10 minutes with Bells...

I had to make Abs a bottle...so I left Bells in the TV room and hear an, "oh no!" I come back and see this:

Nice...I don't remember Madison or Hannah ever breaking anything. At first I thought, well I guess it's back to Ikea...I was just there yesterday...I love that store...but now I'm afraid if I do buy a new stand...what are my chances of Bells breaking something on that one again?! And so I'm going to try and fix it...maybe I'll just take the doors off.

Then while I'm feeding Abs...I hear an "ohhhhhhhhhh, pretty." I get up...I've heard this phrase before and it leads to not so good things...

You can hardly see it, but she used pink and orange and it's all across that bit of the wall. Yes, I always liked the murals on my grandmother's walls at her house...Bells seems to think she's doing a great job. I know you're probably like, well don't put the markers down where she can get them...I did....I went through the whole house, threw away all of them except for the ones that were tucked away in a craft bin and she still finds them (the ones in some secret hiding place!)

This stool...it helps her open doors, particularly the front door so she can go outside. She did yell, "Oudside, mom." I guess she was letting me know.

I caught her with food up in her room...nice. I love how she can open the fridge, pull out a snack and just takes it up to her room. (We have a food only in the kitchen and dining room rule...Bells tends to think she can break that rule. The sandwich is right next to her on the floor)

After I just threw away 2 markers...she found yet another one...

This time...her baby sis needed some coloring. She's bringing me peas from in the freezer...guess it's time to go and see what damage she's done in the kitchen!

Life

Abs wakes up every morning just so happy. I'm not a morning person but seeing her smile when I go get her out of bed makes me smile and helps my mornings be more cheerful. It's amazing what each kid brings to a family. When you have it...you just can't imagine life without it.

I have had a horrible week. I'm not going to go into it...everyone I really wanted to know about it knows...a lot of tears, times I wanted to just curl myself in a blanket and just hide out for awhile...I'm not depressed...I just was at a loss as to what to do and hiding from the issue just seemed like a great idea. I also have THE countdown constantly going through my mind...today is 46...46 days and then I have to be without my best friend for more than a year....oh how life can be a roller coaster...I love roller coasters...these past few roller coasters of life...not so much.

Now totally off that subject...the other day, Hannah told Dan she wanted to be a "Doochess." She meant duchess of course, but it cracked us both up. Hannah...she always does or says something funny.

Bells

How could I not love this kid. She thought she was pretty sneaky snatching my sunglasses. Another thing I love...how she says, "Oh no!" It's the cutest thing...that and how she says, "Oh toodle," when she'd like to watch Mickey Mouse Club House. Dan and I can't wait to take this kid to Disneyland when we get back to California. She'll go N-U-T-S! She's rambling a lot more...she wasn't really trying to talk for awhile...she was so talkative when she was a baby, but she's picking up again. She says quite a few words but sometimes she'll just talk jibberish when you ask her a question and you are suppose to know what she's saying. Dan and I just usually respond with a "wow!" That seems to satisfy her. Unfortunately her sleeping habits of NOT sleeping have come back. She's waking up around 1 am...just chilling downstairs or playing in her room with her toys. Abs on the other hand is a super sleeper....down around 8:30 and up around 6 and then goes back to bed until 7:30. She does occasionally just skip the 6 am feeding and wake up at 7:30....thank goodness one of them is sleeping.

Motivated

I have been organising like a mad woman. I'm loving it. I went on a little shopping escapade yesterday for more things...like I need more stuff to go in my house when I have a garage full of stuff...but I needed a few small items to help and a new crib for Abs. I'm terrible...I didn't like the one we had for Bells (Dan picked it out) and so when we moved...I just had him take it to the dump. That and the fact Bells would shake her bottle all the time...I'd wipe her crib down but I never really paid attention to the backside facing the wall and that was gross. I think I would have needed a scraper and high water pressure machine to get the milk dribbles off. Ewww! Anyway...so Bells and Abs now have a room and all decorated...well minus my signs I have for them and the new curtains...the blackout shade was still too small that I bought for the window and so I didn't want to bother hanging up their new curtains. I also bought the big girls a desk for their room and took out the all the toy bin under their bed and moved them into the playroom since I bought another cabinet thing for their toys. The toy room looks great minus the curtains that I need to replace. I know...this isn't my house but these "old lady flower curtains" are just irritating me! Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish up the upstairs with decorating...and then move on to the downstairs and hopefully get to the garage and I'm sure dump a whole lot in there. I could probably have a garage sell...or boot sale as they call them here...but I'm too lazy and so I'll just end up dumping it. We did sell our old TV, AFN converter box and a satellite dish and made some money so that was exciting! Now I'm debating if I want to sell that sofa that we have in the garage. I found my list of items we have in storage up in Washington State...I forgot I had so much living room stuff...and Christmas...and other miscellaneous items...yeah...I really need to clean out the garage...the spiders are just out and everywhere so I tend to be unmotivated to go out there. Soon...someday I'll be done...my goal...this week. Perhaps Dan will then be able to enjoy it for a little bit.

