I have too many books!

Well, too many books for the available space in my house. I have all the books I've collected since early childhood, with the exception of picture books, which are still at my mom and dad's house, waiting patiently to be read by the grandchildren who are arriving in droves. Plus, since I am an avid bookworm and prefer to own my books than return them to the library, I have continued to acquire more and more books in my adult life.
I also really like rereading my books which is a trait not everyone understands. This is another reason why I prefer to buy books. Many of my childhood books, particularly the Little House on the Prairie books and Betsy-Tacy books, are in atrocious condition because I am not kind to my books. They get carted everywhere, bent up, torn. They're like the blanket a little kid carries around until it's just a rag. But it's a much loved rag.
I did some straightening of the game closet tonight. This is also the closet that houses the vast majority of my books. I say "my" books because I've contributed most of the books in our household library collection. Many of my books beloved in my teens, like Nancy Drew and Babysitters Club, are contained in boxes because there's not room on the shelves.
I'm probably crazy for keeping these hundreds and hundreds of books. If there's ever a fire, I'd be heartbroken at the loss of my collection. But they are part of who I am. As dippy as it sounds, my books are kind of like old friends that I still visit from time to time.
Someday I'll have enough space for all of them to be out, too, I hope.

Back yet again

I know, I know, it's been MONTHS since I've posted. Well, the LT and I had our baby on Mother's Day. I'll call her Lee. She's 3 months old now and she and Cee are so cute. She's a far more mellow baby than Cee was, and a better sleeper too. Just don't make her wait for nursing. And don't delay her bedtime. That's really the only time she gets fussy. It's been crazy going from a family of 3 to a family of 4, but we're pretty much adjusted, at least for now.
We've moved Luna outside. We found a doghouse on Craigslist, and she seems to be pretty happy. Samwise, Freya, and Molly also now spend most of their time outside. It's easier with Cee and Lee to not have the dogs constantly nuts in the house. We leave the dogs outside now when we are gone overnight and have the neighbors come over to feed them and make sure everything's okay, and that's working out really well. We're not quite sure what we're going to do this winter, but we'll figure it out.
The LT's family and all of us took a trip up the North Shore last week. It was Cee's first time up the Shore, and she had a blast throwing rocks into Lake Superior. She's still talking about it. We were all ready to come home, though. A vacation with 8 adults and 6 kids ages 2 months to 16 years gets really crazy.
Hopefully I'll find time to post more often now. My mother blogs more than I do.

So far, so good

Cee has slept straight through the night for 2 nights in a row. I don't believe this has happened before. Last night she fell asleep around 8:30 and slept until 7:30, and the night before we did the crying thing as I laid her down at about 8:40, but she only cried for about 20 minutes and again, slept until about 7:00. So hopefully, this is a pattern that we can follow for, oh, the next 16 or so years.
And I guess just because you quote the Bible for your Facebook status, it makes all your friends worry about you. Grr. But that's a post for another time. Right now Cee is freaking out about her princess gloves and needing help with them.

Tired

I am tired.
Of course I'm tired. I'm 34 weeks pregnant. I have a 2-year-old. I have four dogs.
For all I swore I wouldn't, I am now letting (if that's the word) Cee cry herself to sleep when she wakes up in the night. I hate it. But she has been waking up again and hollering "Mommy, rock" or "Mommy, bed" or just plain, "Mommy", and when I would pick her up and rock her, I couldn't get her back into her bed. So I put her in our bed. Which meant that no one really got any good sleep. So, since I know there's nothing else she needs (she's not sick, teething, hungry), I've been letting her cry for 4 nights. I think I'm doing the sort-of Ferber method, which is going in at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on. The first night, it took 70 minutes. Night #2, 50 minutes. Night #3, 8 minutes (and I was so hopeful) but last night took an hour. So here's hoping that this works in a few more nights. Cee has put herself back to sleep many, many times before, without crying and needing to get up, so I also know that this is in her capacity. But I need her sleeping decently before Little Girl #2 arrives sometime in the next 6 weeks, because I know no one's going to get any sleep for awhile after she's born.
I just wish I wasn't quite so tired now.

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