Roman is walking! Officially, he walked at 13 months. Dec. 26th, while we were in Georgia for Christmas, he really started walking far, like across the whole room. And now he just walks everywhere like he's been doing it his whole life. It's hard to believe he started out at less than 5lbs!

I finally got my wisdom teeth out on Dec. 30th. I'd been trying to get it done since before Arianna was born! Literally the day I found out I was pregnant with her, I had a consultation scheduled. 3.5 years later...it's done! The pain was not too bad, but I was dizzy, nauseaus, and throwing up for the first few days, which was frustrating. I couldn't keep any food down, so I just stayed on the couch and slept on and off. I finally was able to eat, but obviously not chew much. I'm still being pretty careful with what I eat and how I chew it. But I'm so glad they're gone!

We had a very nice Christmas in GA. The drive there was long - 11 hours or so. But the kids did great. The girls played and watched movies, and Roman...well, he did pretty good. But I ended up sitting in the back with him for a while both legs of the trip. The first night we got there at 1am and he would NOT go back to sleep after sleeping in the car since 8pm. I tried EVERYTHING, and it was so frustrating! When Marissa or Arianna were that age, they would have eventually nursed themselves to sleep on me, or fallen asleep in my lap. But Roman is such a good sleeper in his crib, that he won't sleep on anyone! And I didn't want to just let him cry himself to sleep since he would wake up everyone else at the house we were staying at. Finally I convinced him to crash around 4:30am. The rest of the time he was fine though - we put him in his own room and let the girls sleep in our room instead. We all slept much better that way! The kids had a blast playing with Stephanie and Emily, and it was great to see all the relatives we don't get to see very often.

Today since I finally feel mostly better, I spent HOURS doing laundry, folding it, putting it away, and cleaning and organizing stuff! I had 5 huge baskets/boxes of clean laundry to catch up on folding and putting away, and they're all empty! Most of them were full of towels and sheets, since I had all the kids' laundry caught up for our trip. But now it's all done! I also took down the Christmas decorations while Marissa played outside on the playset and I had all the windows open. It was such a beautiful day! Then I dusted most of the living room (that doesn't happen nearly often enough!), and vacuumed and swept the entire downstairs. The next big job is TOYS! I need to clear out junk that the kids think is toys, so there's enough room for the toys that are actually toys. And still probably sneak some stuff away to be donated.

I think that about covers everything. For once I had enough time to write everything I wanted to, without having to stop for anyone! This is my weekend off from work while they close out the month of clients, so I'm going to enjoy just relaxing after the kids are in bed!

Ketchup

I honestly don't know where to start. Seems like a lot has happened, but I can't really figure out what. Guess I'll work backwards and see what I have time for!

Arianna is sleeping right now, and Roman is supposed to be. But he's been banging and babbling happily in there for 45 minutes! I expect him to fall asleep any second, but who knows! I don't want to forget my favorite part about him right now: whenever it's naptime or bedtime, I nurse him first, then pick him up and cuddle with him. I tell him "It's night-night time" and he lays his head on my shoulder and settles right in. Then I sing Twinkle, Twinkle, and it's the most perfect part of every day. He's so snuggly, and doesn't fight it at all. When I finish, I lay him down, and he (usually) quietly lays there til he falls asleep. I will definitely miss that snuggle time.
Roman had his 1yr check up yesterday. He got a few shots (no MMR, pox, or flu), and did awesome. When he cried a little for the shots, Arianna said "It's ok, buddy" in her high-pitched voice. So cute. He weighed 17lbs and was 29.75in long. I think she said that was 50th% for height, but wasn't on the chart for weight. He's fine though - he's come a long way from 4lbs 14oz! It's so hard to believe he's 1 already, and acting so old lately. He's not walking yet, but he can take a couple steps, and he's so close! He waves and gives kisses, and is such a joyful boy.
We just got back from a chaotic visit to PA for Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. The kids were mostly pretty good, but we created chaos everywhere we went! It was so good to see everyone though, and Roman wasn't even terrified of anyone!

I love eavesdropping on Marissa when she thinks she's alone..."Thank you, thank you, thank you God, thank you! Thank you for this piece of tape on here!" She's still enjoying school. On her day off before we left for PA, she said "I wanna learn!" and got out a princess dry erase K school book and spent hours at the table. Haha!

For the past few weeks before Thanksgiving, I got to babysit some kids I hadn't seen in ages! I used to watch triplets (A, E, & L) and their little brother (S) when they were 16mo and newborn, until about when Marissa was 1. Haven't even talked to them since, although we still exchanged Christmas cards. Out of the blue, they called with a temp childcare need, and I said I'd do it! It was a little complicated because I had to be here for Marissa to get on the bus in the morning, and be back in time for the bus to drop her off. But they made it work, and it was so fun! Obviously the triplets were in school, but I still got to see them on their teacher conference day, and S is only in half day K so I got to see him still. They also now have a 3yr old, W, and he and Arianna had a blast together. S really enjoyed playing with Roman too. It was very challenging because they're not a baby-proof house anymore, plus they have 3 dogs, and Arianna was terrified of them. But I'm glad I got to help them out, and the extra unexpected money was nice too!

We had a nice Halloween. Some friends from church came and walked around with us. Marissa's friend C and Arianna's friend H. Marissa was a mermaid princess, Arianna was a ballerina princess, and Roman was the cutest monkey ever.

Me: No jumping on the couch!
Arianna: Can I hop?

Arianna: Oh no! A puma! A puma!
Marissa: Ayudame! Ayudame!
Arianna: I'll save you!

Arianna gave us our first ear infection in all our years of kids so far. It wasn't too bad, but she complained enough that I took her in and got something for her to take. I'm pretty impressed that it took us this long!

Well I was going to try to get some pics in here, but Arianna just woke up and Roman still hasn't fallen asleep! Maybe next time!

Here is a picture of the finished beds for the girls! After many hours of sanding, priming, and painting, I finally finished working on them and we assembled them in their room last weekend. They are both so excited about them, and Arianna actually sleeps in hers (she was refusing to sleep on a mattress for the past few months, and always moved to the floor as soon as I moved her to the mattress). It's such a relief having them done, and I'm so happy with how they turned out. In a few years we'll bunk them to give the kids more room to play on the floor, but for now that's just too dangerous.
It's starting to cool down a little lately, and it's hard to believe Roman will be one in a month and a half. He's the happiest boy and I just love his huge grin. He has the same squinty eye problem on one side as I do, which is annoying but kinda cute.
How is it fall already? I went to a parent visit day at Marissa's school yesterday and it was fun to see her in a lesson, and then interacting with her friends at recess. She's such a big girl and so far I'm really happy with the school we chose for her.

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago by a guy in our church. He followed us around a local park and then downtown a little, and just snapped away! I felt really awkward, but I'm so impressed with how they turned out, especially given the ages of the kids! There were so many awesome ones, and hopefully we can do the same thing again next year. We ordered a 16x20 canvas print of our favorite, and I can't wait to see how it turned out!

