keeping it real

We're in the trenches over here.  There is simply no denying it.  Instagram makes me feel like I should have it all figured it.  That I should be working out and baking and showering and taking care of my kids and somehow sleeping and keeping a clean house in there too.  I know, I KNOW.  Comparing my days to someone else's pretty edited little squares is stupid.  It's so easy to do.  I know I'm not the only one who is struggling to remember to brush my teeth and make sure my kids have on clean(ish) underwear.

Kid.  Not kids.  Because I've still got two in diapers.

ANYWAY.  So this is real life right now.

It is too many days without showers.  It is carry-out pizza for dinner.  It is stepping over markers and papers and necklaces and giant dinosaurs.  It is pacing my driveway in the dark of the evening to try and make the screaming stop.  It is eating too many peanut m&m's because they help me cope with my feelings (don't even start with me on eating my feelings).  It is dirty clothes on the bathroom floor.  It is unmade beds.  It is a mountain of dishes on the counter.  It is feeling like I'm not taking care of any of my kids as well as I should be.

There are moments when I feel like I can't breathe.  When Thea is screaming because she is hungry but we have to wait for the bus and I don't don't want to whip out a boob in front of the neighbor kids.  And Elsie is crying because she wants different shoes.  And Ryann is crying because I won't let her go in and color a picture for her friend (because the bus is coming any minute and I am NOT driving your butt, sorry kid).  Those moments when they all need me RIGHT NOW and I feel like I can't help any of them.  The weight on my shoulders is so heavy.

But the difference, this time?  I know, without a shadow of a doubt, it will get better.  It was about this age with Elsie that I was feeling the same things.  I wrote this post.  And now whenever things seem really hard, I go back and read it.  It helps me keep everything in perspective, and remind me that I will come out the other side of this season just find.

And also?  This is real life right now too.

It's seeing my oldest love my littlest with all her itty bitty heart.  It's first days of 'school' with great big smiles.  It's an afternoon nap with a baby on my chest.

Every single day there is at least one point where I want to throw in the towel, to cry uncle.  I think I'm not cut out for this whole mommy thing.  But then I say screw it.  Screw the pile of laundry and the chores.  And throw on some Pandora while Elsie and I make muffins and dance around the kitchen.  Forget the make-up and go for a run instead.  I'm celebrating errands where nobody cries and patting myself on the back when we get places on time.  The victories may be small, but they are my small victories and I'm going to be damn proud of them.

this and that

I was on such a roll there, actually posting on the blog.  And then Thea decided to stop being the easiest baby ever and her naps haven't been completely overlapping Elsie's.  And occasionally I have to shower.  Damn personal hygiene.

So bullet points for today.  Yay!

::  I'm pretending Thea is not a month old today.  How the hell did that happen already?  I'm planning to take her monthly photos on the awesome quilt my mom made (TamTam for the win again!) when she wakes up.  Until then, here are a couple from two weeks ago.

headband by Pretty Little Elm

::  Nursing hunger is like 1000x worse for me than pregnancy hunger.  I'm assuming it is the lack of a little human smashing my stomach and making me nauseous all the time.  But I am currently ALWAYS HUNGRY.  Everything sounds good.  I would eat almost anything.  I'm constantly hiding in our pantry snacking.  It's terrible.  I quickly made it down to only six pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, like 10 days after Thea was born.  Considering the fact that I gained 10 pounds more than I did with the other two, and lost all the weight just as quickly as I did with the first two, I can only conclude I was carrying around 10 pounds of water weight in my legs.  Haha.  But seriously, I probably was.  But nothing has happened since then, and I can only blame my current snacking habits.  I want to make myself eat healthier snacks, but then I'm walking through Target and I'm all brownie batter Oreos, yes please!  For the record, they totally aren't worth it.  Get the Golden Oreo thins.  Way better.  Do indulge in some dark chocolate peanut M&Ms.  Those are way worth it.  ;o)

::  The upside of moving from 1600 square feet to 4600 square feet?  SO MUCH SPACE.  The downside?  SO MUCH SPACE to decorate!  I'm anxious for my house to feel more finished, but we can only buy so much at one time.  And I'm so indecisive that it is taking me forever to pick stuff out.  We still don't have mirrors in our master bathroom.  We've lived here almost two months and have owned the house since November.  Oy.  It'll happen.  In the meantime I'm trying my hardest to get the girls' rooms finished so I can post them on the blog.  I'm getting there!  But oh my gosh I simply cannot decide what color curtains to put in Thea's room.  Suggestions?  Would light pink be bad?

banner by Sharp Tooth Studio

::  We'd probably have more money for furniture if I didn't buy so many hair clips and headbands.  The etsy app is so enticing at 2am...  If there was a support group for headband hoarders I might have to go.

