The Kitchen Queen,

Aliah is teething and not acting quite like herself this week. She spent most of the night sleeping in my arms. Everytime she touched down in her own crib, she would immediately wake up and SCREAM. It would take me 15-20 mins to calm her down, then she'd sit quietly with me. I'd hold her for a little longer, with her head rolling off my shoulder. She be trying to bend over backwards and push away from me, even in her sleep. And when I tried to put her down, it would star all over again. It reminded me of when she was a tiny infant and loved to sleep all cuddled up in your lap.

After some tylenol around 9am, she is feeling better.
Watch out though, I have no idea what will happen when it wears off.

She climbed up onto the kitchen chair all by herself, just to get at the leftover oatmeal.



In the meantime, she wants to eat CONSTANTLY. It doesn't matter how much you feed her, she will demand more food within twenty minutes. I really think this child will have an oral fixation when she gets older.

"Look at me! Im queen of the kitchen!"


And here is Hannah, busy making a picture of our house. It is her favorite thing to draw these days.

Sleep, glorious sleep.

I slept eleven hours last night. ELEVEN!
I knew that I hadn't been getting enough sleep the past few nights, and apparently the combination of that, the marathon phone conversation with my mother that lasted until almost 2 am the night before, and our physically exhausting zoo trip yesterday (three hours of driving back and forth, six hours of walking, walking, walking around the zoo, 15 hikes to the bathroom... etc.) really wore me out.
I was so tired that I did not bother to brush my teeth or change my clothes. I didn't even eat dinner when we got home, that's how tired I was. I just did not care. I couldn't focus on anything. A dear friend called at 8pm, and I had to end the conversation short, because I just could not listen anymore. As soon as the girls were dressed and ready for bed, I fell asleep. Mike read Hannah a few stories, and made sure they went to sleep ok, but I remember nothing after 8:45 pm. I was gone, asleep in dreamland. And it was wonderful.
I can't say that I feel 100% rested this morning, but I am in a much better mood than I was last night. Yesterday I was a tired, cranky, sleep-deprived Mommy-monster!
Now I think it's time for breakfast. I'm hungry :)

I don't feel well today. I am tired and sore and achey all over, from my head to my feet. I got ten hours of sleep last night and Im still exhausted. With two demanding kids and Mike working the night shift this week, it doesn't look like I will be getting a break anytime soon.
Pray that I get through this day without taking it out on Aliah, or especially Hannah!
Bonus: I am babysitting for a friend tonight until 10pm.

15 months old.

These pictures were taken at Duke Gardens a couple weeks ago. I forgot that they were on my camera!



Aliah had her 15-month-old check-up this week. She now weighs 23 pounds and is 31 inches tall. She has dropped from the 95 percentile to the 50th. But she never stops moving, and eats more than her big sister, so no worries there. ((My in-laws are always asking about "the newest thing" that the kids are doing and I have such a hard time thinking of anything "new" to tell them. So I was glad that I could call them with some kind of "news" to report. At this point it just seems like we are doing the same stuff over and over and over again every day.))

Poor girl had to get three shots too. Hannah said "It made me sad last time Aliah got shots. It hurt me when she got them, and I was so sad for her that I wanted to cry too." I knew she loved her baby sister, but wow, I didnt know she was quite that sensitive.

Hannah has REALLY opened up and come out of her shell lately. She is so much more outgoing and talkative and I am really proud of her. On the flip side, this means that she rarely STOPS talking. Sometimes I have to insist on "quiet time" just so I dont have to hear constant chatter all day long. And of course the girls feed off of each other. If one of them laughs or sings or cries, the other has to do it too, just 4 times louder. It is not always sweet. In fact, it can be annoying. Especially in the car.

Mike applied for a promotion at work this week. I have no idea when he will hear anything about it or how competitive it is. He has been pretty vague about describing it to me. We'll see what happens with that.... Tonight he and a friend drove to DC to participate in a Tax Day political protest at the Capital. Interesting. They are staying with my relatives in NW DC. Hope they have a good time.

