Too Cute For Words

I caught Kimberly falling asleep on the couch this morning. Notice how her hands get lower and lower the more she relaxes. It was super cute!

Is It Just Me?

I surprised a friend the other day when I told her I didn't like babies. "I wish my babies could be born at 18 months," I said.

"What? You don't like babies?!"

It's not that I don't like babies. They are fun to snuggle with, and it's really calming to watch them sleep. But I have babies who cry for hours on end for no obvious reason. Then after an exhausting day of listening to near-constant crying, I have to get up several times a night with that baby.

So, no. Not really. Baby is not my favorite stage of childhood. I love the toddler stage. I love when they start saying funny things. I love watching them learn to toddle along. I love the toddler run. Sure we have to wade through those months of tantrums, but I'd rather deal with a 10 or 20 minute tantrum than the aforementioned crying. It's not even a competition in my mind.

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Earlier that same day, a different friend was equally surprised when I told her how much I hate being pregnant. "Really!?" She exclaimed. "You don't love feeling the baby move? You don't love the miracle of giving birth? You don't love knowing that you created something so amazing?"

My response? Sure I think all of those things are great. But to me, pregnancy equals 5 months of puking, 1 month of feeling decent at best, followed by 3 months of contractions.

I think it would be awesome to go from the "Let's have a baby" mindset to "Yay our baby is in Nursery."

Am I alone in this? Is there anyone else who feels this way about pregnancy and newborns? Just curious.

Tooth #1: Gone

Well, it happened. Five years and four months after Makayla's first tooth poked through her little 4 1/2-month-old gums, it finally came out. She has been wiggling it for weeks. And over the past few days when it has been literally hanging, she has run to the mirror every few minutes to see if it has fallen out yet.

This morning it looked like it would fall out if she laughed too hard, so I grabbed it by a tissue and gently yanked it out.

To her complete surprise it "didn't hurt at all!"

"I know. I told you it wouldn't hurt."

Laughing she said, "I didn't believe you. I thought it was gonna hurt a LOT!"

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I drove her to school and while I watched her I had to laugh as she, with a big grin, walked up to every person she knew. And a few people she didn't know. She's pretty proud of her new smile.

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I admit, I did tear up a little. Don't make fun! I always get a little sentimental when I realize that my baby is growing up. I love it, but it also makes me just a bit sad.

A few years ago I could never understand people who said they wanted to keep their kids little forever. I thought they must be crazy. Little kids are hard, I thought. I guess now I understand what they were talking about.

A Reason to Celebrate

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Kimberly FINALLY got her first tooth! But do you think she would let me get a picture of this momentous occasion?

Not on your life!

Goal: Week 4

Wow! I have really loved my goal from last week. I love making myself take the time to read everyday. Sometimes it's a novel. Other times it's a cookbook. Whatever I am reading, I love taking the time to do it. It's a goal that I definitely want to keep going.

For this week, my goal is to finish rotating my girls' clothes. I really hate doing this. I hate getting them out of storage, searching through to figure out what will fit who and so on. This is not actually as easy as it sounds.

Here is one problem. Makayla has long legs and a short body. Ellie has a long body and short legs. So while Makayla was wearing 3T shirts, she needed 5T pants. Now Ellie is at the stage where she needs 5T shirts, but can still fit into 3T pants. It's an absolute nightmare tyring to sift through everything trying to find old clothes of Makayla's in the right season to fit Ellie now and for this coming summer.

Another problem is that I got lazy when I was putting away baby clothes after I had Ellie, so none of my boxes are labeled right for baby clothes. One box I looked through was labeled 12 months, but it contained 3T and miscellaneous 6-9 month clothes. The very same 6-9 month clothes that I was looking for 2 months ago when Kimberly needed them. Grrr!! I'm so annoyed with this process that on several occasions I have threatened to give away all 20 boxes of girls clothes in our storage unit and start fresh for all three girls.

I am getting really tired of having piles and piles of clothes and empty buckets and boxes in my not-so-big living room. So I am really determined to get this mess figured out. Ugh! What a nightmare!

A Matter of Teeth

Matter is neither created nor destroyed. I remember learning this in Physics when I was in high school. Or maybe it was Chemistry? Well, it was some science class that I took some time in my life.

Anyway, I always think about that when I lose weight. I wonder who in the world has to be gaining these pounds that I'm losing. Or the other way around, who is losing weight that I am gaining it? Obviously, I know this is not exactly how things work, but I always think of that.

But lately, I've been thinking about this in relation to dentistry. Here's why. Makayla has 6 teeth that are loose. Very loose. Every morning when she wakes up she runs to the mirror to see if any of them have magically fallen out.

Today I was inspecting Kimberly's mouth for new teeth. (At 13 months she is still completely toothless.) I noticed that she has 6 teeth that are very close to coming in. I can see them, but they just haven't quite broken through the skin yet.

So, if matter can not be created or destroyed, does that mean that Kimberly can't get her teeth until Makayla loses hers? Because if that is the case, I am seriously considering getting out the pliers when M gets home from school. It's making me a little crazy that Kimberly doesn't have any teeth yet. I'm definitely ready for her to be able to bite her own food instead of me having to cut it up all the time. I know that sounds so lazy of me. But that's because I am. Lazy, that is.

It's Goal Time Again

Last year I set a goal for myself to read at least 30 books. I almost succeeded. I read 28 books with 8 of those being read in the month of February. I think back to what was going on then. Oh right! I had a 1-month-old baby who nursed for 30 minutes every 3 hours. I couldn't really do anything else while I was feeding her, so I always kept a book nearby. That's 4 hours every day that I got to read. Now the only reading I have time for is the 15 minutes every night where I am helping Makayla read Mac and Tab. Hardly a stimulating read for me!

I miss reading. I love being whisked away on an adventure with fascinating characters to places very different from where I currently reside.

With that being said, my goal for this week is to set aside between 20 and 30 minutes every day to sit and read. I know this will make it even harder to get to bed on time (a goal which I am still struggling to achieve), but I need to do this for me. So that I can be Laura and not just Mommy.