Success

Wow. The day is done, and I'm half awake. Surprise? Well, I did have my share of coffee today. Armenian coffee whole beans from Jons cost $3.69 per pound, and does the trick.
We haven't been doing the coffee thing much lately, but that and cat naps for me can really make the difference from being a nice friendly mom, or a maniac freakazoid ready to stomp on all the toys that get in my way like a crazy Godzilla mommy.

And with that said, today was fine. I mean real fine. I handled two mini-tantrums like a pro. Some onlookers may have said I'm not tough enough, but in my old age I've found that with my kids, yelling, being mean, and trying to show my power doesn't work as well as telling my kids that their feelings are valid, that I understand, that I too freak out, and that I love them. I also try to put myself in their situation and say things like .... "Oh, you mean, I should cry when your Dad wears a black shirt when I want him to wear a white one? Would that make things better?" Then Celia says, "No." "But I NEED Effie to wear a Pink Ballet Outfit!" But this conversation carries on until she realizes after some consoling that yeah, her crying is a little silly, and then she'll say "Oh, it's just that I really WANTED to wear the green skirt and that's why I was mad at Effie", and even though this makes no sense we carry on.

Anyhow. The day had many triumphs for me.
Including:

I woke up at 6:30am.
The kids woke up at 8:30am.
We made it to Effie's speech class on time driving Cathie's bug (which usually chugs up the 2 freeway, so I left early to take the streets)
Celia met a real handsome fireman who let her sit in the driver seat. (Lucky) Celia later said he looked like a husband and a prince - and I definitely agreed whole-heartedly. hehehehe.
The girls missed a proper breakfast but ate a proper lunch.
They had about 4 servings of fruit.
I avoided giving Effie excessive sugar. She's going through withdrawls right now, so if you see her, please only offer her grapes. Do not give her lollipops or frosting.
I made a proper lunch for my husband.
Cathie vacuumed Celia's room for me. (tankz)
Cathie let me nap for 10 minutes. (tanks)
90% of laundry done.
Did 3/9 things on my list of things to do.
Made a proper dinner - which the girls helped me make and they ate it all after eating lots of oranges and grapes. I rewarded their successful dinner habits at the table with 2 peanut butter cookies.
While I washed dishes, Celia took Effie to the bathroom, wiped her butt for her, changed her chonies for her, put her pajamas on her, and let Effie help her do the same. Ha ha. They were too cute.
They actually put their shoes away.
We got to take a walk.
We ended up walking in the rain, and it was still fun.
Voted.
Got free brownies at the polls. (So much for brushing the kids' teeth)
Made it back.
Only had to read 9 books.
Kids asleep in 7 minutes after lights out.

Now, I didn't get to draw, paint, play music, make a quilt, read a book, make any money, or do sit ups and push ups, but I'd say so far so good. And you know what??? IT'S ONLY 9:18 PM!! WOO HOO!

I didn't even mention, Alex went with us to their first day of tap class, and if you ever wanna go - it's at 5pm on Tuesdays and it's really the cutest thing you've ever seen. Effie tap dancing is seriously THE FUNNIEST and CUTEST and MOST IMPRESSIVE thing YOU'LL EVER see IN YOUR LIFE! You HAVE to go! My God! I mean... I'm such a sucker for cute babies, and she takes the CAKE!

Ok - and tonight when we got back from the walk in the rain - we changed their pjs, and Celia had her magnifying glass and little Waldo Anthology and said she needed to "Brush up on my detective skills, because being a detective is SOOOO in...gredient".

I think she may have wanted to say "In...credible", but whatever, "Ingredient" is a good long word that starts with "In" and had four syllables right?

See ya guys soon. Time to finish the last 10% of the laundry.