I felt like writing today

A whole lot has happened since the last time I typed anything into this post box, including the birth of this little guy and 9 months of growing up already under our belts.

This is Rex. He is, as the picture states, a complete cutie pie, and I love him to absolute pieces. Before he was born, I really didn't buy in to everyone telling me that boys and girls are different creatures. People are people are people, right? Wrong. Now, it may just be his personality, but this guy is all boy. We joke that he loves hard - by hitting, pinching, headbutting, and biting all his favorite people (me, especially). He loves to play with cars, watch sports with his dad, and can turn anything into a drum and drum stick. The more noise the better! Rex also has a very loud voice, like his dad, and has a lot to say with that voice.

He was an excellent sleeper for a couple of months, but lately has taken a turn toward regular mid-night parties. I think it's the new tooth that came through and the other three that are about to follow suit.

So far he eats anything and everything, and I hope that stays true. I could deal with one child that actually eats. He's also very good at his gross motor skills, and has been crawling and pulling up since right before he turned 6 months old. He has lately started cruising along furniture more, and I wouldn't be surprised if he started walking soon. I'll be okay with it if he doesn't, though. He's already fast enough as-is, and in to EVERYTHING. We can't leave him alone for a second without him heading for the most dangerous or not-baby-friendly item in the room. We have a lot of clear tables and things put high up out-of-reach right now, and have gotten very creative with what we can use as barriers to things we don't want him to get into.

The most important thing is that, overall, he is a very happy guy. He loves his sisters so much, and wants nothing more than to keep up with them and do what they are doing. His sisters love him right back. Nearly every morning Sophie greats him with a, "Good morning, Handsome Guy!" and comments about how cute he is.

We also have a rising first grader and preschooler now, which should be nearly impossible, but  seems to be true. Gabbie had a great year of Kindergarten and is a reading, writing, drawing, math-crazy fool. I know that when you have kids, everything they do seems like the MOST AMAZING THING EVER, but I have to admit that having raised a literate human being is pretty darn amazing! I swell up with pride and love every time she reads to me. I had a conversation with Sophie's teacher this morning that leads me to believe that she will soon be following in her sister's reading footsteps. Sophie is still so much like me in that reading is her favorite thing, so I don't doubt that she'll be reading on her own before we know it.

Having three kids is just as hard as everyone said it would be. Aaron and I are constantly exhausted and we never get anything done. Our house is a disaster area most of the time, and our yard is long-neglected. We would love to accomplish everything on our to-do lists as soon as possible. However, the joy that these three little humans bring us is immeasurable, and I think that's a pretty fair trade-off.

Things That Make Me Feel Good

1. Sunshine, blue skies, green grass, spring flowers, and gentle warm breezes. Spring is here and my mood is sky-high happy about it.
2. When I ask Gabbie what she wants to be when she grows up, and her immediate answer is, "A mommy. Just like you." It makes me feel like perhaps I am doing this mom-thing right.
3. When Sophie asks for, "More kisses. Here, and here, and here." When I oblige she giggles, and then returns the favor.
4. When Baby Brother kicks. There's nothing more comforting for a pregnant lady than good, strong, regular baby kicks.
5. When my husband looks at me over the chaos all around us, caused by two lovely, energetic children, and agrees that these girls, and the boy on the way, were absolutely the best decisions we ever made.

Things I don't want to forget

The way Sophie says, "No," with her lips pursed.

How absolutely adorable Sophie is these days. Everything she does is just so cute, and Aaron and I aren't the only ones that think this. Everyone who spends time with her comments on how adorable/cute she is these days. It's pretty amazing. I was joking with my sister that Soph has my looks and Aaron's charisma, so she's going to be unstoppable.

Sophie also thinks that Gabbie is the best, coolest person in the whole wide world and wants to be exactly like her and do everything that Gabbie does. Aaron and I joke that we just have to do a good job raising Gabbie, and Sophie will follow suit.

Gabbie has had a rough month, getting anxious about leaving her daycare and heading to school at the beginning of September. Some of her friends are headed to the year-round school we have in our district, and so their last day is today. She is so, so much like me it's scary sometimes: equally excited and worried about every change. She's also home sick for the second day in a row, and so she's missing her best friend's last day, and I am broken hearted about this. So many changes are happening so quickly for her, and she's really starting on her school journey and leaving behind all thing toddler. How did this happen already?!?

