New job, 7 months, video

Dan got a new job! His current company used to be right in town, but then they closed down that location. When that happened, most of his co-workers lost their jobs, and only had their weeks of severance. But he was offered a position sticking with them, in a different location 45 miles away. He took it, for stability, but the drive has been killing him (up at 6:15am, home around 6pm, depending on traffic (through two "big" cities, and major construction the whole way). He's been hoping to get something closer, and he just got offered a position. It's literally 7 minutes away, right outside the city, with the only construction right outside our neighborhood! It's networking support for local school districts, which isn't his specialty, but he knows it well enough and is a quick learner. With a nice raise, and SUPER awesome benefits, we're both so excited about it! He gave his two-week notice and they were really nice about it. Good job, hubby! I can't wait til he starts, and he'll be home at 4:40pm every day!

Arianna is 7 months old! We've been busy (doing what, I don't know), and I've been slacking off on the pictures. HOWEVER, I do have a few videos. This child is hysterical and waaaay too mobile for her age! She is still toothless, but I love her grin!

She ushered in her 7-month birthday with a bang. She was asleep in her bed for a bit, then woke up, and cried. And cried and cried and cried. And sobbed. And just wouldn't stop! It was so upsetting. And then she threw up. Twice. That was so sad. I was crying. She was a mess, there was puke all over both of us, and all over my bed. I think after the threw up, she felt a little better, and I managed to convince her to fall asleep in my arms to rocking and singing. But she wouldn't stay asleep no matter where I put her. So she ended up sleeping on me, draped over my stomach, til 5am. That was extremely uncomfortable, but it worked. I dozed a little. I tried to move her several times, but she just couldn't handle it! Finally around 5am, she stayed asleep next to me on our king-sized bed. I put pillows up all around her, and I fell asleep with my hand right next to her so I'd wake up if she moved too much. We both slept very well until Marissa woke me up around 8:15. And now Arianna is completely fine! She just had a huge poopy blowout, so I did a huge load of laundry - wet clothes from Marissa's (rare) accident yesterday, poopy clothes from Arianna, and pukey towels, clothes, and sheets! But Arianna is playing on the floor, crawling around and nursing like nothing ever happened! PHEW! Both girls had been coughing though. So when Arianna started throwing up, I thought for sure I'd wake up to Marissa doing the same thing at some point in the night. Especially since she woke me up yesterday saying she thought she was going to throw up because she was hiccuping so hard! She's been hiccuping AT LEAST 5x a day. Weird. But she's still coughing, and nothing else. Dan actually wasn't even here that night*, which was probably a good thing. He wouldn't have been able to sleep at all with all the crying, and I wouldn't have had enough room in the bed for the way we ended up sleeping.

*Dan's story: Wednesday he called me at 7:30am, when he was supposed to be getting to work. Two minutes from his work, he was driving, and all of a sudden his driver side front tie rods or ball joint (I don't have a clue what either of those are) just broke and he careened out of control into the opposite lane where NO cars were coming. He called for a number for a tow truck, and he got a ride to work from a police officer. This is what he said "If I didn't have to fill up with gas this morning because of Awana tonight, if Speedway's computers hadn't been screwed up and put me 10 minutes behind, then the traffic wouldn't have been bad and I wouldnt have gotten off the highway [early], and that would have happened going 70 mph. Even getting off at that road, it is a 6-lane road and there were no cars in the the oncoming lanes when I went through any of them." I am SO thankful he was safe. He was extremely shook up, with good reason. $650 later, he stayed overnight with Timmy (since he lives very close to their work) instead of us going to get him (45 miles there, 45 miles back) and take him in this morning (45 miles there, 45 miles back).

Also that same morning, Marissa came downstairs before me to get a drink, and yelled up the stairs "Mommy, what happened? There's a huge puddle in the kitchen!" Well, it rained last night and somehow the sliding door crack/track was full of water and had overflowed to the floor and was flowing across the whole kitchen. It missed the floorboards though, thankfully. But it took all day to dry in the track, since I couldn't exactly get a towel down there all the way.

Both girls are still coughing today, but Marissa is still fine other than that. However, she's SLEEPING like CRAZY! She slept in til 8:40 one morning, which is unheard of. And she took a nap til 4:45 and she'd been napping since 2. She usually wakes up in the morning at 7:30 or earlier, and usually only naps til 3:30 (if she falls asleep at all!). Arianna had a rough time falling asleep last night, and just cried for a little while, but no more throwing up (it must have just been a combo of crying so hard, and all the mucus in her throat), and she slept 10 hours straight last night - and so did I! Dan hasn't felt very well for a few days now too though. Hopefully I'll manage to avoid whatever this is! I've got around 5-6 hours of work to do this weekend, and other than that it should be nice and relaxing. Dan starts his new job on Tuesday!

I'll leave you with a video of Arianna getting into everything!

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Dyson - DC24 ($499)

One of the sites I read, My Wee View, is giving away a DYSON! I'm trying so hard to win, and you can too. Just go here to read all about it:
Dyson - DC24 ($499)

A tribute to my oldest

So it's very late, and I should be in bed, especially since Arianna is actually asleep. But I'm feeling very proud of Marissa lately, and I wanted to share. Tonight is the 4th or 5th night she's been dry all night, wearing underwear to bed. I know, it's not that big of a deal. But her pull-ups used to be SOAKED every morning. She's been dry for nap for a while now, and we just decided to go for it and try nighttime too. I was worried, because she was just always soaked by morning. But I figured if she was wearing underwear, she'd realize it and stay dry, and she has! She did have an accident one night at 5am (a BIG one!), but I cleaned it up (she offered to help, how sweet is that?!) and she was dry the rest of that night/morning, and has been since. It's so weird to check on her at night and see her in a nightgown and underwear. When did she get so big?

She's also suddenly old enough to decide if she wants to watch a certain tv show now, or wait til later to watch a different one. Or to say she'd rather play with play-doh now, and watch a certain show later. She helps me remember to do tons of stuff (my memory is still awful). She knows what things are her responsibility (even knows/understands the word), like putting her drinks away when she's done, or turning off her nightlight after nap/bed. She knows TONS of song lyrics, which just blows my mind. She's been singing along to our music in the car, and it's so precious. It's not kiddie music, it's adult christian music, and she loves it! Lately, she's become confident enough to start picking up Arianna. I've had to give her limits about it (ask first, NOT on the hard kitchen floor), but she loves it, and loves to just give hugs all the time. Today we took turns giving back massages with a play kitchen rolling pin. Her imagination is incredible, and she uses it alllllllllll the time. She loves to help around the house, and is always asking what she can do to help. She helps pick up toys so we can vacuum. She puts her own laundry in the dirty clothes. She helps me put the dirty clothes in the washer, and even asks (every time we're upstairs) if we need to do some laundry. She knows what toys are ok for Arianna to play with, and if she's not sure, she asks me before giving it to her. She still asks to change Arianna's diaper a lot. I don't let her very often, but when I do, she LOVES every second of it! She does it exactly right, and even remembers to clean up when she's done. She goes potty whenever she needs to still, no accidents. She doesn't need any reminders of what to do (wipe, pull up underwear/pants, flush, wash hands) and does them all, every time. She is a strategic planner. When Dan's parents were here, she wanted so badly to ride with them somehow. But they had a truck, and our car is very limited with both car seats in it. But she talked through about 10 different possible scenarios that would allow her to ride with one or both of them. We were cracking up!

