- Proof that having kids really does change everything: We were seated near the register at Eat 'n Park (Pittsburgh's version of Denny's). A woman with ill-fitting sweat pants, a mismatched shirt, and hair that obviously hadn't been combed for a while went up to pay. I couldn't help but think to myself "She's a mess." After paying, she returned to her table. When she left a few minutes later with her husband, a Toddler, and twins that looked to be about 6-months old in tow, I thought, "Damn, she looks good."

- Alexis took a horrible excuse for a nap today. At first it looked like it was going to be one of those days when you just struggle through and pray for bedtime to come quickly, but then Alexis decided to turn being tired into an excuse to cuddle. She spent a solid two hours laying around with me happy to just cuddle. If I thought nap deprivation could go that way every time, I would poke the bear every single time she tried to take a nap.

- My Fantasy Football season has come to an end and I am a LOSER. I took 9th out of 13 teams. I would be thoroughly embarrassed about that fact, but careful examination of the games shows that I really do know how to bring out the best in other teams. Six of my losses were against teams that posted their best score of the season when playing me. And we're not talking about improvements of just a few points. For example, Jewels scored no more than 24 points when playing other teams. Against me, she scored 105. If I could bottle those inspirational powers up and sell them, I'd be so rich.

- I want to be excited that the Steelers have made the playoffs, but it's just not working for me. I can't imagine that they'll go very far without Parker.

- A question for some of you Moms: Alexis knows all of the important body parts and has started to ask about a few that I was kind of hoping to pretend didn't exist for a while. I think I would be completely traumatized if my one-year old started spewing the proper terms for *you know*, but I don't want to teach her any cutesy terms (although, va-jay-jay cracks me up like you wouldn't believe). Should I continue ignoring the question (I hate doing that by the way, I try to always answer whatever she asks), or go for it knowing that she will walking around telling everyone what she's packing in those little Gap jeans?

- We had a glimpse of our future earlier today when we were trying to leave to go eat lunch and Alexis decided she didn't want to go. She locked herself in her house and yelled "No" through the windows for fifteen minutes. The kid is in way too much of a hurry to be a teenager. Mind you, she's a teenager that wears the same Dora t-shirt just about every single day.