We had an absolutely excellent day at the lake with my family this weekend, and were all sad to leave on Sunday afternoon. (Gabbie cried quite a bit when we had to go, because she was just having so! much! fun!)

Some pictures of our fun:

Gabbie and I, waking up in the cabin under an open window, with the sun rising and the birds singing.

Our early-morning view from the porch swing (moments before Gabbie bit it and started crying, and I was afraid she was going to wake up everyone).

In the water. Gabbie was a little tentative at first, while Sophie is a total fish and loved the water.

 The next day, at about 12:00. I tried to keep her awake, and it was literally not possible. Also, hilarious.

Little Ballerina

Gabbie had her first ballet recital this weekend, and did wonderfully. The best part was when her class took the stage, and the entire audience went, "Awwww...." Their costumes were by far the cutest, and they were all so super sweet.

It was a long day, but she did great all day, and was rewarded with a giant cookie and whatever she wanted for dinner (to go out for dinner and eat meatballs (she didn't actually eat the meatballs)). So far, four is extra adorable and fun.

The Amazing Gabbie

Dearest Bitty,

This photo so perfectly sums up how you are these days. You are absolutely, perfectly 4!

You turned four nearly a week ago now, and it's a testament to how busy you and your sister keep us that I am just now getting to post this. You are the most beautiful, smart, hilarious, active, talkative, loud, adorable, loving, amazing four-year-old I have ever met. You never stop talking or singing, and although, I admit, it wears on me from time to time, I still absolutely love hearing everything you have to say.

I have to tell you that you are perfectly what I thought any daughter of mine would be like, and it could go without saying (although it won't), that I love you more everyday than the day before. I am so glad that you are the person that made me a mom.

I hope you never stop being yourself, because who you are is amazing.

(Looking back: Gabbie at three, two, one, zero)

Memories

Right next to my parent's house, where I grew up, is a large park. During the summers especially, I spent a lot of time playing in the park, on each and every piece of play equipment that was there. One of the best things in the park is a giant metal slide.

My mom emailed my brother, sister, and I early last month to let us know that they had started to take out the old, metal, apparently dangerous (although we all survived childhood just fine), equipment, and the slide wasn't long for the world. Right before we got there on Easter weekend, they had taken out the swings! Seriously, right before Easter, on a spring break weekend, they took all of the swings out of a park.

We decided that Gabbie had to try out the slide just once before it was gone. It's pretty tall and intimidating, and she had never even gone near it before (there's some newer, plastic play equipment that she uses). I tagged along, with the camera to capture a few images for posterity.



She had a great time! Sophie even tried it once or twice from a third of the way up.

A quick slide story:

When we were little, and feeling pretty daring, we three kids would each take a piece of wax paper with us to the park. We then would proceed to go down the slide, sitting on the wax paper. And when I say, "go down the slide," I really mean, "fly down the slide with increasing speed each time." Waxing up the slide was so much fun! For us, at least. Now I kind of feel sorry for the next, unsuspecting kids who would likely fly off the end of the slide when they thought they'd just slip down at it's usual, leisurely pace (it was typically covered with sap from the tree right above, so it sometimes took a little effort to get down).

And so, it's April

The other day Gabbie and I were doing a kid's yoga routine, and we were doing child's pose. Sophie had been playing on the other side of the room, but chose that moment to come over and sit on my head. I couldn't stop laughing for about ten minutes after that.

Then, this past weekend, I was explaining something to Gabbie, and when I was done, she responded, "Okay. Gotcha." It was just so grown up, and it caught me off guard, and I was off to chuckling once again.

The story continues on as it has, work is crazy, and I'm now convinced that the slow period following the craziness that I used to get has disappeared forever. I took on this role, not quite realizing the scope and the national recognition and that I now had to be much more careful, serious, and political. I don't mind it so much, but I'm also not quite sure how I got here. I went into my Masters program because it was kinda sorta related to what I liked in undergrad, and then I got an internship at my company, and now, nearly 9 years later, I have a career. Not a job, but an honest-to-God career. It feels pretty amazing to be here, but I wouldn't mind slowing down sometime.

Most days, though, I leave the work at the office, and shed that skin through a chat with my mom (hands free, of course) on the drive from work to school, and arrive, refreshed and simultaneously exhausted, with a smile on my face to greet my girls. The last three hours at work are spent missing them like crazy, and I can't hide the glee when they run up and hug my legs. They are, of course, the reason that I put up with the work craziness, so I can give them the best life possible.

