It's funny how the Earth never opens up and swallows you when you want it to.

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Miss O woke up twice, I patted her back down pretty easily, so a decent night. Except it was like 8:30 by the time she finally fell asleep and she was up at 5.

She woke up at 4:30 and I got her back to sleep, thinking "yay! She should sleep until at least 6, maybe 7, since she was up so late." I think my giddiness had worn off and I had just fallen asleep when I heard her again. At 5:00.

So I went in and she was standing up doing the gesture and sound that mean "I'd like to go out and play now, please". I spent a good half hour trying to get her to go back to sleep, but at some point Bean woke up in my room and came barging in, asking "Why is she crying so much?" Before I could answer, she cut me off and said "I want to talk to Miss O. Miss O, do you want to come out and play with me?" To which Miss O gave a delighted "mmm-hm!" And mommy surrendered gracefully to the unstoppable force that is children in collusion.

It's going to be a looonnngg day.

Thankfully, Julia's fab website, Little Austinite, is chock full of events and places to go, so even on days that start at 5:00, I can fill the hours with kid-friendly shopping, dining, outings and home-based learning that should keep everyone but me from reaching for the bloody mary mix. I think we'll be doing a park this a.m., Lakeshore Learning in the afternoon and grabbing lunch at one of the many restaurants around town that make dining solo with two kids ... well, not exactly enjoyable, but better than it could be. If you are in the area and have not checked out Little Austinite, I do NOT know what you are waiting for - even the kidless set has something to gain, as the restaurant, venue and dining reviews come from grown-ups with stellar taste (if I do say so myself).

I'm still looking forward to doing 'Science at dinner: Anatomy of the Rotisserie Chicken' - Julia took something we can all lay hands on and, using her ginormous brain and years of high school AP biology, created a way cool science thing we can do at home for the littles. I know Bean is going to crap kittens when she sees all that stuff.

Random Beanisms:

Miss O, I wanted to show you how I became a rattlesnake.

Mother, I have a surprise for you (points at a picture of the colon) this is where the poop comes out.

I'm thrilled to see you alive, mommy. That means happy. I'm happy to see you alive. Animals think alive means dead, cuz some animals think it's a different way of designing what alive means. They sometimes think people mean alive means dead. But that doesn't make sense.

Bean: All the kids were screaming and hurting my eardrums
Mommy: Where were they screaming?
Bean: In my eardrums.
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