Hula Hooping Hot Shot

Sonya gets a twenty minute recess everyday during school. She gets to eat her snack, and play on a little playground they have just for the kindergartners. There are a few hula hoops for the kids to play with as well. Evidently, her friend Gwen has been teaching her and the other girls how to hula hoop, and she talks about it from time to time. Last week she started really talking herself up about how great she was doing with it. Andy told her next time he was home he wanted to see it.

Friday night he came home from work and the girls were still up. He remembered about the hula hooping and told Sonya to show us how much she knew. She grabbed her hula hoop and did her best to keep the ring around her, but it fell to the ground after a very short period of time. She kept trying and she did manage to keep it going here and there but not for very long. Andy got up to try to show her how to do it, but as it turns out he wasn't much better than she was. So I got up and said,

"Let MOMMY show you how to do it."

Now I'm not here to brag, because there are not a whole lot of things that I'm great at in the physical activity/coordination department. I was never an athlete in high school, and always did horrible in gym class when we would have volleyball and softball. I was a cheerleader, but even in doing that, it would take me a few tries more than others to get the routines down. However, for some reason when it comes to the Hula Hoop, I do happen to be pretty damn good.

I stood up and held the hoop around me then swung that thing around my hips, and kept it going until I decided to stop. Then I attempted to give Sonya few tips to keep it going around her bitty hips for more than four seconds. She tried a few more times and seemed to do better, but it will still take some practice on her part to get it.

Lana had been sitting watching us the whole time and then decided she wanted to get in on the action.

"I want a turn!" She yelled, when I was trying to teach Sonya.

"Okay, Lana. Come on," I said.

She hopped off the couch and picked up the hula hoop. She held it, like I had shown Sonya, with her arms holding up the hoop on either side of her body and against her back. She kind of swayed side to side still holding it, reluctant to let go. Then she stopped, looked over at Andy and said,

"I don't know how to do this."

We all giggled at her and then Andy said back to her,

"I like you're honesty, Lana."

I tried to swing the hula hoop around her, but she really didn't have any idea what she was doing, and it fell to the ground. Lana decided she didn't need to try it again, and climbed back on the couch to watch the expert.

My girls can throw a baseball better than I can, so it helps for me to be better than them at something in the physical activity department. Maybe at some point the girls (and Andy) will figure out how to keep the hoop up, but for now I'll keep my, "best hula hooper in the the Dadekian household" title.

Know-It-All

This was heard last night in Georgia's room, after the girls took a bath:

Sonya- Reading the box that holds little books with each letter of the alphabet, "Aaallff...hey they spelled this wrong."

Me-"What? No they didn't."

Sonya- "Uh-huh. It's supposed to be 'aow', not 'a L'! Aowfabet!"

Me-"No Sonya, it's 'aLfa' not 'aOWfa'."

Sonya-"No it's not, they're wrong. They did it wrong."

Me-"Fine, they did it wrong, you win, it's 'ow' the people who make the books have NO idea how to spell 'alphabet'."

Silence.

Sonya-"Really? It's 'aL'? Are you SUUURE?"

Seriously? She already thinks she know more than me at five? I knew karma would come back to me for being bitchy-I-know-more-than-my-parents teenage years, but isn't this a TAD early?

Raising A Little Lady

For about a week now, I've noticed a new skill Georgia has acquired. Spitting. Nice, I know. Luckily most of the time she does it in the toilet, but sometimes she tries to do it on the ground. For the most part, nothing really comes out of her mouth, but every once in a while she does manage to actually spit. Usually, she does it after a little coughing fit. She's had a cough for a week and a half now, and it seems to be going away. However, sometimes when she does cough, she will walk over to the toilet and try to spit into it. I figure she learned this from Andy, who had a cough a couple weeks ago himself. He'll usually spit in the sink or toilet at the end of his own coughing jag, like I'm sure all of us do when we're sick. At some point she must have observed this and took note. When I catch her doing it I try to discourage her, but at least if it's in the toilet it's a little better. Plus she was only doing it at home. Then she coughed when we were out in PUBLIC. Yay.

Monday was a beautiful day here in Los Angeles. You know, 60's, sunny, breezy, clear. Just fantastic. (Sorry to all of you still buried under a mound of snow, braving the below freezing temperatures. If it makes you feel any better it's cloudy and rainy today.) I felt like we needed to take advantage of such a inspiring day, because all too soon it'll be 90 and smoggy, or smokey, or both. So off we went to the zoo. We have a family pass which is good, because we can go for an hour if we want to. Although with that zoo it takes you an hour just to get all the way in and out of it. This was one of those days we weren't there for very long, because we got there late in the day. No big deal. We saw the giraffes, so they were satisfied.

