Happy Birthday Mo!

Every kid brings with them a basketfull of lessons and characteristics when they come into this world. Some are very serious (Sophia), some are downright dangers to themselves (Celia), and others are such a delightful rainbow of characteristics you can't put them into any one category. Four years ago today I got a basket of sunshine when Maia was born. She is quite the enigma. She can talk about things well beyond her years, but then will speak in her made up language. She can take a kid down that is twice her size, but loves to dress fancy. She has taught me how to laugh and not take myself too seriously, and how to sometimes just be, which is very hard to do in this house. She has shown me that even cleaning up puke in a number of pubic places isn't that hard, and that there are (almost) always friendly people to give you a hand when that happens! She gives great face too. I've never seen anyone make such fantastic faces. So thank you Maia, for coming into my life, and for warming the lives of all who know you. Just don't forget us when you are a famous stand up comic, or dictator of a small nation. We love you!

Now that's just wrong....

Girl Scout cookies have arrived, and all the girls have enjoyed eating them. Sophia's favorite are the Tagalongs, and as she was munching away, Celia begged to have one. This is what she did to it. If it's not clear in the picture, she not only somehow sucked off the chocolate, she scooped the fitting out of that little indention in the middle. Yum!

Ears to you!

Sweet Maia had to have tubes in her ears this week. She has has a ton of ear infections in the last few months, and I was really worried that she was developing hearing problems. It's always hard to say if they CAN'T hear you, or just don't WANT to hear you, so you know, tricky to tell. She went to a fantastic ENT, who did tests on her, and she is still in normal hearing ranges, but that is if she doesn't have fluid buildup. Once the fluid began, things were getting muffled. She frequently was covering her ears and saying we were hurting them, so enough was enough. She was so happy to get it done, as you can tell. She refused to put on her hat, even though I had the whole gear on to go into the room w/ her, and they were fine with that. The whole procedure was about 10 minutes, and when she woke up, one of the first things she said was "that didn't hurt at all!" Two days later, and she is already hearing better. Her mood has improved a lot. It's always so hard to know when you have kids what is serious and needs attention, and what they are making a big deal about that is not. I'm glad I went with my gut on this and got her tubes. Instead of being fussy, she can go back to changing her outfit three times a day and being a sweet little girl again. Thank you modern medicine!

6 is a big number

Well, tomorrow is it. Sophia will be 6, and that makes me feel old. She is officially a BIG KID. I know starting kindergarten got a lot of that whole becoming a big kid ickyness feeling out, but something about being six seems so much older than being 5. She has really come into her own this last year, and I must say I am so proud of her. She has won most respectful in her school, one of 20 to do so out of a few hundred. She also was voted kindest or the like, and didn't even tell me. I only knew it after seeing her picture in the cafeteria by chance. She is typically super patient with Celia, acting like the mommy all the time. Note I didn't say she was patient with Maia. We all have our limits, after all. For her birthday, I took her to get her ears pierced. Anyone who has ever met Sophia will vouch for her fanciness, so this was something I knew she would enjoy. She was absolutely terrified of the pain, but she did great. Just a funny face when they did it, and that was it. Of course, she picked out the biggest fake diamond earrings they had as starter earrings. So blinging. So far since Saturday, when she got them pierced, she has not stopped talking about them. She thinks she is so cool now. She woke up on Sunday and the first words out of her mouth were "mommy, thank you for taking me to get my ears pierced". I have overheard her telling Maia "You can't touch my hair now that my ears are pierced" and "you know I'm special now because I'm the only one who has pierced ears in the house" and she is really pressuring Maia to get her's pierced now, which is met with fierce resistance. She even painted a picture of her earrings. So I think this year I offically got her the coolest present ever, which really makes me feel good, knowing I know her well enough to force her through the pain and enjoy the final product. She looks a little worse for the wear in the after shot, but I promise, the second she looked in the mirror, she wouldn't stop smiling! So, everyone enjoy my personal favorite picture of Sophia from the last year, her piercing!

A whole lot of catching up to do...

and not a lot of time to do it, as I can smell Celia depositng a little gift for me right now. Because I am not busy enough, a few weeks ago I began taking real estate classes, so the ti

me I used to have to update this blog is now spent on hours and hours of homework. I've got another month and a half of classes left, but it definately makes me admire those moms who work full time and go to school even more than I already do. Life just keeps wizzing by, and I really am amazed a how the girls are thriving, even if Daddy is in charge a couple night a week! He is actually doing a great job, as good as me, and we all know most women think the way we do things is the best AND right way. Did I say most women, I meant all women. Anyway, Celia is really talking like crazy, which is fun, because with three girls in the house, it's just so quiet and nice to have someone fill that void, ya know? She is coming up with all sorts of stuff, half of which is totally understandable, to me at least. Yesterday, she was running around yelling "Batman! Mommy Batman, Daddy Batman, Baby Batman, Sophie Batman (which for some unknown reason, she can only say it sounding like Abby), Momo Batman!" over and over and over. Combine that with Maia's off the wall statements (after walking in on James going to the bathroom, her response was "Daddy, do all boys pee out of their pockets?"), which get funnier every stinking day, and Sophia's Miss FancyPants attitude, and we've got quite the comedy show here. Sweet Sophia will be turning 6 tomorrow, which I will post about next before I unwrap the gift Celia has bestowed upon me. I know I haven't posted in a long time, so I'll do my best to TRY and at least post once a week a short something or two until this class is done. But, no guarantees. Keeping cheking though, you never know, I may suprise you!