I love how she can tell me everything she did and everything that happened at church. How this boy wasn't listening, and this girl took a toy out of this other girl's hand, and Mr. R was her teacher but not Mrs. L because she had to work at the hospital today, and she cried a little because she wanted to play with Daddy but then she stopped. Lately she's been sobbing hysterically because she wants me to put her to bed every night. I'm not really sure what that's about, since Dan and I have ALWAYS taken turns, but it's heartbreaking to listen to. But all day when Dan is at work, she says how much she misses Daddy, and when he gets home from work, she is SO excited to see him! She runs to the door, and hugs him as soon as he walks in.

I love her so much and life would certainly be dull without her in it! She doesn't ever stop talking/singing/imagining, and I love watching her grow up.

Shocking

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Arianna: 6 months, 1 week, 6 days
0:40 - crawling
2:17 - pulling up
2:30 - standing up
3:18 - pulling up... Read More
3:45 - standing up NO HANDS!

Ready for this?

Ok, I have ALLL afternoon, both girls are sleeping, and the only housework I'm neglecting is dishes. So I'm dedicating the afternoon to Ketchup.
Coming up:

1. Arianna is 6 months old!
2. My new job
3. Marissa is crazy! And staying dry for nap!

First up: Arianna turned 6 months old last Monday. I can barely believe it! It seems like she was just born! But she DEFINITELY isn't my baby anymore. I seem to have already developed "baby fever" and I think it's because she was only a "baby" for 4 months! Some of her accomplishements:

• Roll any/all directions
• Sit up completely unassisted for as long as she wants to
• Go from sitting to crawling position unassisted
• Go from crawling position to sitting up completely unassisted
• Crawl FAST in the traditional crawling position (army crawling is SO last month!)
• Pull up to her knees on the couch/chairs/toy piano unassisted
• Pull up to standing on the couch/chairs/toy piano unassisted, and remain standing as long as she wants to (10 minutes today while I kept track)
• Walk along the couch/toy piano to reach a toy she wants
• Pass toys from hand to hand to mouth to hand, etc.
• Pull up to standing in her crib
• Give Mommy a heart attack 53 times a day

Her recent favorite spot is under the dining room table, where she attempts to crawl in/under/around/through the chair legs. I am grateful that she doesn't know how to pick up tiny crumbs yet, but they still stick to her hands because they're always wet from chewing on them. But she gets stuck under the chairs EVERY TIME, and I have to untangle her. She gets mad when she's stuck, and she gets madder when I untangle her because it's so hard to get her out of those positions without bumping her on something! I'm amazed she doesn't have a black/blue face all the time. She is A LOT tougher than Marissa ever was (or is now!). The other day, she pulled up to standing in her crib (she can't reach the top bar so I don't know how she has the strength to do it), then totally let go with both hands! She stayed up for about a second, then smashed face-first into the bars! When she gets hurt, she screams for about a minute, then moves on to try it again. I don't know how much more of this my heart can take! She also crawls down the entry hallway, and tries to get into all the shoes there and in the mudroom. It's so gross there, so I'm trying to figure out a way to block her from those areas without blocking everyone else, but they're not good "gate areas". So I don't know what to do!
She is still the happiest baby alive, and smiles any time she gets the chance. She loves to giggle, and especially likes to play rough like tickling and knocking her over. We started rice cereal about a week ago, and her first reaction was awesome: She lunged in to get the spoon with her mouth, before she even knew what it was! We knew she was ready, since she kept trying to get everyone's food while we were in NY, but I really prefer to wait until 6 months. She isn't eating a lot of it, but she's doing much better keeping it in her mouth already. We'll take things slowly, and maybe start veggies around 7 months. She actually managed to drink some water from a sippy cup the other day, so we'll keep working on that. She's still nursing a lot, which I love. More on that later. She is still staying up way too late most of the time, but every once in a while she'll be in bed around 9:30 and it gives me hope for the future! No matter what time she goes to bed though, she sleeps all night (if she wakes up, it's only once), and I usually have to wake her around 9. She'll sleep 12 hours straight if I let her. Such a dream baby!

Second: I am still working my part-time at-home job. If I didn't mention it, it's editing surveys from bank mystery shoppers. It's weird, but pretty easy. Last week, for training, I ended up having to go into the office for 2 hours everyday. My friend Susan graciously agreed to watch the girls (her daughter is 3 and is great friends with Marissa) while I worked. They originally wanted me for 4 hours each day, but I knew Arianna couldn't go that long without nursing (and she won't take a bottle, never has), so they were flexible with me. It was so weird for me to get up early, get us all ready, drop the girls off, and go to work! I knew they were having a great time, and I completely trust Susan, but I never thought I'd have a need for childcare while I worked. Marissa and Ingrid had the time of their lives all week. Each day she wanted to stay longer, instead of going home with me! But my favorite part about it all was Arianna. She was perfectly content to stay and play at their house (and apparently Ingrid LOVED having a baby around!). But each day, as I walked in the door to pick them up, she LUNGED out of Susan's arms to get to me! She buried her face in my shoulder for a minute, then immediately started pulling at my shirt! Now, there's no way she was starving for food, since I fed her the second before I left each day. But she just missed me! It was a weird thing for me, since I've barely ever left my girls for anything. But those few hours of work in an office were worth it just to see how much she missed me
Anyways, the training went fine, and they sent me home with "real" work this weekend. They said it would take about 5 hours, which is what I was hoping for (at least this weekend, since Dan was going to be away - I'm hoping for a lot more on regular weekends), but it only took me about 3. So either everyone else that does this same job inflates their time spent, or I was a lot faster than they are. It's easy though, and doesn't take a lot of thought. I couldn't have done it more carefully, but I was still worried that I finished so quickly! I'm not sure if I'll be able to do any during the week (since I need a few hours' worth to make it worth the half-hour drive over there to pick up/drop off), but I'll mostly be working over the weekends. The girls came with me this morning to drop off my weekend work, and Marissa did great waiting while I logged in and out of the computer. Unfortunately, Arianna screamed her head off hysterically the entire drive over there and back. I'm going to try to plan our drive there a little later next time, so Arianna can be napping instead of screaming!

