Things Going On (And Parenthesis, Lots of Parenthesis.)

• A 3 year old in the house!!!!  We (that banging you hear is me furiously knocking on wood before I even dare type such thoughts...) seem to be on the down swing of behavior, moving into less irrational and more rational negative reactions to the tiny dictator not getting her every desire met at the speed and method she was expecting (via someone reading her mind, of course!).  Still in her crib (I know, I know but not going to fix what was broken and after the A&D Ointment Incident of the 4th of July trip was made possible by a big girl bed, I'm really in no hurry to make that change. Full tube + toddler supposedly behaving herself during quiet time.  Use your imagination if you dare.  Thankfully she only hit things which were washable: hair, clothes, sheets, etc.)  Quiet time is not negotiable for my sanity, but she's down to maybe 1 in 7 days getting a proper nap.  In a toss up between a nap and her sleeping from 8-7+ instead of 10-6+, I'll take the 8pm bedtime.
• Lots of new toys and activities as well, including: tricycle (like the red one, but mostly chrome), basketball hoop, wagon, and the top gift of all: a game called Let's Go Fishin' which rocked not only the day of the family party on the actual birth day, but the friends party on Saturday as well.  It was the sleeper gift, my Mom found it because I'd had one, my parents and I don't really remember it, but apparently the kids from a family we spent some time with remember it very very fondly.  You never know what's going to stick in memory!
• Also new? A replacement for my beloved green Highlander which was getting along in miles and years.  It had reached the point of costly maintenance or replacement - so we replaced at the end of June.  Our intention had been to just start sussing out the options in June with purchase later in the summer, but then we realized that the state sales tax was increasing a couple % as of July 1, and somehow after several late nights crunching the numbers between 3 different makes and models, we managed to justify the used by a corporate level employee and with barely over 6500 miles 2012 Audi Q5.  The only bummer: it's the darker of the two available blues for that year.  Otherwise? I adore it. The Nissan Murano and Subaru Outback lost out in part thanks to equally uncomfortable seat backs - they both have a horizontal seam which resisted conforming to my back.  The irony was that DH had to get a rental car when he went to CA for a work event and he ended up with a Subaru Outback in the color and package we would have gotten; even after a week of driving it he said the seat back really wasn't comfortable!
• We went to the in-laws place on the Outer Banks for a good part of the week of the 4th.  We had a good time - LO loved the sand and ocean as well as the sound and the neighbor's pool, especially since I broke down and got her one of those life jackets with the wings.  She was a jumping fool!  Unfortunately it was the last time we saw our in-law's dog.  :( She had had a stroke but was seemingly stable in her status of  not-so-well, unfortunately once they got home she stopped eating and drinking and they had to make the decision to put her to sleep faster than they had hoped.  They had asked us to look after her when they went away this Sun-Tuesday so I was actually relieved that we didn't have to make that decision while she was with us, though still very sad that she had not lasted so far as anticipated.
• Trying to find a replacement cleaning service after the last group decided they wanted to centralize their service area closer to home.  They had started to slide in their performance but that was still better than having to find another company.  What a pain.  Also, what a privilege to have that to complain about!

I guess that's it for now. LO is enacting a soap opera during her "quiet" time today and I don't want to miss any of the story line!