The city’s on fire once again, although thankfully the flames aren’t anywhere near our house. You could choke on the smoke in the air and the sun seems to have turned orange, but that’s nothing. During the last major fire six years ago, we had ashes and pieces of charred pine trees falling on our yard, but fortunately the fire never got anywhere near us, and this time it’s on the other side of the lake. We’ve been lucky, knock on wood. But we’re all hoping they get this thing under control soon.

On a happier note, we’re getting new windows installed in our house this week. Our current windows have busted seals, rotting frames and in some cases so much condensation that you can’t even see out of them, so the new ones are very welcome. Now so long as the house doesn’t burn down, we’re good to go.

I often wish I had more witty or insightful things to say on this blog, but fatigue and lack of time have a way of messing with my concentration. So I’ll stick to the basics.

Justin has now given up his nap (hey, he’s almost four and a half…it had to happen sometime) but seems to be making up for it by sleeping a tiny bit later in the morning. Actually, I don’t really know what time he gets up in the morning, cause he now reads his books or colors in his room until he hears us get up. We still go through the motions of putting him down for a nap, but we tell him he can stay in his room and just color or read and BE QUIET until we say he can come out. So even though he doesn’t nap, I can still slip downstairs and jog on the treadmill for a few minutes. Yay!

Brayden had a tough weekend: he threw up Friday night, was feverish for three days and seemed to re-injure his right leg, causing him to limp (that leg has been a problem on and off for months now…he goes for X-rays on Friday). But the spring is back in his step and he seems to be feeling like himself again. He even slept well last night, which was a major relief after three nights of being awake for hours. So we’re all friends again.

Which is important, cause Chris is once again out of town for a few days. This time around it hasn’t been too bad, since we’re busy during the day and Uncle Greg’s been helping me with bedtimes. But I’ll be happy to hand over the night shift when Chris gets home tonight.

I kind of feel like I’m under house arrest. We’re finally making some good progress with Justin’s potty training, but it means we have to stick pretty close to home for now, and I’m going stir crazy from staring at these same four walls 24/7. Plus yesterday was not our best day: Justin had lots of accidents, Brayden wouldn’t nap when I wanted him to and Justin didn’t nap at all. Then the worst part of all came at bedtime. Every time it’s Chris’s turn to put Brayden to bed, he spends an hour in there with no luck, then storms out leaving Brayden screaming. I then have to go in and rock the little guy for 20 minutes or so. EVERY TIME. So basically, every other night I end up putting both kids to bed. IT SUCKS.

So Brayden didn’t settle until 9 p.m., and Justin woke up screaming at 5:30 a.m., and if we have another day of no naps Mommy’s going to go postal. God, I need to get out of here…

It’s shaping up to be a good day. (In our house, we consider the night a success if no one is up before 6 a.m. Sometimes I can’t believe our standards have sunk so low.) Everyone got enough sleep, we are finally making significant progress with Justin’s potty training and I just found out that the suspicious mole I had removed a couple weeks ago shows no sign of cancer. To top it all off, the kids are off to Grandma’s this morning, leaving me the whole morning to putz around the yard and watch the Wimbledon women’s final. Life is good.

So we survived another trip to Toon Town. Actually, we did more than survive; we had a pretty good time, and kudos to the kids for behaving remarkably well. Yes, there were hordes of relatives around at all times, but no one had any major meltdowns, and most nights everyone slept all right. Chris and I even managed to escape with Rob, Janette, Dave and Tanya for an evening, leaving Grandma and Grandpa to put the kids to bed, and that went just fine (hooray!) I was just starting to really enjoy myself right about the time we had to leave (sigh), but such is life.

Father’s Day kind of snuck up on me, but I did manage to find a DVD about Pearl Harbor and a Ken Follett novel that Chris seems to appreciate. We took the kids to the park this morning and got in just enough playtime before it started to rain; on the way home we picked up some takeout for lunch and I did all the cleanup (which would normally be Dad’s job). We’re off to my in-laws’ tonight for dinner and cake. I call that a good day.

I keep meaning to record this for posterity cause it was just so darn cute. One of Brayden’s favorite books right now is If You’re Happy and You Know It, with different animals on each page doing the actions for the song. He wanted me to read it to him the other day but I was busy making dinner, so he plopped down on the kitchen floor and looked at it himself. I didn’t pay much attention at first, but when I tuned in I noticed he was actually “reading” the book:

BRAYDEN: Duckaduckaduckaduckaducka (claps his hands)
(turns the page)
Duckaduckaduckaduckaduckaduckaduckaducka (stomps his feet)
(turns the page)
Duckaduckaduckaduckaducka (roars like a lion)

You get the idea. If he ever gets some actual words that kid will have plenty to say.

I don’t know how much longer my luck can hold out, but I love the fact that both my kids still nap in the afternoons. I don’t think there are many four-year-olds who still nap for two or three hours a day (go Justin!) We’ve actually had to shorten Brayden’s nap in order to get him down at a decent hour at night, but I still get one whole hour all to myself during the day. That’s generally when I work out, but some days I say to hell with that and I crash for a quick snooze instead.

Such was the case yesterday. Chris is out of town on business for a few days, so the boys and I are on our own. Justin sometimes asks where Daddy is, but I just tell him Daddy’s on a trip, and he seems to accept that. Brayden doesn’t seem to have noticed. I’ve even developed a bedtime routine that gets both boys bathed and into bed by 8:15 p.m., which is the earliest Brayden’s gone to sleep in weeks. Yay me!

Of course, all this sleep training will likely go to hell when we fly to Saskatoon next week. We’re off to Toon Town on a week-long family visit that will include a big party for my grandma’s 90th and my dad’s 60th birthdays. It sounds like there will be quite a crowd, which is both good and bad: good cause everyone I would want to catch up with will be there, bad cause there’s no way I’ll be able to catch up with everyone while I’m chasing kids. We’ll see how it goes.

I have many failings as a parent, but the main one that preys at me is how ineffectively I discipline my kids. We’ve tried timeouts now and then, but not consistently enough to make any difference, and at any rate I haven’t figured out how to make Brayden sit still. I usually ask them to do something nicely three, four, five, sometimes six times, then resort to yelling. It’s a nice blowing-off-steam experience for me but it generally just rolls off them like water off a duck. I know there are better ways. I know I can be a better person. But damn, it’s tough.

My Mother’s Day got off to a bit of a rough start, with both my kids waking up ungodly early (Brayden was up at 4:45 and refused to go back to sleep), but things have improved since then. Chris took the boys to the park this morning, leaving me free to do some shopping and putz around, and then after their naps he hustled them over to his parents’ house for dinner. I have three whole hours all to myself: I plan to grab some takeout, veg in front of the TV and enjoy the peace and quiet. Ah, bliss…

Maybe we’re just typical homeowners, but somehow we manage to find at least one thing every year that costs us several thousand dollars we weren’t expecting to spend. Last year we re-landscaped the backyard and had our roof converted from cedar shakes to shingles; this year we’re replacing all the windows in the house. We’re also planning to do a Mediterranean cruise next year. Let’s just say we’re doing our part to stimulate the economy.