6 Months Old

I wanted to post this on our Elizabeth Sunshine's half birthday last Wednesday, but I was very busy that day and then forgot!  Better late than never. 😏

Six months ago our sweet Lizzy Bee was born into her daddy's arms.  What a blessing she has been!  We really can't imagine life without her now.  She is an easy going, chill, relaxed little soul, with dimpled little hands and elbows.  She has a very strong grip, and likes playing with her ear while she nurses.  TJ is by far and away her favorite, and she worships him with fan girl devotion.  It's precious and hilarious!  If I'm holding her in a room full of people all chattering away, wherever TJ is she focuses on his voice and listens with an intensity comical to behold in such a wee person!  If I can't quiet her when she is distressed, her daddy always can.  She finds a special joy in his touch and voice, and I love it.  I totally understand her crush on him, and can relate!  Lol.

Bella adores her baby sister.  Every night she has to say good night to her.  "Nigh-nigh Baby!"  she says in her sweet toddler voice, and gives her a big kiss.  Every morning when she gets up, she has to run and see "Baby sister."  If she happens to wake early enough while we're still in bed, she'll crawl in with us and we'll wake up in the morning to see the two little angels sleeping peacefully cuddled in each other's arms.  One of their favorite activities is tandem nursing.  Once I caught them holding hands as they both nursed me at the same time.  They are BFF's forever, those two!

It's so interesting to note the differences in personality of the two sisters at such an early age.  Isabella is a go-getter, always wanting to run and climb and do and see everything.  Elizabeth is content to watch the world go by.  She has an intensity in her gaze that's almost surreal; when she stares unblinkingly into your eyes, you get the feeling that she's reading your very soul!  Isabella is high strung and easily frustrated and upset; we have been working with her on this.  In fact, I've started making her do time-out when she throws a screaming fit, and this has worked wonders to calm her down.  Elizabeth is cool as cool can be, and even when she's hungry or tired, she squawks and squeaks and tries desperately to tell me about it before she finally bursts out crying.

Every day I thank God for the privilege of raising these two precious girlies!  I'm going to bawl my eyes out when they grow up.  Babyness is such a fleeting, precious phase!  I'm going to stop wasting precious minutes with them by being on the computer, and go kiss my babies.

A Crappy Day

I had a shitty day yesterday.

No, the cat didn't get run over.  No, the babies weren't fussier than usual.  It was a good day, really--but shitty from beginning to end!  Let me explain.

Early in the morning I had to clean up some homeless person's crap in my parking lot.  I really should put up a sign, "Pooping Prohibited" or something to that effect!

That afternoon, I was chillin' on the couch watching Happy Days with my girls and snacking on fresh strawberries, when Bella looks up from the corner of the couch with a very distressed expression on her little face.  "Dirty mama?  Yucky?  Soap?" she says.  I look, and lo and behold, she's holding up two handfuls of fresh poop.  Ewwwwwwwww!   Of course I assumed it was her own, so after thoroughly cleaning her little hands, we went straight to the diaper changing table.  Dry diaper!  Oh dear, maybe it was the cat....a random pile of poo is in my house!  I thought.   But I searched and searched and could neither see nor smell anything.  Mystified, I figured it would show up at some point.....

About an hour after that, Elizabeth begins to squeak and squawk angrily.  She does this squawking thing that isn't a cry, it's a unique sound of pure annoyance she does when she wants attention.  I look, and her onesie is soaked with poo up to her shoulders.  Ewwwwwwww!  I scrubbed and cleaned and changed and wiped, till my baby was clean and giggling.  Funny how the smallest babies still don't like to be dirty!

Remember the mystery poop from two paragraphs ago?  We were relaxing after a long day and TJ stretched out on the couch, when he jumped up with a howl.  He had discovered the missing poop of course.  Boy am I glad I keep sheets covering my sofas!  Apparently the cat decided to take a dump on the sofa.  She's never done that before, but she's pregnant now and looks about ready to pop, so I didn't murder her immediately--just put her outside.  I threw away the sheet--thankfully it was one I didn't like and that didn't fit our beds.

To top all of this off, TJ called me twice during the course of the day to tell me two poop stories from work.

Yes, it was a very shitty day!

April Showers Bring May Flowers!

I have discovered the fact that if I don't get up at 5 a.m. and do a bit of writing, no writing gets done at all!  Early mornings I'm in the zone, I have my coffee at hand and the whole world is quiet, and  I have lots to say.  Afternoons--after doing my parking lot jobs, feeding and cleaning up after the babies all day and teaching ABC's and colors, and hanging out with mommy friends and maybe cleaning one room of the house--per housekeeping goals--there's no writing left in me at all and all I want to do is put my feet up and watch the latest episode of The Goldbergs.  (Except I can't, because TJ would kill me if I watched it without him!  Best. Show. Ever.)