:: We were rather ambitious this weekend (for us) and took on a trip to KC for a few different things.  First up was a birthday party, followed by a trip to Rainbow Play Systems to pick out a new swing set (it's coming next Friday and I'm so damn excited!), and rounded out by a stop at a friend's house to meet their new baby.  Oh throw in there buying Christopher a new truck as well.  We hadn't slept much the night before, and the morning was a little stressful, but once we got to KC things were going alright.  But we were definitely wiped by the end of it.  At one point during the drive home Thea was screaming (I thought babies were supposed to pass out in cars?!?), Elsie's iPad was blaring, and Ryann was way in the back wearing a mini sombrero shaking mini maracas and I couldn't do anything but laugh.  Life with three isn't as terrifying or miserable as I expected it to be, but it sure as hell is crazy.

::  September 1st is next week.  Are you kidding me?  I seriously can't believe how fast time is flying.  But I can't flipping wait to have soup in the crock pot and wear comfy sweat shirts and bake some pumpkin goodies.  Plus that gets us closer to Halloween and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to have three girls to dress and coordinate for the holidays.  We already snagged a couple of Halloween shirts from Target and I'm on the hunt for matching pajamas.  It is so hard to find pajamas in all three sizes though, come on stores.  You're killing my dreams.

That's all my brain can muster on a few hours of sleep.  Adios!

our weekend

It's 5:40am and I can't sleep.  My brain is too busy.  I'd go for a run but it is at most 23 degrees, there is snow and ice on the ground, and I don't wanna.  So I suppose I might as well write a blog post!  It's been long enough.  Truthfully I've got a lot on my plate right now, and while I have had some free time, I just want to tune completely out come 8pm.  But home renovations are underway so soon enough I'll at least have all that to talk about!

Speaking of renovations, this weekend we went home to meet with a cabinet guy about designing our kitchen.  The kitchen has quickly escalated from just painting the cabinets white, to getting all new cabinets and appliances.  Funny how that happens.  In the long run I truly think it will be the best choice.  The house is going to feel almost brand new by the time we're done with it, and we will still be all in at less than we would have to build.  At least that what it seems like right now anyway.

They have ripped out all the carpet in the house, started taking out drawers and doors in the kitchen, and have almost completely gutted the master bathroom.  I have yet to completely come up with what I want the master bathroom to look like, or how I want it to be laid out.  Just one of the things keeping me up at night!  Unfortunately while we were at the house we noticed water leaking out of the dishwasher.  We tried to clean it up, couldn't figure out why the water was coming out, but scooped some out and thought we were good to go.  But the dang thing kept filling back up.  My dad and Chris came up with a solution, somehow shutting something off and turning on faucets in the basement.  But not before some of our hardwoods were definitely ruined.  We're getting them refinished so it shouldn't be an issue, but it was certainly frustrating.

After we finished meeting with the cabinet guy, Chris won all the dad points by driving Ryann back to Kansas City for an hour long event at her school.  It was Daddy Dino Day, where the kids and the dads could go have fun doing dinosaur activities.  I really didn't think he would take her, nearly three hours in the car, for an hour event, all while the KU basketball game was on (ROCK CHALK!).  But Christopher loves his girls, and Ry desparately wanted to go.  Ryann said they had dino snacks and did an obstacle course, dug for fossils and some other various things.  She had a blast and I'm so thankful she has a loving daddy who will do those things with her.

Also, she picked out her headband and bracelet that day.  Accessories are key!  :o)

If Christopher won all the daddy points, my parents definitely took the win on grandparent points for the weekend.  It was a cold gloomy weekend, so they opted to do something a little different.  The bounce house inside for a change!  I'm not sure why we've never tried it, but it definitely kept the girls busy while we were in town.  We regularly had to tell Elsie that the bounce house had to take a nap so that the thing wasn't running all day long.  Sorry about that electric bill Papa!