Third: Marissa never stops cracking us up! Since we did a lot of driving when I was working last week, we hit a lot of traffic, and were almost always running late (I invented the phrase "two-kid-time-warp" - and I'm sure it gets exponentially worse with more kids!). Marissa is a (great) backseat driver, and multiple times said things like "Come on cars! Don't you know how to drive?" (not my favorite, we had a chat about how that was wrong, even if Mommy and Daddy say it, like she insisted - lol) and "Come on, red light!" She is also very observant, and continually surprises me by what's going on in her head. Yesterday, she commented on how the mouth on her Elmo chair looks like the same shape as our banana net on the counter, and she also spotted a "T" in the dirt near construction. The only "T" I saw was two pieces of concrete piled loosely in that shape. She knows basically all of the ABC's, and we're learning what sounds different words start with. I'm starting to feel guilty that we can't afford preschool for her this year, but I fully intend to work with her, since I have a Early Ed. degree anways! I'm also hoping to start up mini piano lessons with her sometime soon, since she's shown an interest in learning to play.
She doesn't have any potty accidents still. And she's been dry for nap for a while now, which really surprises me. I did some reading online, and it seemed like most kids weren't dry during sleeping til 4 or 5, but then some people didn't even know that kids didn't have to be night-trained too. She was also dry this morning, so we're really hoping to be able to stop buying expensive pull-ups!

Well, that's all. I'm putting pictures up on my Xanga and Facebook if you know me there.

Long trip, and ketchup

Well, I can't believe it's happened, but I've been too busy to post! I think it's been almost a month, and now there is just too much to catch up on. I know the grandparents are waiting for pictures, but I'll have to get to those another time. I know my time to blog today is short, so I'll go with bullets and some reminders of what to post when I find the time!

• We went to NY to visit my parents, brother, and sister. We were there for a week, then Dan had to come home because he couldn't take any more time off work. But the girls and I stayed for another whole week, and drove back with my sister, who was coming out to visit us anyway on her way back to college. The girls and I were gone for 2 whole weeks, and I missed church for 3 weeks in a row! It was a really long time to be away (Marissa told me she missed her toys!), but it was such a fun trip! I was able to visit my parents' church and spend TONS of time with my grandparents, who I hadn't seen in way too long. I also ate a bunch of location-specific food items (I really missed spiedies, Perry's Mint Ting-a-Ling ice cream, my mom's Fudge Sundae Pie, and Nirchi's buffalo chicken pizza - YUM!), and got to swim in my old neighborhood pool that I practically grew up in. It was a great trip, even though my family wasn't able to take off work while we were there. Everybody loved the girls, the girls loved everybody, and were spoiled by all the wonderful things we did (and ate!).
• While we were there, my sister cleaned out her closet and gave me a ton of clothes - fun! And we went shopping for the girls and got them a bunch of clothes they needed. I think Arianna will be just fine with her clothes for the cooler seasons, but I realized this morning that Marissa is still going to need some long-sleeve shirts and dresses. It's funny how you don't realize how much they've grown until you pull something out from their closet and just laugh at the size of it!
• We went swimming a TON, but it was so frustrating for me! Marissa was a total wimp, and was just terrified of the pool. She refused to leave the steps most of the time we were there. By the time we left, she finally started blowing bubbles with her face in the water, and was brave enough to tilt her head back to get her hair wet. She actually jumped in to someone a few times one day, but I think the only reason she did that was because there was another 3 year old there who was wearing goggles and swimming underwater without any help at all! It inspired Marissa, and she got brave while wearing some floaties. But after that, she was back to her wimpy self. I know it's to be expected, especially since we don't have a pool out here, and she doesn't even take regular baths (she's always preferred a "shower"-type thing). But next summer, she'd better watch out - I'm going to teach her to swim if it's the last thing I do!
• Arianna LOVED the pool. It was hysterical to watch her splash her hands like crazy, getting water all over her face, and grinning the whole time.
• Dan and I went on a date to Red Lobster with a gift card we had left from our anniversary. It was SOOO yummy, and it was so enjoyable to eat a quiet meal by ourselves!
• Rach and I went to a movie one night too. I had a free ticket, and it was fun to go out together!
• I have a part-time, at-home job now. I kinda just started, and I'm still not sure how it's all going to work out. But a friend of ours kinda got my foot in the door, and it was an easy hiring process. It's basically editing surveys for mystery shoppers (that's the best way I can describe it), and it's really pretty easy. The only problem right now is I have to drive a half hour to pick up the materials, and drop them off the next day. That would not be too bad in itself, but I also have to meet with somebody while I'm there to go over some of the edits on the surveys, so I can't just leave the girls in the car. I'm trying to find a way around it, but for now I've got a friend that can watch the girls for an hour while I drive over there and back. It's really annoying, because I really only need about 10 minutes to myself once I'm there. But so far I like it, and it's fast, easy money. I'm still looking for a nanny job, but maybe this will be enough for a while, since I can choose how many hours I work.
• Marissa starts Cubbies this week! I'm so excited for her, and I know she'll love it too. But this morning at church, she was a mess! She missed 2 Sundays when we were in NY, and last Sunday, Dan took her and I stayed home (since we drove through the night to get home). She was a little upset last Sunday, but today she was inconsolable and it was hard for me to take! She ended up sitting with me in our class, and then went to her class for the second half of the morning (she LOVES her teacher in the second half). Dan was teaching our class today though, and half-way through his lesson, a lady poked her head in our door and was holding Arianna! She was having a hard morning too, so I ended up taking both girls for a while. Marissa came with me to the nursing room, and after she ate, Arianna was fine. But it was a weird day. I'm scared to tell Marissa that she'll be moving up to the 3s class next Sunday - she's really gonna miss her teacher (Miss Pauline), and hopefully she gets over her sadness too!
• Wow, I can't believe Marissa is still asleep! We had a few days of late nights and no naps, so she's been making up for it lately!
• A friend and I are swapping child-care (same friend who will watch my girls when I drive to work), and so her daughter was here for a few hours the other night. Ingrid and Marissa are both 3, and they have a blast together! They giggled the whole time, read books to each other, and Marissa bossed her around. Lol. They didn't really go to bed though (just stayed in her room and played), so Marissa was up til 10:45pm!
• She's awake now! Guess that's all you get. My sister was here all last week, and I'm still trying to catch up on laundry and putting things away from our trip. Hopefully this week will be a little less eventful! And hopefully I won't wait another whole month to post! Arianna will be 6 months old tomorrow, so I'd better get my act together for that at least!

5 months on Friday!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I am that person.

So I always said I would never be the person who said "I'm too busy for Xanga, so find me on Facebook instead..." But now I realize that's exactly what I've been doing! I don't have the time to sit down and write up a post, so it all gets condensed into 2-sentence blurbs on my Facebook status. Plus it's so much easier to upload pictures there, that I just don't have the motivation to upload them here too. But I know I'll regret it eventually, so I figured I should spend the time getting caught up. I figured I'd go back through my Facebook statuses (stati? statusi?) and basically do a bullet post to get caught up.

• It was soooooooo hot for a while here. We still aren't using our A/C, but it's been much more tolerable lately. For a while, we spent every possible second down in the cool basement. But with fewer toys and no food, it was limited!
  
  
• Marissa had a long stretch of time where she kept waking us up at (or before) 7am - and it was miserable. Finally, I managed to teach her to look for the number 7 in the first spot on her digital clock, and now we've moved on to the 8. She's allowed to get up and play in her room, but can't come out (except to go potty) until that magic number!
  