This morning, Arianna was playing with a play tea set and asked me "Would you like a spot of tea?" I just about died laughing. She is stinking hilarious these days, and so enjoyable. She absolutely adores Roman, and follows him around most of the morning. I kinda feel sad writing this because I don't know what Marissa does all day! I know she enjoys school, but she's also excited about days off, like this Friday. We're having a playdate with her friend Ingrid (and my friend Susan) since they don't get to see each other that often now that they're both in school. Arianna is just as excited about it though! They're the family that watches the kids if we ever need it and we just had a date night (to Maggiano's with J & A and T & R - YUM!) and the girls had a blast together. They usually order pizza when we (or just the kids) are there, and that's Arianna's favorite, so as soon as she hears that's where she's going, she immediately yells excitedly "PIZZA!"

I love my family, love my kids, and am enjoying the days with just Arianna and Roman immensely! Time to go get Marissa off the bus!

A new normal

Marissa has been in school for a few weeks now, and I think I've finally figured out a new normal for our days. It hasn't been as hard to adjust to (for me or Arianna) as I expected it to be. Roman takes nice long naps on a very regular schedule, so every morning from 10:30-12:30 I get to spend quality alone time with my middle child. It's actually quite wonderful, something I never would have predicted 11 months ago. Just before Roman was born, and for several months after, Arianna was a mess and very hard to appreciate and interact with. But she's such a lovely, sweet, thoughtful, imaginative, communicative person lately! She has ideas and opinions all her own and shares them all the time. She loves to ask "I cuddle you?" and "go upstairs, listen to songs, and jump?" and gets so excited when it's time to get Roman up from his nap.

Roman is standing up every chance he gets, and cruises all around the living room. He looks like sometimes he might forget to hold on to something, and I can't believe he'll be one in a little over two months! He has two bottom teeth, and his two top teeth are about halfway in. He's still so tiny, but looks like such a big boy when he's standing up grinning at me with all those teeth. After several weeks of waking VERY often at night, he's back to sleeping pretty good. He sometimes wakes once or twice, but goes right back to sleep after nursing. He still loves to nurse, and although I'm not going to wean him as soon as he turns one, I would really like to not nurse him as long as I nurse(d?) Arianna. We'll see how that goes...

Marissa is loving school still. She's made several friends, got invited to a birthday party (that she can't go to since we'll be busy), and discovered a friend that lives in our neighborhood. Somehow, miracle of miracles, she manages to finish all of her food for lunch every day. After months of taking over an hour to eat, we were very worried about that aspect of her day! Some days she comes home and wants to color or write at the table, and I can't imagine her wanting to after spending all day at school! She was sent home with a "baggy book" to read at home last night, and it was supposed to be independent reading - she did great! She's sounding out words she sees everywhere, and has a good grasp of reading already.

I'm almost finished sanding the beds for the girls. We got a set of (college dorm room) bunk beds that we'll bunk when the girls get (much) older, and I've been sanding them down to get rid of the grime and in preparation for painting them white. I'm excited to get them finished and set up their room. Arianna's been sleeping on the floor (or the Dora foam couch) for weeks now for some reason, she refuses to sleep on her mattress on the floor. Hopefully once they have cool new beds, she'll get over it!

Last week my hometown of Owego, NY was hit with massive flooding from the river that it's near. Entire first stories of houses were flooded, and it's going to take a long time for the area to be rebuilt, if they can even manage to do it in the first place. Such a hard time for everyone who lives there. I was so glad my Grandma and parents live high up on hills and weren't affected by flooding, just lost their power for a few days.

My sister has a boyfriend as of last night! I'm so excited for their relationship and how happy she seems to be.

Back in the day...

I just found a piece of paper where I had written all the words Marissa could say. There's no date on it, but I'm guessing it to be around 18-24 months or so. I thought I'd type it up because it's cute and I want to remember...

Rissa's Words

• gotcha
• jep = jump
• wait
• yo = yogurt or phone
• pee-pee
• poo
• spoo = spoon
• essie = sticker
• shirt
• da = socks
• ca = crackers
• sweatshirt
• choo-choo
• gentle
• eyes
• nose
• mouth
• toes
• poe-poe = pillow
• Mom! = Grandma (she imitated me saying "mom" to my mom)
• Pah-pah = Grandpa
• Jep! = Jeff
• cheerio
• da-da = hot dog
• bah = bath
• ch-ch = brush teeth
• ap = Nap in a Lap book
• Twinkle = asks to sing that song
• "ga ga guy" = lyrics "like a diamond"
• see = seat
• boo-boo
• nigh-nigh = night-night
• awww = expression for a baby
• ha = hat
• duh = stuck
• yusch = lunch
• da = dinner
• hee = asking to hold my hand to drag me somewhere
• gate
• cow
• keys
• clap

I'll never get back into this.

I can't believe it's September already! Marissa started Kindergarten last week and is loving it. I thought for sure there would be some tears or some rough days to start out (since she'd never been in a school setting before, and this is all day, every day!), but she loves it. Her teacher is wonderful, and she's already put Marissa in an "advanced" group for ABC knowledge (Marissa wasn't too happy about that, she says her own teacher is nicer than the "advanced" teacher. Lol.). It's so weird to be home with just the little ones. Arianna isn't a mess, but she asks to eat ALL. THE. TIME. I think it's because she's bored and I'm not interesting enough! I've really been trying to entertain her and do special things with her, but I also have to get stuff done sometimes, and Roman isn't nearly as exciting as Marissa was! The other day they played together in Roman's room for almost an hour while I did laundry and periodically checked in on them. It was so cute, and they'll have a great time as Roman grows older.

I think I've finally spent all my birthday money! I'm so indecisive that I've bought and returned things since my first big shopping trip (alone, with Roman) back in June. I got some awesome pieces and really feel like I used the money well. The clearance racks were my friends!

Since my last post, we spent two weeks in NY visiting my parents, sister, and grandma, and my other grandparents, my brother, and aunt and uncle also came to visit so they could see us. It was a crazy chaotic two weeks! Dan stayed with us for the first weekend, then he had to be back for work. They took some time off work to spend it with us, we spent a lot of time at the pool, and I think I can safely say that we completely wore my parents out over the course of the two weeks! The first weekend (thankfully when Dan was still there), we ended up taking Roman to the ER because he woke up at 2am coughing, croupy, and having a hard time breathing. I think if it had been either of the girls (as babies) we might have waited it out longer, but since Roman was a preemie and had breathing issues in the NICU, we were extra paranoid. He calmed down a lot on the drive there (of course), but they still gave him a few days of steroids and a few days of an antibiotic. It cleared up quickly and he hasn't had any more issues since then. We knew it was a possibility because he and Arianna had been exposed to croup at church just before we left. Arianna had a fever for a day, and lost her voice for a few days, but he got it much worse.