Yesterday Sophie had to stay home for some gross, illness related issues, of which I'll spare you the details. I gave Gabbie the choice of whether or not to go to school, and she chose to stay home with us. We ate breakfast, played, ran errands, ate lunch, played, napped, planted some wheat grass for Easter decorating, ran another errand, and played some more. It was the kind of day where I could pretend that I was nobody other than a mom to these sweet girls, and it was rejuvinating and fantastic, and something that I desperately want to do more often.

Bits and Pieces

This is what happens when I ask each of my girls to smile for the camera:

I think goofy is the default setting for 3.5 year olds.

***

You know how you go along in life thinking this one thing, and then find out you're actually wrong, and it's all kinds of embarrassing? Yeah. That. So.

Some examples:

The Secretary of Defense has a name, and it's not Lee Onpanetta. It's Leon Panetta. Where you put the break in those two words does, in fact, make a big difference, and will also probably cause your partner to laugh at you when you say something about what you heard Onpanetta say on NPR, and he's all confused, and then you clarify.

Also: my mom had a hearty laugh at my expense one day when I was much younger (I believe I was in high school at the time), and I said something about Nat King Cole's daughter, Carole King. (His daughter is actually Natalie Cole - at least I knew his daughter was also a famous singer, right?)

My favorite one of these is not mine, but my sister's. One day when she was being an annoying little kid, my brother and I told her that if you ring the doorbell too many times the basement would flood. See, she was ringing the doorbell repeatedly, and my parents had just had a very stressful time dealing with a flooded basement, so this made an impression. So much so that she still believed this to be true until one day, when she was about 15, she panicked when her friend started ringing the doorbell repeatedly. She started to tell her why she shouldn't do it, when halfway through her sentence, it clicked that we were full of crap, and had tricked her.

Ahhh, good times.

***

Gabbie had a tough day yesterday, starting with excitement due to preschool happenings (it was green day, our snack day, show and tell day, and I was coming in to read a book to her class), and then went into a nose dive when she realized I was going to leave her at school when I left after reading the book. She starting hysterically sobbing, and was crying on and off for the next three hours, upsetting her friends and disturbing some other kids' nap time. I feel horrible about it all - about having to go back to work and leaving her there, about the teachers having to deal with the crying, about how sensitive she is (and that's all my fault, I was the same way). When she gets like this I can feel it in my heart, because I have so been there.

I explained that I have to work so that we can have a house, and clothes, and toys, and food, and I know she gets it, but she still wants me, and that doesn't change. So, Friday, because she's feeling attention-starved and because she got an awesome report card last night, I'm taking the day off and we're having a day to ourselves. We're thinking about going to the zoo, meeting up with Aaron for lunch, and perhaps some shopping. It should be fabulous.

And now I should go back to working so that I can get everything done and can actually take the day off.

The Things We're Doing These Days

I was sick last week with some sort of weird bug that had me down for the count with a headache, light-headedness, a little bit of congestion, and a whole lot of exhaustion. I am feeling better for the most part, save for still having a headache and now with the added fun of constant heartburn. So what I'm saying is, I kind of feel like crap still and planning to have tomato soup for dinner tonight was not my smartest idea ever. What proves to be even a less smart idea is that I'm still totally going to eat that tomato soup because it sounds really damn delicious.

Not feeling well, of course, put me in an excellent mood over the weekend. Aaron caught the bug, too, coming down with it on Friday (which actually made me a little better, because the symptoms are so weird I thought maybe it was just me, but no! Confirmation!). So we shared that excellent mood. The girls fed off of our bad moods, so it was really fun to be in our house this weekend, I'm sure.

Despite our household-wide surliness, we did have some fun this weekend. Gabbie got to go to the neighborhood park and play with the neighborhood kids. Reportedly they played some sort of tag (Aaron went along and also played tag, while Sophie and I napped), which sounds like a lot of fun. There aren't many kids Gabbie's age in the neighborhood, but there are a lot of girls, who have adopted Gabbie as one of their own, and if she's around they include her in their games. It's pretty fantastic.

Sophie is working really hard at walking. She can actually walk, but lacks the confidence to do so. She'll walk halfway across the room, stop when she realizes what she's doing, and then she'll drop and crawl. Alternately, she'll wait until we're all watching, take a few steps, then stand there and clap for herself. She's pretty darn adorable, overall.

