Dear neighbor, my sincerist apolgies

for all the noise this morning. Judging from the footsteps I heard last night as I was finally rolling into bed around midnight, I'm assuming you may have had plans to loll around in a bed all morning sleep in to a decent hour. I know you are aware that you've moved into a child and dog-friendly apartment complex, even though you seem to have neither, but you may not have expected two of each to move in right next to you. Kids, especially at my kid's tender young age (although there is very little tender about him right now) tend to arise quite early, and if they have not had quite enough sleep they can be screaming banshees a tad cranky in the morning. I'm sure you've heard of the "terrible twos" but as you are not a parent you might not realize the threes can be much worse.

Judging from the fact that you live in a nice apartment in the heart of Silicon Valley, you likely have a job that allows you flexible hours and you might not have welcomed the loud crying that went on from about 7:15 to 8am this morning. I did try time-outs, which might account for the escalating screaming your heard, and pure bribery of spiderman socks, which of course set him off again when they were not in the original packaging. He's very much like a Target store - lots of great stuff inside, but demanding when it comes to returns. Realize these attempts to appease him and cater to his whims might (and I emphasize the might) result in short term gains, but really will only prolong the days weeks months the tantrums will continue until I finally resort to beatings he grows out of this stage.

By the way, in light of that philosophy, I do appreciate you not calling social services the other night when I left him alone crying in the house while I took the dogs out. Since the tone and message conveyed in his crying remained constant I knew he was still safe. He may not have cried himself to sleep as I'd hoped, but when my inept attempt to transfer him from car to bed with a quick change into a pull-up without waking him failed, the last thing he needed was a whiny mommy and two hyper dogs.

And one final apology, when he did finally cheer up I am sorry that he communicated this change in mood by singing B-I-N-G-O at the top of his lungs. I did try to lead him away from the buildings by running with the dogs, but that only resulted in him screaming out such important questions as "is this our car?" You seem like a nice enough person, saying hi but clearly not interested in oohing and awing over the fruit of my loins. My mom has suggested we change our greeting to "we have a short-term lease" which might allow you to relax a little.

Previously posted on Silicon Valley Moms

We're the neighbors with the crying baby

You've heard about how relaxing it can be for a parent to hear a crying baby on the plane, and just be so glad it's not her (or his) own. Well, except for in the middle of the night, that's how I feel about barking dogs. I was a bit concerned moving into an apartment with dogs, after we were left stranded once in the extremely dog-unfriendly town of LA, forced to choose between a prostitute haven/affordable hotel and a luxury $300 a night hotel where the doggie gets it's own welcome basket. The one we reserved allowed us to stay one night, then promptly evicted us the next morning (seems they changed their dog-policy like the day before). Anyway, our dogs have been sparingly quiet here - bark a little when someone passes by, rush the squirrels, but otherwise even my 3YO has been able to walk them a bit.

So now what do I have to fear? My tantrum-prone son, who likes to have at least 3 crying fits a day, preferably at the bottom of the stairs. Ugh. This morning I got to carry two crying children to the car, but after school is the worst, when he's tired and not sure what he wants. Grandma and grandpa came to visit and the kids showed them around the new place, but with the pool, puppy and playstructure calling to them, my poor guy got all perturbed. And what did he choose as the final straw? The dog poop. He wanted me to take it back out and re-throw it away. Whatever. So far no complaints or dirty looks. Although twice the dog escaped and while we were right there chasing him, got a grating, stating the obvious "your dog's not on a leash" from some women, I think it may have been the same women each time.

I've already spaced on posting on my multitasking - doh! This morning I managed to:

• Drop the kids off at school with only a few meltdowns


• Pick up a load of stuff from the house, where I noticed the darn cleaning people never showed up yesterday which adds two more things to my list, namely retrieve the money I've prepaid to them and find some "move-out" cleaners


• Get my post-fitness assessment - woohoo bootcamp works folks - I've gained 3 lbs of muscle, which means I've lost fat weight, dropped a few fat %s and my pants aint so tight.

And now I'm off to check out an aftter-school program, take my car to a body shop and call into a meeting. Oh, and sign up for summer camp (for the kids, not me, unfortunately)