I have been pinning lots of 1950s housewifey type desserts.  Pineapple upsidedown cake, bread-maker cinnamon rolls, and a crazy amount of banana pudding.  Pineapple upsidedown cake is meh.  Cinnamon rolls are deeeelicious.  But the banana pudding is a favorite.  Although I make it without bananas.  So you might not call it banana pudding.

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Princess gave up napping at the end of last summer.  At the age of two.  The boys napped until they were four, so Princess giving up the nap was unexpected.  Although I missed the hour of quiet time, it really helped with bedtime.  When she napped, her bedtime was torture--a good hour or two of her wheedling, pleading, screaming and having general hissy fits to get out of bed.  Once she discovered that saying "I hafta go potty" was the magic key to getting out of bed, she started taking these leisurely, forty-five minute constitutionals in the bathroom at 9 pm.  It really put a cramp in my "do stuff around the house" time.

But once she gave up the nap....she started passing out within seconds of being put in the crib at bedtime.

I think she still needs a nap on a regular basis, if not every day.  Trying to get her to take a nap, however, is met with staunch resistance, along the lines of Lee attempting Gettysburg.  She will have none of it.

Unfortunately, for the past few weeks, Princess has been napping.  At 5 pm.  She just passes out on the playroom floor.  Or the dinner table.

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I discovered a fantastic home consignment center in my town.  It is a warehouse of furniture with some really great stuff, much of it from model homes.  Its not thrift-store cheap, but it has a decent markdown, and some of the furniture is just fabulous.  I found this pair of enormous gourd lamps there:

They are huge.  With the shades on they do not fit on my Rast nightstands.  Eventually these will go in my bedroom on new nightstands, but they need a makeover first.  They need a brighter color, and new shades.  (Those shades are ginormous and fuddy-duddy.)

They also have this ottoman that I am contemplating....

Its a wee bit more than I want to spend.  I may keep checking back to see if its been sold, because after a month the price gets discounted again.

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I am trying to find a preschool for Peter and Princess to go to in the fall.  I've been told that I've "left it a bit late."  As in, I should have signed them up before my husband and I got married and contemplated having children.  I can sign them up now but Peter will be in the third grade before his spot on the waiting list comes up.

Also, preschool here is One Million Dollars.  I feel like perhaps this is akin to the scene in Austin Powers where Doctor Evil demands ONE MILLION DOLLARS and they laugh at him, because one million dollars is chump change.  So think of preschool here as costing One Billion Dollars.  Per child.   True fact: one semester of my college tuition was less than what it will cost me to send ONE child to preschool ONLY IN THE MORNING.

Have I discussed my general sense of sticker shock since moving out here?  We moved from an affluent suburb of NYC, you'd think I'd be all oh I eat benjamins for dinner, but no, I am all what the what WHAT?? It costs HOW MUCH???