Over the last few days I�ve heard myself utter more phrases that I swear I would never say than I care to mention. Among the gems that have sprung unbidden from my lips: �Because I said so.� This is the most pathetic parental cop out imaginable, but the fact is, two year olds wear you down and wear you out until your head begins to spin. Yesterday was a very, very bad day. I had too little sleep to begin with. AJ was fractious, I scratched the bumper of the brand new car skidding down our icy driveway. And on and on. Most days I�m pretty good about rolling with it, but occasionally I can feel like I�m just shutting down. AJ and I spent much of the morning making each other miserable, which was really no fun at all.

Okay. Enough of the tired mommy routine. Even I�m getting bored with it. And today has been substantially better. My great escape of late seems to be my dreams, which have been exceptionally wacky this week. A gem from last night involved a red Mustang convertible, a screech owl the size of a great dane, an abandoned castle turned into a parking garage, and a meeting of my college�s Board of Directors, who were all women dressed like Barbara Bush. I�m thinking I really need to get out more.

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