  
• I got a bunch of money for my birthday, and had a BLAST spending it all as fast as I could. Lol. Shopping is just so much fun for me, and in our money-saving kick, I haven't been able to do it in a while! I got a bunch of clothes for myself (desperately needed!) and a few decor items for our house (desperately wanted!) and it was so much fun!
  
  
• Arianna has been teething for several weeks now. I am shocked by this for a few reasons. First of all, it's pretty early! But mostly I'm shocked because Marissa didn't even make a peep for any of her teeth! Arianna has been a drooling, sucking, chewing mess! And just in the last few days, she's all of a sudden snotty and runny and all stuffed up in her nose. I've had to use the Blue Ball of Death several times, because she can barely breathe when she's nursing, so I feel like I just can't do anything to make her feel better! Somehow she manages to breathe just fine when she wants to suck her fingers though!
  
  
• We've had a few storm/tornado watches, and they always freak me out. I LOVE that our house has a basement, but if we're all sleeping upstairs I just don't trust any of us to wake up to the tornado sirens! I think very soon I will be investing in an emergency weather radio for my sanity.
  
  
• Arianna's been sleeping wonderfully still. She always sleeps 12 hours at night. For about a week now, she's been waking up once or twice to nurse, but always goes right back to sleep. I don't mind at all, since I've been getting enough sleep since she was born! I think it's probably related to her teeth/nose issues.
  
  
• I told Marissa that Michael Jackson sings "songs on the radio" (now sure how else to define him?) and her response was "is he scary?" I laughed. I ended up flipping on his memorial service, but I was so disgusted by it! Sure he was famous, and impacted the music world greatly. But he was NOT a god or an idol, and it was just sickening how people spoke of him that way.
  
  
• Marissa still cracks us up. For example, she is still stuck on having a baby brother! I really don't know where she came up with the idea, but she is persistent!

me: I don't want to eat your crust today. I'm all done eating.

Marissa: Is your belly all full?

me: Yup.

Marissa: Did God put another baby in your belly?

me: No, not yet.

Marissa: Why?

me: Because we already have a baby. Arianna is still a baby. Maybe when Arianna gets bigger.

Marissa: Hold on, let me call God. God, when Arianna gets bigger can we have another baby? Cuz I need a brudder (brother).

me: What did He say?

Marissa: He said not until Arianna gets bigger.

• My parents and grandparents came for 4 days last week. I spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing our house, and it felt so good! I have a problem though. I make these nice long lists of everything that needs to be done, with an initial next to whoever's job it is (Dan's or mine). And I get started on something, only to distract myself with something else that needs to be done but wasn't on the list. So I accomplished SO MUCH, but it took extra long to cross things off my list. Lol.
  
  
• I would also like to announce that my second daughter is also a sleep-talker. That makes me the only normal person in my family! I think it was a Saturday morning, since Dan was here, and my family was still visiting, so Arianna was sleeping in the p-n-p in our room. Her eyes were closed, she never woke up, but she was making noises like "ahhhhhh...mmmmmmm...uhhhhhhh" Dan went to her bed to get her, and she was still sound asleep!
  
  
• Dan has had a few episodes where he gets up and walks down the hall in his sleep. It's only been when I was awake and nursing Arianna in her room, but it freaks me out! I feel like I'm the only person I can count on in the middle of the night! Anybody know a cure for sleep-talking/walking? Lol.
  
  
• We decided to go downtown for fireworks on the 3rd. Marissa was up til 11:30pm that night, so we put her to bed at 7 the next night. 8:01pm she comes running down the stairs with her dress for church, all excited because "I can get out of bed, there's a snowman (the #8) on my clock! Let's get ready for church!" Hahaha...poor girl doesn't understand AM and PM yet!
  
  
• I am getting very excited for this weekend. I am going to paint Marissa's room medium purple, and then eventually add white and dark purple polka dots. She has been begging for "purple walls" for a long time, and I can't wait to see her reaction when she actually gets them!
  
  
• I took the girls to Marissa's first movie theater experience! Our local theater does free family movies during the summer, so we went to see Charlotte's Web. She loved it, and Arianna did great during it. But we got there a few minutes late so it was already dark in the theater. She didn't know that the orange lights mean stairs, so she tripped up the first stair. Then she thought there were lots more stairs, so she tried to climb up the stairs. But there weren't. So she was walking really funny. But she's still talking about "that big movie" and I'm looking forward to next week - Horton Hears a Who! I'm especially excited to take her to see the Veggie Tales pirate one in a few weeks, since she's so obsessed with all things pirate!
  
  
• Marissa has discovered that it will always be "ok" to go potty when she's supposed to be sleeping. We're sorta working on staying dry for nap and nighttime, so I never want to turn her request down just in case. She was awake til 10pm last night, when I went in to check on her before I went to bed! I would still call her a "good kid" but she's found ways to work around rules that I never would have thought of!
  
  
• This afternoon she asked me if we could "go to the bike store and buy a skateboard." Apparently there was an episode of Dragon Tales where Ord (?) used a skateboard a lot, and she is obsessed. She wraps play diapers around her knees for knee pads, and balances (quite impressively, I might add) on her baby car seat to "skateboard." Then when I told her we could not go buy one, she got really upset. She is strange. Lol.
  
  
• I am obsessed with Swagbucks. I've earned $30 in Amazon gift cards, and I just got a $5 Paypal gift card. All just for searching on their search engine instead of Google. If you'd like to join, please use my referral link:http://swagbucks.com/refer/rccalyn and I'll earn points every time you do! Then you can refer people, and earn points every time they do! I know, I know, I sound like a commercial, and it sounds too good to be true. I'm still kinda nervous that all of a sudden they're going to say "nevermind, you can't have the gift cards you earned." But it's working for me, and I'm saving up my Amazon cards to buy a handheld vaccuum. So exciting, I know. Lol. If you're confused, go here or here to find out more. Only one account per household. But don't forget to sign up from my referral link. Now I sound like a broken record. Lame.

I guess that about covers everything. Both girls are still sleeping...I just love a quiet house!

BIRTHDAY FUN

So for my birthday on Monday I've been getting money and gift cards in the mail for a little while! I bought mostly clothes (since my 4-months-after-baby body is "interesting" to say the least), but I also just HAD to have these fun wall accessories:

I ordered them from Chiasso.com (they were the cheapest there, and actually in stock, unlike a few other places that sell them), and they came in record time! This huge blank wall in our dining room was just driving me crazy, because it's not actually blank - that hideous vent was an eyesore! These flowers are magnetic, so they stick to the vent (and to the little tacks in the wall) and can be moved all around however I want! I'm still not sure of the arragement (I have 7 left that I could add...), but don't they make my wall look more fun?! Any tips on a different/better arrangement? I really love how they pop out from my green walls :-)

This and that...

