Okay, so I’m back. If there is one thing I have learned over the last couple of weeks it is that hell hath no fury like my readership after 3 or 4 days of no new posts. So, on with the show.

Although we have yet to really settle in on a new daily routine (we have had houseguests for the week) I can tell that the next weeks are going to be critical in terms of my efficacy as mother as well as my ability to supress my urges to curl into a fetal position on the floor. No longer do I have the luxury of dealing with a tempestuous 2-year-old mano a mano. In the circus that is my world, I have voluntarily chosen to go from just a regular old juggler to a flaming knife juggler. Be prepared to see me put my eye out and set my hair on fire. Over and over again.

It’s hard to tell at this point if it is a long-term phase or a transient one, but Stella has become more and more resistant to the idea of napping. So far this week, there was a day where she went without a nap entirely (by 7:00 her head was spinning in circles and she was speaking in tongues), one day where I spent the better part of an hour-and-a-half negotiating with her to go to sleep (the gutteral yells could be heard in the neighboring county) and a day where Grandma Judy had to read to her for 45 minutes. Although her regular naptime is 12:30, there has not been a day in the last 7 where she has gone to sleep before 2:00. It’s as though all this indoctrination into big-sisterhood has clouded her mind with thoughts that she is exempt from the usual toddler by-laws. Note to Stella: your timing is impeccable.

Monday will mark the official first day of my job as flaming knife juggler. I will be faced with the task of single-handedly wrangling a non-compliant toddler to nap while also holding and/or feeding a newborn. Throw in the fact that I will need to fit in pumping and eating lunch and you are bound to see me down for the count with the curtains on fire and knives lodged in the ceiling.