The rest of the weekend was spent pouring over pinterest for kitchen and bath ideas, eating big breakfasts and yummy dinners and making decorations for Elsie's birthday party.  As of Saturday the only thing I had accomplished was buying supplies and spray painting a giant E.  By Sunday night I had made 75 tissue tassels.  Whew!  My mom definitely played a role in it by cutting most of the tassels, while I did all the twisting and gluing.  The color scheme is starting to look a little 80's to me or something, but whatever.  I didn't want to use just black and yellow, so I threw in some other stuff.  Maybe a little more pastel would have been better, but nonetheless I think it will be fun!

daddy ran them outside to catch snowflakes on their tongue

It started snowing Sunday, and by the afternoon the roads were seeming a little icier than expected.  We decided to stay at my parents and had planned a run to the grocery store for supplies to make some super bowl snacks.  I was all pumped for the food, and then Chris remembered he needed to get the portable ultrasound machine back to work.  Wah waaah.  Goodbye yummy snacks.  Thankfully the highway turned out to be much better than we anticipated, so the drive home wasn't too rough.  On the way I ordered some pizza for dinner and we ate while watching the game.  I was pulling for the Seahawks, so sad.  The girls really enjoyed the halftime show, and I was just stoked to see Missy Elliot.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. 

welcoming 2015

The fact that we are nearly halfway through January is just crazy to me.  I felt like the days would slow down after Christmas, with less to be looking forward to in theory, but nope.  Not at all.  They just keep flying by.

This year we spent New Year's Eve having a slumber party in our new house.  We needed to meet with the contractor we selected, and my parents were out of town, so we figured why not.  It's our house, might as well sleep there!  Before my parents left for Georgia they dropped off air mattresses, as well as some snacks and New Year's party supplies.  After meeting with the contractor, we headed over to The Blue Moose for some dinner.  Chris and I hadn't eaten there before, so we were excited to try it.  The waiter we had was great, and our food was pretty good as well.  My favorite part though, was the fried pickle appetizer we ordered.  They were fried in a beer batter, and weren't full spears but not the little rounds either.  So good.

After dinner we headed back to the house, and eventually had a couple of friends over.  They brought cake and ice cream, along with some paper bowls and plastic silverware since we didn't have any!  The kids hung out and watched a movie, and at 9:00pm Ryann asked them when they were going to leave because she was ready for bed.  Haha.  A little blunt but oh well.  Our friends left, we got the girls in bed and then Christopher and I started a movie of our own.  But I barely lasted half an hour before decided I was ready for bed myself.

In the morning we sent Chris out for some doughnuts.  Probably not the healthiest way to start off the new year, but when you don't really have any groceries or cooking utensils, why not?  The girls seemed pretty satisfied.  Especially Elsie.  We hung out for a bit longer before packing up and heading back to Kansas City.  A very mild but fun New Years.

Usually I would sit down and make some lofty goals for the year, things that I want to accomplish, ways I want to become a better person, etc.  But the truth is, I anticipate this being a crazy year for my little family.  Chris is so close to finishing his fellowship, we're going to be moving, Ryann will start kindergarten, we're renovating a house, we have to sell our current house... the list goes on.  So this year?  We're going to survive, and take everything in stride.  That is the goal.  It's going to be big, but I think it is going to be pretty fun too.

we bought a house!

Ok, well really we were under contract for this house in August.  We didn't actually close until November 8th.  And we don't plan to move until sometime between May-July.

Wait what?  Yeah.

Christopher has signed with a hospital system, so we started browsing the housing market.  We had been following it for a good 6+ months, knowing we most likely would end up there, and hadn't seen anything that I loved for a price I was willing to pay for it.  So we moved towards building, found a builder and a plan we thought we liked, and started meeting with a bank.  While we were waiting for approval on our construction loan, this house popped up on the market.