Roman is still an awesome napper! He goes down without a peep whenever I know he's ready. It's wonderful. He hasn't been as great at bedtime though. Sometimes he's just not tired enough yet, but other times I know he's exhausted and he just fights it. It's so frustrating when he's so good at nap time and so opposite at bedtime! He had been sleeping almost through the night for a while (only up once usually), but that's suddenly gone and he's been up many, many times each night for a week or so. It's exhausting! And I'm having to get up earlier than normal anyways to get the girls up and ready so Marissa can go to school. I'm very glad her bus doesn't get here until 8:49 though, because I don't even have to wake her up earlier than normal. But I have to be ready before they are up, and that's the hard part. I have to meet her bus down the street a little every single day this year. And in the afternoon I have to have my picture ID in order to pick her up from the bus. It's kinda a pain, but I'm very glad for all the precautions they take to keep her safe!

Arianna is turning into Marissa lately - she never stops talking! I can still remember how we thought she'd need speech therapy because she seemed to be taking forever to develop her language. But she's grown exponentially since we were in NY - Dan noticed a HUGE difference in just the two short weeks he was away from her! She's using full sentences and all the same inflections and phrases Marissa uses. It's so stinking cute! And yet so exhausting! But I'm trying not to wish away all the talking since I'm so grateful she's finally at this point.

Roman is 9 months old and cruising around furniture. He sits, crawls, pulls up, rolls around - all like a pro. It's hard to believe he was ever less than 5 pounds and so fragile! He was 15lbs 9oz at his checkup. When we were in NY, he just learned to pull himself up to stand so we would hold his hands and let him walk around and EVERYTIME he would shriek like a pterodactyl because he was so excited! He's such a happy boy, and in true male form, he's happiest when he's playing with toy balls. He has two bottom teeth, and his two top teeth poked through last week. It's so weird to see his smile changing! He's still an awesome eater, and I could never get enough food in him in NY! I'm still making his baby food, and it's hard to keep up with him! I'm using the breastmilk storage containers from pumping in the NICU and they're perfect for freezing and portioning all his food. He's recently started eating some table food. He loves cheerios (duh), and can eat tiny pieces of ham and grapes. I always struggle finding appropriate things for this age though.

I've been spending all my brainpower lately on planning a family photo shoot. We're hoping a friend of ours will be able to take the pictures this month, and I've been working on coordinating outfits for all of us! It's such a pain, and I don't want to be all matchy-matchy, but I don't want it to look like we just happened to take pictures that day. Hopefully they'll turn out wonderful so we can use them for Christmas cards!
Well, that's about it for now. Marissa's bus comes at 4, although it's supposed to come at 3:48, so technically I need to head outside around 3:40. Sometimes the little ones are still sleeping and sometimes they wake up while I'm waiting on the front porch. I'm not looking forward to spending this much time outside in the middle of December! I may end up driving her and picking her up instead, since they have a drop-off/pick-up so I wouldn't need to unload the little ones.

Life summary/ketchup

It's July 29th, 2011. Marissa is 5, Arianna is 29 months, and Roman is 8 months.
It has been a whole week since Arianna nursed last. If it were completely up to her, she wouldn't be done. We were down to just first thing in the morning. Then this week was VBS so I was up early and as soon as the girls got up, we got dressed, ate, and had to leave. So there just wasn't time. She still asked, but was ok that we didn't have time. I'm sad, but so so freaking proud at how long I nursed her.

Here is a typical day in our life lately:

• 7:15-7:30am Girls wake up. I'm trying to get them to spend some quiet time reading books in the morning. Some days they do, some days...not so much.
• 8:00 Get dressed and breakfast. The girls get to pick out their cereal for the week on grocery night, so they're usually excited about it. Arianna is pretty good at using a spoon and eating cereal by herself. They both tip their bowls to eat the milk with a spoon when they're done.
• 8:30 I wake up Roman. I'm really trying to keep him on a schedule. He usually wakes up between 6-7 for a snack, and doesn't always go right back to sleep. But he's happy to lay in his crib for a bit before sleeping a little longer. He gets a big bowl of baby cereal, and sometimes a fruit too. Depending on how recent he nursed last, I may or may not nurse him again.
• 9:00 Super Why. We have yet to get out of the rut that Marissa's shows put us in. Once she starts going to school everyday, and I just have Arianna and Roman home, this will change.
• 9:30 We head upstairs to brush teeth, I try to do some laundry when it's needed. On Mondays and Thursdays, we leave to drive to Centerville to pick up my editing work. We get back around 11:15.
• 10:00 Sesame Street. TV rut...
• 10:30 Depending on how recent Roman nursed last, I may or may not nurse him. I take him upstairs, put him in his crib with the fan on and light off. He falls asleep within 5 minutes of happy babbling. It's wonderful.
• 11:00 TV off! Usually a mini snack, playtime, and laundry if needed. Lately the girls are really into coloring and Marissa likes to make "comic books" where she draws the pictures then dictates to me what the story is about. Her stories are INCREDIBLE.
• 12:00 or later if the girls are busy with something particular...Lunch. PBJ's are a favorite, yogurt is a staple, and jelly beans/candy are a treat.
• 12:30pm I wake Roman up from his nap. He used to take 3-4 hour naps, but then was so unpredictable later, so I decided 2 hours is enough for the morning nap. I feed him his lunch as the girls are finishing. He has been eating a tube (I make his baby food and freeze it in breastmilk-storage tubes from the NICU) of fruit and a tube of veggies. He can pick up Cheerios, but doesn't usually get any to stay in his mouth. Today I got a carrot shower because he decided to spit with every bite.
• 12:45 Playtime
• 1:30 Diaper changes/potty break. And naptime. Marissa doesn't nap anymore (except for rare occasions) so she plays in Roman's room and listens to her Sparks CD. She has the most incredible imagination and has a blast in there (I can eavesdrop over the monitor). Arianna lays down in her big girl bed (mattress on the floor, til I sand and paint their new twin beds, to be turned into bunk beds in a few years). I usually have to go in there many times because she gets up to play, gets books, and generally has a hard time staying in one place long enough to fall asleep. She's usually asleep by 2 though.
• 2:00 Roman is usually tired around this time. He's not a huge nurser, and I can't convince him to nurse if he doesn't want to. He eats so much baby food though, so it's not a big deal. I try to nurse him, and lay him down for nap. Today I had to bounce/cuddle him for a little while before it worked. He takes his afternoon naps in our room in a pack-n-play because Marissa is in his room. I use this time to shower sometimes, or catch up on the computer.
• 3:30 I let Marissa stop playing by herself and come get me. She loves that she can tell time. Arianna usually wakes up around this time too. We head downstairs for a snack.
• 4:15 Dan gets home from work, although it's a little later if he rides his bike home. He goes upstairs to shower, and brings Roman down with him since that's about when he wakes up.
• 4:30 Word Girl.
• 5:00 Electric Company.
• 5:30 Dinner time. Roman gets a tube of fruit and a tube of veggies. The girls are pretty picky so we let Marissa give input in the meals for the week. Arianna doesn't eat much sometimes, but I'm not going to cook 90 things just to find the one that makes her happy. So she deals with it. After dinner, Dan likes to goof around with the girls and wrestle sometimes. Marissa gets hurt really easily, but Arianna gets back up every time, no matter how hard the fall. I clean up the kitchen and watch the craziness from the couch with Roman.
• 8:00 Bedtime for the kids. It's been so hot this summer that Marissa just wears her underwear and Arianna just wears a diaper. But Arianna has to have a "belt" of duct tape because she kept taking off her diaper. We read them their Bible story, pray, and they get to pick one book to read in their beds. Since Arianna naps and Marissa doesn't, Marissa is usually pretty tired and complains that Arianna keeps her awake. Hopefully this won't be a problem when school starts! Arianna is not the best person to share a room with, but putting them together fixed Arianna's MAJOR sleep issues, so hopefully they can learn to work things out. I nurse Roman one last time. Sometimes that works and he goes right to sleep, and other times it takes some effort. But I do my editing work from 8-10pm, so it's in his best interest to go to sleep fast so Dan doesn't have to hold him forever while I work. Dan and I like to watch shows online or on Netflix.
• 10:00ish Lights out. Dan gets up early, especially when he rides his bike to work. So we try to wrap things up by 10pm. He falls asleep quickly, so after he's asleep, I spend some time on the computer or play Freecell on my phone. It's relaxing and doesn't take much thought. I have a hard time falling asleep, so that helps.
• 7:15-7:30am Repeat.