We were walking out of the zoo, and they were all running ahead of me. Usually, Georgia sits in the stroller and sometimes Lana. That day I decided I'd let them both run around to get as much energy out as possible. Georgia has only been walking a couple months so she still looks like drunk midget, I'm sorry-little person-when she tries to walk too fast or run. She's still very likely to take a spill or two if her little legs won't keep up with her, but she looks so damn cute! Luckily the zoo wasn't crowded at all, so it was no problem letting them all run around while keeping them in my sight.

A few people were smiling at Georgia and how adorable she looked trying hard to catch up with her sisters. Then, she started to cough. I didn't think anything of it at first until the cough ended, she stopped walking, placed her hands on the ground in front of her and spit directly on the pavement. Then she stood up looked at me and said,

"Mommy! I SIT!"

The people who had been watching her, started to laugh now and looked over at me. I was a bit embarrassed, but what could I do? So I just said,

"Well, that's not very ladylike Georgia. No spitting."

She didn't really care, and continued her out of control run to catch up with her sisters. I just smiled at the observers and shrugged my shoulders. Oh well, at least I'll never see them again, and they now have a story about the 19 month old with bad manners. Then again, maybe she's just practicing to be a famous baseball player too.

Sleeping In

There's been a new trend happening in our house the past couple weekends, and I have to say it's FAB-U-LOUS! The girls have been waking up a bit early on the weekends, meaning anywhere between 6:30-6:45am. That's not the good part, but BUT! they have been entertaining themselves! Sonya will take Lana, go into Georgia's room, and read stories to both of them for up to a whole HALF HOUR! That's an extra half hour that Andy and I can sleep. Or at least lie in bed and pretend to sleep, while listening to them. Sometimes it's quite amusing, like last weekend.

Last Sunday was Valentine's Day, as many of you know, even if you were trying hard to forget. For Andy and I, Valentine's Day isn't really a big deal, but we do get a little something for the girls and we get each other cards. Sometime early Sunday morning, Sonya decided she needed to give us something. I woke up to her searching in her art supply closet, which is in the linen closet in the hallway. When I heard her, I sat up in bed, and asked what she was doing.

"I can't tell you! It's a SURPRISE!" She said.

Okay, then. I just laid back down and pretended like nothing was happening. Then I realized she was being a bit loud and told her to close Georgia's door, since she was still sleeping. It was only 6:35 after all, and no sense in waking up the one kid I would have to get out bed for. She did as she was told, and went back to rummaging through the closet. At this point Lana woke up and came out to see what was going on. Sonya told her she was looking for something to make us for Valentine's Day. Lana wanted to help, and Sonya was more than willing to put her to work.

Since it was early, it was still a bit dark in the hallway. We have a light in the hallway that will pop on when it detects motion. I only put it on this way at night, since I'm up 25 times with one or all of the girls. It's partially so I can see when I'm stumbling to their rooms at 3am, and partially because I'm not fond of the pitch black dark in general. Because Sonya was standing and looking in the closet, the light would go off once she wasn't moving for a few seconds then she couldn't see as well. She doesn't know how to turn the light so it just stays in the "on" position. While I could have gotten out of bed and helped with this, I was so comfy, and besides what happened next was much more amusing.

Sonya and Lana would stand in front of the closet looking for whatever it was they were looking for, and then the light would go off. Then Sonya would send Lana to run down the hallway to trigger the motion sensor. She'd run back to the closet, then the light would go off after 10 seconds. Lana would again run down the hallway, her little feet stomping with purpose, then back to the closet when the light would pop back on. Closet, off, run, closet, off, run. This must have happened at least a dozen or so times; all the while Andy and I just laid in bed, eyes closed listening, silently giggling to ourselves.

Finally, I felt kinda bad and got up to help them with what they were looking for. I got the art case they wanted out of the closet and put it in the living room. Then Sonya told me to leave them alone. No problem! I went back to bed. After all how much trouble could they get in with art supplies, like glue, markers and crayons? Okay, they're all washable, so worst case scenario I clean up a mess later. Totally worth it for extra sleep.

As it turns out, Sonya can not only be trusted with those supplies, but she is also an incredibly sweet girl. About 25 minutes later, when the clock let us know it was a better hour for waking up, she and Lana ran into our room yelling,

"HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!"

They had made cards for both of us and little clay sculptures of roses and a butterfly. They were quite good too, I must say. See for yourself below.

So now that they will get up on the weekends and entertain themselves for a bit, all I need to do is train them to cook up some bacon and eggs and serve them to us in bed.

See, I KNEW having kids would come in handy some day!

