Tonight I was pounding cabbage to make sauerkraut (hold on, I'll explain in a minute) and Julian was over on the far side of the living room making all kinds of fantastic noises. The couch blocked my view, so I couldn't see what he was doing, but the sound effects were great.

There was lots of "Oh MAN!" and something that sounded like "Dude!", accompanied by stomping and karate-chopping sounds, and some blocks were thrown across the room from time to time. Busy pounding my cabbage, and knowing that everything over there is fairly well childproofed (or at least replaceable) I didn't investigate. Besides, I was also busy singing "He's the Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge. Gotta love the 70's Hits station on Sirius.

Suddenly, loud wailing..."Owwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!!!!!"
I'm not sure what actually happened, but I suspect that it involved a bad ending to jumping on the couch, or perhaps jumping *off* the couch.

Julian appeared around the corner of the counter with mouth in an O.
"Owiee! Kiss! Kiss! Mommy KISS!" and produced his foot for me, lifting it in front of him. His little toe was slightly red. Mouth was still in an O, wailing.

"Ouch! You hurt your toe! Here, let's kiss it and make it better."
Several kisses to the affected toe...and before I could even finish the last one he happily chirped, "OK!" and sped back to the far end of the living room again, miraculously cured. Ah, the wondrous powers of a Mommy Kiss.

He's been pointing to illustrations of the sun lately, smiley pointy-ray ones and realistic ball-of-fire ones alike and saying very precisely, "Mommy SUN. Mommy. SUN." I'm not sure what he means by it, but there's some association in his mind between me and the sun.

I like to think he means I am the center of his universe, around which his daily life revolves, but I think instead he's heard me say that he's my SON on a few occasions, and that's what he's referring to.

Still, it's cute. I ask him, "Is Mommy the SUN?" and he says "Yeah."

His affirmative answers have recently changed from a hysterical Mr. Burns-like "Yeeesssss" (hard to reproduce here, but imagine Mr. Burns from the Simpsons saying in his reptilian way, "Yessss....*ex*cellent....mmmm.") to the current "Yeah", which is softly stage-whispered on most occasions.

Both are quite funny, and really, I could use the laughs because we've all had brutal colds around here, 2nd-year molars are coming in, naps have been few and far between, and hard-won when they do arrive, usually involving freeway driving, or walking around making as little noise as possible while wearing an exhausted-yet-wired toddler on my back.

While Dan was away last week, Julian and I were both sick and crabby and not sleeping, and the weather was cold and rainy and gloomy. I walked to the mall and back twice with Julian on my back and Bugs on his leash, killing the twin birds of napping and dog-walking with one stone. I did give about a hundred mad-dog looks to every loud car, shrieking teenage girl pack and one poor old friendly guy at Longs who asked me in a loud voice if that was a sleeping boy on my back (my response: "Yes. SHHHHHHH!!!!!!!")

Thank god for that freakin' Ergo, it saved my sanity over and over again last week, making about 17,366 times so far since I've had it. Worth its weight in GOLD.

Dan returned just in time for the low point, when Julian's nose suddenly started spouting watery snot like twin faucets, and ran SO much that he could not lie down to sleep without immediately starting to choke and drown in his own mucus, which of course was scary and made him burst out screaming and crying about every 25 minutes all night long. I ended up sleeping on the couch almost bolt-upright at 5:00am, clutching him in an upright position with my head propped up by pillows. No amount of wedge pillows in bed were doing the trick. I would have given my little finger for a Lazy Boy recliner at that point.

The next day you'd better believe I went to Long's and got about 4-5 different kinds of infant cold medicine, plus a humidifier. It did help, but was still rough going.

We're better now, cold-wise. Dan came to my rescue by calling our old housecleaner over to get things spic-and-span, and by reserving 3 restorative nights at the Carmel Valley Ranch for his poor bedraggled family, right before Julian's 2nd birthday.

Mmmmmm, delicious food... cooked by someone else. Lovely surroundings, cleaned and maintained and organized by someone else. A big fat hot tub to soak my tired bones in, looking over the Carmel Valley. Thirty-three acres of hiking trails. Playing tennis. Getting a massage. Walking on the beach. Lots of naps where I don't have to get the boy down so I can accomplish a zillion tardy tasks, but instead I can lay down WITH him and catch a few zzzzzs myself.. Best of all... no plane travel required, just a scenic and SHORT drive.

Thank you, loving husband! Mommy's sun is going to shine. And happy birthday Julian...you get parents who aren't stressed and distracted by a million work and household tasks and can play with you and enjoy each other and rest. You already have a bike and a train. Relaxed and refreshed parents spending time with you...what more could a busy toddler ask for, really?