JZ is slowly learning why it took me ten years to screw my courage to the sticking point and have a second child.

DH handles the crying much better than I do. He would take the worst cranky-evening shifts and tell me to leave the house for an hour--because he knew the screaming just ate my soul. I still don't know how he does it. He's either going deaf or he's a super hero who specializes in babies.

Kara continues to crack my shit up.

Teppy, I'm watching RotK, too! Eowyn rocks.

Kara totally cracks me up.

Right now, I'm trying to puree some dried mangos. AINotFG. The recipe says to puree the dried mangos, as if there were a relatively simple undertaking. It's so not. They simply will not puree. I've got them soaking in some water now, and I'll try it again in a few minutes, to see if that made it any easier.

(I think the problem might be that I'm trying to do this with a blender, and the proper tool is a food processor. But still. I turn the blender on for a minute, turn it off, and the mangos are still just sitting there, mocking me.)

I now have mango puree on my glasses.

I also have a very jammed blender, and a mixture that's have mango puree and half mango pieces that simply won't break down.

I really can't think of any way to puree dried mangoes. I can only imagine ending up with sticky clumps of mango chunks.

Adding the water seems to help a bit. At least, it gets the texture to somewhat pureed.

I'm growing somewhat doubtful about this recipe. (It's from an Indian cookbook. Shortbread flavored with ginger and mango. Or possibly shortbread flavored with ginger.)

I slept some this afternoon and made dinner and I feel MUCH better.

I'm enjoying the TC marathon.

shortbread flavored with ginger sounds good

Teppy, I'm watching RotK, too! Eowyn rocks.

Oh god, I forgot how much I love Samwise. "I can't carry the ring for you, but I can carry YOU!"

t edit And I'm remembering how I thought that Frodo would die while pitching the ring into Mt. Doom, because narratively, that makes the most sense. And so I was all prepared to weep and weep at his big sacrificial death....which (obviously) never happened. And I actually felt a little cheated.

I was able to fish out about a tablespoon of puree from around the mango chunks. The recipe calls for three tablespoons. I'm letting the remaining mangos soak for a bit longer.

My plan here was to puree the mangos and mix together the dry ingrediants and the wet ingredients separately tonight, then it would be easier to make the shortbreak tomorrow. I figured the pureeing and mixing would be the easy part.

I'm watching RofK for the second time in two days -- and I am very tempted to shut myself up somewhere tomorrow and watch the whole damn trilogy again.

Oh god, I forgot how much I love Samwise. "I can't carry the ring for you, but I can carry YOU!"

SO much this.

Kara's penis-having is the funniest thing I've heard in days. The whole conversation, in fact, was pretty damn awesome.

{{{JZ}}}

What everyone said. Those crying/fussing/inconsolable spells were so hard for me. And I did learn, really quickly, just to walk away for a few minutes when I was on the edge. Like Cash pointed out, sometimes it's actually what they want. And even when they don't, they learn that you come back.

Have you tried the vacuum, and/or sound of running water (Ben loved that -- I would stand by the kitchen sink, thanking all the gods that we didn't pay the water bill) or the TV on a non-working channel? White noise really works for some of the wee ones.