Cooties and more

Cooties season has set in down here. Two weeks ago the girls and I both got one of the many viral cold viruses that will be passed around this season and I got the tummy bug a week ago. After losing 4-5lbs of fluid weight, I think I am finally recovering. The darn thing keeps flaring up everytime I think it is finally subsiding. Scott scored some major husband points during this series of illnesses taking on the kiddos and the house. Thank goodness it happened on the weekend when he was around!

There is so much to share, I'm not even sure where to begin.....

Addy found a table to climb on top of at Jillian's






Annie, Hanna and Mary Ella hanging out




A week ago my sweet friends down here surprised me with a diaper shower and loaded us up with lots of diapers, wipes and a few little "extras". My dear friend, Jillian, hosted it at her house and even made pink cupcakes. Oh yes, they hit the spot. Mary Ella was the oldest one there playing mother hen to all the little ones. I do believe she will definitely have a positive impact during Molly Kate's transition into our family. She was just so darn sweet and has been so helpful during these last few weeks of pregnancy. These are a couple of our sweet belly moments.



Addy likes to plant her face in my belly and
she comes up for air grinning. Her world is
about to be rocked.



Mary Ella enjoying some time with Molly Kate.
She loves to sing her songs.



Speaking of the pregnancy, Molly has grown at an exponential rate over these last couple of weeks despite my difficulties ingesting food. I guess that is why "maternal stores" are so important. I'm even convinced she has dropped a little bit. I am currently sleeping with 4-5 king sized pillows, oh yeah, and my husband. Scott jokingly refers to it as my own little metropolis. I go for a doctor's appointment tomorrow and Scott is finally going to meet him. I'm wondering if Scott will ask this one to wear an LSU scrub hat considering my doctor is a loyal UT fan. We may have a conflict of interest there :). I should have warned the doctor my husband bleeds purple and gold. Two and half weeks to go pending any surprises!




Mary Ella striking a pose before
gymnastics.


Mary Ella is happily settled in her gymnastics class loving every minute of it. I love to see her drive and motivation to succeed at tasks that are just beyond her skill level. The look on her face when she succeeds is of pure confidence and excitement. You can see above how happy she is to be going. She also had wacky week at school last week. It took a little convincing to get her to dress "wacky" but she finally succumbed to my silliness. I guess all my emphasis on matching, coordinating, etc is taking. It took a little while to convince her it was "OK" to wear these clothes. I went a step further and made her yogurt green thinking she would find it funny and wacky, but that was going a little too far. Evidently, pink is the only suitable color for yogurt.




Tacky Wacky


Addy is also happily settling... into the challenging toddler years. Every second is spent listening for the refrigerator door to open, something on top of the table being rattled, or the toilet being opened. Now, we have all the chairs shoved in and doors closed to the bathroom, but I have NO solution to the refrigerator. It will be interesting to see what our electricity bill is going to be. Today I was blow drying my hair and she comes walking into the bathroom touching my legs with some wet, thick substance. I leaned down for the "sniff test"....it was ranch dressing. I was mortified by what I would find in the kitchen given it was all over her hands and a foot (oh yes, she tracked it to my bathroom from the kitchen). So I closed the door to the bathroom in order to trap her so I could finish blow drying my hair. The mess would just have to wait a few more minutes. I went to the kitchen and it was everywhere her little hands had touched. Fortunately, it got cleaned up and we started "time out" for the following occurences. By the end of the day, she would put her hand on the refrigerator door and look at me for the warning. She would grin from ear to ear silently judging if I meant business or not.


In the midst of times like the situation described above, there are times when I want to press the "easy button" that they advertise on TV. It seems like just when I need one, it happens. The kids make something so easy on me that there is no explanation other than an answered prayer. We got Addy a toddler bed a couple of months ago. I attempted to put her in it and it scared her to death, so we put her back in the baby bed. I moved the toddler bed into Mary Ella's room and just left it there. Over the last couple of months Addy has climbed in it saying "night night" and put her baby in it, etc. So when I got my energy back this weekend from all the tummy stuff, we decided to give it another shot. We put her in it, said "night night" and closed the door. She got up walked around, even knocked on the door a couple of times, but within 10 minutes things quieted down. We went in to put Mary Ella in bed and there was Addy snuggled in to her toddler bed sound asleep. She has been in there every night since Saturday and this is what I hear every morning coming from the bedroom:



Mary Ella: Good Morning Addy. Did you get a good night's sleep? C'mon, C'mon, let's go get mommy. This way, Addy. Come with me...

I then hear the door open and little feet shuffling their way to our bedroom. Like I said, I think she will definitely be a big help. There is nothing like hearing that loving sound in her voice.



Hopefully I keep up with this a little better in the weeks to come. I am very sleepy, so the bed is calling my name.