Grossology

I was changing one of Avery's many daily diapers today. As soon as I got the diaper off, she commenced peeing on the table. My philosophy when a girl does this is to let her finish. So, I'm standing there, letting her pee on the table and herself. Then, just as the faucet began to close, she let out one of her not-so-dainty toots. The force was so great that it actually caused the pee to squirt up in the air and yes, on my face.

I have been peed on by a handful of baby boys. The most memorable was compliments of my now 8th grader cousin Haesten. I was giving him a bath when I felt warm "water" landing all over my body. I looked down and he was holding his wee-wee just letting me have it, smiling like a, well, a little boy. However, never have I been peed on in such a way that defies gravity by a baby girl.

Avery's got mad skills....yo.

Five

On Saturday Jeramy and I celebrated our Five Year Anniversary. I think that we celebrated in the best way possible. After making breakfast for the family, we set out for the Children's Museum. Ryleigh and Avery both had a blast. Ryleigh got to do face painting and everything else while Avery got to sit in the toddler area and stare at the bubble maker. We've totally gotta get one of those for the house. After the museum we grabbed a bite at Rice Village and then headed back home. That evening we cooked out on the grill and just enjoyed the family time.

During dinner we realized the following stats: 5 years, 4 homes, 2 kids, 5 jobs (between the both of us), 2 cars and tons of living, loving and laughing. I would like to think that things are calming down, but I know us much better than that. The next five years might just be crazier than the first five.

Learnin'

Tonight I was doing some work on the computer, which is upstairs, while Ryleigh was watching cartoons, downstairs. Suddenly, I heard a loud pop, followed by a slight crash. I ran over to the railing to see what happened. Ryleigh assured me that she was fine. She went on to demonstrate exactly what had caused all the noise. Apparently, for some reason, she hooked the end of her newly acquired jump robe around the knobs of our armoire in the living room. I can only figure that she then, for some reasone, leaned upon the jump rope until the rope broke away from then handle, thus saving my armoire knob from an untimely demise.

This incident took me back to a moment in time when I thought it was a great idea to tie a rope to the handle on the cover of the fish aquarium. The other end was tied to something else and a quilt was thrown over the newly stretched rope, creating a wall for my fort in the living room. This was brilliant and worked great, until the weight of the quilt, or someone pulling on it, I really can't remember, caused the cover to be tugged off the aquarium. The cover was made of glass and crashed into the fireplace, breaking in half. I don't remember my parents screaming and yelling at me, but I do remember wondering why I just couldn't see that one coming. It was a real growing experience.

Once this story flashed through my extremely tired brain, I just couldn't get too angry with Ryleigh. I explained to her that was not a great idea and when she asked why I told her that she could break mommy's armoire. To that she replied, and the jump rope? My immediate though was to tell her that the armoire cost much, much more than the jump rope. Infinitely more, in fact, because the jump rope was free and free times infinity still does not equal what took me a year to pay for the armoire. As these words began to roll out of my mouth, I stopped myself before the word cost. I was struck by the fact that her idea of value on these two items had nothing to do with money, but with a simple affection for a toy that was given to her at the children's museum last weekend. I just smiled, knodded and agreed with her. Yes, and the jump rope, let's get that fixed so that you can keep playing with it.

4 Months

Today was Avery's four month check-up and as it turns out...she is perfect! She weighed in at 12 pounds, 15 ounces and is 24 inches long. Our last pediatrician retired a few weeks ago, so we now have a new one. This will be Ryleigh's SIXTH pediatrician. Her first one was in College Station, then we moved. Her second one was in Cypress, but I didn't care for the office. I semi-liked her second one in Cypress, but then we moved. I semi-like her first one in Sugar Land, but then she quit to stay home with her kids. How dare she. Dr. Watson is who just retired and I LOVED her, but she was older and I guess it was bound to happen that she would retire. Our new pediatrician is Dr. Rodriguez. She's very young, maybe even younger than me, which is weired. But, she's very energetic and seems very smart.

We are sooo blessed to have two beautiful and healthy little girls!

Kids Today

Another fine example of my excessive amount of anal retentiveness is the fact that I can not text people without using proper grammer. I'm still relatively new to the whole texting thing to begin with and I know that there are lots of short cuts that I need to learn to get my messages across, but I can't leave out an apostrophe to save my life. I just can't do it...I tried, but I can't.

Upon pondering this self quirk, I realized that my kids are totally going to hate sending me emails. I'm sooo going to be printing them out and marking them up with my red pen. I truly believe that proper writing is becoming a lost skill along with simple math skills, thanks to email and calculators. Yeah, I know, I'm super lame.....dude.

Milestones

Yesterday Avery rolled over for the first time. She's about the same age that Ryleigh was when she first rolled over, however her attitude about this achievement is very different. Ryleigh rolled over and then decided that having this accomplishment tucked under her belt was enough. She didn't seem to enjoy rolling over, it was either that or she just enjoyed watching us sit around her and beg for her to do it again. Avery on the other hand, will not quit rolling over. She will go back to front and front to back and this morning did so until she rolled right off her rug. This in combination with her new found deep desire to touch things and put them in her mouth should make for some interesting times ahead.

Change

I have just spent my first official month as a stay at home mom. I don't really count my maternity leave since I was preparing to return to work those three months. I have to say that so far this has been a most incredible experience.

I love being with my kiddos more. We are having the most fabulous time together. Ryleigh and I spend every afternoon cooking, crafting or learning to clean. I need lessons as much as she does. Avery and I are so in sync, it's amazing. I understand the meaning of her every whimper. This was by far the best decision I have ever made for myself. I've always known that this woudl be best for my family, but never did I imagine that I would benefit, that my soul would benefit so much from making this life change. I love being able to cook every night, to get dinner on the table by the time my husband gets home gives me a huge amount of pride. We now spend our weekends spending quality time together as a family, not just prepping for another week. I can't wait for the summer, we've got swim lessons, VBS, gymnastics, library time and whole bunch more planned to keep us busy.

I spent so many years of my life trying so hard to be so different than my mom. I wanted to be the exact opposite of everything that she was...my career was going to be far more of an accomplishment than the years that she spent staying home with us kids. However, here recently, I find myself comparing myself to her more and more. I don't know how she did it, how she was such a wonderful mom and wife and cook and housekeeper all those years, but I'm determined to figure it out and I'm determined to have my kids look back and be as appreciative of me some day as I am of her. I just know not expect that until well after their teenage years...:)