Strange Days indeed

This morning, I woke with an American Girl doll under my arm, and my daughter standing next to the bed smiling at me and trying to wake me.  Probably one of the more interesting sights I've awakened to in the past 5 years.

I should explain...

Lovely Little Girl doesn't sleep the entire night in her bed.  She has anxiety issues and for some reason feels better sleeping in Mummy and Daddy's bed.  Sadly, I was too cheap to spring for the California King bed, and our Queen size bed isn't exactly big enough for Lovely English Lass, Lovely Little Girl and myself.  So, I end up going and sleeping in her and Crazy Little Man's room.  The only problem with her not sleeping totally in her own bed is that she wakes up at 430-500 all the time.  Lovely Little Girl is very peppy in the morning, running around and talking loudly. Lovely English Lass isn't.  You see the problem.  Thus, there are times when Lovely Little Girl is sent out of the room, which means she comes back to her room and wakes up whomever is asleep at the time.  This morning she decided that Daddy apparently looked lonely asleep, and put Kelly doll next to him to keep him company.  Sweet, but I would have preferred an extra hour of sleep to be honest.

This is how I began my day.  I woke, made coffee, and tried to feed the children, which can be an adventure in and of itself.  Crazy Little Man wanted croissant and Lovely Little Girl wanted toast.  This lead to a shouting match over whether LLG wanted butter or jam on her toast.  I contemplated throwing the leftover steak from last night on the table, giving them wiffle ball bats and letting them fight it out for breakfast.  But, knowing that if I did this my mother would sit bolt upright in bed in Florida and immediately call me on Skype to tell me I was being a horrible role model, I decided to just roll with it.  After making coffee, and tea for LEL, and having my own breakfast, I got ready to go to  work.

While walking to work in 80 degree heat in January, which still feels strange, listening to Bell Biv Devoe, I realize this is going to be a big year, but a strange one too.  I've got a major conference coming up that we're hosting which will have several very high ranked State Department officials in attendance.  We've got some rumored events coming up that are going to be big.  The ANC is celebrating its 100th anniversary, so there will be some HUGE parties going on here.  The Presidential elections will be wild, and we go to England in September for the first time in 3 years.  We're trying to get LLG into a good school.  These are the strange days.  If you'd have asked me in 1990, when Bell Biv Devoe's album came out, what I'd be doing in 2012, I can guarantee you that living in South Africa, being the Management Officer at the Consulate in Johannesburg and waking up with an American Girl doll under my arm would have been last.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  (Except maybe my daughter sleeping all night in her bed.)