House Arrest

That's what I've been under, my friends, and the unrelenting warden's name is Camden. From the time I uttered, "Why, yes! I'll make you a Royal Prince costume!" I have heard nothing but, "Are you sewing my costume, Mummy? Are you? Is it done yet? When will it be done? Can I try it on yet? Can I? WHEN can I? When are you going to finish it? WHEN??!!?" Alas, I am happy to report that the project was completed this afternoon, rudimentary though it may be. Camden picked the colors himself, and informed me that "Royal Princes ALWAYS have yellow shirts, Mummy!" He told me that his name is "Prince Softlow" - - I'm not sure how he came up with that name, but I'm not about to question him, for he is a boy who knows what he wants and/or means. Seriously, I love his vivid imagination, and I will always encourage it. He's very excited to surprise his Daddy at the airport tomorrow afternoon, in full Royal Prince attire. I love this shot of the boys together...another instance of Griffin sneaking into the frame, just as I was taking the picture.

So we survived the week, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't really, really tired! I cannot get over how draining stay-at-home momhood is at this point in time. Both of these little rascals are so full of it all day long! I'm realizing just now that I've been up for 15 hours now, and, with the exception of meals, this is the first time I've really sat down today! On the flip side, we have had such a fun, full week. While I've made a major breakthrough with Griffin's sleeping (he goes to bed easily, but has always woken up multiple times per night - - this week, he's woken up once and put himself back to sleep, or hasn't woken up at all, ALL week), Camden has not slept well at all. Once I put them down at 7:30, Camden gets up multiple times, and then inevitably, ends up in bed with me. He tends to get nervous when Steve is out of town, and doesn't sleep well. Adding to that, we were sitting around watching home movies last weekend, and at one point, Sadie was suddenly on the screen. Since then, Camden has cried multiple times about her, and I just wish I could figure out what to do about it. Tonight, I found him crying in bed, and he said, "I just wish she could come back, Mummy." Ugh, can you hear my heart breaking?

In anticipation of Steve's return tomorrow, I figured I'd better get busy and make the man some brownies. I must admit, I've always been a "brownie mix" kind of girl, but I'm determined to find the perfect "from scratch" recipe. I love food blogs as well as food websites, and have quite a lineup of brownie recipes to try out on him. The first recipe I'm trying comes from Everyday Food magazine (one of my favorites), called Super-Fudgy Brownies. Lining the pan with parchment paper made removing them from the pan a snap, and enabled me to slice them into perfect bars. I'm afraid some of the edges may be too dry, but next time I'll just cut the cooking time by a few minutes. They look to be very dense and chewy - - we'll see what Steve has to say about them tomorrow.

I leave you with one last photo, of my sweet Griffin, who loves to stand on his changing table and look out the window, every time he's finished having his diaper changed.