It was 1200+ square feet more than we could afford to build, and was listed for over $100,000 less than we were going to spend to build.  And while I loved the house we were going to build, I wasn't 100% I love loved it, if that makes any sense.  There were still some things missing from my dream house list, and it was a lot of money.  So since I didn't hate the listing photos and the house looked to have more space than we could have dreamed of, Chris called the listing agent to see if we could look at it.

Honestly I was hoping I'd hate it.  I wanted a new house.  I'm tired of dealing with some of the issues in our not so new house right now.  But I didn't hate it.  I actually really liked it.  Well crap!  I mean who buys a house 9+ months before they actually need it?  Us, apparently.  We went back and saw the house again.  I still liked it.  A lot.  The laundry room is huge and there is space for a playroom and a workout room and the number of closets in the house is just plain insane.  We were referred to a relator who could help us since the listing agent couldn't really be our agent.  There was some back and forth with the sellers, but ultimately we got the house and they agreed to a long closing period.

We decided to buy this house because if we were going to have to put down the money now to build, why not put down the money to buy instead.  We plan to do some renovations, and a whole lot of painting.  I'm so excited to have a house to decorate and renovate again.  And a little stressed too.  But mostly just excited!

Here are some photos of the house right now...

So. Much. SPACE.  Those pictures don't even begin to capture it.  I can't believe I didn't snap any pictures of the mudroom/laundry room area.  It is easily the space that made me really REALLY want the house.  There is going to be a lot of trim painting happening (hopefully by a painter!).  And a complete gut job on the master bath.  I can't wait to get started and have before and after pictures to share.  But it will probably be a while!

We are truly so excited and blessed.

my favorite season

I dislike winter aside from the holidays.  Spring is pretty awesome.  Summer rocks too.  But fall wins.  The weather is (for the most part) wonderful, and there are all sorts of festive things to be done.  And festive outfits to be worn.  And I just love watching all the leaves change, so gorgeous.

The goal is to squeeze in a couple of pumpkin patch trips this month, but if it doesn't happen we have already gone to the Cider Mill.  Not quite the same as the pumpkin patch (they do have a patch at this mill, but it has a separate entrance fee and doesn't have as many attractions as other KC patches), but it does come with a side of cider doughnuts, heck yes!  I'm also a huge fan of the cider slushies.

The weekend we went was their Cider Fest, so there were some extra activities like the inflatable slides, pony rides and several vendors.  The cost of the different activities added up quickly, but Ryann and Elsie couldn't stop talking about the pony rides so I deemed the $10 for the two of them worth it.  Elsie kept saying "Neigh neigh go round a round!"  We met up with my bestie, her husband and little guy.  We've been friends since Meaghan and I were under two, so to get to attend activities and such with our families is surreal and just so fun.  Elsie wasn't in the best of moods that day, she hadn't napped, and also chugged and then puked up her cider, so our outing only lasted about an hour.  Ry would have stayed much later, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Even though it wasn't necessary a fall activity, I thought I'd throw these photos in here too.  A few weeks ago we went to Deanna Rose Farm with some friends.  All three of us brought our strollers, and wouldn't you know none of them were used.  Baby needed his mama and the toddler girls had no interest in riding.  We had fun feeding the goats though.  Elsie was so cute feeding the baby with the bottle, but she wouldn't hold on to it tightly and the little guy kept trying to steal it!  It was another day where Elsie was a bit of a pill, but she is still cutting teeth so I'm going to give her a pass for a bit longer.  We still had a great time and enjoyed being outside.

Seriously, fall just makes me giddy.  Fun things to do, great running weather, plenty of excuses to eat soup and snuggle under blankets.  I love it.

tidbits from March

Well, I figured since it was nearly halfway through April, and I suck at blogging, maybe I should just try to wrap up March in to one post and call it a day.  Sounds good enough, right?

::  March gave us our first real taste of warm weather.  It is amazing how much easier it is to handle the day when we can spend at least a little time outside.  Not to mention the witching hour (hours.  definitely plural.) between 4-6.  Outside we go!

::  We celebrated St. Patrick's Day of course.  And by celebrated I mean we wore green and took pictures.  And had rainbow fruit kabobs.  Because I'm not really sure how else we're supposed to celebrate it.  Whatever.  We took our fruit kabobs to Sarah's house for a little playdate.  The girls matching bows were a custom combo that Brittany at Pretty Little Elm whipped up at my request.  Ryann said she would only wear green if she got to wear pink too.  I can work with that!  E's onesie is from Olive & Birdie.