Can you believe this?

This kid has hair...not that my others didn't but good grief it's getting long fast! I was talking to my sister yesterday and she mentioned how it went down to her shoulders (she wasn't here physically but FaceTime...like greatest invention ever!) She's 3 months! Anyway...so I gave her a bath and used the hairdryer like I always do but this time I brushed it while doing it and we got this:

Dan and I were laughing hysterically, I was almost in tears for like a good 3 minutes...I'd say 5 but it wasn't that long. She reminded us of the Gorgon's head from the temple pediment at the Roman Baths in Bath. That made us laugh even more.

Life

I can't believe we're nearly half way through May...where is time slipping? Abs is 3 months now and so we tried out the Bumbo seat. She loved it! What baby doesn't want to see things from a sitting position...I'm sure looking up at people's noses get old. And so here she is...

I caught this rare moment on SD card...

This kid is an animal...oh she's wearing me out! I love her but seriously...she could calm down just a bit and I'd be alright. She's starting the, "I don't need naps" stage...she's 20 months...she still needs a nap!!!

I'm looking forward to next week...Dan took some leave. Then he has to go back to work for 2 weeks and then he's off for a month. Then it's going to be tough...we chose it...it's how it is...but I still can't believe he's going to be away for 1 year...well really it's going to end up being more like 14 months or so. I have to admit...I've been emotional about it all. I'm not like crying all the time or that sort of thing...I'm just like dreading not having my best friend around. He's so good with the girls and helps me out so much when he gets home...but really, I'll just miss him all around.

Dan can sure get this little girl to laugh. She loves him. He loves her...it's the cutest thing ever. Aunt Nicole bought the most perfect shirt!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day and the plans it had in store were a complete surprise. I have been wanting to go to Sulgrave Manor since we moved here. It didn't look that grand but it is George Washington's ancestral home. So this morning after breakfast, Dan told me just to get ready, we were going for a drive. And so we headed to this manor home which was quite adorable. I didn't bring my camera and Dan didn't think about it, so no pictures, but the girls enjoyed listening to the tour guide tell them about homes and children back then and I learned a few things...like how they use to literally hang their babies on the wall back in Tudor times because their smell from being swaddled and not changed attracted RATS! EWWWW! They swaddled the babies until 6 months so the baby was not able to move any limbs and they believed this would help their bodies grow straight. After 6 months, the would let the arms out and still hang the baby on the wall. Dan made us all laugh with question with multiple hooks for visitor's babies and then I got the mental image of like 5 babies...just hanging there. Anyway...we then walked along the garden and looked at their collection of George Washington's belongings...we saw his blue, velvet coat and learned that they did have a set of his wooden teeth, but sadly, they had a break in and someone stole the teeth. We then drove back and went through Kettering where we got Nandos to bring home and enjoyed my tasty dinner. I got a new camera...just a little snap shot I can slip in my purse and a spa certificate...I can't wait to get a massage and pedi. We had beautiful weather and we all had a great time on out outing...even though Bells is at the "you seriously expect me to listen to this" stage and wanted to run around and touch everything I'm sure. She didn't...and was really well behaved...I just needed to point out pretty much everything in the room so she could, "ooohhhh" at it. A great day...I feel so blessed to have my girls and be a mom to them. They keep me entertained...and as my dad said, "where would you be without them?" I couldn't imagine life without...it'd be super boring I'm sure.

Beautiful

Dan and I are some pretty lucky parents...our kids are funny and entertaining, smart and healthy and kind of cute!