So Mike came home last night and out of the blue said that he wasn't going to play his game until further notice. He put two and two together and realized that things started going downhill (again) when he got this new game and wanted to play constantly. So he's putting it away for awhile. He was good with the kids. I had an extremely rare day - the kind where I'm counting the minutes until the kids bedtime. That is most nights for Mike :oP. Rachel would not sleep all day long. Every time I put her down in her crib, she started screaming her head off and did so until I caved and got her up. That was about a half hour at a time. Twice she did fall asleep, but only for about 10 minutes or so. Since she was up a bunch the night before and up early that morning, I was beat. My head was throbbing. The only time she slept all day was when she was in the car, so we decided to mimic that. We put them in the car and took a drive. I dropped Mike off to run in a store and drove around and then he did the same for me. Of course, she fell asleep as we were heading home, and made an amazingly stinky poopy. It was miserably cold and raining, so I deemed it less of the evils to wait to change her until we got home, rather than getting her out in the weather and risk her getting sick. She slept like a log last night, as did I and was much better today.

Today has been pretty good. Tom and Lucy came up. They were late and left the moment I returned (I was only gone for an hour). I don't think they were feeling well. Tom went to a partial knee replacement seminar today. To each his own, I guess.

We went to the Y this morning. I got a full work out in. Spencer didn't even bat an eyelash, he just went right into the Childwatch to play. Rachel was great too. They did a test of the fire alarm right as I was finishing my workout and although they were kind enough to not have the bazillion crickets buzzing sound in the fitness room, they did have it in the childwatch room, so I went there to find two screaming terrified kids. No biggie though.

I told Mike tonight (he wanted me to be honest) that I get tired of him complaining all the time. It seems constant and I told him so after he declared today the 'longest day ever'. Being a tad bit melodramatic, don't ya think?

Spencer was quiet a lot of the day, he was running a low grade fever this evening. He wasn't his usual running around like crazy self, I guess he wasn't feeling well. Poor thing. He was talking more. I gave him consequences if he didn't do something when I asked him to. Sometimes it was tickling, but consequences none the less ;o). It's amazing how quickly I've noticed a change in his reacting time once I've started swatting him if I have to tell him a third time to do something. He was very helpful emptying the dishwasher and putting the silverware away - except that I was filling the dishwasher and he was putting dirty silverware in the drawer. Yuck! I told him not to do something and said no-no-no, and he said no-no-no too. I've been waiting for that for a long, long time. It felt good to hear.

We are still going to Memphis this weekend. The drive will be shitty, and I will probably have to either pay for a hotel room that I can use for 5 minutes to go to the bathroom, or just pee my pants. No coffee in the morning, and no drinks until I'm at least half way there. Hopefully the drive will go smoothly. I'm taking the bare minimum of items. I'm not going to stockpile the van like last time. It's only for two days, we'll make due without a high chair and three baskets full of toys. I'm thinking a few hotwheels and a shake n go should suffice. As long as we have Einsteins (which he said today), Blue's clues and Cars dvd's I could probably skip toys altogether. Not going to happen though. TV is a last resort and a choice I make, not a first resort ad a demand he makes.

Spencer must have turned on the tv 10 times today. The good news is that he didn't throw a fit when I made him turn if off again all but 2 of those times. And only once did I have to tell him more than once.

I spoke with the EI specialist today and cancelled their services. She said that from her observation and our conversations, he seems okay, and since we are going to speech therapy anyway, it's no bid deal. I can call them back if I need them again. She said that there maximum caseload is supposed to be 20 and she's currently at 34, so if I didn't really need her help, she'd rather spend it with those that do. Not in a bitchy way, just being honest. I told her it does me more harm than good, and she understood. So that's done and all amicable and shit.

I had therapy tonight. It went well. I told her how much better I'm doing with Spencer and about the bad weekend Mike and I had, and about my self worth issues being tied to my massive whale sized ass. She mentioned couples therapy, and said that we need to set parameters so that nothing is discussed together about what is discussed separately that we don't want to be discussed.

And we are going to need it now since I just pissed Mike off. He walked out and asked if I wanted to go to bed. I hoarsely said as soon as I finish this I'd be in. He asked if I was upset and I said that I just have a sore throat. He, rather predictably, said 'yeah me too'. Like a moron, instead of just smiling I let it slip. I said, "of course". He did a double take and stomped off. Also predictably.