Hannah prayed that they would have a safe trip home :) She really misses her daddy when he is away. I guess they both do: Tonight at bedtime, Aliah got dressed in her pjs and then ran into our room, yelling "Dada, Dada!", looking for him. She thought he was laying in bed, waiting to say goodnight. She didnt understand that he wasn't home.

Well, we'll see him on Friday night.

Something unusual happened on the way to Walmart...

Something unusual happened on the way to Walmart this morning.

I thought I would be "smart" and take the back roads to get there instead of the highway. We got about a mile from home when I noticed a police motorcycle rushing past, with all of his lights flashing. He held up traffic for a minute or two, but there were too many cars ahead, so I couldn't see what was in front of us. We keep heading to Walmart... At the next intersection, he again held up traffic. Was he going to an emergency call? Was there an accident up ahead that I couldn't see?

As I got closer to the police motorcycle, I saw other cars with their hazard lights flashing. That's when I realized what was going on. We had gotten caught up at the end of a funeral procession. Just seeing that line of cars made me want to cry. When I realized what was happening in front of us, I immediately turned off the radio, closed up the car windows. Our car went from happy-go-lucky to solemn silence in 4 seconds flat. I didnt say anything, but the kids were very quiet in the backseat; maybe they sensed something?

I had no idea who's life was being honored on this Tuesday morning in April, but I stopped to say a prayer for that person and the loved ones they had left behind. It felt as if God was telling me "Pray for their souls." I thought this was slightly weird, but I did it anyway. Who am I to argue with God?! :)

Then Hannah and I had an interesting little conversation about what happens when you die and the things that people do to remember you and honor your memory.
"Like when Amber died. That was so sad", she said.
Yes Hannah, it really was.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Got home late last night from our trip to Nashville. It was really fun to hang out with Jeremy and Charity, but the 10-hour car ride was exhausting. (I think the last ten minutes on the way home were the worst..... the girls kept getting louder and louder and LOUDER!)

We visited the Nashville Zoo, shopped at the Opry Mills, went to church on Easter Sunday at a worship service inside of a bar & grille (sounds weird, but it was really neat!), drove around downtown Nashville, saw Jeremy's work and "Music Row", and Nashville's Parthenon. Baked cake and cookies with Charity. Took Jeremy out to lunch at the Pancake Pantry. Watched the girls hunt for Easter eggs. Fed Aliah her first tastes of candy and chocolate (she spit them out!). Visited Nashville's Adventure Science Center, and got in for free with our museum passes. And I think we also convinced our childless friends that they should start having babies soon! ;) We'll see about that.



New things that each of the girls have been doing in the past couple weeks:

Hannah has been diligently teaching herself to whistle for the past two weeks. She's almost got it. She's also really come out of her shell lately. She is rarely the shy four-year-old that most of us had come to know, accept, and love. So much so that I now have to tell her to "be quiet" much more often! During our trip I felt like she never ever stopped talking and making noise!!! She loves her little sister too much sometimes, and often gets in trouble for picking her up or squeezing her too hard.
Sometimes I feel like I am too hard on her, other times I feel we are too easy with her. It is difficult to find a balance and for us to be consistent in the way we deal with her.

Aliah is fifteen months old, very active, curious, and silly. She imitates everything she sees and hears. She still eats a ton, but at least now she doesn't shove quite as much food into her mouth at one time. Her newest words are "cookie" and "cracker". She also says her own special version of "thank you", sounding something like "gah goo". She loves her big sister, but especially lights up whenever her Daddy comes home. She will yell "Dada!" and run right at him. She is great at giving hugs and kisses. She likes to play with baby dolls, and will rock them and hold them and feed them. But she equally likes cars, trucks, sticks, rocks, and dirt. She has recently discovered the joy of sliding down sliding boards. She waves goodbye everytime we get in & out of the car, or whenever she sees another car drive by.

Our girls are so much fun and it is really neat to watch them learn and grow.
I just wish I was better at recording these kinds of things.