18/365

My family has been overtaken with the cold sickies. Poor Annie has more snot than I have ever seen on a person. Ever. Lucy is actually feeling better today, so hopefully Annie will be tomorrow as well. I am getting it as well. :(

I am adding something new to my daily posts. I have been inspired by the attitude and spirit of Janet at Life with the Wisners. I recently got to meet Janet. She is such a sweet person and her blog is really fun and it really made me think about a few things that I could do in my life to make it a little better each day. I will post at least one thing a day that I am thankful for because God gives us so much to be thankful for and I have been caught up in worries/stress lately and not focused on the positive. I have an insane amount of things to be thankful for, so it is time to start thanking God everyday for these things that are often overlooked. So, today I am thankful that other than a little cold, my family is in wonderful health. People take their health for granted all of the time until something goes wrong. I complain when we have a common cold, but there are so many out there suffering from real health issues. Thank you God, for the health of my family. I count yesterday as my first post because I wrote about how thankful I am for my wonderful husband.

Thanks for all the well wishes on sleep, our anniversary, and getting well. We truly appreciate them.

Hide and seek with the Goose




Feeling much better. Lucy and I actually got dressed today!


My little sickie. She laid in my lap today for such a long time. If you had any idea how big of a wiggle worm this girl is, you would know that she must not be feeling great. She really is in such great spirits still.




Her lips and cheeks are badly chapped and her nose is already raw. Poor baby.


And finally, Lucy telling me that Annie is stinky.

Happy Anniversary! 17/365

Today is Justin and I's 5 year anniversary. 5 years seems like a big deal to me. We have been through so much together in our 5 years and I can't wait to spend the rest of my years with you. I am so proud of the family that we have formed together. You are an amazing father and husband. Who knows what the next 5 years will hold for us, but I can't wait to find out together. I love you and am so thankful to have you in my life.

Today was a rough day around of our house. Both girls have snot pouring out of their noses. It is not pretty. Lucy has not wanted me to hold, touch, or interact with Annie a lot of the day. The TV has been on all day long in order to keep her semi-content. Annie is still pretty happy. Not quite herself but manageable. Lucy is running a low grade fever, but it is very easily controlled with some motrin. They are both in bed and I hope we all get at least a little sleep.

Annie had a very rough night last night again. But there is good news - the top 2 middle teeth finally broke through!! Now we only have a zillion more teeth to deal with and I know there are more on the horizon, but at least we have 2 less that have to come in than we did the day before. Right? Right. The reason why Annie's sleep issues are so difficult to deal with is because at 11:30 or midnight, she starts her constant wake up routine. I go to bed every night between 11:30 and midnight. I know you are thinking, why don't' you just go to bed earlier, and to be honest, I would love to. But I have had sleep issues for years and if I try and make myself go to bed earlier, I just start worrying about going to sleep. So, it is better for me to wait later so that I am good and exhausted. So, right when I am ready to go to sleep, Annie starts in. For whatever reason, she is up and down and upset from 11:30-2 am every single night almost. At 2 something happens, and she will settle back down. It is really strange. And really exhausting. Of course, last night she was up again at 5 and 6:45 and then slept until 8. All of this resulted in me getting very little sleep. Functioning on that little of sleep with 2 very needy girls is not easy at all. It is so hard to stay patient with Lucy's whining and everything else that is going on. All that matters is, we made it through the day. Maybe tonight will be better. Things could be much, much worse, and I try to remember that. We can do this.



The hand chewing pretty much never stops.


She had so much fun talking to herself in the mirror of my closet today.




Lucy was very pleased with herself when she was able to reach a bag of hershey kisses and eat about 6 of them before I found her.


We never managed to get out of pjs today. Look at Lucy in this picture.

16/365

I am sad because Lucy is definitely getting sick. I am praying it is just a cold, but the coughing started last night and I am so freaked out that she will get sick like she was right before Christmas again. She looks pitiful - watery eyes, face covered in snot, etc. Just plain raggedy. And the whining has started. She is really not a very good patient. An extreme level of neediness takes over her and she requires so much attention. It is not easy now that Annie is here. Hopefully she will get a good night's sleep and wake up feeling a little better tomorrow. I HATE SCHOOL GERMS! I just hate how often she has been sick since starting. I know it is part of it, but man, this sucks.

Justin and I got so much done today. We got Lucy's room all in order. It looks a million bajillion times better than it did. I am posting some pictures, but they are really just so my mom can see how much we got done. She knows how extreme of a difference this is. I wish it was decorated all pretty and girly for her, but there is just no point now. I will get her next room fixed up all fancy. We also cleared out a lot of toys that never get touched in Annie's room. We also cleaned out the girls' bathroom. It is amazing how quickly you can destroy a room by just throwing something quickly on the shelf and thinking that you will fix it later. It feels so good to get our house in order again. I HATE mess and clutter, so this feels awesome. We are going to get our room all perfect next week. I will probably do some small things this weekend.