~June 4th was our 4th wedding anniversary! We celebrated by getting a babysitter (first time for Arianna) and went out to dinner for Indian food (our favorite!). We got ice cream on our way home, and got home in time to put Marissa to bed. We weren't gone very long, since Arianna has only taken a bottle once, and even that didn't go so well. But it was all we needed. It was so weird to eat out alone! It was fun though, and we finished the evening with a chick-flick - Bride Wars.

~The other night after dinner, we hit a few garage sales - I scored a $2 breadmachine, $2 inflatable pool, and $.25 string of pearls!

Funny story of the week:

The other day I was trying to pick up our living room, and I was getting very frustrated at the clutter, especially the webcam, external speakers, and external hard drive we have on hand for the laptop we use in the living room most of the time. I thought that maybe if I had a nice looking box or basket, we could store those things in it, and it wouldn't look so messy all the time. I realized I didn't have anything that would work, so I tucked away the idea in my head, and that was that. So that night, as I was nursing Arianna before bed, I was on the Home Depot website looking around randomly. It was then that I fell in love. I stumbled on something called a "Small Romance Deco Tote" and knew I needed to have it. It was only $4.99, so the next day, I decided I would see if my local store had it, but according to the website they didn't. According to the website, it was an "online only" item. So I added to my checkout cart, only to see that shipping was $6.50! There was no way I was going to pay that much shipping for a $4.99 item! So I decided to call around to all the local stores and see if any of them had it in stock. There were none in our area, but supposedly there were two near where Dan works (about an 45-60 minutes away). So first I begged Dan to go get me one. No dice, since he would still have to drive 25 minutes to that store, then 75+ minutes home. Then I called that store, and asked if they could transfer it to a closer store. They could do that, so I planned to have Dan pick it up at a store near his work. But as I was talking to the customer service lady, Denise, she went in search of the item in her store. She found two of them, on CLEARANCE, for $2! When I got pretty excited at that, she volunteered to personally meet Dan closer to his work to deliver them to him. THEN she said she didn't even want him to pay her for them! When he met her, he tried to pay her, but she wouldn't let him! So we got TWO of these gorgeous storage boxes (not sure why they called them "totes"?) for $0, when I was about to spend $11.50 for just one! I'm in love (with the boxes, not the lady. Lol.) She was just the nicest lady, and she was so happy that she was able to do this for me.

Tuesday, 11:55pm
(The scene: I am just coming to bed after nursing Arianna. Dan has been asleep since 10:30. I like to try to make his sleep-talking conversations last as long as possible for a higher likelihood of hilarity.)
Dan: "THAT is a gigantic planet!"
Me: "What?"
Dan: "The reason is they have to fit certain requirements to get in. Like they have to be a certain way if they want to get in."
Me: "Get in where?"
Dan: "Like First Baptist (our church), or any church. For example, rich people could never get in."
Me: "Rich people can't go to church?"
Dan: "Nope. They could never get in, or go t oclasses for free."
Me: "That's how you really feel?"
Dan: "You just don't get it, do you?"
Stacy: "No."


Wednesday, 12:30pm
(The scene: Marissa is (still) eating lunch at the table. I am nursing Arianna on the couch.)
Marissa:"Mommy, when was I a baby?"
Me: "A long time ago."
Marissa: "When I was in your belly?"
Me: "Yeah."
Marissa: "What's in your belly now?"
Me: "Um, nothing."
Marissa: "Why?"
Me: "Because there's no babies in my belly."

Marissa: "Well, Mommy, God can send you another baby in your belly!"
Me: "Really?"
Marissa: (Holding her hand to her ear like a phone - she does this a lot to call Daddy, or Timmy, or Jeremy, or Grandma, etc.) "Hello, God? Can you please send mommy another baby in her belly? Ok, you will? Thanks! I just called God!"

(We were NOT talking about anything remotely related to that! I don't know where she comes up with these things!)

~I dusted, scrubbed, re-organized, and vacuumed the whole living area the other day. It had been a while since I did a thorough job of it, and it felt good. I'm not really a picky person when it comes to most areas of cleaning (especially dusting). I also put up two new things on my walls the other day! A while ago I bought some scrapbooking paper that I just loved, even though I don't scrapbook. I had grand plans to buy some blank canvases and somehow put it on there to make art pieces. Well, I hadn't gotten out to getting any canvases yet, and we had some scrap wood in our garage so...I measured and asked Dan to cut me some 9" squares. I sanded the crap out of them, then I used Modge Podge to glue the paper on, trimmed the edges, and put them up on the wall! I also spray painted a shelf we've had for a while (used to have it up in our apartment, but never found a good spot for it here). It used to just be a wooden color, but I painted it black so now it goes with the rest of our shelves. I don't have anything great to put on it yet, but I found some stuff that will have to do for now. Here is the finished wall (excuse the constant mess):

I love how they look against my green walls. Eventually, when we buy some furniture, and stop having so many toys up here (ha, who am I kidding...), I'd like to put a chair/ottoman in the corner under the new shelf (instead of all those toys!). I had to put something flat on the other side since the basement door opens out there.

(The middle one is black with tiny white polka-dots.)

(Dollar store mugs that match my curtains - had to have them!)

~On May 31st we dedicated the girls at church. It was really neat, and they even gave us certificates and little white Bibles for each of them. We went downstairs right at the end of the service to take them out of their classes for the dedication. We sat down in the sanctuary while they were finishing singing the last song, and Marissa yelled loudly (over the music) "I wanna dance!" Lol. So Dan let her stand in front of him, but there wasn't really enough room in between the pews. Then the second we started walking up to the front for the actual dedication/prayer, Arianna started crying. I was trying to hold her so she (and I) looked nice, but she didn't really appreciate that! Then once we were standing at the front, Arianna still crying, Marissa decided that she wanted to spin/dance around in the empty space at the front! She wouldn't stop, since she loves spinning in her fancy "princess" dresses (every dress is a "princess dress"). We just let her, since she would probably have made a bigger scene if we tried to get her to stop. Lol. I was glad we did it, but I wish we didn't have to make such a spectacle of ourselves!

~We went to a church picnic on Memorial Day and I let Marissa play in a volleyball court full of sand. I'm pretty proud of myself. Lol. I do NOT handle dirty very well! She had a blast though, and she came home and went straight to the tub!

3 months?!?

Wow, yesterday Arianna was 3 months old! It's crazy how fast these 3 months have gone. It feels like we were just in the hospital! It's so amazing how much they learn and grow in these first few months:

• She is a rolling fool already, and yesterday she took a nap on her belly! She put herself to sleep by sucking her fingers, then woke up for a little while to eat, then I put her on her back on her mat to play while I did dishes. Next thing I know, I look over to check on her, and she is on her belly, sound asleep!
  
• She is the smiliest, happiest, most pleasant baby in the world. She smiles at everyone at church, and is just as pleasant in the nursery (or so they tell me). She put herself to sleep there this morning, and they haven't had to call my pager yet!
  
• She is finally going longer in between feedings, although if we're just at home, I still usually feed her every hour or so (but she doesn't eat as much each time). Sundays, she goes 2+ hours all morning, and is totally fine. Lol, I know that seems lame, but I still don't care since she STILL sleeps 11pm-8, 9, or 10am! Straight through, no waking up! I will NOT mess with something that is working so wonderfully for all of us!
  