I'm really excited for Aaron, who started with a running group last night through a local shoe store. I think this will be really good for him and it sounds like a great group. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous, because I totally am. This will definitely be an adjustment, as he'll be out of the house for runs two nights a week and on Saturday mornings until his 10K in May. However, I'm all about it given his family history and my desire to keep him around for a long time. One of his grandpas died in his forties from a sudden and massive heart attack, and I'd like to avoid that happening to him if at all possible. So, support for excersize it is! I can't wait to go cheer him on in his sure-to-be many races in the future!

As for me, well, I'm working on things. I need to get out of the house more too. I feel kind of bad that my hermit-tendencies make Aaron feel bad for wanting to go out and do things with other people. I need to make more friends and find time for the friends I already have. I'm sure once Sophie is a little less dependent on me due to nursing, I'll be more likely to feel like I can go out. I meant to sign up for a cake decorating class at Joann's this month, but forgot to do it on Saturday, which ended up being the first day of the month-long class. Hopefully they'll offer it again soon! We're also talking about finding a church we can all agree on, with families with young kids, and then possibly we can make some friends there. I'm still in that being-a-mom-is-lonely phase of babyhood and I'm starting to get itchy to get out of it.

Gabbie's Horrible, Awful, No Good Week

Poor Gabbie has had a rough week, for many reasons, including:

• Croup - She was fine on Saturday evening when she went to bed at eight. Three hours later she had a barking cough and a fever. She spent Sunday through Tuesday resting and recouperating, even though she was not happy about it. On Tuesday she was suffering more from Cabin Fever than the Croup (but she still had to stay  home from school because the last time she was running a fever was less than 24 hours before), so we went out for lunch - Chinese food, her choice. She got vegetable fried rice, and I had the most amazing Pho Ga. (Also, Gabbie ate all my cilantro. Plain. It is so weird to me, a cilantro-tolerater-because-my-family-likes-it kind of person, when she does that.)



• Then she had a temper tantrum at the grocery store because she wanted to hold the yogurt covered pretzels, and I had the nerve to put them in the cart without thinking that possibly she would rather hold them.
• Then, I had the nerve to make her take a nap (she finally submitted when I offered to rock her to sleep).
• Yesterday she threw a fit when, after she asked me what kind of animal we are, I told her that we're humans. She doesn't want to be a human!
• She has been testing out the whole lying thing lately, and I am amazed at how stupid she obviously thinks I am. I will catch her doing something, (SEE IT WITH MY OWN EYES!) and then she'll deny it. ARGH!
• The toughest part for me was today, after her preschool Holiday Party, when she had to stay instead of going home with me, and she lost her shit in a spectacular fashion. She had to be peeled off of me by a teacher. It didn't help that I forgot something in the room and couldn't get another teacher's attention so she could hand it to me, so I had to slip in real quick to get it and she saw me again.

There's only one more day left this week, and I'm hoping I can make it a good one for her. Then this weekend, she gets a mommy date, and we're going to bake cookies with the rest of the women in Aaron's family. Gabbie's no good week needs turned around, and I think those two things may just be the way to do it.

Thanksgiving Weekend Highs and Lows with Gabbie

There was a conversation on Twitter yesterday about three-year-olds, and how the highs are so incredibly high, and the lows are head-explodingly low, and I could not agree more with that sentiment. In my line of work, I couldn't present such a statement without some sort of follow-up evidence, so I present to you: The High Point and Low Point of Our Long Thanksgiving Weekend!

High Point:

Gabbie helped me make pieson Thanksgiving eve/morning. She made a cookie crumb crust almost entirely by herself, by crushing the cookies with her miniature rolling pin, pouring the crumbs in a bowl, mixing in the sugar and melted butter I added, pouring it into the pie pan, and pushing it down on the bottom and sides. All I had to do was the baking part. I can't believe how big and capable she (mostly) is these days!

Then the next morning, she sat at the counter with me and helped peel and slice apples (using an apple peeler/slicer/corer thing - she turned the crank while I did the rest), and kept me company while I did the rest of the pie making. I also taught her how to make pie treats (sprinkle leftover pie crust with cinnamon and sugar and bake), which we shared while the pies were baking. She also was assigned duties as chief spoon/whisk/bowl licker with the spoon/whisk/bowl that resulted from making banana cream pie. (SO GOOD!)