I'm getting all sentimental about things lately, with Marissa starting school in less than a month. We're going to visit my parents in NY for a few weeks, and when we get back it will be time! I'm loving this age of all 3 kids. Marissa is so smart and creative. I wonder if she'll be a writer some day. Arianna is turning into the sweetest little girl. Her language is exploding exponentially, and her personality is showing all over the place. She loves her little brother, and it will be interesting to see how their relationship develops when they're the only kids at home. Roman is the happiest baby, and so calm and laid back. He takes everything the girls throw at him, literally and figuratively. His bottom two teeth are finally popping through, and I'm sad to see his toothless smile disappear, but excited to see the new smile taking its place.
I'm still not convinced I'd be ok with him as our last baby. Dan is 100% convinced. But I still struggle with that idea. I'm still hoarding the boxes of too-small clothes in the basement, and packing away baby gear instead of selling it. But there's something to be said about the idea of baby-less outings...

June?!

I'm not doing very well keeping up with this blog! I have some time right now, but I'm sure Arianna will wake up and I won't be able to finish so I'm going to speed through it!

• Date with M - I took just Marissa on a mommy/daughter date. We went to eat at Steak N Shake (she had a birthday coupon), then to get her hair cut (It's very short and super cute! But so frizzy when it's hot and humid.), then to get ice cream (Ben & Jerry's). She really is so fun, but sometimes it's hard for me to see it when I'm busy with all 3 (and the younger two being more stressful to deal with). We chatted about dying and heaven and silly things too. She's such a smart girl. I felt bad we had to kinda rush so I could get home to nurse Roman, but we still had a good time.

• Ears pierced - we promised her she could get her ears pierced for her birthday, but things got so busy we didn't get to it til the end of May! She had been begging for over a year, and we decided she was old enough. She was so excited! We all went to the mall together and she picked out some cute gold hearts with tiny pink diamonds in them. The lady did the first side, and Marissa was so brave, she didn't even twitch! But when the lady said she was going to do the other side, Marissa lost it! She was so hysterical, screaming, and she RAN AWAY in the mall. Dan chased her down, and talked to her for a loooong time about it while I chased Arianna and held her down. By this point Roman was crying too. Finally Dan held Marissa in his lap and held her arms down and I was holding Arianna still but I held Marissa's head still and the lady did it really fast. After it was done, Marissa was totally fine and was so proud! We kinda felt bad holding her down, but she wanted it so bad we thought it'd be ok. She thinks she looks so old now, and she really does. She says they don't hurt anymore, and she was even able to lay on them the night she got them done! We clean them and spin them every morning and every night and I think they're going to be fine. She goes on and on about how everyone who sees her will see how pretty she is because of the earrings. Lol.

• Tangled - Our church showed the movie Tangled on an outdoor screen recently. Marissa was terrified of the movie the last time we watched it (and chose to go to bed instead of watching it with us!), but she did awesome this time. We got there super early and Marissa ran around with her friends the entire time we waited. She wasn't with us at all! It was so weird to just let her go (I could see her, but she was on the other side of the lawn). She had a blast. Arianna also wandered around, with Dan trailing her. She is so crazy. She had no fear and was so social! She saw her Sunday School teacher across the lawn and waved to her (the lady wasn't even looking!) so I said "Do you want to go say hi?" thinking she'd never go for it. But she said "mmm-hmm" and just took off! I watched her the whole way there - it was far! She weaved in and out of everyone's chairs and blankets and gave her teacher a hug! She is just so different from Marissa in every way possible! Once the movie started, Marissa sat with us and both girls lasted the entire movie! I really didn't expect to be able to finish it. We didn't get home until 11:15pm - that's definitely the latest the girls have ever stayed up! They slept til 8am the next day, which tells you how tired they were - they've been waking up at 6:30 lately! The next day we discovered Marissa had gotten eaten alive! She had about 5-6 giant bug bites on her back. I guess she's yummy just like Dan. Lol.

• A extended nursing - I had planned on completely weaning Arianna when I was out of town with just Roman for the weekend. She was totally fine without it, but when I got back, she had such a routine going that she couldn't give it up. For now, she is still nursing when she first wakes up. She doesn't nurse after nap anymore, so it's just in the morning and that's all. She still asks sometimes when she's bored or upset, but is a lot easier to distract. I never thought I'd nurse her THIS long! She finally understands that Roman needs to nurse a lot, and she doesn't. So that's good at least.

• Roman - Roman is sitting up like a pro now! He still tips over, but softly enough that he doesn't care. He's rolling both ways too, and manages to move himself around the living room pretty well. Time to watch out for little tiny toys! He's an awesome sleeper lately too. I've been just laying him in his bed when he's ready for a nap, and he will fall asleep with barely a whine within 5 minutes. It's amazing! He still takes a huge long nap, sometimes 4 hours, every afternoon. And we just finally moved him to his own room for the night! His first night alone he slept 8 hours straight, then went back to sleep for 2.5 hours more! It felt wonderful! I had a feeling Dan's sleeptalking was waking him up more than he needed to, and I think I was right! He also didn't overflow his diaper because he wasn't being nursed back to sleep every few hours. Such a nice change!