::  Elsie rocked an absurd number of beads.  You'd think it was Mardi Gras over here all the time.  I've decided I should probably start gifting new parents a container of beads, they've kept her pretty entertained.

::  We met up with some friends at the children's museum.  That was stupidly exhausting.  The place was packed.  Ryann and Brennan wanted to quickly move from room to room.  The little kids wanted to do their own thing.  It was just a little crazy.  But I think a little bit of fun was had.

::  Ryann got her ears piecerced!  The day before her birthday Grammy and I took the girls to the mall and got them done.  Ry surprised me by asking to get them pierced, previously she told me she wanted to wait until she was 9 or 10.  But apparently she changed her mind.  Despite me reminding her multiple times that it was going to hurt, she went through with it.  And was completely traumitzed.  More or less anyway.  When the first one went in it scared the crap out of her.  The employee quickly just did the other one and Ry started screaming.  I felt so bad, a little guilty, because she was in pain for no reason.  But I did warn her that it was going to hurt, and I'm proud of her for being brave.  She can still be a pain in the butt when we need to clean them, but now she is anxiously waiting for the day she can change her earrings.  They make her look so much older to me!

::  Christopher and Ryann attended the preschool Daddy / Daughter dance.  He said the excitement of the whole ordeal was a little much for Ry and she was just all over the place.  But they had a good time and looked really cute :o).

::  And of course we celebrated Ryann's 4th Birthday.  Auntie Lorin spent the night with us, so she joined us for a birthday breakfast.  After Ry opened one of her gifts we headed out for pancakes.  The rest of the day was spent prepping for the birthday party, and partying of course.

a day in {my} life

Lately I've been having a hard time making myself sit down to blog.  And I know if it feels like a chore that I shouldn't be doing it, because this blog is for me.  Something that makes me happy.  But the reality, is that it isn't just for me.  It is for my girls.  So one day when they're older they can look back and see what life was like when they were little.  My life pretty much revolves around those two little girls, so I more or less owe it to them to keep this up.

I figured the best way to jump start getting back to documenting more of our daily happenings was with a day in the life.  It has been a while since I've done one.  I actually document one of our days way back in October, but I didn't take very many pictures and never converted my notes in to a post.  So it is about time to get one written out!

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to bring back the 'day in the life series'.  If you really enjoyed reading them let me know and maybe I'll think about it.  I just got a little worn out on organizing it (even though it isn't even that hard).

***

February 12th, 2014 - Ryann is nearly four and Elsie just turned one!

2:20am:  I hear Elsie on the monitor.  Oy.  She had done so well sleeping through the night for a couple weeks, and now this is the third night in a row she has woken up.  I want to ignore her, but the fastest way to quiet her down and make sure everyone else stays asleep is to just nurse her.  I'm in her room for about 20 minutes, and I lay her back down awake.  She goes right back to sleep on her own and I manage to drift off quickly as well.

6:12am:  Ryann is standing over my side of the bed.  She could care less about sleep buddy these days and just comes out of her room whenever she feels like it.  And I'm pretty sure she knows we won't fight with her at that hour because we want Elsie to stay asleep.  Little punk.  Chris says he'll meet her in the family room, but I swear he starts snoring again so I get up.  He starts to say he'll go, but I'm already out of the bed so I make my way to the couch.  Ryann plays happily by herself for all of like two seconds before she wants me to join her.  I inform her that any interaction I have with her before 6:45am will happen from the couch.

Shortly after that Ryann tells me she saw a man walking in our house.  #$!&%^*!#$!  What?  After a lot of back and forth she claims she saw a man walking in our living room.  A bald one who was big.  I'm totally creeped out.  I'm hoping she is just making stuff up to get my attention, but nonetheless Christopher does a sweep of the house just to make sure.

6:48am:  We hear Elsie awake on the monitor.  I grab my camera charger and get it plugged in so that hopefully my camera will last all day.  Ryann goes in to bug Chris while I go to Elsie's room.  I change her diaper and sit down to nurse her.  Meanwhile Ry has Chris get her a muffin, and after scarfing it down she wants to watch 'her shows'.  She generally gets an hour of TV in the morning.  I feel guilty about it every day, but it does help me get some stuff done.

