Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy holidays and a wonderful New Year!!

Seesters

With plans to have the girls share a room coming up soon, Ella tells me tonight, while kissing her goodnight, that Teya talks an awful lot in the night time before she goes to sleep and she, herself, is just quiet and waiting to fall asleep. My response: does that mean that when you start sharing a room you think she'll be too loud and you won't be able to fall asleep? She says, well, maybe or not. I will just face the wall and think of books in my mind. Good plan, Goose.

Shock & Awe

Um, so it would appear that I have been in some sort of denial for quite some time now. Yes, well, the pregnancy testS (yep, 3 of them in a row) indicate that that I am in fact due with baby #3 at some point. So here's how it went down. I have a brand spankin' new jobbie job this school year at a middle school, a first for me. It has been very hectic, stressful, huge learning curve, overwhelming, etc, etc. As a result of this new job, I have pretty much ceased any consistent workout schedule, let my diet go to hell, been working insane hours and been on an emotional roller coaster, which, in turn, means stress hormones have been running rampant through my body since mid-August. All this to say that all those signs of pregnancy that probably should have been more evident to me had I not had reasons to blame the weight gain, extreme tiredness, mood swings, etc. on I naturally attributed to a stressful school year and not taking care of myself. What about the monthly visitor you say? Lifelong irregularity on my body's part; nothing new to go without this friend for months at a time. Over Christmas break I just happened to get heartburn a couple of evenings and continued to play the denial card by telling myself that I was getting older and that my body was just not going to be the same forever and things like this happen as one ages, right? Logical, I think. However, when the ONLY times I've EVER had heartburn in my life were when I was pregnant, the thought did flit through my mind, albeit briefly and with no real seriousness. Flash forward a few days later, Kevin and I are at the gym and I told him about the heartburn and then threw in the fact that I had never weighed as much before as I had now, aside from the times I was with child. Me laughing; Kevin, not so much. I was politely, but firmly, asked to go buy and take a pregnancy test. Again, me laughing and telling him it was all very silly as I am NOT pregnant. Next day, on the way out the door to the grocery store I was asked again to get a test. I did. I got 1. Came home and took the test. immediately the minus signs showed up and then ever so faintly the second line appears making one of the minus signs a plus sign. I thought the plus sign lines that would indicate a positive should be bold and strong... hmmmm. It's not. Show Kevin. He has a mini-freak out. Go take another one. I didn't get another one, I only got one. Go back to the store and get more. Crap. Heart beat is elevated. Drive to the drug store. Buy 2 more tests. Come home. Immediately take them both. Now all 3 tests have the faint plus sign. Does that mean positive?? It's not dark and bold?! What does that mean?? Get directions. Skim them for clues. Frustrated and anxious. Can this be happening?? See at the bottom of the directions in bold "All lines may not be of same intensity or color". Shit. This means that I'm pregnant. Yes, 3 tests are indicating that I am pregnant. OMG. Panic a little. Cue: crying! I don't think I can do 3! I don't think I want to be pregnant! We don't have enough money for this! OMG. OMG. How in the world are we going to do this?? How am I going to do this?? I'm too OLD for this!! I always wanted 3, but that time has passed; I'm ok with 2. Now I'm going to have 3. OMG. OMG. Curtains close; stage lights dim and fade to black.

Well, well, well, Blog. We meet again. It's been far too long, my friend.

I have missed you. Really. I know that it wouldn't appear that way since I have not visited you since... hmmm.... maybe last December, the Santa! post I believe. But that's not for lack of love on my part. Life is.... well, we don't really need to get into that right now. It's a long story and I'm sure you don't really care anyhow. The longer it got after our last meeting, the more guilty I felt and the more I procrastinated and the guiltier I felt. You know how that goes. The vicious circle thing. So I have decided to try to start meeting up with you at fairly regular intervals. At least that's my plan now, but I'm not making any promises; no commitments. I also might cheat just a lil' and go back and fill in the past 11 months to make it look like I hadn't deserted you. But, again, no promises on that one either. All I'm sayin is that I'll try to put forth some effort going forward... and really, isn't that enough? Ok then, well I'm glad we had a chance to catch up and throw all that on the table. I do look forward to spending some quality time with you again soon. P.S. The girls are growing like WEEDS! Weeds on serious fertilizer! Not that they are on fertilizer, just a metaphor mind you. I'll post some pic's and video soon. No really, I will.

