Our friend Eric was in town from Maryland this weekend so Emmylou and I decided to give him and Gary the run of the house last night. We stayed at Emily's so they could do boy things like scream and yell at the people on TV and play PlayStation games as loudly as they wanted, without worrying about waking up a baby (or a wife, for that matter). Aside from it taking about 4 hours for Em and I to make it through Little Miss Sunshine because Emmylou would not shut up, and then me getting a full-on nose bleed in the middle of the night because she stuck her finger up my nose, things went pretty smoothly. See? Here she is enjoying a leftover bottle of Malibu rum from Emily's cruise:



...and trying to get into Cricket's crate:




Overall, Emmylou has been a real handful this past week*-- I didn't know she was capable of such fussiness, but now I know for sure what I have to be thankful for: that she's not normally like this 24/7! I spent the last week trying to do whatever I could to make her happy while she was sick, so this week I'll focus on getting her back on a schedule. I would never describe myself as a very structured or self-disciplined person (Gary, stop laughing), but having spent so many years working in the Early Childhood classrooms, I know that if there is one thing kids thrive on, it's having a schedule!

*For this and future posts, "...has been a real handful" can also be read as "...has had her mother in tears several times".