It is the magical month of May now, and the whole world is waking and changing and growing.  Our grass is just about ready to mow for the first time, and I think I'll do it today because my sister Heidi is coming to visit me, and I want the yard to look all pretty for her.  We love going on long walks in the evenings with the girls in the double stroller, and it seems like all the world is a-bloom with flowers.  One neighbor has a solid bank of magenta roses fencing in their yard.  Another neighbor has the most gorgeous magnolia tree I've ever seen.

Little Lizzy Bee is five months old now, our pride and joy and little Sunshine.  She sleeps through the nights most nights, in her own little bed.  She loves her big sister Bella, and is patient with Bella's attempts to be helpful and take care of her.  Once I caught Bella trying to stuff three binkies at once into Lizzy's mouth!  You can't have too much of a good thing, right?  Or so Bella must have thought.  Elizabeth is doing her darnedest to crawl, and howls in frustration when all she can do is point her diapered bottom in the air and rotate as if on an axis.  Her legs are very strong and chubby, and I kiss the dimples in her baby hands every day!  She wasn't planned and has delayed our debt-free climb by a little, but I wouldn't trade her for a bazillion dollars and can't imagine life without her!

Monday morning I went to traffic court for my speeding ticket, and it was enlightening, educational, and quite a fun experience actually!  About a hundred other fellow lawbreakers were there as well as me, and the judge was a grizzled old character who looked like a veteran of ten thousand traffic cases.  He obviously tolerated no nonsense and had little patience for those of us who were repeat offenders.  About 18 cases were called up and heard before mine, so I had time to get over my initial nervousness.  It was actually rather amusing: after hearing case after case of failure to appear, driving without license, suspended licenses for repeat offenses--one little old lady with a walker was charged with driving 106 MPH--it was anticlimactic when I was called.

"Jenna Elizabeth Greer, you are charged with driving 35 miles per hour in a 25 zone.  How do you plead?"

"No contest."

The judge actually looked up from reading the records (he obviously saw I had 12 years driving with a squeaky clean record), and actually smiled.  "Would you like to know your fine?"

"Yes sir."

"One hundred twenty four dollars.  Any other requests?"

"Traffic school please" (so this wouldn't go on my record).

"Granted. Dismissed!"

And that was that!  What a blessing.  He knocked over $200 off my fine--thank you sir!  And thank you God for looking out for us.  We really didn't want to be set back so far on our debt paying goals.  Oh and wow does it put the fear of the law in your heart to watch all those poor souls get handed $400, $600, and $900 fines for everything from failing to have your license with you while driving, to failing to appear in court.

In other related news, we have decided after much discussion and prayer not to take our trip to Kansas next month.  It would set us back at least $2,000 and I had a long conversation with Aunt Kathleen, and Grandma is deteriorating so rapidly she no longer recognizes anyone, not even her own daughter she sees every day.  So she would never know the difference if we didn't come, and it would definitely be a hardship for my little family.  We made the hard decision and feel very happy and at peace with it.  Grandma is going to heaven, and I know God will take good care of her there and she will see Grandpa again.  She is probably very happy about that!  I know she was when she was still cognizant.

Yesterday I drove out to Shafter for a fun play date at Amanda's house.  Miranda came too with Reagan and little Oliver (who she's babysitting for a friend), and Amanda was the perfect hostess as usual, despite being 7 months pregnant and looking ready to pop.  Olivia, Reagan, and Bella had a grand old time splashing and playing in the kiddie pool and wagon full of water, and eating a delicious lunch at the little picnic table, while we mommies chatted up a storm about all things baby and relative (pun intended). I love my support group!  Especially Miranda--I don't know what I'd do without her.  She watches Bella for me so I can clean homes on Fridays, and we see eye to eye on almost everything so it's easy to trust my babies with her.  Plus she's just plain awesome!

Also yesterday Bella came out with a four syllable word.  She is so smart!  I put her in the little pink and purple swimsuit with the tutu that I bought for her before she was ever born. It's the first time she's been in a swimsuit since last summer, and she is much more self aware now at 19 months.  I showed her her own image in the floor length mirror, and she stared, fascinated.  "Aren't you adorable?" I said.  She started running her little hands down the pink and purple fabric, and said with an exaggerated accent, "A-dorable!" Then she repeated "Adorable!" several times while looking at herself in the mirror.  She cracks me up and amazes me more every day!

Well, I'd better get the dishes done and the house put to rights before the day takes over and passes me by.  Dear TJ did my porter work this morning because he had to leave early, so I had more time than usual to write and catch up a bit.  I'll save my soapboxes for next time!