bad mommy gone good?

I'm awesome.

Yesterday, I made it out of the house (a miracle in itself) and we made it to Preschool on time. Squeak had a great time and Pixie only got into the cat food twice. After preschool, I was exhausted and my ears were ringing from being around too many little kids that are not my own (we go to a little parents' cooperative preschool in my friend's neighborhood so I don't get to just drop him off and enjoy myself. We're too poor for that kind of fun.). But I let Squeak swing on the tire swing, even though what I really wanted to do was hurry and get home and proclaim nap time for the next 2 hours. Which I did promptly after I took these pictures:

I also cooked dinner last night. Well that's not entirely true. I cooked part of dinner last night. But for the second night in a row! Seriously, this is amazing. I typically do cook dinner on a regular basis, but since Christmas break I've been a little out of the habit. Santiago took a week off between Christmas and New Year's and I didn't cook a single meal that entire week (heaven!). It's been hard for me to get back into my routine. Even though I .like. cooking. I like cooking, and it's been hard for me to get back into it. I don't like laundry. You can imagine what my laundry room looks like...

(This is a total cheater-bum picture, because this is NOT actually what I made last night. This is dinner 2 nights ago. Last night I made roasted tomato soup, a la Food Network, and Tiago made grilled cheese sandwiches. But I was too lazy to get the camera out of my purse out of my car, so you get this. 3-Bean Burritos, a la me. Which were equally tasty.)

And my awesomeness continues. I actually MADE breakfast this morning, and it wasn't oatmeal. Or eggs. I made whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes. With honey cinnamon syrup. And orange juice.

This kind of orange juice:

The Squeak was thrilled, even though we didn't eat until 9:30 (we got out of bed at 8). I never make pancakes. Ever. So this was a special treat. On a related note, if my awesomeness is going to become a regular thing, I really need to invest in an electric griddle. It took way too long to make pancakes on the stove, even making 2 in the pan at a time.

This is what the Pixie did while we cooked and ate (since the whole process took so long and started to encroach on her morning naptime):

(Pardon my overt bragging. I've been feeling like I've been doing a less-than-stellar job being a mother lately, so I'm trying to celebrate every small victory. My 3-year-old may have the attitude of a 16-year-old girl and my baby may sleep as much as a... well I can't think of anything that sleeps less than Pixie, but you catch my drift... but at least I can be a good mommy for one day. And just maybe tomorrow I will repeat my awesomeness, and then just maybe the day after that, as well. At least now I *know* I can be awesome for one day. One day at a time, maybe I can do.)