• It was so freaking hot! One it was 97 degrees, and over 90 in our house. We're trying not to turn on the AC again this summer, to save money. The girls are so sweaty, and their hair gets so nasty! And poor Roman - every time he nurses, we both have sweat dripping down everywhere! I'm so glad it's cooled down some since last week! I was trying to figure out why I always said summer was my favorite. I think it's because it NEVER got this hot in NY, and also because I spent every waking minute at the pool playing (as a kid) or relaxing (as a lifeguard/teenager)! Ahhh, those were the days!

• My back is still very sore from the accident over a month ago. I've been going to the chiropractor twice a week, sometimes 3 times! Just this week it's finally starting to feel a little better, but it's been a long road. I can do everything I NEED to do. But it's painful so I try to avoid lots of things! I've been making asking Dan to vacuum the floors and I've really been enforcing that the girls clean up their own toys off the floor since bending down to the floor hurts the most. Dan has also had to do baths for all 3 mostly on his own. Hopefully I can get some relief SOON and get back to normal life!

• The girls have been waking up 6:45 or earlier EVERY SINGLE DAY lately. I don't know if Marissa wakes up Arianna or Arianna wakes up Marissa, but whoever is up first wakes the other up when Dan is leaving to ride his bike to work (which is EARLY!) and it's insane! I think I'm getting used to it a little, but it also makes the days a lot longer when they start at 6:30am! Roman sleeps til 8 usually, so we have breakfast, get dressed, and play for a while before he's even up! At least it's cooler that early in the morning!

• Roman turned 6 months old already! I can't believe he's on his way to being 1 already. Seems like the months are just flying by. I think he seems younger to me since he was a preemie and has been a little slower to develop physically. We started him on some oatmeal baby cereal a few weeks back, but he is NOT a fan! He eventually gets a few bites down, but is still struggling to swallow it. I tried it with breastmilk I had in the freezer first, but he REALLY didn't like it. So after I had to thaw and dump all 50 ounces of it (it expires at 6 months in our type of freezer), I've just been using water. He likes it a little better now, but it's still a struggle! Hopefully he'll get the hang of it soon! The girls are loving how mobile/interactive he is lately, especially Marissa. She's been enjoying being able to carry him around a little, and help him sit on the floor with toys. Arianna cracks up every time she sees him sitting, and I'm worried she'll get so excited and knock him right down!

• I got the girls' pics done at Sears recently. Arianna's 2yr pics turned out terrible, so she had a retake, and we got Marissa's 5yr ones done finally. They went well, and we got 2 good pics, but it was a hassle! While I was picking them out and paying, they were running in circles in the (empty) waiting area. Suddenly, Arianna decided to take off AWAY from the portrait studio and into the main part of the department store! She was running as fast as she possibly can! I left Marissa with the stroller, my purse, and the photographer lady, and (I was holding Roman at the time) RAN as fast ans I possibly could to catch her! I was wearing my slippery flip-flops because it had been raining, and it's a miracle I didn't wipe out on the floor! I caught her and she was laughing hysterically but I was NOT. That girl...!

• June 4 was our 6 year anniversary! We got some money in the mail from my parents and Grandma, so we're going out for spicy Indian food - our favorite! We'll leave all 3 kids with a friend that we swap child care with. I think Dan wants to get ice cream too. So that'll be a fun date. We haven't left Roman anywhere yet, so hopefully he'll be ok while we're gone - another baby who won't take a bottle! I always feel bad when people watch our babies who won't take bottles!
• Well, it's a miracle - I think I finished everything I wanted to write about! It's Day 2 of naptime, but it finally got done!
• I'll finish up with a story from one of the super hot days: we had to pick up my work that morning, and on our way home I spontaneously decided to stop at the outdoor fountain/water feature at a nearby shopping center. I let the girls play in it for about a 1/2 hour and they had a blast! They were both VERY hesitant at first, and I didn't think Arianna would ever jump in, but after they started, they loved it! I couldn't believe Arianna was hesistant about ANYTHING! They were both in their clothes, but I didn't care for once. It's hard for me to let go and let them get dirty or do things like that. But it was worth it (and I even got a little sun)!

Crazy weeks

I've been meaning to post for a while now, but it's just been so crazy!

1. Marissa said to Arianna the other day, "Arianna, who do I love more than you? Jesus and God." It was the cutest thing ever! She said it in a sweet voice, like she meant the only other people she could possibly love more than Arianna were Jesus and God. I hope they stay this close forever.

2. Marissa had her 5 year check-up on May 4. She weighs 35 lbs 8 oz and is 41.75 inches tall. She was prepared to get some shots, and I was so amazed at how she did. She was so brave, she even wanted to watch, until the nurse told her to look away. She didn't whine even once, but when the nurse gave her the one that "might burn a little" I could see tears forming in her eyes. But she never got upset or cried. The doctor asked her some basic questions and Marissa got every one right. The doctor said she was probably even ready for 1st grade instead of Kingergarten!

3. After we left the pediatrician, I really needed stamps so I could mail my mom her Mother's Day card. So instead of unloading everyone to go to Meijer, I decided I'd go down the road a bit and see if there was a bank drive through that sold stamps. I don't even know if they do that, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask! It had been raining a little, but wasn't very wet out. I was driving in a 35mph area, and there was a yellow light. First I thought I'd make it through, but then I realized I wouldn't, so I stopped. And we were hit from behind REALLY hard! My head smashed into the back of the seat, and I'm sure both girls' heads did too, since as soon as I could turn around to check on them, I saw them both holding their heads. As soon as it happened, all 3 kids started crying, and I about lost it too. I was trying so hard not to freak out for them though. Once I realized they were all ok (they stopped crying quickly, and Marissa just asked about what happened), I got my phone to call 911. The guy from the small red truck that hit us came to my door to check on us. The girl that was driving the truck thought she broke her foot, so I called 911, then Dan to tell him what happened. The police came quickly, and a lady stopped to come check on us and ended up staying with the other girl, checking her vitals often. The girl and guy both left immediately in the ambulance, while I told the police what happened. After they took a bunch of pictures of the scene, I drove the van to the side of the road, and a tow truck came to get the red truck and clean up the lanes. Our back bumper was bashed in pretty bad, but I guess the hitch saved things from being worse. I declined going to the hospital, and after Dan got there, we finished talking to the police, I filled out a report, and we went back to the doctor to have all the kids checked out just in case. But EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR was out on their lunch break already! So we went home to eat since we were starving by this point. I called after their lunch break was over, and I took the kids in to get checked. The doctor assured me they were all fine, and neither girl was complaining about anything. I asked Marissa repeatedly, but she assured me nothing hurt at all. But my neck was KILLING me, so I scheduled an appointment at our chiropractor for as soon as Dan got home from work. They took x-rays, and everything looked fine, then he adjusted me, the ladies did the e-stim thing, and I got a mini-massage on my neck. I was still sore that night, but it wasn't too bad. But the next day, Thursday, I thought my head was going to fall off my neck! It has never hurt that badly before. I couldn't lift my head unless I used my hands to lift it. I was popping tylenol all day, and I NEVER take stuff for pain or sickness. I've been back to the chiro a few times (I'm going back tonight too), and it's definitely better than that Thursday after, but it's moved down into my back too. Since the girl went to the hospital immediately, we didn't even get their names or if they had insurance. For several days we thought they didn't even have any insurance. But finally the police got back to us, and they had insurance. So they "settled" and sent us a nice check for each child's "misery" and also covered the cost of their pediatrician check-up after the accident. They'll also cover the cost of all my chiro appointments, and as soon as they assess the "level" of my misery, they'll "settle" with me too. They also covered the cost of our van repair - $3200! The van had been having a few rear suspensions issues recently, the back/side bumpers were slightly dented and the back hatch was scratched up a little when we bought it. So obviously they fixed all that too, and now the back looks brand new! It was such a pain (literally!), but ended up working out for the good. They also covered the cost of a rental van for us while they fixed ours, and I was able to put 1000 miles on that instead of our van when I drove to Virginia with Roman for Rach's graduation.

