And Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson

I'd better lay off the caffeine for a few days, I think. Over the weekend I drank a lot of coffee and cherry cokes and today Anja is out of her mind!! Not in a bad way... it's actually a little bit hilarious. For awhile I was getting kind of irritated because she wasn't staying asleep--she took a nap for about an hour, and then another one for about ten minutes--and then I thought, Why am I being bothered by this?? She's ultra happy. Who cares if she stays awake all day? I already made the barbeque sauce for dinner tonight AND I dusted the furniture (!!!!) so what am I getting so worked up about?? It's just a few extra daytime hours with my little screech owl. But still.... I'm going to take a caffeine break for a few days. Funny as it is, this can't be good for her.

As it turns out, when Martin was unable to find "the Graduate" at the movie store, that was because he wasn't AT the movie store. He was at Target, wanting to BUY it. So on Sunday after lunch I walked over to the library and checked it out. We started watching it in the afternoon and I LIKED IT. It was so bizarre! And weirdly funny! In the evening we just got Wendy's chicken sandwiches for dinner (gross, I know) and then had Laura & Dan over to play euchre! I think Martin and I won. Then Anja was sleepy, but wouldn't fall asleep upstairs (all those cherry cokes...) so we had to kick out our guests and drive her around for awhile. If gas weren't so expensive I really wouldn't have any problem with driving her around. Martin and I sometimes have our best conversations while we're driving around town putting Anja to sleep. Someday we'll look back fondly on those times.

Just after Anja was born I thought I'd someday look back fondly on all the times we stayed up all night walking around the house with her while she screamed. My demented head thought I would miss that someday. Well, I don't. I'm SO glad those days are over.

Anja seems to be really growing all of a sudden. She can do so much now! She can switch her rings from one hand to the other, and she can find them in her lap and pick them up. Yesterday while we were playing cards she sat in a highchair for the first time and played with her toys on the tray. She's always saying new sounds, and it won't be TOO long before she's sitting up by herself. She's at the stage where she can stay up when she leans really far forward. The next step after that is sitting upright by herself without falling over! And she's just so much a person now. She pays attention and reacts when you talk to her. If I'm singing to her, she'll turn herself around so she can look at me. She's suddenly really interested in the animals. It's so much fun!! I guess this is what they mean when people say every stage gets better. You think they're pretty great as they are, and then they get to doing something else and, oh wow, THAT'S the best stage!

Okay, anyway, back to my original train of thought... Anja fell asleep about four seconds after we pulled out of the driveway, which left us plenty of time to come home and finish our movie. I really liked it!! It was just as strange at the end as it was at the beginning.

Ooo, and the best part about getting it from the library is that they've rearranged their movie section, and they must've done it recently, because everything is in correct alphabetical order now! Before I wouldn't have to look through all the "G's" to find "The Graduate" but now that they've been freshly moved, I found it right away. (Also thanks to my 2nd grade education.)

This morning at rosary group we were talking about Glory & Praise. Mary said that some people miss singing it at mass because it reminds them of their childhood. I don't miss it at mass. But I do kind of look forward to the time when Anja is in school and she will sing all those cheesy songs again.

Karenin is being too quiet. I'm going to go see what she's ruining.