My friend Christina over at Momology tagged me for another meme.  This one is a kinda easy one, although I am not going to to *tag* anyone…if you think it is good blog fodder and want to play along, just leave a comment so people will be sure to pop on over to read yours too!

Why I Blog…

My “blog” really just grew out of the online journal I kept about both of my pregnancies and the early months of the girls’ lives. I started the journal mostly to keep family and friends up-to-date and to have a little repository that I could go back and read. J. made a pretty sweet journal tool for me to use, and we had the “Emma Site” that later became the “Emma & Addie Site.” It got to a point that it just seemed easier to use a blogging software. It is easier to maintain, it has much better archiving and searching abilities, and you all can leave comments! That is the part I really enjoy about the blog over the journal – it is so much more interactive.

So the blog is for our families and friends spread out all over the U.S., so they can keep on top of what is happening in our world. And it serves as a very detailed baby book for each of the girls – this blog has so much more detail than I could ever hope to capture in the pretty, little, bound, paper baby books that I got as shower gifts. I still try to keep the books up-to-date, but I use the blog to do it. When did she first start walking? When did that tooth pop through? It is all here.

I also use the blog as a little “mommy” sanity check. I like to write about what is making me crazy or worrying me. It has always helped me to “write it down” and it is a little bit of therapy for me. Cheap, cheap therapy.

And I have to agree with Christina on one of her reasons. I’ve met (even if only online) some great friends. I feel like I know these lovely women and their children, and I look forward to hearing about their trials, tribulations and successes each week.

So that is why I do it.

Now, why do you come back to read this? Why do you write your own blog? Any other reasons I’m sorely overlooking?

To the nicest woman, I know – who also happens to be my mother-in-law. I hope you have a wonderful birthday today, Debby and a great year!

This has been a very happening Birthday week in our world. Happy Birthday also to Grandma M., Grandpa M., my cousin Keith, and next week Uncle Mert and Bill! We are sending sunny birthday wishes and love to all of you.

J. left this morning. He is in New York for the draft this weekend, so we are on our own all week long.

*sigh*

I miss him already and he has only been gone since 9am this morning. Who am I kidding? I was missing him as I was kissing him goodbye.

I really have no right to complain. I know he hates being away from the girls (and me, too, I hope!) as much as they hate him being away.  And he kept telling me we should come out for the week and explore New York, which of course would have meant not having to be away from him again.

But, I just didn’t have it in me. Now that we have the girls, even when we only had Em, it just gets so complicated traveling with kids. We still do a lot of it, and I do enjoy it, but it is A LOT of work.

AND I just got the girls into a routine in the new house. We are all kind of getting some sleep and starting to mellow out. PLUS I knew that J. would be working all week, and April in New York? Well, it isn’t supposed to be much warmer than 50 degrees all week, with a pretty good chance of rain many of the days. The thought of pulling two, tired girls around a rainy city trying to find indoor stuff to do…it is exhausting just thinking about it, you know?

Excuses, I know. So instead, I’ll just complain, miss J., and count the days til he comes back to us! Or maybe…I’ll get the rest of my scrapbooking stuff organized and get to scrappin’! I have so many great ideas and photos to catch up on.

It is a nice thought. We’ll see…

Things heard around here this week….

E: Mama, when I am a spider…(pause)
M: Um, yes?
E: When I am a spider, I will wrap bugs up with my web and then I will suck their blood!
M: Um, okay…

(Maybe we need to lay off the Charlotte’s Web, which is our current DVD of choice?)

—————–

A: Oh no! (As she is picking her sprawled little body up off the floor.)
M: You ok, Addie?
A: I ok, Mama. I TUFF!

(And if A. saying that, with her shoulders thrown back looking all proud, doesn’t bring tears to my eyes, I don’t know what will. She is “tough,” but I just want her to need a little cuddling….sometimes!)