Oh, I almost forgot. Insurance also covered 3 brand new car seats. So we got 2 of the same kind Marissa used to have for both girls, and we got the same kind Arianna used to have for Roman. We decided we could save ourselves some money and instead of buying Roman another infant seat he'd outgrow in 6 months, we'd just move him up to a convertible seat (still rear facing). I love getting new car seats!

4. As if that all wasn't enough, that Friday during the day I kept hearing something weird and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Finally I tracked it down to the laundry room, and figured it was something alive in the dryer vent. There was no way I was going to investigate it, so we were going to wait for a friend of ours to use their giant ladder to see in the dryer vent outside. But it started to REEK inside, so there was something alive AND something dead in there. Eventually we got a huge ladder and there was nothing to be seen near the outside of the vent. Our friend Randy from church brought the ladder, but didn't know what he was getting himself into! He ended up checking out the vent from the inside, and he caught the live bird in a box and took it outside. He and Dan brought the inside tubing outside to dump out the dead bird and we spent all weekend cleaning up that mess! It smelled the worst IN the dryer, so we aired the laundry room and dryer out all weekend with fans and lots of vinegar spray. So gross!

5. Friday after lunch Roman and I left in the rental van (satellite radio!) to drive 8 hours to Liberty for my sister's graduation. Roman was awesome, and I only had to stop twice (one long stop for dinner for me, diaper change, bathroom, gas, and feeding him, and one short feeding stop for him) both there and back, and he played with some toys and slept the rest of the way. It was super rainy at graduation, but held off enough that we didn't get soaked. It was lots of fun to see Rach finally graduate and spend time with family. It was so weird to only be responsible for one child - and a super easy one at that! The only time I'd ever left the girls was when I was in the hospital having babies. I missed them so much, but apparently they didn't miss me because Dan kept them so busy! They had a blast, and so did Dan. So I didn't feel too bad about leaving them all for the weekend!

6. The house is a disaster, and I want to get it back to how it was before all this crap happened! I feel like it's been just one thing after another, and I haven't been able to catch my breath since Dan got back from Nicaragua. Hopefully we can have some peaceful weeks for a while to get back in one piece. The main thing I need to catch up on is laundry. I couldn't do any for a while because of the bird, dead bird, then the smell lingering. So I got really behind on washing it all. Then before I left on my trip I wanted to wash a ton of stuff in case the girls or Dan needed something, and I wanted to wash a ton of clothes a friend gave us for Roman so he'd have some of it to wear on our trip. So I washed it all, but never put it away, and now I just need to catch up!

7. I have not nursed Arianna since I've been back. She's asked a few times, but hasn't put up a fuss when I say no. It's kinda sad, and I miss it a little. But I know she's ready to move on...now if only she'd drink a cup of milk! She loves yogurt and cheese and smoothies and milk in cereal, but she will NOT drink milk by itself. In just the 3 short days I was away, I'm shocked at how many new words she picked up! She seems so much older suddenly, and it's amazing. I love her age, and how they seem to discover new things all the time. One new word is "tattoo" because Dan got them Tinkerbell tattoos while I was gone! She also likes to say "self" and "top" to buckle the top of her own seat-belt. She's so funny, I love her!

8. Marissa had her Kindergarten screening last Thursday - it was so weird to just let her go back with the teacher by herself! She said they asked her letters, numbers, colors, shapes, to draw a person, balance on a beam, and her phone number. She said it was really fun and she really wants to ride a bus to that school! So we'll see...we're still not sure what she's going to do in the fall.

Well, Arianna woke up and we're just cuddling now. Marissa is sleeping today - she didn't feel so well this morning. We've all got a little cold. I took Roman into the doctor yesterday because I was worried about his lungs (especially with him being a preemie and having breathing issues in the NICU), but he's fine. I had a massive on fire sore throat over the weekend, and he's been coughing quite a bit (he spit up about a gallon of his 6am feeding in my bed this morning), but he's definitely getting better. Both girls are coughing a little and have runny noses, but hopefully that'll go away soon!

Marissa said something sad to me this morning "Mommy, I'm not good at anything!" She was a little sad because Arianna's been making Roman smile a lot lately, but he hasn't been smiling for Marissa as much. So I took her in my lap and told her a bunch of things she's good at. I'm going to take her on a date soon for a haircut and some ice cream, and soon we'll finally get her ears pierced! I love my big girl. Hard to believe she's going to school in the fall!

Picking back up...

So I've been a terrible blogger recently. Obviously I have a few very good reasons. But I really want to get back into it so I can remember these crazy days. So I'm going to try to start back up and try a FlyLady technique: only 15 minutes! It would probably take me forever to catch up on everything I've missed. So instead, I'll simply write for 15 minutes, and that will be all you get! Today it will probably be interrupted quite a bit since the kids are all up from nap already. But it's still better than nothing, right?!

Friday, Marissa turned 5. I still can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were heading to the hospital to get induced on her due date. She has turned into the sweetest, sassiest little girl! Lately when we ask to take her picture, she poses sideways with both hands on her hips. For her birthday, my parents came to visit for the weekend. She got lots of cool things from them, Dan's parents (in the mail), and my Grandma. For her big gift from us, we wrote a note allowing her to get her ears pierced. She's been begging for over a year, and we finally decided it would be ok. She got a huge grin on her face when we read the note to her. But when it came time to go to the mall on Saturday to actually get it done, she changed her mind. I think the weekend was a little crazy for her! But this morning in the car she suddenly wanted to do it "right now" so I think we'll probably do it this weekend.

Last night Arianna was super tired at church, and she had a fever when we got home. This morning both girls were a little sleepy and whiney, and they both had a slight fever. Hopefully it won't turn into anything, and they seem to be fine this afternoon. A few kids from church recently had febrile seizures, so I'm kinda freaking out more than normal. We've been pretty lucky so far though with all 3 kids hardly getting sick at all. I'm sure it's because nobody goes to preschool so I'm sure it will flare up next fall. But it's nice for now!

