Guess Who Is Too Cool For Us?

Potential Jinx

At the risk of jinxing it, I have some wonderful news from this little bundle of joy:

She is sleeping through the night! Well, pretty much anyway. Five nights ago she woke up at 11, and I thought, "I am NOT going to feed her this early! She at least needs to sleep until midnight before I feed her!" I went in every 10 minutes to calm her down, but didn't feed her, and then at 11:53 she fell asleep until morning. After that I decided she no longer needed a night feeding- and she has been perfectly fine. She will typically wake up 1-2 times, but then fall asleep on her own after 3-4 minutes. I haven't had to get up to go to her in 5 nights! (Ok, I did have to go in once last night, but that's the only time). So I am hoping that she is now officially sleeping through the night! Very exciting indeed!

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Oh, yeah, and about 3 days ago she started sitting up completely on her own- as you can see in the picture. And today she climbed up her first stair. I can't believe she is growing up so fast!

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And here is a cute picture of Audra at her Aunt Beth's wedding last Saturday (I'll post more pictures later):

She really did have a GREAT time- and looked pretty dang cute doing it!

I Sure Lucked Out

I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this man (and I know his girls do, too)

Happy belated Valentine's Day

XOXO

From the luckiest girl in the world!

So Many Updates!

I realized I never gave an update on what Claire is up to at 7 months, so I will start there:

-Weight: Approx. just under 15 pds.

-Eating- she is gradually getting the hang of it. She seems to enjoy mango best. I mix it with yogurt to add more calories- I am hoping solids will allow me to leave her for more than 2 1/2 hours and get to her to sleep the whole night.

-Sleep: Typically she sleeps until around midnight, eats, then sleeps until anywhere from 6:30-7:30. I then bring her into bed with me and feed her again and get some good snuggle time with her (Ben gets Audra up and ready so I can sleep a little longer- this is one of my favorite parts of the day! What a way to wake up every morning- with a Claire-bear smiling up at you!!! This is something I will always remember!)

-Crawling- she is all over the place! Well, mostly all over the place. It's really funny because she can't quite grasp the concept of crawling from one room to another. It's like there is an invisible line between rooms that she can't get over. Also, she won't ever crawl OVER anything. This is very good because there is a wire cover on the floor in our family room and on the other side are the stairs. She won't crawl over the wire cover, so as yet I don't have to worry TOO much about the stairs. But, I do believe gates are in our near future (which Audra is not happy about).

-Cuteness: Still an 11 out of 10.

-Sister Love: Oftentimes I will look over at Clarie to find that her sister has accessorized her: Look closely around her neck:

Here's a close-up:It's a necklace from a build-a-bear. Or, here:Surprisingly, Claire does not seem to mind so much.

Then, yesterday my friend Kathy had Audra and some other friends over for a princess tea party. It was SO MUCH FUN- and she went all out, literally. You know how most people have a few talents and are really good at a few things? Well, Kathy is good at EVERYTHING- I literally don't think there is anything she can't do!

Anyway, we get to her house and she has a whole set up of dress-up clothes and a big mirror for the girls. She has an arts and crafts table for the girls to make Valentine's and decorate boxes to hold a gift for dad. She has a HUGE spread for eating, with the cutest decorated table ever! She made each of the girls their own apron- with their names on- for the girls to decorate cupcakes. I mean, literally, it was unbelievable! I told her I felt like I had been at the spa all day- it was all so luxurious! It was awesome. Here are some pics:

The best part of this was right before we left our house to go to the party. We got Audra in her pretty dress, and she looked me and said, "I'm a pretty princess!" Yes, Audra you are a pretty princess! I hope you always remember that! I love you soooooo much!!!

I told you I had a lot to write about!

Some other cute things that have been going on at our house:

Audra now LOVES to play hide-and-go-seek. Here she is "hiding":

The whole time she is screaming: "I am under the blanket! I am under the blanket!" Her hide-and-seek skills are not so great as of yet!

Last thing. The other day Audra came up to me and said, "Hi, mama- it's great to meet ya!"

Where on earth did she learn that???? So cute!

My Heart Is Full

Last week I kept hearing the phrase, "joy in your posterity." This comes from the Bible where Adam and Eve are commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. I was thinking of that phrase, and I kept thinking, "I don't have JOY in my posterity. Where is the JOY?" Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my girls, but it has seemed lately that the HARD has outweighed the JOY.