7:25am:  Christopher leaves for work.  Both girls are zoned out on Mickey so I try and quickly pick up a few things.  Our house is a DISASTER.  Laundry that needs to be put away, toys everywhere, party decorations still up, dishes on the counter.  It is to the point where it is such a hot mess that I don't know where to start.  I go with the living room and get a few things put away.  But as I'm dropping off some toys that belong in the family room I notice a not some pleasant odor coming from Miss E's direction.  After getting her changed I decide to make breakfast for the two of us.  Elsie starts off on the kitchen floor, but is quickly relocated to the pack 'n play because she just can't keep her hands out of the cabinets.

8:00am:  After turning off the TV Elsie and I sit down at the table to eat.  We share some scrambled eggs and toast, buttered for her, peanut butter for me.  It is nice to have a child to share my meals with (sometimes), it makes it seem more worth it to do some cooking during the day.  Ryann joins us at the table to color.  After we're done eating I rinse the dishes and get the dishwasher loaded, only to realize we're out of dish detergent.  BOO.  We all play for a little bit before I get both girls dressed.

8:56am:  I decide to lay Elsie down and see if she wants to take a morning nap.  As I expected she paces the crib and starts chewing on the rails.  We need to get teething guards badly.  I leave her in there for a little bit while I get dressed and fix Ryann's hair.  E starts getting really pissed so I give in and get her up.  Really I should just stop trying to get her to take a morning nap, but for some reason I still feel like she is supposed to?  No idea.  My kids are very anti sleep.  I decide that we are going to try and meet Sarah and Collins at an open gym, so we get stuff moving so we can head out.  A quick snack for Ryann, a quick nursing session for Elsie (although I don't think she is amused and would rather have snack with Ryann!).  I tell Ryann to go put on some socks and shoes, and what she comes back with is well, interesting.  ;o)  Not gonna fight it!  Naturally just as were finishing up putting on shoes and jackets Elsie poops again.  That girl, she makes no sense.  She is either constipated, or poops a million times a day.  There is no happy medium.

9:58am:  We're finally in the car and on our way.  I look up the address on my phone and see it is a pretty easy place to get to, something I'm thankful for because I HATE driving to places I've never been.  When we arrive at the community center I park by the main entrance, but only see old people going in and out, nobody with kids.  I call Sarah and she says just to go in the door and ask at the desk, that we're in the right place.  So we head in.  We find our way to the gym and Ryann is beyond excited.  There are a couple of bounce houses, tons of bikes and ride on toys and a couple of playhouses.  She is quickly off and playing.  I spend the next hour trying to keep up with her while letting Elsie play some too.  At one point I let Elsie get in a bounce house and she has zero interest in getting out.  She just keeps happily bouncing on her little bum and I have to drag her out when some older kids climb in.  She is not pleased with me at all.  At one point while we're playing in the gym E takes several steps on her own.  Getting closer to walking every day!

11:23am:  Back in the car and on our way home.  The mission?  Keep Elsie awake until we get there.  The biggest downfall about letting her skip her morning nap is that when we are in the car between 10:45-11:30am it is quite the task to keep her from falling asleep.  Thankfully between a book and Ryann yelling we manage it.  When we get home I get to work on lunch while the girls play in Ryann's room.  At some point Elsie wanders in to the kitchen and I notice she stinks yet again.  I quickly finish getting Ryann's lunch together and on the table and then change Elsie.  After lunch we all play a bit more, and while Ryann is 'crafting' who knows what, I take Elsie to her room to nurse her and lay her down for a nap.

no need for sign language, you'll know if she wants more ;o)

1:00pm:  I've been letting Elsie nurse to sleep for naps (sleep training fail), but today no dice.  So I lay her down.  Surely she'll go to sleep, right?  I read a couple of Curious George stories to Ryann and then work on picking up the family room a little bit.  Why I do that I have no idea, as soon as Elsie is up the girls will trash it again.  After about half an hour E is still just wandering her crib and kind of pissy, so I check to see if she needs a new diaper.  Nope, so I tell her to lay down and put her back in her crib.  Ryann and I start working on her valentines for school.  Elsie continues to whine and yell for another 30 minutes.  Not cool at all, no nap just isn't an option in my book.