Last night I had a lot of work to finish since I didn't work all weekend since my parents were here. Dan and I were up til about 11:30, and today we're both exhausted! I was really hoping to catch a short (or long) nap this afternoon, but Arianna and Roman tag-teamed naptime today, so it didn't happen. I think we'll end up going to bed earlier than normal tonight!

Roman is really turning into the cutest happiest baby ever. He slept so great last night when I needed to work, and he was so happy all weekend. He's such an easy baby. He's finally starting to enjoy playing with toys.

Saturday afternoon we went to a playground and then randomly decided to go out to dinner, all 7 of us! It was definitely risky because of a) Arianna in general and b) Roman had last eaten before we left for the playground and that was a while ago and c) Marissa had skipped nap. It turned out to be the nicest dinner out we've had in years. Marissa was fine, although she was ready to be done before anyone else. Arianna was awesome and ate and ate and ate the entire time. She just kept cramming it in! Roman was happy and smiley for a while, then silently fell asleep in his car seat for the rest of our meal! It was a miracle, especially since we were seated in the direct center of the room for all to see, and our waiter was terrible and busy and took forever to do anything with us. It's nice to enjoy special things sometimes when it's not ridiculously full of chaos!

Dan was gone for a week in Nicaragua on a missions trip with our church. He had a great trip, but it was really hard for me to have him gone! Logistically it was fine, taking care of the kids and going places. But mentally I had a hard time with it! I tried to keep busy with friends, and then Rach came to visit for Easter weekend before he got back, so that all helped.

Well, that's 15 minutes, so I'm off to do some sorely neglected dishes left over from the birthday tornado weekend!

Oh crap! How has it been a month since I posted already?! The kids are all down for a nap, but it might not last long! This past month has been interesting. I finally had a few weeks of being healthy, until Dan and I got this stupid little cold. I think it's almost gone though. Arianna, however, is what made the month interesting. She was an absolute mess. I don't really know how to describe her. I know she's 2 (how did I miss her birthday on here!?), but this was far beyond any typical 2-year-old antics. I'm not certain we're out of the woods yet, but I was convinced something was drastically wrong with her. We had her diagnosed with so many things, trying to explain her behavior. She's still on Miralax, and is finally pooping about once a day. So that couldn't be her problem. At her well visit, I had them take some blood and test it for common food allergies. Nothing showed up, so that was a relief at least. Last week, on Monday, it peaked. She was begging to nurse, and sobbed and screamed and pushed me and my face and just threw a HUGE fit because I wouldn't nurse her again (she's already been nursing excessively), and nothing, NOTHING, would distract her. But that evening when Dan got home from work, she was a perfect angel. He didn't believe me, until I showed him the video I took of the tantrum on my phone! And ever since that day, March 1, she's been a completely different child! We can't figure out what changed, since we didn't do anything different! She's super sweet, giggly, loving, and obedient (well, for a 2 year old!). She's still struggling with her sleep, but it's nothing like what it was! Right now, someone has to be in her bedroom for her to fall asleep. During the weekdays for nap, that's obviously me. It's very difficult since Roman isn't always napping then, so sometimes I have to bring him in with me and hope he's quiet enough for her to fall asleep. And it usually takes her about 15 minutes to fall asleep. If someone isn't in her room with her, she just screams and screams and screams, and NEVER calms down. As difficult as it is to be in her room to put her to sleep, we're not willing to just let her scream for hours and hours, with the possibility that she'd never stop. Dan sits in her room for her to go to sleep at bedtime. That's been taking about 45 minutes lately, because she's been taking 2 hour naps - which is unheard of for her! It's been wonderful for her to finally get caught up on sleep. For a while, she was waking up more than Roman at night. Dan was getting up with her (I don't even hear her, plus I have to be with Roman anyways), and barely getting any sleep. Finally he ended up sleeping in her room. There's a twin bed in there, and he sits in her room to put her to sleep, then comes out til we go to bed. He goes to bed in our bed, but she was waking up around 11 just about every night, so he just ended up sleeping in there for the rest of the night for a few weeks. She's recently started staying asleep better, so he doesn't have to go in there til 3am or so. One night last week, he woke up in our bed and we were both surprised! We need to figure out something soon though, since Dan is going on a missions trip and there's no way I can be in her room all night when he's gone for a week. At some point the girls are going to share a room, and maybe that will help. But to do that, she'll have to be in a big girl bed. And that's scary! We don't really have a plan, but we've just been "surviving" lately! I'm so thankful that we have our sweet wonderful girl back though. That was a rough month or so. I have a feeling she is going to continue to be a challenge for us.

Right now we are trying to decide what to do for Marissa's Kindergarten year in the fall. The options are 1. Homeschool (overwhelming because of challenges with Arianna) 2. Online school (basically homeschool, just different, still slightly overwhelming) 3. Local school district (unsure about quality) or 4. Neighboring district (better, but 25 minute drive).

I'd like to write more, but Arianna and Marissa just woke up from nice long naps! So I'll finish up quickly: Arianna turned 2! Hard to believe! and Roman is wonderful, smiley, and growing! He has his 4 month check up in 2 weeks (how is that possible?!). Time to go get Arianna out of her crib!

Test

This is a test post from an app in my new fancy phone. Tomorrow is Arianna's 2nd birthday!

One thumb typing

Well, I am sitting on my bed, typing with one finger on the iPod Touch while Arianna finishes her nap on my lap. So this will probably be short!

The kids are healthy now, after a random bout with fevers. I'm FINALLY almost better, after being sick on and off since December. I'm taking one final round of antibiotics, hoping to kill it once and for all. Roman slept for 8 hours straight the other night, but hasn't repeated that miracle. However, he's consistently sleeping 3 hour chunks now, which is still MUCH better than the 1.5 hours he was doing. He's still awesome at nursing, and refuses to take a bottle, despite the huge amount of milk stored in the freezer. He smiles so easily now, and I'm loving it. He smiles at the girls too, and even loves when Arianna "smothers" him with kisses every .2 milliseconds!

Arianna is finally recovering and becoming a joy to live with after a few months of hysterics. Right now I'm working on reducing her nursing time, because it was just getting too much for me. I think if I didn't have Roman, I wouldn't mind it as much. But she's so obsessed with it, that I had to do something. She used to nurse for literally 2 hours at a time. Especially after her nap, when the other kids didn't need my attention. She'd fall back asleep during that time, but freak out if I took her off. So now I set a timer for 5 minutes, and she knows that when it goes off, she has to be done. She's started hugging and cuddling more, which is how she's asleep on my lap right now. She's so sweet.