It was lovely and picturesque. She was doing the things I remember doing when I was a kid, and I loved sharing these moments with her. It's moments like that when I just want to scoop her up and put her someplace for safe-keeping, so she never, ever changes how she is right now.

Low Point:

Most of yesterday was not quite so awesome. She was obviously exhausted, but is dropping her nap (I am NOT READY for this), and so was insisting that she wasn't tired and didn't need to nap. There were instances of talking back ("Gabbie, stop it." "No, Mom, you stop it."), being generally unkind to her sister (like holding out one of Sophie's toys just out of reach, saying, "Sophie, you can't play with this," and then snatching it away), and then came the cherry on top of the crap Sunday (haha - I love a good pun!). She was playing with Sophie's walk and ride toy, and I asked her not to ride it onto the wood floor, because she's a little heavy for it and so I was afraid the wheels would leave scrapes on the floor. Not two minutes later, I look over and see her watching me as she slowly and deliberately rode the toy onto the wood floor. (!!!)

At this point, I got a headache due to lack of ability to make my head actually explode, and she was placed in time out for five minutes, because I had absolutely had it. Up to HERE even!

Of course, at the end of her time out, she came over and gave me a big hug and some cuddles and was all sorts of cute and wonderful again.

Three. Man, oh, man is it a ride.

Green Beans, Two Ways

This is, surprisingly, not a recipe post.

The other night I was preparing some green beans for dinner, and the following conversation occurred:

Gabbie: Mom, what are you doing?
Me: Cooking green beans.
Gabbie: How are you cooking them?
Me: I'm steaming them.
Gabbie: Oh....that's not how I do it. I cook green beans different at my pink house.*
Me: Oh, yeah?
Gabbie: Yeah. Here's how me and my baby** make them. First we put down butter. Then we put the green beans on top. Then we sprinkle them with oatmeal. They're really delicious.
Me: Sounds that way.

At his point, she walked out of the kitchen, and I had to wipe a tear of laughter from my eye. She is just so awesome and her imagination is the best. I remember living in a world that existed almost entirely in my imagination when I was little, and I think it's fantastic that she's in that phase right now.

* Gabbie has lots of things at her "pink house," which is the place where she lives in her imagination, apparently. Her friends also have imaginary houses, including a yellow house and a purple house, and sometimes they trade, although the trading hasn't happened in a while. Often, when Gabbie sees something new, after we've explained it to her, she will say, "Oh! I have one at my pink house, too." Alternately, if there's something she doesn't like, it won't be at her pink house, or she'll do it differently at her pink house, hence the cooking of the green beans differently. I love hearing about her pink house.

**Gabbie also has an imaginary baby (sometimes two - yesterday there were two, one who was three like her and one who is 21, whose birthday was yesterday (her baby has a birthday almost every day - often a colored one, as in, "Today is my baby's blue birthday" - which stems from Gabbie's Very Pink 3rd Birthday Party). Her baby often does things differently than we do them, or her baby gets to do things that we don't let Gabbie do, as in, "My baby doesn't have to wash her hands after she goes potty."

Catching Up Tidbits

Sophie is at that awesome stage where she learns a new trick almost every day. Here is a list of things she has started doing in the last three weeks: crawling, pulling up to stand, walking while holding on to our fingers, clapping, signing "more", raising her hands above her head whenever we say, "Sophie's so big!" or, "Touchdown!", giving high fives, putting her hands on her head when we say, "Oh, no!" (or, conversely, putting her hands on her head and waiting for us to notice and say, "Oh, no!")....  The list goes on, but I think I've captured most of them.

She's still not too interested in food, and would rather nurse, unless she's at daycare, then she doesn't want her bottles and would rather eat food. All in all she's a happy, healthy girl, and if every baby were guaranteed to be so awesome, I'd have a dozen more. (I'm not going to have a dozen more.) She turned 10 months old yesterday, which I'm not sure is even possible. How in the heck is this year passing so quickly?

Gabbie is So. Very. Three. It's maddening and yet makes me love her all the much more at the same time. She and Sophie have started playing together, and will get each other squealing with laughter, and it sets my heart aflame with pride and love. These girls are so awesome I can't even stand it.

Gabbie is also thriving in preschool, although I still can't get anything out of her regarding what they did at preschool other than what they have for snack and, sometimes, what was brought in for show and tell that day. A couple of weeks ago she had her first field trip to a local apple orchard and pumpkin patch. I went along, and it was a blast. Of course, most of the kids liked the hay ride and donuts and cider the best, so the rest of the tour of where they make cider was a little difficult to get them through. It was nice getting to know some of the other kids and their parents, and I'm so glad I went.

