I Like To Smile. Smiling's My Favorite.

It's amazing how quickly my body has responded to this whole "my baby is sleeping through the night" thing. In a little over two weeks, my sleep intake has gone from one or two hours at a time with a baby smushed against me all night, to eight, nine, even ten glorious hours with Anna in her crib and a husband smushed against me. And it has been awesome. I have energy. I'm enjoying my baby girl so much more. I have actually showered and gotten dressed every day this week. Nothing short of a miracle, I tell you.

Except we had a minor setback last night.  I was forced out of my bed once, around two, and then she was wide awake and ready to start the day around six.  Three weeks ago, I would have been having a little party in my kitchen at six in the morning, celebrating how long she had slept and marveling at how great I felt.  But that was the old me. And now that I've tasted the good stuff, I don't ever want to go back.

So there I am, bright and early - which Mike loves, by the way, since it means we can all have breakfast together - and I discover something horrible.  We. Are. Out. Of. Coffee.  (Insert crazy, maniacal scream here.)

I would like to say that I was never much of a coffee drinker before Anna came along. Sure, I enjoyed the occasional icy, sugary, whipped-cream-covered, coffee-ish beverage, but I certainly could go days, weeks even, without a caffeine surge. A couple of things changed all that...

1. Mike and I got a Keurig coffee maker for Christmas a few years ago. This lovely little machine brews only one cup at a time, eliminating the hassle of grinding beans, setting up a filter, and then pouring out almost a whole pot after brewing ten cups for one person.

2. My darling sister introduced me to a tasty drink known as the soy latte.  Up until that point, I had never had a "regular" order from a coffee place.  My whole coffee world was turned upside down with one sip, and I began traveling to Starbucks on a daily basis with a little more frequency.

3. I then discovered Silk vanilla soy creamer, the perfect solution to the money suck that my trips to Starbucks were becoming - and I could enjoy delicious, hot coffee in my own house.

Mix those things up with a new mom with a little baby who does not sleep and voila!  A coffee drinker was born. I can remember being little and trying to avoid my mom at all costs until she had consumed at least one cup of coffee in the morning and totally not understanding how she could drink something so disgusting or why she seemed to absolutely need it to function like a rational person. I get it now. Completely. And if it wasn't for the the fact that I'm still nursing, I could probably swill three or four cups a day, no problem.  Alas, I'm limited to one (sometimes two if I'm feeling extra crazy) but it's enough to have me hooked. I crave it in the mornings.  I get headaches from withdrawal if there is no caffeine surging through my veins by lunchtime. 

So when I realized we were out, I did what any other sleep-deprived, caffeine junkie would do. I panicked.  I started flinging things in drawers, pulling boxes off shelves, shouting obscenities, trying to find my fix.  And there, in the back corner of the top shelf of one of our cabinets, I found what I needed.  A packet of coffee from a gift basket we probably received years ago. It had dust on it. And it was maple flavored.  Seriously?  Who drinks maple flavored coffee?  Buddy the Elf?  Yep, Buddy the Elf and this girl.  And as bad as it was, it was so good.

That's when it hit me. I absolutely need coffee to function like a rational person, just like my mom. Even if it tastes like pancakes. Sigh. I may not feel like a functioning adult in most aspects of my life, but I've certainly got the coffee drinking part down.  It's a start, right?