Marissa is basically not napping anymore, and thinks it's awesome. Yesterday she finished her "schoolwork" as "homework" on her room (she asked to!). I've finally gotten back to doing school with her, now that I'm starting to feel like a human again. She's doing great with her writing letters and numbers. We're finishing up a few more basic concepts, and them we'll start some basic reading skills. I'm unsure right now about her schooling in the fall. I'd prefer to send her to a Christian school, but there aren't really any close by, and we definitely can't afford them anyways. The district we're in is not that great, but the others that are open to us are kinda far away. I'd always planned on homeschooling, but it's starting to make me nervous. Arianna is SO high maintenance, and who knows how Roman will turn out. I don't want to deprive Marissa of the quality of schooling she deserves. I know we need to make a decision very soon, I just don't know what to do. I'm temper to give our school district a shot, at least temporarily, and see how it goes. Dan doesn't think it's that bad, but I don't know!

Oh man, my thumb is getting really tired from typing one-fingered! I think I'll wrap up for today. Tomorrow we're going to my friend Susan's house so we can visit and my girls can play with her daughter. Saturday night we're dropping the girls off at church for a parent's night out, but we don't have any plans yet! And sometime soon we'll be going to Bravo for our 10th (is that even possible?!) Valentine's together. That will be our 10th V-day at Bravo too. Yum! Arianna turns 2 Feb. 24th - can't believe it! Big girl bed for her soon (we tried last week - no way!). Marissa turns 5 April 29th and we're going to surprise her by letting her get her ears pierced - she's been begging forever! I'm so excited for her!

Ok, my pinky is numb. That's all for now!

First smile

Roman was 9 weeks old on January 23rd, and the next day he smiled at me for the first time! His face just lit up and he looked so happy! I think it will be so much fun once he smiles at the girls! He's doing well, and growing well. His 2 month checkup (2 months?!) was recently. He weighed 8lbs 9oz (it's not even on the chart, but if you take into account his prematurity, and adjust it according to that, he's in the 10th percentile) and was 22 inches long (25th percentile, but if you adjust for prematurity, he's in the 50th percentile!). He's still waking up a lot at night, but a few nights I've gotten 3-4 hours in a row! Last Friday, he went every 3 hours exactly, and Dan got up with the girls, so I got 11 hours of sleep, in 3 hour chunks! It felt soo good!

It's naptime for the girls (and Roman soon too probably), so I'm enjoying some alone time. Last week I decided to add some "FlyLady" techniques into my day, so I did some "15 minute" jobs during naptime. Today I feel ROTTEN, so I don't think I'll do that. But I have been really trying to "do it now" and keep my sink "shiny" since I first signed up last week.

I've had a major cold, on and off, since December 13th. That's 42 days, if I counted correctly. It's seriously getting old, and it's not like I'm going to be getting a lot of rest any time in the near future, so I don't think I'm going to be able to kick this by myself. I hate going to the doctor for myself, but I think it's come down to that. Now I just need to find someone to watch the girls so I can go!

Arianna's finally pooping, thanks to miralax everyday in some juice. She turned back to into herself, which is a wonderful change from the grumpy whiney mess she was when she wasn't pooping! But at the end of last week, I think her teeth started bothering her. She now has her hand in her mouth ALL THE TIME, with drool dripping off it onto her shirt (and every other surface), her nose is running like crazy (although she may have caught that part of the cold from me), and she's having meltdowns a lot lately, for no apparent reason. The poor girl...she's been begging to nurse a lot more often lately too, which I'm not trying to encourage, since I want to think about stopping within a few months or so. But she sees Roman nurse ALL. THE. TIME. and that just makes her want it even more! Sometimes I end up having to nurse them together (mainly if Dan isn't here, since then I don't really have a choice). It's so difficult! I have to do it in my bed, and each kid gets a pillow under them to help me out. It's really so cute though, cuz Arianna will help Roman out, and rub his head, and pat his back. But it's so awkward for me!

I'll hafta finish this later!

2011

Well, I probably don't have much time to write right now, but short is better than nothing, right?

Roman is 6 weeks old, and doing great. We weighed him on our kitchen scale (in a popcorn bowl) and he weighs 7lbs 10oz - almost 3lbs up from his birth weight! He's starting to show signs of a routine during the day, which is nice for me. And he's been pretty consistent at night too - which is NOT nice for me. He has one 3-4hr chunk first thing, which I usually miss because I don't fall asleep quickly. And the rest of the night is every 1.5 hours. It's torture! But as long as he goes back to sleep right after eating, I can handle it I guess. He likes to be held during the day, which makes things difficult obviously. But the girls still love him, and Arianna begs to hold him all the time!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. My parents, Dan's parents, my sister, my brother, and my sister-in-law were all here for several days at the same time - it was chaotic! My parents stayed at a hotel, but we still had all our meals together and we barely fit around our huge table. It was a blast though, and the girls loved all the attention. I think it was getting to Arianna though. She seems to be more sensitive to her environment and reacts VERY negatively over time. She's currently been on a poop strike for a while now. She went 2 weeks without pooping, and is actively holding it in all the time. I've tried glycerin suppositories, but she's too stubborn for them! She was kinda irritable when everyone was here, and it was frustrating. The day they all left though, she finally pooped, and turned into a completely different person! I had forgotten how cute and funny and sweet she could be. I'm probably going to call her pediatrician and see what we can do about it. It's not like I can control her diet - she's so stinking stubborn!

Marissa had a blast at Christmas. I feel like it's hard to write much about her, but she's so sweet and smart and helpful. The girls got so many wonderful presents, and Arianna just kept asking for "More? More? More?" She's finally catching up with her words, and is just beginning the stage of repeating anything you ask to her to say - which can be just hilarious! She says "baya" for banana, soup, "dee-dee" for thank you, up, off, EAT (her favorite), pizza, "dee" for candy/treat, and "dee-dee" for cookie (I guess context is helpful, or we'd never know if she was saying cookie or thank you. Lol.), "Issa" for Marissa, "Ro-ro baby" for Baby Roman and "Baby Ro-ro" for Roman Baby (she's a little mixed up!), and other words I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Dan and I are barely hanging in there - we're both so exhausted! It's been a lot harder adjusting to 3 kids than it was to 2. It's especially hard for me to get anything done during the day, which means we try to do everything in the evenings. I've had SO MUCH laundry to catch up on (towels and sheets from all the company, plus new clothes to wash, plus everyday laundry, plus a third child's laundry!)! It's also been difficult to figure out what to do with all the new toys from Christmas. We really only have one good storage option for toys, so they end up all strewn about. Arianna's really good at putting toys away though, thankfully. We moved the play kitchen up to Marissa's room, and the girls have LOVED it being more accessible (it used to be in the basement). For some odd reason, Arianna carries around a few play forks and spoons ALL THE TIME. She freaks out if you try to take them away from her (like if she's about to poke an eye out, or I need to put her shirt on), so there are forks and spoons in every room of our house!

Well, she just woke up, so I guess I'm done! Time to nurse her in bed with me (so she extends her nap - she never sleeps long enough), and probably nurse Roman at the same time too. Yes, she's still nursing and is basically obsessed with it, so no weaning any time soon! "They" say to nurse til 2 years old anyways. I'm getting a little tired of it, but only because it's so hard to nurse 2 at the same time, and I'm pretty much STARVING all the time!