We also have a halloween party this week in preschool, and she is so excited that it's going to be a long wait until Thursday for her! She's doubly excited because we signed up to make brownies. She's convinced she's never had brownies before (she has), and she can't wait to try them. (We have to designate all foods these days into two categories: she's eaten it before, or she's never eaten it before. She's very often wrong about the assigned category, which cracks me up. I love seeing her little quirks emerge as she gets older.)

Gabbie's first parent-teacher conference is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I can't wait to hear how things are going with her and preschool from the teacher's perspective, and perhaps even find out what they do every day!

Gabbie's favorite thing in the world to do these days is to go to the zoo. Any zoo will do, although she is partial to our local zoo, just because she knows it best (although she does wish that they'd have an elephant or a giraffe). A few weeks back on a beautiful Saturday, we headed over to the Detroit Zoo and had a blast. Then, just yesterday, we went to Boo at the Zoo here in town. It was a gorgeous fall day, and all the little kids were completely adorable in their costumes. And, because we go so often (and we got to skip the line to sign up), we bought an annual membership to the zoo.

I have pictures of everything above, but haven't had time to download them from my new camera, with which I am in deep love. I plan on doing that this week before it gets some major use this coming weekend. Hopefully.

It's nice to know my family has so much faith in me

Today is likely one of the last warm days of the year, so I decided to live it up and wear a skirt. It's all excitement around here all the time, as you can tell! Anyway, I already had the iron out to press Gabbie's dress for picture day today, so I thought I'd wear my favorite khaki skirt that I never wear because it always has to be pressed. The iron was downstairs, so I came down in just my underpants (and a shirt, of course) with my skirt in hand on the way to the ironing board.

Halfway down the stairs Gabbie looked at me and said, all incredulous-like, "Mom! You forgot your pants!"

About five minutes later (I was waiting for the iron to heat up, so I was still pants-less) Aaron walked into the kitchen, and said, "Um, Jess? You know you're not wearing pants, right?"

Now I know that my family thinks I am the type of person that would forget to wear pants.

My Sweet Girls

Due to various circumstances, including a nice bonus from work and our old camera dying, I got my birthday/Christmas present incredibly early this year - a Nikon DSLR! I have been wanting a better camera for a long time now; we've had our previous camera for about 7 years which is forever for a digital camera.

Of course, I had to break it out as soon as I could last night and have some fun with it!

Sophie, at just over 9 months, is not crawling yet, but is not far from being on the move:

I finally managed to get Gabbie to give me a good smile, not a goofy three-year-old funny face. (My secret: telling her to say, "I'm a silly monkey!" It's a hit with the preschool set.)

Between these two and the busiest time of year at work I feel like I barely have time to breathe these days, but I'm glad I have these two around to keep me smiling. They're so busy being adorable most of the time, that I just about melt on a daily basis. 

Overheard in my house this morning

We were running very late this morning, and so we were rushing around trying to get out the door. While I was wrestling with Sophie trying to put on her shoes (she hates her shoes because they thwart her efforts to remove her socks from her feet as quickly as humanly possible - down with socks!), I hear Gabbie in the other room say in a slightly confused tone of voice, "You punched me in the face."

Aaron replied, "You ran your face into my fist. For once, that is actually true."

(Not meaning for once, as if he regularly punches her in the face, but for once, in all the times in the world that excuse is used, it was actually true.)

Then we all laughed. I'm still laughing. My family makes me happy in so many, varied ways.

P.S. She's fine, was not hurt, just a little confused as to why she got punched in the face, ever so lightly.

Alligator Juice

A couple of weeks ago, my sister was in the state and Gabbie and I went to pick her up from a bachelorette party she had attended. The girls were all just waking up when we got there, so we got a chance to sit around and chat for a little while. Most of the girls have known Gabbie since she was a baby, so they were excited to see her and spoiled her rotten, sending her home with a bagel, a pink feather boa, and a bottle of yellow Gatorade all for herself.

Gabbie slowly drank that bottle of Gatorade, making it last for the entire day. She thought it was the coolest thing ever (the child can be entertained for hours by a bottled water, so you can imagine the excitement that comes when you add color, sugar, and a little flavor to that water). Between cooking dinner, talking with my parents and sister, and being a ball of nervous energy about my upcoming work trip, I wasn't paying too much attention to what Gabbie and my mom were discussing, but my mom filled me in the next day.