• She can raise her head up so high when she's on her belly. It's so weird to look over and see her being so interactive with Marissa and her toys! She lights up when she sees my face, but she is even more excited every time Marissa looks her way or talks to her. I can't wait to see how they play together in the coming years!
  
• I don't know how much she weighs (I'll have to check sometime on our scale at home), but she is growing! Some 3 month clothes are tight on her, which is so weird for me since Marissa was always so tiny! I have a feeling she's going to grow out of all Marissa's summer clothes long before it's time for warmer outfits!
  

Wednesday night

Yes, I've been slacking. There's not really much new these days. But I assume eventually I'll get into a more regular routine of posting. For now, sporadic is the best you'll get

Dan and Ris are at church. Arianna is laying on the changing mat, on the floor. I was nursing her when I heard her start pooping, so she's laying there, stripped, until she's done. She likes to oooooze all over her clothes. And I don't like to clean that up. Lol.

It's absolutely gorgeous outside. Dan and I have disagreeing views on beautiful weather. It makes him want to live in Florida or somewhere that's nice all the time. But it makes me appreciate it even more when we have to go through miserable winters before the warm summer! There's just something about warmth after yucky weather that makes me happy and in a good mood!

Marissa's doing well. Still doing awesome going potty! She does have this problem though: the second we walk into Meijer, she has to go! Even if she just went at home, or she hasn't gone in a while, or it's the first store we go to, or we've been out for a while...it's ridiculous! Lol. She does this "ribbit-ribbit" jumping thing to Arianna that makes Arianna crack up laughing! It's so cute! We've finally been able to go outside and play on her swings and slide (since it stopped raining all the time), and she LOVES it. She squeals and "weeeeheeeeee"s the entire time! It's hard to find something to do with Arianna when we're out there though. I've put her in my Babyhawk Mei Tai carrier a few times, and she likes to nap in that. But she really hates how bright the sun is, and hats are just annoying.

Arianna is still sleeping all night. The other day it was 11 hours! I love when she sleeps til 8:30 or 9, but any later and it just about kills me. This morning she woke up at 6:15, nursed, then fell back asleep til 10:30! This girl loves to sleep! Her afternoon nap today was from 2-6:30. She sleeps for HUGE chunks, but then is awake for most of the rest of the day. She is so happy and smiley and laughing. She's also been sucking her fingers/thumb a lot lately. She doesn't want to nurse for comfort as much anymore, but she loves to suck her fingers, and she fell asleep three times yesterday to sucking on them! She's just so content all the time - she's definitely just as "low maintenance" as Marissa was! Which makes her really easy to enjoy!

I got the sheet music to the two lullabies from the Twilight movie - beautiful piano pieces! I just wish I could still play like I used to. Maybe these songs will inspire me to get back at it though...

Well, I think Arianna is done pooping. Lol. So I'll go change her now. Ewwww...

Here's a picture I took after I took the girls to get a free portrait done at Sears:

Phew!

Well, I was gonna say it's so hard to post with 2 kids and a house to take care of. Then I remembered why I skipped my weekly "Wednesday night while Dan and Marissa are at church" post: I got sucked into Twilight! Neither of us had read the books, but we were bored one night so we decided to rent the movie. Turns out we both really enjoyed it, and decided to read the books too. Dan read them all one week, and I read them all this past week. I didn't do anything else all week! The girls got dressed and fed, and that's about the only thing that got done around here! It was ridiculous! I really really liked all the books, and that annoyed me since I'm a mature adult and all. Lol. Oh well, now that I finished them, I can get back to regular life and my girls!

Dan and Marissa are gone right now - for some odd reason they needed Dan at work (45 minutes away!) to check on some computer update on a SATURDAY! He only has to be there for about 10 minutes, but since it's such a long drive, it's really annoying. At least they are paying him gas mileage to drive there, and for his meal since it's during dinnertime. But Marissa is always asking to visit Daddy's work (we used to often, since it used to be 5 minutes away), so they went together and she has a free Sonic meal coupon for her birthday so I think that's where they're eating dinner. So it's really quiet here, especially since Arianna's still taking her looooooooooooooong afternoon nap (usually 2:30-7:30ish). Boy, this girl knows how to sleep! Last night she slept for 10 hours straight, again! And I even woke her up for my sake (that is waaaaaaay too long to go without nursing - even though she does it often, it's not consistent so I'm not prepared for it!). I'm really enjoying all the sleep (except for this week, since I stayed up late every night reading those stupid books!). She is still a very easy baby. Most mornings, she enjoys playing on her Baby Einstein mat, and will often just fall asleep there whenever she's tired. She still nurses a lot, and that's still fine with me! She smiles allllllllllll the time, and is starting to laugh and giggle and I love it so much! Her first laughs were at Marissa pretending to eat her cuz she was so cozy and cuddly. They both adore each other, and it's so fun to watch Marissa's little "mommy" instincts and imitations throughout the day.

Marissa is definitely a 3 year old these days. While she's still far better than most 3 year olds I've met (and I've babysat my fair share of them!), it's incredibly frustrating to have her attitude to deal with. She sat in time out for 25 minutes the other day, because everytime I said "if you do that again, time out will be longer" she did it again! She's still so helpful though, and absolutely hysterical to talk with (when I'm not going out of my mind from talking/listening to whys and hows and whatd you say?s). Yesterday at dinner, she got all excited and said "Mommy, there's penguins in our garden!" because there were geese in the field behind our house! Today in the car (during the non-stop conversation!) she was asking me to make her a cape. She still watches Super Why sometimes, and pretends that her kiddie kitchen towel is her Super Why cape. I thought I could probably whip up something that resembled a cape better than her kitchen towel (and that stayed on better) so I told her I would try sometime. Then she said that she'd be able to fly if someone would help her learn how. I told her people can't fly, and she told me that Super Why can fly! I just hated to burst her bubble that a cape would not make her be able to fly because she honestly believed that it would!

I think that's probably long enough for an update. I don't think we're doing anything special for Mother's Day tomorrow, but Dan made a yummy breakfast this morning that I requested. I'll just make sure he gets the majority of diapering/pottying duties for the girls tomorrow

Doctor appointments, etc.

Well, Monday morning I took both girls to the pediatrician for their 2 month and 3 year check-ups:

• Marissa weighs 27 lbs and is exactly 3 feet tall. She did extremely well for the doctor, and only had a minor meltdown when she wanted a granola bar from my purse. She's still 100% accident free, too!

• Arianna weighs 10 lbs 12 oz and is 23 inches long. This is HUGE compared to Marissa! Marissa never made it out of the 25th percentile. Arianna's weight (and head) are in the 50th and her length is the 90th! I am just so shocked, I thought we'd have another tiny baby like Marissa was. There is still that possibility, especially since Marissa dropped her percentile down to 5th for a while. But I just can't believe it! She's in 3 month clothes already, which works nicely since most of Marissa's summer clothes were 3 months. We might be in trouble in the fall though! Lol.
  
