The last four days have all sort of blended together, and I am very sleep deprived this morning, so some highlights: 

- A lady in our complex accidentally locked herself out of her car, and M attempted to help her. But because it's a new car with fancy anti-theft measures, they weren't able to get into it, and he ended up driving her over to her mother's house to get the spare set of keys. For his trouble, he got to hear all sorts of fun political conspiracy theories. XP

- M is the worst late-minute packer in existence, good lord. He complained that he had no clean clothes, so his friend that was giving him a ride let him come over early so he could do laundry. Cue a mad rush to find the clothes he wanted to take with him, his toiletries, his earbuds, etc, etc. I stopped attempting to get him to pack early long ago, so now I just sit back and let the whirlwind pass me by from my perch on the couch.

- Katie and I had a pretty good 4-day weekend to ourselves. She was in pretty good spirits the entire time, with the exception of Saturday morning, when she was very cranky. She just needed more sleep, though, because then she took a nearly 4 hour nap, and was cheery again when she woke up. 

- Speaking of sleep, the experiment to reset her sleep schedule failed spectacularly. She is now even more off schedule than before, which, of course. She is now staying up until past 10pm, and sleeping until 11am, then napping for several hours in the afternoon. It's probably all related to the Fall light changing and growth spurts and what have you. I gave up eventually and just let us both sleep in in the mornings.

- Toilet training has sort of partially begun. She has learned to wipe her bottom by herself, which is a good start. Of course, she strips completely naked to do so, because she is going to take any excuse to get naked. 

- Kate dug up the only lipstick I still kept around for the rare occasions that I put on makeup these days, and she ate it.

- My sister flaked on me, so we didn't have lunch out on Friday as planned. So instead, I made chicken tikka masala at home, which fed me and Kate for two nights, and we had enough left for M to have dinner after he got home Sunday night.

- Our cookie tin ran dry over the weekend, which is unacceptable to Katie, but I was feeling lazy and didn't want to go to the store in the rain, so I decided to just bake some at home. Accidentally measured out twice the amount of flour I needed, and didn't realize it until I had already mixed all my wets and dries together and was staring at it going "why is it so dry and crumbly?!" So, I ended up doubling the rest of the ingredients rather than starting over, which ended up making about 10,000 cookies, good lort. Anyway, they turned out really nice, cakey and soft with a bit of crunch around the edges. 10/10, do recommend. Used this recipe. 

- M's plane got in an hour late on Sunday. Thankfully, I was not the one picking him up, after all, and his friend that took him to the airport was also his ride home. That gave me enough extra time to finish cleaning the kitchen and tidying up the house before he got back.

- Friend's gear shift promptly broke as soon as he dropped M off at home. I swear, the land we live on must be cursed. 

Stayed up way too late last night talking with M about his trip. He had a great time, and seemed much more relaxed when he got home. I didn't get to sleep until after 1AM, then had to be up at 6AM so I could go to work early and earn some flex time. I guess my brain didn't trust my ears to hear the alarm, because I was awake every half hour during the night, and I feel miserable and exhausted today. It's taking all my brain power just to keep my eyes open. 

In completely unrelated news, our first apartment, the one where the ceiling collapsed in our bedroom, is for sale. The last time I saw the place it was mostly intact, but it was covered in green mold on the walls and ceilings. Whoever came in, whether it was vagrants or bad contractors or both, absolutely trashed the place. The ceiling in the bedroom is still, uh, gone. XP Such a shame, it was actually a really nice and cozy apartment before the whole ceiling thing.

57 spiders today!

Marriage license has been acquired! It was a very quick and easy in-and-out at the Clerk's office, now we just need to wait until next week (technically 72 hours, but by that time M will be in Chicago) for an officiant to sign the bottom and we'll be officially hitched. I spoke to the county Chaplain, and he's more than happy to be our officiant, now it's just a matter of finding some time next week to do it.

