A Few Things, In No Particular Order

* I've been sitting here trying to write a post for about 20 minutes now, but my beautiful, adorable, wonderful daughter will NOT STOP TALKING TO ME. She is actually engaged in a snack-and-chat session with two imaginary friends (Handy Manny and Martian Mickey) but for some reason my commentary is also required. She's currently discussing Simon and the fact that he died. Yes, she's still talking about it. She and her friend C actually bonded over it the other day; C also had a dog die and the two girls talked seriously about it. It was really sweet, but it blows me away that she's already having discussions like this with her girlfriends.

* The same girl, C, tends to prefer the company of girls. Her mom says the boys they see regularly tend to be sort of loud and aggressive so she keeps her distance. Apparently, the only boy that she likes is Pacey. At a recent playdate the girls dressed up in fancy dresses and shared Pacey as their handsome Prince Charming (this kid is remarkably tolerant). After awhile he disappeared under a desk with a Leapster and I didn't really blame him. 

* Pacey was tired last night and was reaching epic levels of naughtiness. I was truly exasperated by the time I was helping him put his pajamas on and asked, "WHY are you being so naughty, Bud?" He dropped his head and covered his eyes with his hands. He didn't say anything but we had a hug and then he cleaned up his toys without being asked. I hate times like this...his language has come along so much but it's mostly still pretty concrete stuff. He does occasionally tell me "Pacey happy" which is about the best thing ever, but it must be so frustrating to not be able to explain yourself. 

* I've been seriously over-committing myself lately. I actually had to diagram out this coming week to keep track of everything I have planned to do. It's fine, I like being busy and it makes me really happy to do things for other people, but I'm not leaving much time to be by myself. I find myself enjoying the various social interactions in my week very much, but they are still a drain on my energy resources. I get all my best thinking done when I have at least 60 consecutive minutes to myself, and I haven't been allowing that lately. It's really contributed to a foggy feeling I don't like. 

* I'm reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin and am finding it fascinating. I go back and forth between really identifying with the author and finding her incredibly annoying, but nonetheless it's an interesting concept and it's given me a LOT of food for thought (see previous statement about not allowing enough time to just think). We'll be discussing it later this month in my book club and I think it'll be a really great discussion. 

* Time to take B to her swimming lessons. I'm really, really glad she loves them so much because I find it a complete drag (5:00 on a Sunday evening!). But if you're going to live in a place with 10,000 lakes, you really gotta know how to swim.