Annie's teeth are still killing her. I hate it for her. She absolutely refuses to put anything in her mouth other than her finger, so she won't teethe on any teething toys. I know it would feel great, but she just flat out will not put a thing in her mouth. She is highly opposed to not only toys in her mouth, but food as well for the most part. She toys with the idea of baby food every now and then, but it is still a constant battle. Her doctor says it is all part of her developmental delays and to just take it slowly and keep offering. He said it could easily take her 2-4 months to adjust to using her mouth for eating (other than sucking a bottle, which she is a pro at). If I put a Cheerio in her mouth, you would think I just put rat poison in there. Seriously, she shutters and squirms and cries until she gets it out. So it is not just baby food, it is food in general. She is making such huge improvements, but in so many ways she is still like a newborn baby. Slow and steady, we will get there.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!







My sleeping sickling. She insisted wearing that barrette for nap.


When you clean out the toy bins, you find stuff like this.








I stood her up, but this makes me so proud of her.


A cleaned up Lucy's room

15/365

Lucy's head is getting a little congested, so she is not quite her normal self today. I love her little school, but I sure do HATE the germs that she picks up there. In the first picture, I asked her to smile and that is the look she gave me. I have kickboxing tonight, so I am on the ball and not waiting until the last minute. I made it 2 weeks - only 50 more weeks of a daily post to go. :)

Several of you asked about the hat in the last post. I got it at a children's store in Little Rock, but you can get them at Bella Jacks in Fayetteville as well. The tag on the inside says Lynda Hats.





What post nap wake up looked like today. Yikes!






Carrying on a big conversation.

14/365

Today Justin and I rented a storage unit to put the massive amount of "stuff" that has accumulated in our guest room that is now Lucy's room. We have never really fixed up her room because there was too much junk everywhere. It feels so good to have it out of the house. It was all stuff we had to have, but was way too big for any of our closets. We still have a lot to do in here and it won't ever be fixed up the way I want it for Lucy because we are thinking about putting our house on the market and I don't want 2 babyish rooms while we try and sell it. But it will be a million times better and there is a great little play area attached to the room that will now actually have room for toys. I think by tomorrow night it will be all fixed up for her. Yeah!

I am obviously really into hats for Annie right now. She doesn't mind them and it is hat wearing time of the year. She is at that age where she will gladly do the photos of the day. She sits still and looks at the camera and smiles. It is amazing. Lucy, not so much interested. That is okay with me though because I like everyday life shots. I just can't wait until it is really warm outside again and we can do our pictures outside. The pics of Lucy today are of our after nap ritual. Lucy wakes up a wreck after nap. She is a grouch and easily irritated and a lot of the time just unpleasant to be around. So, I try and keep things really simple. We come downstairs, get a snack, and she watches a show. One of the best things we ever bought her is that little purple chair. She absolutely loves that thing.









Enough is enough already.






She can never sit still, hence all of the different positions.

13/365

Annie weighed in at 15 lbs 13 oz (she is up 2 lbs since she has been with us). I really thought that she was going to break 16 lbs. Almost pumpkin. She is less than the 5th percentile, but I know she is always going to be pretty small. Unlike Lucy who is really tall and skinny, Annie is quite short. She did great at the doctor today and I got a lot of questions answered that I have had recently. Those darn teeth are still not here yet. Ugh. She had a really rough night last night, so I am hoping for much better tonight. I actually just got her out of bed at around 11:30 and just stopped fighting it and let her hang out with me until about 12:30. She is so happy and content to let me hold her and coo at me. But momma needs sleep!!!!

Lucy amazes us right now with her talking. She talks ALL of the time. We don't always know what she is talking about, but most of the time we do. Yesterday when we were driving home from school, out of no where she says, "Nana and Grandy in Vietnam." To which I said with some shock in my voice, "What are Nana and Grandy doing in Vietnam?" And she very matter of factly told me, "They are visiting Annie's house." And that was that. Her favorite thing to say is, "What happened, Momma?" She seriously asks this question a zillion times a day and expects a really good answer. The problem is, sometimes she asks this when honestly nothing at all has happened or is happening. I love to carry on full blown conversations with her.

Now, totally unrelated, WHO IS PUMPED THAT AMERICAN IDOL STARTED TONIGHT?? Obviously I am. I love the audition shows, but I do tend to get a little upset when they feature the kids that honestly do believe that they are good and blatantly make fun of them. It is just mean. Don't get me wrong, I tend to laugh at the singing, but then I get so sad for them when the judges take it too far. Anyway, I am so excited that the new season has started.

Here are my pics of the day. Kathy, thanks so much for the precious outfit on Annie. She got several compliments at the doctor today in it.














I am not kidding when I say that Justin ate spaghetti for every single meal in Vietnam on both of our trips. This past time he taught Lucy how to slurp her noodles, which is what she was doing tonight for her pictures.