But, then today I literally almost started crying as I watched this little angel do this:

And as I took 7-month pictures of this precious gem:

It hit me like a ton of bricks: JOY. PURE JOY. I am so incredibly blessed to have these two special spirits in my life. I love them so incredibly much! And I realized, that for me right now, maybe my joy is not in the overarching themes of sleepless nights, tantrums, and poopy diapers. But, for me, they are in the moments. The little moments every now and then where it's just me and the girls (and sometimes Daddy if he isn't at work!) and the world is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

A Little Inspiration

I hope you all enjoyed my last post- I had a lot of fun writing it! Just thinking about how I would change the world if I could make all the rules...

I did keep it light-hearted- on purpose. I don't know about any of you, but I can't even watch the news anymore because the images of Haiti keep me up at night. It's too depressing, so I needed something a little lighter.

Truly, if I really could have anything I wanted, even sleep would be the last thing on the list. I would want the people of Haiti to have all the food and supplies they need, children of abused parents to get placed in loving, wonderful families, and Cici to be made whole.

Surfing the blogosphere, you can find all sorts of stories- tragic, inspirational, beautiful, horrifying, etc. If you are looking for something a little more inspirational (and tragic) than what I posted the other day, here are some blogs I found that will make you truly grateful for everything you have:

This is a mother who recently lost her 6 week old baby to whooping cough (warning, you will cry): Picks and Kicks (thanks, Steph, for posting this story on your blog!)

This is a little boy who drowned in the bath tub and is now in the PICU (warning, this is long and will make you cry and will change you as a mother): Stakerz Xposed

This is a woman who was in a plane crash and 80% of her body was burned, but she continues fighting (I ended up linking to her whole blog because there is no one thing that strikes out as inspirational, it is her whole life and how she lives it, so it is ALL truly inspirational. Some of you have probably heard of this blog, she was on Oprah and is very popular in the blog world I guess): Nie Nie Dialogues

And, of course, my dear friend Jenny, who many of you already read- what an inspiration she is every day: Colofisch

What all of these stories have in common is that they are all women- just like us- going about their lives in a normal, everyday way. But then something happens- something horrible- and everything changes. I am certain that every one of them would choose to have their "normal" life back rather then be a blogger-hero.

Their stories are real and personal, because we all know that in the blink of an eye it could be us. In reading their stories, I find that I become better- more grateful, more loving, more understanding.

So pull out some Kleenex, take a few moments, and be inspired!

What I Really, Really Want

This morning as I was getting ready I had the customary thoughts: Please, Audra, just give me 2 minutes! Just 2 minutes to put my make-up on! Claire, please sleep for 10 more minutes. Just 10 more minutes!

And then I realized: Those are just fleeting whims. This is what I really, really, really want:

1. When I say, "deal with it"- I want the person I am talking to to actually deal with it.

Example 1:
Ben comes home from work and I say, "I am too tired to make dinner. Deal with it!"

Ben answers: "I completely understand- you work so hard all day long. You deserve a break. And besides, I have a chicken parmesan recipe I have just been dying to make!"

Example 2:
Audra says, "please come play."

I say, "Mommy is tired. Deal with it."

Audra says, "You do seem a little tired. I am sorry to have bothered you. I will go downstairs and play quietly and safely for 90 minutes while you go upstairs and take a nap. Oh, and I love you!"

2. I want a standing ovation every time I clean the toilet

3. I want Ben to come home and say, "I'm not hungry tonight. Let's just skip dinner." (I don't know about you, but my family likes to eat dinner every night- it is so annoying!)

4. I want a stunt double to change all poopy diapers, clean up all vomit, and give me a nice massage from time to time.

5. I want to be able to type an entire blog post with BOTH hands.

6. I want Fruit Roll-ups to actually have FRUIT in them, not just "corn syrup" and "dried corn syrup" (yes, those are both printed on the box).

7. I want Audra's poopy diapers to smell like roses

8. I want to take a nice, long hot bubble bath without the water heater going out or a screaming child interrupting my relaxation

9. I want to understand what is going on with Lost

10. I want to lose 20 pounds without doing anything annoying like exercising or dieting

Is this too much to ask???