4 a.m.

a.k.a. Anthony's new wakeup time. Yay! There's our little go-getter above...no, I didn't give him that plastic bag in hopes of getting revenge...

The 4 a.m. rising has been the case since Thursday, I think, I'm too tired to say for sure. We'd been able to get him back to sleep after an hour or so, until today, when it became clear around 5 or so that it just wasn't gonna happen. This charming development, among others, indicate Anthony is developing a major will of his own, and that he will truly give new meaning to the words "a handful" in the weeks (years?) ahead.

It really hit home Friday, my work-at-home day, suggesting my ability to work from home and get anything done are numbered, if not over.

This Friday, following the 4 a.m. wakeup call, I hit up the world's most fabulous coffee institution (I'm not even being sarcastic...even though I hate world-dominating mega-corporations like WalMart and McDonalds, I love, love, LOVE everything about Starbucks and its overpriced product) in hopes of staying awake long enough to accomplish something; anything.

After having two (yes, two) of my fellow latte-buyers slam the same door in my face (only in Miami is it possible for two different individuals to slam the same door in the face of the same woman carrying two full beverages and a baby...they call it the Magic City because it magically manages take random acts of rudeness and multiplies them), waiting five minutes to back out of my parking space because the line of cars waiting at the drive-thru was blocking my path, and cursing at a woman who blared her horn at me as she sped into said drive-thru line even though it was soooo obvious that I'd been trying to back out for five minutes (I swear the fact that we live in Miami makes it inevitable that Anthony's first word is going to be a curse word), I looked at my coffee cup and saw the following quote:

(inspirational quotes...one MORE reason to love Starbucks! the four shots of espresso in that cup don't hurt either...)

I don't know about beauty, but Anthony can certainly be described as chaos these days.

This past Friday alone, he managed to climb up the stairs (I did not help but did follow -- OK, hover -- close behind to avoid any disasters); pull the babyproofing outlet covers out of the outlet (ummm...are those things worthless, or what?); grab a metal picture frame, the camera, a glass, the remote, my work folder and the cat in the three minutes it took me to make a phone call, this despite the 300 baby toys scattered across the living room floor for his enjoyment; protest so much when I dared to force upon him the indignity of eating breakfast that it took forever to complete the meal; etc., etc.

Here's some photographic proof of what we're up against:

Anyone who knows our house knows one of its classiest features is its all-mirror bathroom. Anthony loves this. I find myself chilled to the bone by the image of four Anthonys.

Terrorizing the cat continues to be a favorite. Sometimes Anthony gets so excited by Javier, he interrupts important business (third photo). But the sheer joy (fourth photo) is worth it.

Luckily for Anthony, we still think he's pretty cute: