If I’ve written about anything recently, I must have written about the irony that even though I am not currently working, I have less free time than ever. How does that work?

Since everyone but Jennifer has had a cold recently, there have been some sleep issues. Tara is for the first time in her life being a fussy baby, and she seems to have been most affected by the cold. For a couple months, Tara has been going to sleep peacefully awake 80-90% of the time. Lately it’s more like 50%. We have had to let her cry her way to sleep more than a few times, as rocking her to sleep quickly forms a habit that we don’t want her to have. I’m hoping her alternately stuffy and runny nose doesn’t last more than another day or two.

Saturday and Sunday we had two different groups of people over for dinner. When I got up on Saturday I started cleaning up here and there and before I knew it, I was cleaning off surfaces (like the breakfast bar and dining room table) that have not seen the light of day in months. Over the course of hours I worked my way through the dining room and living room while Jen and Anna sorted all the baby-unsafe toys out of the disaster that is the family room. By the time people were arriving on Saturday, the house looked fantastic (and by fantastic, I mean “no longer inhabited by monkeys”). Sunday was another hectic day with another cleaning frenzy necessary to get the house back to the shape it was in on the previous day. I’m hoping we can keep this thing going; when the house is mostly clean the little things that need picking up make themselves obvious. When the place is a disaster, you don’t know where to start, and rarely do.

It was really nice to see our friends over the weekend. Anna had a blast playing in the pool, running around the yard, and menacing otherwise dry adults. The only down side was that both groups of friends brought over terrific desserts which I ate way too much of. I’m afraid to look in the freezer right now because there may be some turtle pie left in there. I really have to work out some kind of more frequent exercise solution that I can do around the house during Tara’s naps, particularly some kind of “core” strengthening regimen.

Recently, some people have asked for more photos of Tara (and by “some people” I mean Grandma D.). It’s true I have not been taking a lot of pictures lately, mostly because of the increased level of busyness, but also, Anna has needed some extra attention lately, so most of my picture-worthy outings have been with her. Tara should be starting on rice cereal fairly soon, so there will definitely be some images forthcoming.