Look Who's Three!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HANNAH!

Mama, I wanna be a princess when I grow up...

Our little girl has now passed from terrible two's to...time-will-only-tell three's!! :)


We will really celebrate when Grandma and Grandpa come out from California. The girls are excited; we're counting down the days on the calendar. Only 3 more left! YAY!

A couple of weeks ago, I had high aspirations for all of the projects I would complete before my parents got here. Before I know it, I'm faced with two choices: get my organizing projects/shopping finished, or deep-clean the house. Well, since I would rather endure a week of sleepless nights than have a guest stay in a less-than-spick-n-span house, the cleaning takes top priority. Oh, wait - I've already been doing sleepless nights. Oh, yeah! Jenna and I have been partying all night long (again) in front of that noisy, fun-filled box of animated viewing excitement! Before ya ask, she doesn't nap too long. And she doesn't go to sleep early... yes, for all of you well-meaning folks with lots of good-intentioned advice, my kid does not fall into the regular categories. She has seizures. She has trouble sleeping. She has since she was born. And no amount of schedule shifting, or nap-deprivation, can change that -- or so it seems.

But, I know my house will get done in time. It always does. I just wish there wasn't so darn much of it now!

Yes, I'll do those projects and the floors/surfaces/toilets will sparkle cuz they will get cleaned. Just not by me.

Ssshhhh... don't tell anyone...but...

we called up a cleaning lady. Is that cheating? ;)

It's just that...

I'd do it if only...

It's not really my fault...

AGH!


The other day I put in a load of laundry, then forgot about it. All day. By the time I opened up the lid, my delicate nostrils flared with the smell of sour duds. Seems like this happens more frequently than I'd like. Then I thought about what I did all day and I decided maybe I should chronicle a day in our lives for your reading pleasure. What I discovered that day was that I was constantly moving. Constantly getting something. Feeding hungry mouths, de-contaminating one of my three kids' booties, changing movies, picking up broken crayon bits off the kitchen tile from a game of roll the colored logs off the table as fast as you possibly can (!), pinching play-dough out of very expensive and not-so-kid-friendly carpet, trying to clean "washable" marker off the table, re-filling sippy cups and mopping - or scrubbing - the spills that aren't supposed to happen (cuz, darnit, it says so right on the box, so it must be true!), chasing down "My little Texas Tornado" as she runs through the house lifting everything in her path and dropping it in random locations wherever she goes (hey, where are your shoes? Oh, there they are! What in the heck are they doing with the pots and pans in the cupboard?), fighting a precocious two-turned-three year old on strike from noontime naps...

And then, of course, there are the sleepless nights, which blur together now in an endless stream of frustrating, fight-the-gut-aching-fatigue, moonlit hours that keep coming back to haunt us! This happens every few weeks with Jenna. And then, last night? Hannah. Sick. Great way to top off a birthday, right?

But, on to the good news. GREAT news, actually. Cohen's chromosome test results came back - NO genetic syndromes! YAY! We're really relieved, but confused. Where do we go from here? And on Friday, Cohen finally traded in the foot long, floppy tube appendage hanging from his tummy for a much less intrusive, little round button. Now my little bruiser can crawl around as soon as he's ready without stumbling over his old tummy-straw!

So we're still trying solids and drinks by mouth...

How does it look like it's going?

Got a little in there, at least!

But, feed through the tube...

And voila! A whole new baby! :)

Bye-Bye Appendage...