Gabbie told my mom all about how we saw the girls and they gave her a "Fancy Nancy" (the pink feather boa) and some alligator juice. My mom was a little confused, but went along with it. Then Gabbie asked my mom to get it for her from the refrigerator. My mom opened the fridge, and it didn't immediately dawn on her what Gabbie meant, so she lifted her up so she could get it herself. She grabbed the Gatorade, and my mom had a good chuckle.

Thinking about it, Gatorade/alligator juice makes total sense. I really don't know where she comes up with these things, but I hope she continues on with it for a long time. She's just so adorable in so many ways that I can hardly stand it!

Five Things

1. The current mosquito situation in Michigan is HORRIBLE. They are everywhere. They follow you in from the outside and bite you while you're sitting on the couch. We keep waking up with new bites, including the nickel-sized bite on the bottom of my foot I woke up with yesterday. This may be the worst location for a bug bite, ever! They have been so bad they've kept us inside, away from the gorgeous weather we've been having lately, and I am sick of it. There was enough of a breeze last night that we could actually spend some time outside without getting about 15 bites apiece in 10 minutes, and it was lovely. I hope those little suckers die off soon!

Poor Gabbie got a bite on her face in the car the other day while we were driving downtown (they follow us everywhere!), and now it looks like her eye is a little swollen. Poor baby! See that pink spot on her cheek? That's all a bite. There's one on her nose, too.

(Also, she really liked that pizza!)

2. I went to Minneapolis for work last week, and, surprisingly, the world did not end. I was completely stressed out and worried about the actual travel (I'm not a huge fan of flying, to say the very least), and about leaving Sophie, who was (and still is) in the midst of teething. (Last time I travelled she was in the middle of a growth spurt. I am not looking forward to whatever she has planned for when I travel in October.) I have to give mad props, though, to my wonderful husband. All I had to do (and really I didn't have to do this, but it was nice of me to do), was stock up the fridge with essentials, and he was good to go. My mom was telling me about how she used to have to cook, leave a schedule, do all the laundry, and get basically everything prepared for every day she was gone in order to leave to go anywhere. And my dad was pretty with it as far as dads go. Aaron, hands down, is the best dad I know. He helps me with all the girls' stuff every day, and so it wasn't too far of a stretch to remove me from the situation for a couple days.

So what if the girls didn't get baths at all while I was gone. They may have been a little stinky, but that didn't make me any less excited to see them when I got home.

3. Sophie is getting huge. Seriously. When Gabbie was a baby she didn't wear a size until she was whatever age was on the label, and sometimes even those things were a little big (although, length-wise, my poor girl is forever in flood pants just so her pants fit around her waist (she still can fit comfortably into size 24 months shorts)). Sophie, however, is already comfortably in nine month size clothing and she doesn't turn 8 months until tomorrow. She even has two teeth now, and sits up all by herself! We went out for dinner the other night (me being gone kind of ruined the whole "no eating out in August" thing a little, because we were all still so worn out from the busy week), and she sat in a high chair all by herself:

She thought she was big stuff, for sure! The blur (because she never, ever stops moving. Seriously never.) was a coaster that she nabbed as soon as I sat her down (she's fast and has amazing aim), so I inserted the pacifier to keep the coaster out of her mouth. She dropped it a couple of times and screamed at the top of her lungs until I crawled under the table to retrieve it and handed it back to her. She is not quite the well-behaved-angel-in-public that her big sister has always been. I just can't believe how big she's getting these days and how fast it's happening. I swear she was just a newborn.

4. One cool/scary thing I saw in Minneapolis was a sink hole. It opened up sometime in the hour between when we got to an event and when we left the event. It was right in the middle of a (thankfully quiet) intersection, and was probably about 8 feet across. There were a few guys right up next to it taking pictures, but I was not quite that brave. (Aaron gave me crap, because he would have loved to see pictures.) I mean, seriously. There was a large hole in the earth that wasn't there minutes prior. Does it make any sense at all to go stand at the edge? Ever since I saw pictures of this massive sinkhole in Guatamala that looks like crazy CGI, but isn't, I've been wary of sinkholes. Nice, normal fear, right?