——————–

E: Daddy, boys have penises!
D: Yep.
E: And girls have zucchinis!
D: Not exactly…

(I, unfortunately, heard this one secondhand through J.  But I would have paid big bucks to hear him explaining to E. what exactly girls do have, though! Or to see how he kept a straight face after that one…)

The few people I have been able to talk with lately have all had the same questions about the house and the move, Em’s birthday, the girls in general, etc. So I thought I would do a little Q & A Tuesday edition, because I’m not sure that I will have a lot of time to get to talk with the rest of you…and maybe you are wondering the same things!

(Okay, it is a little bit of laziness on my part – but I prefer to think of it as, I’m just “simplifying” a little bit!)

Q: How is the new house?
A: FANTASTIC! In one word, it is fantastic. We have so much room and the house is really beautiful. It feels amazing to be back in a house. I keep catching myself starting to tell the girls to be quiet or stop running and I then I stop and realize – “What am I thinking?? Go right ahead. Run to your heart’s content! Make all the noise you want! It is all good.”

Q: How are the girls adjusting?
A: Are you kidding? They walked in and saw their stuff, and well that was just fine with them. “We are living here now, um…OK!”  A. is sleeping through the night and seems very well adjusted – she loves the courtyard and swing, and unfortunately the stairs. (They are very, very hard, Spanish tile as my bottom can attest to. I had a slight tumble down them on Easter. Now I am a bit paranoid about them. But J. put up the gates and we are being pretty vigilant about the girls on them.) Em is having a little bit more difficulty sleeping at night, but hopefully we’ll get her straightened out, too. But during the day, she is loving everything about the house, too.

Q: Which room is which in the pictures?
A:  I fixed the flickr pics! Now you can go through and see the descriptions. And I promised Kim that as soon as the house is presentable, I’ll take pics again so you can see it “lived-in.”

Q: How old/big is the house?
A: I just went on zillow and figured all this out. It was built in 1929 (those of you that guessed the 30s were right on!) and it is 2700 square feet – no wonder it feels so much bigger than anyplace else we have ever lived!! 

Q:  Are you unpacked and settled in?
A: Haaaaa HA! Are you kidding me? I’m still trying to figure out what light switch goes to what light fixture! That and change nearly every light bulb in this house. It is old, apparently all of the light bulbs are too, since they all decided to blow out at the same time.

We finally have the important rooms unpacked like the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. Meaning, the boxes are unpacked, but it is by no means “decorated” – we’ll get right on that next.

Q: What did you do about Denise (our heaven-sent nanny/sitter)?
A: Thankfully, it is about the same commute for her – she still takes the train/bus here. Today was her first day back watching the girls and I realized how very, very happy I am to have her. She is amazing and I think they had a great time today. They found the playground down the street – and I had a productive day running errands and getting rugs and things that are virtually impossible with two girls and carseats in the Volvo!

Q: How was Emma Gracie’s birthday? (And also, did you cry?)
A: It was great. She was asleep in our bed yesterday morning and when she woke up she said “Good morning, Mama!” And I said “Happy Birthday, my big 4-year old!” And the look on her face was priceless. “Today?! Today is my birthday? I’m four? I’m four!”  And the rest of the day was pretty fun, too. She got to pick out all meals, and her cake. She got a bunch of fun presents from everyone and I think she had a pretty good day. Plus her little birthday party is Saturday, so we are stretching her birthday out a bit.

And as for “did I cry.” Not really. I did feel a little sad. Especially when I was writing her blog letter. But I am coming to grips with the fact that my baby is growing up. I think. Ask me again when she starts preschool in the fall. Then we’ll see. 

That concludes our Q&A for today. And now…back to our regular scheduled blogging.

It is a crazy little Tuesday around here. We had a weird hurricane-like squall blow through, complete with huge wind gusts and sideways rain. And then, 20 minutes later, the sun was back out and you’d never know we had had a storm, except for the branches and debris all around. During the storm it made me realize that I really miss rainy, stormy days! I need a good ‘ol thunderstorm where you curl up on the couch with a mug of tea and just watch the lightning.