Sweet Teya-head turns 1

SWEET JEEBUS!! WHO STOLE MY BABY??? Oh, she's right here! She's just not a baby anymore..... Really?? A year?? Yes, I will use the cliche, thank you... time flies. Really. That was one fast year. Teya is now: speed crawling, taking 4-5 steps at a time, laughing ALL the time, getting her 5th and 6th teeth in, saying "NO!" and "ELLA!", giving smooches, thinking shoes are one of the funniest things she's encountered so far, pointing to her nose, tracking her big sister Ella like an infrared homing device and generally developing into one sassy, opinionated, adorable little gal. I just got finished perusing some photos from a year ago and, my, has she changed! What a great year it's been! Happy birfday, Bubbie. I love you so very much! Sweet baby girl, one year ago....

Tiny Pink Daggers

So, I guess Ella had had quite enough of me. I mean really, I guess upon reflection I do say "no" quite frequently... and "maybe later", "maybe tomorrow", "not right now"... you get the idea. We were visiting Aunt Michelle, Uncle Spencer and Parker in San Antonio and had been there for a couple of hours and upon the supposed last straw negative Ella turns to me and with (pink princess) daggers in her eyes, and says "I AM TIRED OF YOU." Turns to Michelle and says "Aunt Michelle, can you take care of me FOREVER?" Hmmmm... Out of the mouths of babes?? Or in this case, the mouths of babes going on 15??? If this is what 3 and half is like, I shudder to think what I am in for in approximately 10 years when estrogen surges begin.

Zen and the Art of Keeping Parental Composure

I really think, ok, I know, I scared Ella this evening. Stressfull day at work + boundry testing, non-dinner eating 3 year old + cranky, sick 7 month old + lasagna everywhere + a snow globe... well, you know where this is going. Mama lost it when the crash occurred. I mean, really? How many snow globes did we go through at Christmas? And, really, am I that stupid to leave another one within her reach? Apparently the answer is yes. I think I yelled so loud that I got horse afterwards for a bit. Now that I am calm and able to (mostly) reflect reasonably, I am not liking my actions. I really don't want to be the parent that rules militantly and through fear, however it's really difficult on occassion to stop and take that deep breath before the wrath just surfaces. So we sat down and had a heart to heart while she was in the tub and I apologized and told her I always love her no matter how loud I'm being. I hope I got the point across. I love you Ellabean and I promise to try really hard to remember that although you act like you're 13 sometimes, you still are only 3 and you're still learning how to navigate this world. Well, I guess we all are.

Suck it, Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Do you think you perhaps could work on being more symbiotic rather than parasitic? I'm just sayin'.... Seems like evolutionarily that might be more beneficial? But, what do I know. Pobrecito baby girl. She can barely breathe and then sometimes has so much gunk going down her throat she ends up gagging. But somehow manages to continue smiling through it all. Some nights are not so great, but overall she's a toughie and trudges through it like a champ!

Santa!

3 year well check this morning and then on to see Santa at the mall. Ella is right on target for her little, or should I say big, girl checks. She continues to be right in the middle, percentile-wise. After our EARLY, too early, appointment, we got to the mall a whole 40 minutes before Santa was supposed to arrive. Fun times trying to keep Ella amused during that time, but we were the first in line which then translates to a speedy exit and a clean Santa! HA! So Ella had been SO very excited to visit Santa. I had been priming her for it for a couple of weeks. She was all set ask him for "pink things". She even sang xmas carols with him when he was talking to all the kiddos in the line before pictures started. I was sure this was going to be a great experience this year! But, no. As soon as we got up to him she wouldn't even get close. I had to pretty much physically force her to get up there and then quickly place Teya so we could get one good shot, hopefully. Which we did. Well, if you consider a shot with Ella crying *good*. It is quite comical though, so that's something, right? Then we had to ride the train. 3 times. And even after 3 times I still had to pull her off of it kicking and screaming. Ahhhh, parenthood. And by this time it was only 11am! Who wants an early nap time?? MAMA DOES!!!

Wait For It...

We got back home from San Antonio to find that the siding was finished and more windows were in and framed! Yippee! It's starting to look like a real house!! The Dyer brothers came in for the rest of the weekend to help Papa roof the addition... yes, in the pouring rain. Not sure that the pouring rain is the most conducive weather for roofing, but I guess as long as it doesn't pour rain inside when it's finished, it'll work! We were all exhausted after the holiday travel, late nights and not sleeping in our own beds, so it was nice to be back at home and back to a sort of, kind of semi-routine. ALSO, Teya smiled for the first time! I did/can not catch it on camera no matter how hard I try! I'm sure I look like a really big jacka** trying to get her to smile on camera and then of course as soon as I turn it off, whaddya know? A smile. Ella just loves to sit and talk to Teya and tell her all sorts of fun things. She sings to her and sometimes gets frighteningly close to face, but Teya's a really good sport about it all and genuinely looks interested in everything Ella has to say. These two are already becoming fast friends and it's pretty endearing to watch their relationship grow every day :)