5. Last night at dinner we were coming up with topics to discuss with Gabbie to keep her from singing (no singing at the table, especially when we're in public, is a new dinnertime rule). Aaron asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. After a few, thoughtful seconds of reflection, she announced, "A mom. With noobs." (Apparently that's Gabbie's shorthand for "nursing b00bs.") I about choked I was laughing so hard. Hilarious, and adorable. And I'm glad she thinks so much of me that her life goal is to be just like me.

Our Girls' First Camping Trip

This weekend we continued our string of great-camping-trips-cancelled-prematurely-due-to-the-sky-opening-up-and-flooding-us-out. Meaning, we were having a good time and then it rained about an inch and a half in fifteen minutes. So we packed up a night early and headed to my parents' house (halfway between the campsite and home) arriving at 11:00 at night. (As an aside, I haven't been in bed before 11:00 pm in over a week, and oh my goodness am I EXHAUSTED).

But, before the deluge we had a fabulous time. On Saturday morning at 5:30 the girls got to experience one "fun" facet of sleeping outside: birds. It started with crows that I swear were sitting on top of our tent, and then proceeded to all sorts of different birds calling out and singing and generally celebrating day-break. It was loud and sudden, and even though the noise died down after only about ten minutes, we were up for good. Gabbie's eyes got great big, and I could just see her brain going behind them. I know that she might not remember this camping trip when she's older, but it was so much fun to get to watch her experience all these things for the first time. (Including s'mores - she thought they were okay, but in true Gabbie fashion, eschewed the s'more as a package deal, and was perfectly happy dining on marshmallows and chocolate bars. Also, a sugar detox is happening for the child this week, because we totally sugared her up all weekend.)

We were in the absolute minority at the campground in that we camped in a tent and cooked all of our food over the campfire. Aaron and I are both of the mindset that staying in a camper or RV that is equipped with a full kitchen or at least a grill, a tv, a bed, and air conditioning is not "camping." It is simply moving your comfortable living situation to a more nature-filled place. So, we went with our tent, a few sleeping mats and sleeping bags (and a pack and play for Sophie so she had a safe place to sleep), and a grill grate to put atop the campfire pit. It was awesome fun. We didn't do pretty much anything we had planned to do (another trend in our vacations), but we still had a great time. We took a couple of walks, watched the sun set over the bay, sat in chairs around the campsite and read books while holding napping babies, and ate our fair share of junk food (candy, chips, s'mores, etc. - also a camping tradition).

Unfortunately, we have the girls completely off schedule, and they both seem to think that 10:00 pm is a perfectly acceptable bedtime, so this week will be spent getting them back to sleeping at a more reasonable hour. However, the camping trip was so much fun I kind of want to head out again this weekend. We won't, but it will be happening again sometime soon.

Here are a couple pictures of the girls in the (orange, so that's the cause of the pictures' tint) tent.

Early morning portrait of a girl who just spent her first night in a tent and loved it.  

Ditto.

Silly Girls

I am a big fan of encouraging silliness at all (appropriate) times with my kiddos. Which is good, because they're all for silliness, intentional or not, as well. For example:

Intentional silliness. What you can't see (at least not well) here is that she's wearing a chef's hat, an apron, and no pants. And she was dancing and making up a song, while serving me imaginary cupcakes. It was awesome.

Unintentional silliness. Sophie's teachers put her "Crabby Pants" outfit on backwards. I couldn't stop laughing at this, especially because this takes some effort due to the fact that there are snaps all the way up the supposed-to-be-front, so she had to be flipped over and snapped, and she doesn't stay still when she's on her belly, not even a little bit.

First thing in the morning silliness. My mom started a tradition with us when we were kids that I'm carrying on with my kids, which is that first thing we do in the morning is pile into mom and dad's bed and talk about the coming day. The girls usually get each other giggling during this time and love to give each other hugs. It's more than fantastic.

Speaking of fantastic, we took Sophie to see an orthopedist yesterday to check on her hips; a precaution due to Gabbie's problems with hip dysplasia which can be genetic. She had a checkup for them at six weeks, which showed she was fine, but the doctor wanted to see her again at six months just to make sure. She had some x-rays done and after the doctor checked these out, she proclaimed them perfect, and so we never have to see the orthopedist again (unless we have more kids, then they need to be checked out too)! It feels so great to be able to be done with all this mess. After the appointment I told Aaron that I felt like I finally let go of a breath I didn't know I was holding. We're done worrying about hips, probably for always, and I am over the moon about that.