yes, it is july 29, and i have written nothing for 9 days. but it has been a non-stop whirlwind of birthday activities for ava, plus a visit from grandma, and a lot of catching up on things like cleaning the house and going through a week of mail etc. and i have been collapsing exhausted into the bed when the kids fall asleep because for some reason i have been spending the hours between 2 and 5 awake, lying there, listening to my children sleep. WHY??????? dear god, why? so, if i have a second, it has been spent in catching up on sleep.

anyway, in a nutshell, birthday week went very well. ava had a pink party, and i had 9 children here, plus attendant adults. 9 children is a ridiculously stupid number of kids to let your four-year old daughter invite, particularly when you are a neurotic mess when only 2 are here, feeling an overwhelming sense of responsibility for their fun and safety. but it went off without a hitch, save for one unattended (not my choice) child's effort to love the guinea pig to death. ava was close to implosion by the end--so much excitement and input and people and stuff and SUGAR! she was literally bouncing off the walls, so i exiled her, carter, peter and grandma to skating while i cleaned up.

fortunately no one noticed that the cupcakes were a bit messy because i had iced them, de-iced them and re-iced them with better icing once ava and i decided that the first choice was awful. that decision resulted in a frantic trip to the store to buy 4 more tubs of icing, scraping the bad icing off of 48 cupcakes (some were for her skating friends), and reicing them. it was a very sticky endeavor, made all the more excruciating because i had gotten up at 3 am in order to make all of the food for the party. i was barely functional.

for a non-sweet pink food we had borscht. and it was PINK. it was probably the most pink food we could have made. tasty too. but also a lot of work.

the hero of the week was most certainly grandma. she kept cheerfully showing up at 9 am, taking the kids off on all sorts of adventures and letting me maintain control of a very chaotic scenario. she even took carter on her last day so that ava could have quiet time with mommy. we went to the grocery store, not exactly the most exciting thing we could have done, but it was very restorative for ava to have no little brother around. so, thank you grandma.

and ava managed to get over her fear of thunderstorms and she finally went swimming at the beach. though that ended up being rescinded today when she panicked at our pond. but yesterday is was thunder-y, as well as the day prior, so it is at least understandable.

carter blew through the week with mostly good spirits, but boy oh boy does he want to sleep. he has been sleeping like crazy. 2 hour naps and in bed at 7. i am not sure if it is growth, teeth, cognitive development, tons of activity or all of the above, but whew. you would think i was keeping him up with me during those insomniac hours.

totally off topic: we were in lake placid the other day, and a big kid rolled by on a skateboard. you would have thought it was santa and his reindeer, given the way carter's eyes bulged out of his head. he looked at me, mouth agape, and then looked at the skateboard dude, and pointed at him and then said in almost a trance as he pointed to himself "uh-huh!"

and now he plays skater dude, where he holds on to something and swings his foot as if he is propelling a skateboard. he understood immediately what the deal was with that nifty piece of transportation and he is ready when i am.

ava was very cute today. she said to me: "you know mom, i really like EVERYTHING that i got for my birthday--isn't that great?"

god. she is FOUR. that is amazing.