  • Poor Arianna got a bunch of shots at the end of her check-up. She cried pretty hard of course, but calmed right down and went to sleep after I nursed her. She slept for a while once we got home, but as I put Marissa down for her nap, Arianna turned hysterical. She cried SO hard, for quite a long time. I nursed her almost constantly, but even that didn't calm her down, as she just kept crying while she tried to nurse! It was just plain awful, so I finally gave her some Tylenol (dr said it was ok) and she finally took a long nap. After her nap, even after the Tylenol wore off, she was completely fine, acting like herself again! But PHEW those were a long few hours!
    

Wednday was Marissa's 3rd birthday and she threw up Tuesday-Wednesday  It was so sad to watch, and she kept saying over and over "It's no fun being sick!" During her short sickness, she watched Monster's, Inc like 3 times! She loves that movie! Poor girl - I had big plans for her birthday, but they'll had to wait. I was gonna take her out to lunch to use her free Sonic meal (online birthday coupon) and then for ice cream to use her free Baskin Robbins online birthday coupon! (I love freebies - anyone else get free grilled chicken from KFC on Monday?) We did actually get the ice cream, since she was fine all day. Hopefully this was the end of it, because we have lots bigger plans for this weekend! Dan's parents are coming for the weekend, and we (and by "we" I mean all the men) are going to assemble her swing set in the backyard! She has no idea she's getting one, and she keeps saying she wants to go slide on our neighbors'! I can't wait to see her reaction.

This past weekend, I finally finished painting the entry way in our house. Last May, I painted our living/dining/kitchen a beautiful springy bright-ish lime-ish green (I think I posted pictures back then if you desperately want to see it - lol). Well, the Friday after I painted, I found out I was pregnant - so no more painting for me! But I had tested colors in the entry way, since I had plans to paint that too. So there has been green streaks on the white wall right by our front door for almost a year! Unfortunately, I picked THE HOTTEST weekend ever (80+) plus I had a horrible cold. It was really hard work, and I'm still quite sore. But I'm so glad it's finally done. It created a huge mess in our entry way and living room from moving all the stuff out of the way. But it's nice to finally get things re-organized (you know how things just get worse and worse and it's just easier to start over!). I can't wait to finally put stuff up on the walls in the entry way (I'd been putting it off since I knew I'd be painting eventually) and ONLY use the mudroom for a mudroom!

Well, I have TONS of stuff to do for this weekend. Bye!

Once again, it seems like the only time I have to post is Wednesday night. I started writing this while watching Idol (LOVE Adam!), but I thought I'd multi-task, then didn't get around to actually posting it (with a few edits) til today:

• Saturday we went to Jungle Jim's and Ikea for most of the day. Dan wanted to show me Jungle Jim's and we needed a stool from Ikea so Marissa could reach the sink upstairs and downstairs. I put Marissa in a pull-up, just because I wasn't sure how she'd do. But she stayed dry all day, and we used public bathrooms for the first time. UGH! She wasn't freaked out at all (although I was - GERMS!), and even survived "falling in" once! I almost had a heart attack because EWWWWWWWWWWWW, but I was so proud of her. She's been in underwear all week, and hasn't had ANY accidents at all! I am still in shock at how easy that was, and how fast it happened!
• Monday night we all went to get groceries together. Marissa had to go the second we got in the store - of course. The bathrooms there were SO NASTY! But it went fine. I just don't like going in all these public bathrooms!
• Tuesday we went to my friend Susan's house so we could chat and Marissa could play with her daughter, Ingrid (just turned 3). We all had a good time. The girls are playing so cute together lately, and starting to have actual conversations that are just so funny. Lol.
• Wednesday I took both girls with me to get Marissa's 3-year pictures taken at Olan Mills. I was kind of disappointed because the main reason we go there is because the lady that takes the pictures is amazing with kids, and today she was training some new guy. But we did end up with several great pictures - and it's always so hard to pick just one! Marissa said she had to go potty while we were taking pictures, but she was able to wait until we were done - which is great that she can wait! Marissa was a perfect angel the whole time though. The guy (and lady) arranged her and she followed everything little thing they said. It had to be the easiest 3-year old photo shoot they've ever done. Lol. She acted like it was her whole goal in life to make them happy!
• The only negative is that I woke up this Wednesday with an awful-on-fire throat, icky nose, and a pounding headache, and it's only gotten worse since then! It's no fun to be the sole caregiver of 2 kids when you're feeling miserable! If only Marissa would understand that it hurts to talk - that girl never stops! Lol.

Potty talk, etc.

Well, wow. Arianna is already 1.5 months old! I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last! It's a lot harder to find computer time these days, especially since the computer is in the basement. I think bullets always work best when I have tons to catch up on!

• I am in love. I want one for both girls. If only...
• My brother Jeff, and his girlfriend Jenna were here for Easter weekend! It was lots of fun, and they both had tons of energy to play with Marissa. Despite stupid van troubles, it was a great weekend, and it was nice to spend time with both of them.
• Part of the reason I haven't posted in so long is Dan was in Texas for work alllllllll week - Sunday afternoon til late Friday night. I'm always over-paranoid, so I didn't want to write anything about it til he was home! It was the longest week of my life! Other than water leaking into our basement Saturday night before he left, the plumber cutting into the ceiling in the basement to fix it Monday morning, and the tornado sighting 5 minutes away from our house Sunday night, it was uneventful - lol. It was tough to have NO breaks all week, and I couldn't watch any of my crime shows after Marissa's bedtime because crime shows scare the crap out of me when Dan's gone. But it's sooooo nice to have him back!
• Arianna is still the best sleeper ever. Every night, midnight til 6, 7, 8, or even 9am (today!) she sleeps straight through. And every afternoon she sleeps from 2-6 (actually, it's 6:30 and she's still sleeping now!). She takes little cat-naps throughout the morning, and is still nursing almost every hour when she's awake. But I refuse to change anything about our routine because I love my sleep! She is smiling all the time now, and coo-ing too. She especially loves to watch Marissa, and Marissa loves to try to make her smile.
• I decided to make a huge effort to potty train Marissa last week. Her birthday is in a few weeks, and I knew she was ready - I just wasn't ready! So instead of going straight to underwear, I decided pull-ups would be less stress for me, which might help her. She only had one accident all week! I'm so proud of her, and she's so excited about it too. She already goes on her own without me having to remind her at all. She has had no trouble pooping on the potty either, and I had been expecting that to be more difficult from what other people have told me. But we were out and about all day yesterday, and she even went in two public bathrooms! She did great, but I was grossed out! She did fall in once, but I tried to laugh it off instead of freaking out. Lol. She's been in undies a lot already, and I think we don't even need to use pull ups during the day at all! She's even been dry after naps, but I'm not ready to risk undies then yet. I'm just so shocked and excited at how easy it was. I guess she was just really ready, since we waited so long. It's so nice that we don't have to buy tons of diapers for her anymore (just for bedtime). (By the way, totally not fair how dads mostly get out of potty training!)
• I guess that's about it. All of a sudden I'm obsessed with crafty blogs! That's another thing that has kept me from posting. Since I sewed my nursing cover, I made a drawstring bag from the scraps, and hemmed two pairs of dress pants. I keep finding gorgeous fabric that I NEED, I just don't know what to make with it, and I'm not all that great at making anything anyways! Dan's dress pants that I hemmed - there is a safety pin permanently embedded in the hem. I sewed it in, and didn't even realize it! So I'm definitely no Martha Stewart, but it's fun!
• Guess that's all! Both of my daughters are sleeping, so I'm going to take advantage of this quiet time!
  

