what we figured would be the cost of the cheapest decent new couch we could find, so when we were offered this gently used, awesomely comfortable couch that happens to be the exact color we planned on getting I felt pretty lucky. We were still hesistant seal the deal, but when Jacob threw up on my favorite end of the couch and no amount of cleaning could get that wicked stank out, we pretty much wasted no time getting the new one.

On Sunday Zach and I drove to EG to pick up the savior couch. Halfway home it started raining (Murphy's Law in action). Stranded without a tarp, we had to book it to the nearest gas station and take refuge there until the rain slowed enough make it the rest of the way home.

Anyway, the couch is here, we love it. It's so freaking comfortable, we can't get over the fact that we went for so long with such a sucky couch. At night I just can't get up, and so I fall asleep. That's basically it. The old one is still here because the girls need a couch. It's in the middle of the dining room, or The Room Where We Put Things That Don't Fit In the Rest of the House. And the dogs haven't once tried to get on the new one. I actually think they are very happy with the situation. So we all made out pretty well.

After waking up this morning I snuck into bed with Jacob and we snuggled for a while. Oh, here's something funny. You want to know about me and heating pads? I have very bad luck with them. My neck had a major crick in it from being at a 90 degree angle for most of the hours between 3 and 7am. The heating pad was conveniently resting next to the bed so I picked it up, plugged it in, and turned it on. Bam! Blue sparks flying through the air and black char on the bed. The cord actually blew right in half. I swear to God, and I'm keeping this one for proof. The funny thing about this is that the exact same thing happened to me just two months ago while we were up at camp. Pretty much the same scenario too. Me, in bed, with Jacob right next to me...if we were in a movie you would hear ominous music playing in the background and you'd know something was about to happen. Unfortunately I don't have the benefit of an anticipatory score. All I've got is the colorful soundtrack to my life - "Damn! Sonofabitch!" Crash, bang, boom! Feel free to use your imagination here...

The next few hours were spent on house projects, playdoh activities, computer time, and I didn't save myself enough time to get ready for Jacob's 3 year doctor visit. So we were 15 minutes late, as usual. He had fallen asleep in the car on the way there, but for the first 5 minutes I wasn't sure if he was really napping, or just faking. He's been doing the faking thing for a long time now, but just recently he got the hang of it. All three of us were in the car the other day, with Zach driving and me in the passenger seat. It was that time of day where riding in the car is an extremely dangerous activity because 5pm is too late for a nap and too early for bed. So when I turned around to see Jacob 'sleeping' I made some sort of loud exclamation about it, and then so did Zach. He was actually faking, but after the good reaction he must have picked up on the fact that he truly fooled us this time. There is only one minor difference in his fake sleep and his real sleep, and that is the slightly pursed lips. You can tell he's awake and ever so slightly tensing his mouth so as not to break into a smile.

Fast forward to the waiting room, Jacob, still asleep, now in my arms. His head tilted back against the inside of my elbow, the soft part of his neck exposed, trusting me with this most vulnerable part of his body. My favorite part of the day.

Jacob was so cute in there with the doctor. They had an all-out conversation that I didn't have any part of. It's so amazing to me to see this little person taking the first steps to making his own way in the world. It's thrilling and terrifying all at once.

On our way out of the office, Jacob was given a sticker. Freshly off of the birthday weekend and Halloween, it was like "A sticker. What' the big deal?" And normally he'd be all over that. I've about had it with the over indulgence that October brings; the birthdays, the anniversary, Halloween, the bountiful harvest. But this is the time the rest of the country is just getting warmed up for the 'holiday season'. I find it hard being in the world this time of year.

Anyway, I was positive I covered all the bases before we left the house, but arriving back at home was a rude awakening. Freaking Mango and her chewing. Everyday I think, "This has got to be the peak, it's going to get easier from here on out." But it just keeps getting worse. Today alone she chewed a hole in my cozy organic cotton socks, disfigured half the pieces to Jacob's set of pots & pans, got into the upstairs garbage 3 times to feast on dried up snot, had a playdoh appetizer, followed by a main course of the coupon booklet Jacob was playing store with and rounded things off with a dessert of refrigerator magnet.

Well, I'm ready to have this day behind me...and I'm determined that it will not end the same way it started (me, on the couch), so I am picking myself up and going to bed. That is, after I take care of all the animals, do the dishes, close up the house, etc.