Attempting to be a Super Mom

I know, I've been neglectful again.  Truth is, outside of birthday planning and party throwing, life has been pretty normal and calm.  We've been battling a cold and apparently a stomach bug as well for the past week or two.  Ben's the only one with the stomach bug though, and Rylie and Shawn are the only two who have managed to avoid the head and chest cold. I'm typing this from my couch in my pajamas still (at noon) with cup of coffee carefully balanced in my lap and a stack of unused tissues on my knee.  I'm waiting for my cold meds to kick in, so we can get up and do what we need to for the day. I do have laundry going and I've vacuumed the floor, but purely out of necessity.  The cat must be angry with me, for either the dog taking over her territory and being inside the actual house way more than normal, because I shut her out of the bedroom the past couple of nights, or because she feels neglected by me because of my attention to Scotland.  Sh...

Well, she's not so little.  Last week, on Valentine's Day, she turned 2! Shawn was out of town for work on the 13th and the present wrapping was left to me.  I'm not a fan of wrapping.  My husband loves it, but I don't.  Oh well, Ben helped me out while the girls slept. On the morning of a kid birthday, in our house, the kids get to open a couple of presents in the morning.  This is usually an outfit and a toy, something for them to wear on their birthday and something for them to play with. Everything else waits until the evening.  Because Shawn was in a hotel in LA at the time, we called him on FaceTime so he could still watch Rylie open presents.  With today's technology, there is no reason a parent should miss out on anything in a kids life and vice versa. I even blew up a couple of balloons so the kids could play with them. Because it was Valentine's Day and Shawn was across the country until the afternoon he had flowers sent t...