My girls

• Last Thursday or Friday, Arianna started smiling - at 1 month plus a few days.
• She is also starting to coo and gargle - lol. Marissa thinks it's so great that she is "talking" already.
• Arianna likes to roll onto her side, especially to sleep.
• She sleeps like a baby, the good way. She takes a 5+ (straight) hour nap every afternoon, and sleeps straight through every night starting around midnight, ending around 7, 8, or 9am (except of course last night she woke up at 4 to eat, but when right back to sleep)
• Other than her wonderful sleeping chunks, she is very awake and alert the rest of the day. She takes little catnaps after most nursing sessions, and is happy as a clam between them.
• She nurses about every hour when she's awake, to make up for all her awesome sleeping chunks.
• Marissa and Arianna take their nap at the same time, mainly because I can tell Arianna when to take her big nap - I just swaddle her up tight, nurse her, and she's out for a while! That also works for bedtime, though it obviously takes longer. I'd rather go to sleep way before midnight (but I will NOT complain!).
• Marissa is super dramatic these days. I got ready to give her a bath the other night, and Arianna's tub was still in the big tub. Marissa dramatically said "Oh my word-y gosh, Mommy! We are in big trouble now! This is a job!" (That last phrase doesn't even make sense, but I thought it was hilarious!)
• Marissa is definitely ready for potty-training! In the mall last week, she made us stop and wait everytime she had to pee in her diaper. Lol. I feel awful for waiting this long. As soon as I feel like I could actually get up and help her at a moment's notice, we'll start. Pretty much that means we have to wait until Arianna's not nursing literally every hour. Lol.
• Arianna's poop schedule is driving me crazy. LOL. She had been waiting a few days in between, so last weekend I thought I was safe when I went away for a night to visit college friends. But she had a big one while we were all in the movie theater (I changed her on my lap - don't worry, we were the only ones in there!) and then a HUGE explosion at the mall (I changed her in a dressing room at Motherhood Maternity because I had been nursing her when it happened - it was all over her clothes, and I didn't have anything extra for her to wear, or any bag to put the outfit in, so I begged them for a Motherhood bag, and she went out to the car in just her diaper - all cozy in her car seat blanket/cover). The funny part is her poops smell like really buttery popcorn, which is so weird (especially in the movie theater), but makes them not nearly as gross as they could be - lol.
• I had so much fun away for 24 hours! I got to meet Nicole's cute baby girl, and we all spent hours talking - up til 5:30am! Arianna woke up at 8:30, I nursed her, and then she slept til 11:30 and so did I! It was so nice to see my college friends, and spend some quality (QUIET) time by myself in the car driving there (Arianna slept the whole drive).
• Last night we went to Olan Mills to get family pictures taken. The lady there is always amazing at getting Marissa to smile her real smile. Our appointment was at 6, and when we got there at 5:55 she was still in the middle of a family of 6 (with 4 little kids). Then she had to show them their pictures, then there was another family of 4 boys next. They had double booked the 6:00 time slot! Dan ended up taking Marissa to get something to eat (we were going to eat after we got home), and we didn't end up getting home until 8pm! Ridiculous! But we got some awesome pictures and I'm so excited to pick them up in a few weeks! It was unfortunately worth the wait!
• It's naptime for the girls now, so I'm getting off here for my alone time!

1 month!

I can't believe Arianna is a month old already! The time has flown by, but I also have a hard time believing I've been nursing in pain for a whole month. I thought for sure I wouldn't be as miserable this time around as I was with Marissa (two whole months). I feel like we've tried everything, and I'm so sick of hearing all the professionals I talk to saying "give it time"! I saw a lactation lady at the hospital the other day, and she basically said the same thing. Oh well, at least Arianna's doing great. Dan fed her a bottle of pumped milk the other night, and she guzzled the whole 2 ounces. She was ticked off the entire time, and didn't really stop screaming even when she was drinking it. But at least she figured out how - lol. She was pretty upset after she finished it, so I nursed her for a minute. Then she decided she was done with all the pumped milk, and spit up every last drop of it. And she's had several other HUGE spit-ups since then. Like HUGE puddles on my lap, soaking my pants, the chair underneath me, my phone in my pocket, the floor under the chair, etc. It's really quite awful, and even scary to see it happen, but she's been fine before and after each time, so who knows. I just hope we're not headed towards horrible reflux!

For a few nights she only slept 6 hour chunks, and they ended as Marissa was waking up, so I'm was pretty tired. I got so used to being spoiled already! But last night was much better at 7.5 hours straight :-)

A few weeks ago, I bought a Shark Euro-Pro tiny wacky sewing machine online (can't find any links to show you, but it's very odd). I read some good things about it on some blogs (like it was small, portable, and easy/simple to learn), and I'd been wanting to learn to sew lately. I really wanted to purchase a fancy nursing cover, but they can get so expensive, especially when they use fancy beautiful fabric. So I decided to make my own! I've spent the last few days trying to figure out the sewing machine. I'd never sewn anything before, and I wasn't even familiar with all the terms and parts of the machine. It didn't help matters that the manual that came with it is horribly written (most likely by someone who's first language was NOT English), has typos all over, and isn't very thorough. But Sunday night I sewed a straight line on some scrap fabric and it looked great! I was so proud to have figured it out all on my own! I am NOT a crafty person like this, so I was pretty impressed with myself. Lol. I was soooo nervous that I would mess up my beautiful fabric! Not that it would be a huge deal, since it was only like $8/yd. But still. It was hard to find time to work on it, especially since I couldn't do it while Arianna was napping in the living room, and by the evening when Dan's home, I've been too tired to do much. But I managed, and here it is:

I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

Strange little sewing machine

I also bought some fabric to create some art in our bedroom. I'll try to take a picture once that's done.

Marissa and Arianna are both napping right now. Arianna falls asleep for a long nap as soon as I swaddle her - it's like magic! And Marissa went to sleep at 2. Marissa had some MAJOR issues with naptime/bedtime recently. But she's finally doing better. She just decided she wasn't going to go to bed, and nothing we did could change that! She stuck it out for over an hour every time! Impressive stubborn streak, but soooooo hard to deal with! But now she brags to us that she's going to go to bed/nap like a big girl, and not get out of bed at all. So phew! I hope that nightmare doesn't ever come back!

Things are looking up around here, and I feel much better about life with two kids. Especially when they're so cute (and Arianna's pimple cheeks are finally getting better!)