The Baby Boom Decade

Today is an important day in my life and the life of this blog. Without it, I wouldn't be here. Today is my mom's 59th birthday. The original mom who didn't get to poop in peace for 25 years. I know you're probably wondering, why so long? Well, because my youngest sister is seven years younger than I am, and because even as teenagers mom didn't get to poop in peace. For some reason we thought it was okay to go and have chats with mom, while she did her business. I know I just grossed half of you out, while the other half of you totally know what I'm saying. I guess we thought this was okay, because we'd been hanging out in the bathroom with her since we were born, much like my girls have with me. I can assure you, I would NEVER do this now.

Originally, I planned on making this post about how I learned about being a great mom, from my mom, but then I thought, "then what will I write about on Mother's Day?" So instead, I thought I'd help my mom look back on the past decade of her life, as she heads into the last year of her 50s.

When my mom started her 50s, my sisters and I weren't married and there were no grand kids. Which was good, since none of us were married, but bad because she REALLY wanted grand kids. We all knew it. The mailman knew it. I'm pretty sure my mom wanted grand kids since my father had his vasectomy after Megan was born. Since I'm the oldest, and was only seven at the time, this meant a bit of a wait for her. Especially if she didn't want pregnant teenagers. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say she didn't. However, the moment I graduated from college she was ready for my wedding and baby. Me on the other hand, not so much. So, she would have to wait a bit longer.

The day before her 49th birthday, Andy and I got engaged and it was game on for her. She waited until after we were married, before she started dropping the baby hints, but not much after. Beth was married the year after I was. I seem to recall a story of my mom hinting to Beth while trying on wedding dresses, that it would still fit, even if she was a little pregnant. She wasn't, but my mom was chomping at the bit. I think she thought her chances were better with Beth having a baby first since I live out in Los Angeles, where people wait until they're 48 to have babies. Fortunately for her, I wasn't willing to wait that long.

In the past nine years my mom has been able to help plan and attend her three daughter's weddings. I believe she cried the most at mine, since I was the first, but she definitely had the most martinis at Megan's. She is the baby after all. But more importantly for her, she now has six, soon to be eight, grandchildren. Both my sisters are pregnant again and I am not, thankfully! I've done my part to help with my mom's grandchildren quota and consider myself done and permanently in the will.

Unfortunately, none of us live that close to our parents, so she doesn't get to see them all as much as she'd like, but we all do what we can. Plus, with the video cameras on computers and sites like Skype, it's made it easier for her to at least see her grand kids on a regular basis. I certainly wish we all lived closer. My mom is a great Nona, and the girls love her. Not to mention her cooking and cleaning skills when she comes to visit! I would love for my parents to drop by for a weekend to see the girls without the hassle of airplanes. It would be nice for us to go visit them more easily too. Sadly that is just not the way life is right now. Maybe someday. Since her 50s seemed to be about getting the grandchildren, maybe her 60s can be about getting them closer to Florida. Concentrate on that mom. Your grand baby vibes seemed to work pretty well.

Hope you have a fabulous birthday mommy! I love you and miss you!

He Built This City

A couple months ago, the city of Burbank erected (hehe!) a statue of Mr. David Burbank, across from the Costco we drive by quite frequently. He is the man who founded this fine city my family and I now inhabit. One day early last week while driving by Sonya asked,

"Hey mom what is that?"

"That's a statue of Mr. Burbank. He's the man who... ummm found Burbank, so they named the city after him," I explained hoping that was the easiest explanation for a five year old. It must have been, because she didn't ask anymore questions about it at that point. I'm pretty sure in her head this guy just came upon the city as it is now, and decided to name it after himself. I figured her fifth grade Social Studies teacher can give her the longer explanation.

A few days after that first question we drove by the statue again. This time Sonya asked me,

"Mom, is that Mr. Burbank guy dead?" I'm not sure how all of a sudden we got so morose, but I've heard a few other friends telling me that their kids are inquiring about death around this age.

I just said,"Yeah, I'm pretty sure, Sonya. He lived a while ago, I think."

She was quiet for a minute and then said, "Well, it's a good thing he found Burbank before he died!"

This caught me off guard and I laughed completely out loud. She didn't understand why what she said that was so funny. I told her she was cute and it WAS a good thing he found this city.

Good thing indeed, because without him, we'd be living in North Hollywood.

Daddy Discipline

As most of you know I stay at home with the girls, making me the primary disciplinary. When you are the person who always doles out the punishments, who your kids see get angry on a daily, or some days, hourly basis, they start to not take you so seriously anymore. However, the one who isn't around all that often, the one who gets the red carpet rolled out when he comes home from work, when HE gets mad or hands out punishment, the earth stops spinning on it's axis. Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes it's just annoying. I mean he does the same thing I do and they'll respond more quickly to him. This was the case one morning last week.