Since we only have the one car right now, I had to pick up M at lunch, then he had to drive home, work some, and then pick me back up after work. He always complains that I take too long to get home in the afternoons, but after picking me up today and seeing just how stupid the drivers are downtown and how bad traffic is, he has said he now gets it. XP 

Dinner for the adults was cheap burgers from McDonald's, Katie had some potstickers. We played together a bit, and she picked up the word "blue". She's added a few phrases to her vocabulary, namely "I don't know", "I did it", and "I'M NAKED!" which she now proudly declares whenever she takes off her clothes.

Speech therapy today during my lunch break, then the rest of the day should be quiet. M has taken tomorrow off even though his flight isn't until the late evening, so I might get a reprieve from running back and forth to the house, which would be nice because damn my hips hurt all the time now. He has a friend taking him to the airport since it's so late that Kate would definitely need to be in bed. 

Looking forward to the long weekend. Have the vague idea of working on some sewing project during that time, but we'll see how things shake out. If nothing else, I'd like to prep a coif that I can embroider during my hospital stay. It was very dull just lying in bed last time and not being able to do anything.

The kitchen at work has partially implemented a new menu, and yesterday's lunch was Frito pie. It's hard to mess up a pack of Fritos and canned chili, so it was a pretty good, nostalgic lunch. But apparently it's not something people eat anymore? I overheard a coworker in the dining room educating a bunch of Gen Zers about how to construct a Frito pie, apparently they were just eating the chili on its own and had no clue that it all went together.

It was a mostly quiet day, with a frustrating drive home because the traffic lights were out and everyone suddenly forgets how to drive when that happens. -_- 

Kate took a late nap again last night, from 6-7:30, and woke up again in a sad mood. We had many couch cuddles and I turned on her favorite songs, and she was soon better. She went back to bed around 9pm, then M got us a cheap McDonald's dinner and we finished the rest of The Shining before turning in for bed.

Today has already started out busy, and the rest of the day is poised to follow suit. Kate was up at 6:30 because the kitten managed to somehow open the bedroom door and was chasing a hair tie across the room. We brushed our teeth, she ate breakfast, watched a little bit of Ms. Rachel, and then it was back to bed before I had to leave for work. M has a very important, though blessedly short, meeting at 11, and once that is over he's going to drive with me back to work, we're going to do the whole marriage license thing, and then he'll head back home and me back to work. Since he'll have the car, he'll have to pick me up in the afternoon, too. 

The next two weeks are going to be stuffed full of appointments and travel. Next week Katie has a speech therapy appointment, then it's M's Chicago trip, then the week after he has his Dallas trip on the same day as another speech therapy appointment (so it'll just be me and Kate that day), an OB appointment/sonogram on Thursday, and Katie's 2-year checkup on Friday. Yeesh! 

Tomorrow is Katie's 2nd birthday! We've managed to keep her alive for 2 years, so good job, us. We're planning to take her to a pumpkin patch or petting zoo, then out for dinner at La Madeleine where they have the cheesy pasta she likes. Should be a good day.

47 spiders today!

Kate's speech therapy session yesterday went very well. She was chatty and happy, and showed off her new vocabulary, and greatly impressed the therapist with her progress. At age 2 they're supposed to have 50+ words, and Kate is currently at around 30-35, so we're closing that gap.

Kate was in A MOOD when I got home from work, though, just generally fussy and upset. M left to go take a nap because "she'd been running him ragged." I made her dinner, and her mood improved greatly. I, too, become fussy and grumpy when I'm hangry.

The rest of the evening went smoothly, except for a massive allergy attack just before bed. I showered, and that helped enough that I could get to sleep without my face melting off.

Things got off to a rough start this morning. Kate was up just after my alarm went off. M had zero patience, and stomped around like an elephant while he tried to get her back to sleep, which just upset her more. I shooed him away and took over, and did all the things that usually work - some cuddles, check on all the kitties, then a gentle song, and bam, back to sleep in under 20. 

M was grumpy after that and kept complaining that he had 5 hours of meetings today and just needed another 30 minutes of sleep. Maybe don't come to bed at 3AM? Just a suggestion. 

Got halfway to work before I realized that I'd forgotten my badge. Doh. 

Hopefully the rest of the day is a bit less rocky.