Exhausted

This past week, aside from throwing my little girl's first birthday party, and the additional small family get-togethers to celebrate the same, was EXHAUSTING! It felt so long and tiresome. My poor girl has had a sinus infection. We took her to the doctor to get her antibiotic, and thankfully, it is helping. But I swear, bless her heart, if I have to straddle her and stick that snot-sucker up her nose while she screams her head off one more time... I will literally throw myself off the balcony into the painful sharp-leafed bushes below. Because that would even be more comforting than having to strongarm her while she's twisting her entire body away from me, green goo pouring from her nostrils, and a flood of tears streaming from her eyes! It's been a rough week.

To add on to the frustration of Reese's sickness, I realized on Tuesday that I had just invited 65 people to a party that I had THOUGHT a lot about, but done nothing for. EEK! I knew my theme would be rubber duckys, and I knew the colors, but beyond that I was stuck. Thankfully my mom is a party-thrower extraordinaire. She did an amazing job decorating the table (or tablescape, if you're a Sandra Lee watcher) for the cake and the punch. The only sad thing was that my brilliant idea for having a blue punch and putting little rubber duckys in it, was somewhat of a bust. The punch I used was a baby blue ice cream punch, but I didn't realize that if you're using ice cream you SHOULD NOT use ice as well!! So, I completely watered it down, plus, the ice cream turned into this funky looking white foam floating in the blue punch. To top it all off, the little ducks I had bought decided to topple over, instead of float upright. So, it looked like a weirdly white spotted blue pond with a bunch of dead baby ducks. Not exactly the look I was going for. But at least people could capture the idea I was trying to attempt.

The party was a HUGE success!!! Reese, who had been grumpy, tired and drained from her ongoing sickness and antibiotic-infused state, turned into a complete ham at all the right moments. For starters, I bought her a silly paper tiara, like the ones you buy for New Years Eve, and she kept it on the entire night!!! PERRRFECT.
Then, when we brought her cake out and everyone was singing, she got a huge smile on her face, and started clapping her hands!! MORE PERFECT. (Especially considering the few other times she had been around this scenario she started bawling her head off)
When we presented her with her sugarless, flavorless banana cake (which of course I topped off sugarful, yummy strawberry frosting), she dug right in, and immediately started smearing it all over her face. She made a huge, stinkin mess, and was so good at it, that she got it all in her eyes, eyelashes, bangs, everything. She had on a frosting-mask!
To top it all off, I FORGOT TO BRING A BACKUP OUTFIT!! What was I thinking?! What kind of mother am I?!?
So, the poor little girl, looking so adorable all night long, had to borrow a t-shirt from her good buddy, Carson Watts. We left on her pink pantyhose to afford her some shread of girlyhood. She looked a mess. Wet bangs, a boy's t-shirt, and pink tights... But she still looked cute.

She had a MILLION presents! We had over 50 people at the party, so there were plenty of gifts for her to open and it took a good 20-30 minutes. Her first present was from Niles' mom. It was the sweetest, white rocking chair, and she LOVED it.
EVEN MORE PERFECT!!! She even kept throwing her head forward to try to get it to rock back and forth. It was adorable.
Who knew a rocking chair could bring so much joy?! She was very generous and decided to share her seat with Carson. He did, after all, loan her his t-shirt.




Reese had a terrific time at her party. Surprisingly, I think even most of the adults had a good time as well!

So, here's the bummer of the week. Not to digress, but I MUST get this off my chest!
I had to write a 50-word paper. Understand, that means 3 sentences basically. Now what girl can write a concise, clear, pointed article in 50 words! NOT ME, that's who. The title for the essay was "Life is...". Yep. Life is. Now, if you can blow my mind with 50 words about what life is to you, feel free. My frustration is in the fact that I proceeded to turn in an extremely disappointing, underwhelming, non-concise paper. I hate that. I feel like I did less than my best, and did not make a point worth making. It's so frustrating, in fact, that I'm warring with whether to write my professor and let him know how ashamed I am with my work!! It's humiliating. I got so analytical with those 50 words that I couldn't get past my basic point and try to expound on what I wanted to say. I should have used the fact of only having 50 words to think of how to ARRANGE my thoughts, and my points in the best way. I did not do that. ARGH!! I am so bugged by this.

But I have now vented to the general public. I feel better. Thanks for listening.