A few other realizations around here today:

Although A. is so freakin’ tall, she is still my baby.
We went to tour a preschool today that is close to our house and got A. on the waitlist for next year. I couldn’t believe how tall A. looked next to these 3-year olds. But then they are all running around like E. does, coloring, painting and telling stories, and A. just clung to me and took it all in, not quite sure what to think of everything. In that respect she still looked so “tiny” and baby-like. I still can’t believe that she will be one of those kids in just one year.

Forty-five minute naps for cranky, teething girls do not help to make the day go very quickly.
Ugh. No explanation needed here, I guess. But we are in for a rough afternoon.

Sometimes you have to pick your battles.
This isn’t something I just realized today, I have been trying to *remember* this for awhile now. E. is four, it isn’t worth fighting over what she wears now…there will be plenty of battles when she is a teenager, I’m sure. (But I especially love the color choices and the velvet shoes!)

We move in one week. ONE WEEK!
Ack…got to get back to work.

So, do any of you have recurring dreams, like scary ones, where you are falling and you wake up right before you hit the floor/sidewalk/ground, etc?

I have a version of that dream, and have for awhile, but mine always involves these three elevators. It is always the same elevators in the same building, but I have no idea where this building is – it isn’t like any that I’ve ever been in. There are always three elevators, big cargo-type elevators, and they are always precariously hanging in the shafts, and in my dream, I always try to pick the “safest” of the three and cautiously step into the elevator. It always sways like it is going to tip, oh, and did I mention this is about the part of the dream where the actual elevator walls disappear? Yeah, the walls are now nonexistent. So I’m essentially standing on a floor, suspended by two wires and trying to keep my balance, so I don’t tip the floor and fall many floors below.

(You can predict what happens next, right?)

So I do a horrible job of balancing, slide off the floor of the elevator, fall……………….and then jolt myself awake. Just in the nick of time. Every time. Same exact dream. Weird, huh?

I don’t know anything about dream analysis, but I wonder if I dream this more when my life is spiraling out of “balance” or when I’m doing a poor job of juggling everything I need to keep up.

I haven’t had the elevator dream lately, (I did recently have the “college dream”, where I am late for my exam, but haven’t been to class all semester and don’t even know where to go for the exam. Perhaps we’ll analyze that one another day.) but today we had a bit of our own “elevator adventure.”

Nothing nearly as dramatic as my dream, but the girls and I were actually *stuck* in an elevator this afternoon!

We were coming home from the gym and lunch and trying to get to the 2nd floor of the parking garage to our car. E. pushed the button (and then A. had to push the button, too) and we merrily started going up to the 2nd floor and it stopped, but the doors did not open. There was another man – a custodian for the garage – in the elevator with the three of us, and he spoke zero English. He starts calling someone on his cell and speaking rapid-fire Spanish and I’m seriously trying not to panic.

E: “Mama, are we there? Why won’t the door open?”
M: “Um, it might just be stuck.”
E: “How long will we have to stay in here?”
M: “Just a minute…they’ll have us out in a minute.”

Meanwhile I am thinking…how much air is in here? How long can we stay in here? At least I have some water and leftover noodles from lunch!

I start pressing the “Emergency” button and trying desperately not to panic. I offer up a quick prayer and also mention how thankful I am that A. is comatose from lunch – for once she is just hanging out, taking it all in.  E. looked a little more concerned, so I  said to her, “Wow! What a fun elevator adventure we are having, huh?” and that seemed to make her a little less apprehensive.

At this point little, Spanish, custodian-man starts pounding on the door and the operator finally asks if we need help – and about 10 minutes later we felt the elevator shift, and it went back down to the first floor and the doors opened.

We made a hasty retreat to the stairs and on our way up, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

E. just laughed and said, “What a fun adventure, Mama! We are like explorers!”

I don’t know if we are “explorers” necessarily, but I am so thankful for once that my dream didn’t come true, but my prayers did!