finally in a better mood

for the last nine days (10 if you include most of today) i've been in a terrible mood. everything bothered me. my clothes, my back, my children, my coworkers, my car, my lack of car, grouchy people, smiley people. you name it, it pissed me off. big time. to the extent that it was confusing, because i didn't want to be bothered by every little thing, but i couldn't shake it off. i'm usually on the upbeat side of calm and cool, but this was the pits. but here i am. i tried really hard to be nice and positive and have a good day, and it worked. and i wanted to go to ballet today and didn't succumb to the voice that said "oh, just stay home. . . you can't find clothes, you're feeling bloated, just skip it." i'm so glad i didn't listen to that voice because ballet was a wonderful challenge and great fun. i sweat and breathed heavy and got a little sore. good stuff. now that i'm in a good mood, i want to document some funny moments. yesterday, while sorting through ornaments to put up on the tree, we came across the light up reindeer glasses and the "coffee and bagel store" coffee cup ornament. ani put those two together and decided she was "grandpa," and stated as much in her deepest voice. "i'm grandpa and i'm drinking coffee," she'd say. cutest thing ever. i may still try to get a video of it, but she is a sly little thing and does not perform for the camera. she is nothing like nissa in that respect. as soon as a camera or other recording device is present, she immediately stops whatever it was you got the camera out for. a couple weeks back at great grandma's, i woke up to her nuzzling her head on my arm. weird, but cute. i think she was pretending to be a puppy at the time. oh, and she can count! not just recite numbers, or recite numbers and randomly point at things at the same time, but actually count out items, beyond 2. she counted her ornaments yesterday up to 8. so cool! i don't remember nissa doing it half as well at this point. just don't ask her to sing the alphabet. . . a, b, c, d, e, f, g, w, x, y, z. sure, that's how the song goes, but she's missing a whole bunch in the middle. nissa is doing awesome as well. she's taught me how to count in japanese, and i can get all the way up to 99. we don't know how to say 100, so that's as far as i can go. she even gives me random math problems to do. she's taught me hello, good bye, stop, blue, red. watch out tokyo, here i come! i've told nissa she's my sensei and she's living up to it so far. oh, and she came home with a boy's phone number today. he's having a sleep over party and wants her to come. i swear when she says it, it sounds innocent enough. when i say it, it sounds terrible. and she's showing some real progress with reading. she's remembering sight words and more smoothly sounding out words as she goes. 10 apples up on top is a recurring favorite and she's getting it down pretty well. ok, back to work. i've got the energy, must put it to good use!