Mama needs a raise

There are few greater joys in life than the moment your toddler actually eats something. Bumpus on the whole is a pretty good eater - again, compared to some friends of mine whose kids eat nothing but cookies and crackers all day - but dinner is always rough. There's just no predicting what he's going to like, and something that's a big hit one night suddenly isn't the next. But tonight I thought I would toss him a soy meat ball to see what happened - he immediately popped the whole thing in his mouth, and ate several more after, followed by a plate of sautéed cauliflower, a bowl of cottage cheese, and some cut up mango. Freakin' yeah. Suddenly I feel like a rock star over here.

Speaking of rock star, I auditioned for the vocal group. They sent me a couple of songs to learn, and they were hard. I studied like it was the SAT, driving all over town and singing along with the mp3s played through my car speakers from my phone. The leader of the group came over Wednesday night and listened to and recorded me, and we had a nice chat about her hopes for the group and general philosophies of music, etc. She said she had "a lot" of other people to audition so I don't know what to expect really; naturally I'll be disappointed if they don't pick me, but honestly my plate is so full that on some small level it would be a relief. It was fun to exercise my rarely used musical/creative muscle, though.

Operation Theo Sleeps is going well. I have been putting Theo down in his crib every night around eight after a good feed, wrap up in a swaddler, and paci. He typically doesn't wake until after midnight or later, which gives me a whole swath of time to myself in the evenings. He still wakes to feed a lot in the wee hours...which doesn't thrill me...but it's the price I pay for not feeding him often enough during the day because it's just so impossible with all this running around. Would I rather stop and feed him more during the day with Bumpus afoot? Nope. So here we are. Still, just having my bed back and Theo safe in his crib just a foot away already makes for better sleep for me. I think co sleeping is just one of those things that's great until it isn't. Like most parenting techniques!

I have made the decision to raise my ticket prices on my event next year. I sometimes raise them by $5, sometimes not. But it's at the point where with the cost of putting on the event going up by thousands every year, I just can't keep operating with these rock bottom ticket prices - many people get into my four day event for only $100. I know people will freak out, but I have the best excuse ever - I've been running this event since 1998 and the prices are almost the same, despite adding value every year. I think if everyone I hire gets a raise, it's time I got a freakin' raise!