2:05pm:  I cave and nurse Elsie to sleep.  Really I think it is just better for all of us if she takes a nap, and Ryann and I have valentines to make!  Our valentines were definitely nothing special.  But Ryann helped put all of it together, and she was so incredibly proud of her work that it made it all worth it.  I loved watching her sign her name, and she drew some of her friends little pictures.  Her teacher had given us stickers with each child's name on it to help the kids pass them out and I was impressed that Ryann recognized every name without any prompting from me.  She selected which bubble wand and which dum dum each kid got, helped me punch the holes and string ribbon through the cards.  She was really just so dang proud of herself I couldn't help but smile.  Definitely beats me putting together some perfectly calculated corny play on words card and just having her write her name (not that I find anything wrong with that, because it is totally what I wanted to do).

3:43pm:  Elsie starts fussing so Ryann and I clean up our mess.  We go in to get Elsie and wouldn't you know, she pooped again.  I get her changed and then we all go to play in the family room.  We also face time with my parents who are in Georgia right now.  So jealous.  I hate snow and cold so much.  Not the point though.  Ryann and Elsie lose interest pretty fast but we talk for a while.  I manage to get Elsie to walk a few steps so they can see.  After we've hung up with them we read some books and then move on to dressing up.  Ryann decks us out, and after I take a picture of her and Elsie, she wants to take a picture of me.

5:17pm:  Daddy is home!  Christopher did me a HUGE favor and came home for an hour between work and a dinner he needed to attend for work.  We live 30 minutes away from the hospital so it meant an extra hour in the car, but man did it make a world of difference in my attitude for the evening.  I know I'm not the only mom who feels this way, that I can handle 7am-4:30pm by myself like a champ and we get along just fine, but from 4:30-7:30pm on my own pretty much feels like hell.  At least one of them is always crying at some point during that time frame, especially in the half hour before dinner is served, so it is much nicer to have a second pair of hands around.  Ryann begs Chris to play in our bed while I finish up dinner, so I start walking Elsie to the bedroom to hang out with them.  I let go and she manages to walk the length of the hallway by herself.  When she finally plops down Chris and I cheer and I think it scared her.  Whoops!  The girls and I eat dinner, and then Christopher gives them a bath.

6:30pm:  As soon as the girls are dried off and in pajamas it is time for Chris to head back out.  Ryann has been VERY in to watching Planet Earth type movies, so we pop in one about the Congo in Africa.  I have no idea why she likes them so much, I'm also skeeved out by all the creepy crawlies and I don't like watching animals fight and such.  But she loves it.  Elsie and I play in the family room while Ryann is watching the video.

7:10pm:  I take Elsie back to her room to get ready for bed.  Dry diaper, cozy jammies over her cotton ones and a little nursing session and she is good to go for the night.  I don't understand why at bedtime I can lay her down wide awake and she goes to sleep without a peep, but for naps it takes her at least 25 minutes to wear herself out enough to sleep.  When I head back to the family room I find Ryann watching the menu of the movie, poor girl.  I have no idea how long it has been over, and she was just staring at the screen.  I'm going to guess she was tired.  I grab some books and snuggle up with her on the couch to read.

7:55pm:  We start getting Ryann ready for bed.  One last trip to the bathroom to go potty and brush teeth and then we both crawl in to her bed to snuggle.  Bedtime has gone a lot smoother if one of us just lays with Ryann until she falls asleep.  Otherwise she comes out or plays in her room for a long time before actually falling asleep.  Usually Chris lays with her but since he is gone it is up to me.

9:05pm:  I wake up in Ryann's bed.  Whoops.  The main reason Chris is the one to lay with Ryann?  I ALWAYS fall asleep.  I think I've only not fallen asleep maybe 3 times?  Then I just feel like butt and have to go to bed myself.  But I really do enjoy snuggling with her.  Just as I'm coming out of her room Chris comes in the door.  We both grab a little snack and sit on the couch and talk for a while.  Then I remember I needed to add some tape to Ryann's valentines because the stuff kept falling out of the ribbon.

10:00pm:  We're both tired, it's bedtime!