We have a big potted plant in our bedroom. You know the kind, where the dirt is easily accessible for little hands to dig in. Sonya and Lana never bothered with it, but Georgia seems to be fascinated. One day a few weeks ago I was showering and she and Lana were in my room watching Curious George. Well, Lana was watching it anyway. G was busy taking handfuls of dirt from the plan and dropping them all over my room. I do mean all over. I found the piles on the floor, the nightstand, the entertainment unit, my aerobic step, anywhere she felt like it. I discovered it when I got out of the shower and spent a good fifteen minutes searching for dirt piles and vacuuming them up. So now I keep a more watchful eye on her when she's in our room, to make sure she doesn't go for the plant. Most of the time she'll leave it alone, but sometimes it just calls out to her.

One morning last week Andy was getting ready for work and I was making our bed. Sonya was off at school, and GG and Lana were in our room playing. The plant must have been too much to resist that day, because I watched as Georgia waddled over to it and started to dig her hands in the soil. As she did, she turned to look at me with a smile on her face that said, "look what I'm dooooiinnnggg."

"Nooooo Georgia. Don't do that," I said to her. She continued to dig, all the while with the shit eating grin on her face and staring directly at me.

"Georgia! NO!" I said more forceful this time.

At this point, Andy came out of the bathroom to see what was going on. Georgia had grabbed a handful of dirt and was starting to take steps away from the plant. Andy just looked at her disapprovingly and she stopped in her tracks. She looked at him with the same smile and he said to her gently, but forcefully,

"No Georgia. Go put that back."

She stood there for about five seconds, looked over at me, looked at Andy, and looked at the dirt in her hands. Then she turned around waddled back over to the plant, dropped the dirt back in, brushed her hands off, and ran out of the room.

"Good girl Georgia!!" Andy and I both cheered.

Then I looked over at him,

"Damn you!" I said.

"What?" He asked innocently.

"Never mind," I replied annoyed and went back to my bed making.

So yeah, they don't always want to listen to me, but most of the time, not ALL, but most, they will do what HE says. I admit, I will work this to my advantage if I'm having a particularly hard time with them listening by throwing out a,

"Wait until your father gets home!"

Because, let's be honest, what mom hasn't used that line a time or two?

Paying Attention

This past Monday, Sonya was off of school. Teacher work day or parent torture day or something. Since we had the whole day together, I figured we'd do something kind of fun in order to keep her occupied and keep me from wanting to hop on the next plane to Hawaii. She gets a little crazy when she is thrown off her normally scheduled program. I decided we'd all go out to lunch for some pizza. Part of this decision was a coupon for free pizza Sonya had received from school. So, off we went to Shakey's Pizza. Not the best pizza place, but even bad pizza is still good, plus part of it would be free.

We weren't out of the driveway fifteen seconds when Sonya asked,

"Can we go get a treat after pizza?"

Now let me assure you, we do not go out to lunch all the time, so the fact that we were going out for pizza was a treat in itself. I told Sonya as much and she said,

"Pizza is not a treat. I want to go get ice cream or something." She likes to push her luck.

"Sonya this IS a treat," I told her. "Do we go out for pizza all the time?"

"No," she replied in her "so what" voice.

"Then this is a treat," I said again.

"No it's not," she continued to protest. So then I pulled out the lecture that everyone hears as a kid at least half a dozen times. You know the one. The one where you explain to them that they are lucky they get to go out for pizza at all, and there are some kids who don't ever get to go out for lunch or pizza let alone ice cream. They should be thankful for what they have. It was nice of me to even be taking them out to lunch. All I needed to add was, how I never got to do anything like this when I was a kid, and it would have been like my mom was talking through me. However we did get to do things like that from time to time when I was a kid, so I couldn't lie to her. I continued to explain that we would not be getting any other kind of treat afterward, and if she didn't think going for pizza was a treat, maybe we shouldn't go at all. This, of course, was met with her yelling,

"NOOOO!!! I want to go!"

"Okay, but do you understand what I'm saying and how this is a treat for you?" I asked.

"Yeeeessss," she replied in that, "whatever with the lecture woman", voice.

That was the end of it. Who knows if she really understood or if she was just agreeing to make sure she still got her pizza. Either way, we were going. I was up for some pizza myself.

While we were in the middle of our lunch at Shakey's, Sonya leaned over and whispered something in Lana's ear. They had been going back and forth bugging each other for about ten minutes at that point, so I thought this was another case of Sonya trying to annoy Lana. Just as I was about to scold her, the two of them looked over at me and said in unison,

"Thank your Mommy for taking us to pizza!!"

I thought I might cry. It's those times that catch me off guard that remind me of how much I do love being a mom. She actually listened to what I said in the car and put it into action. Now here she was thanking me and making sure her sister knew to thank me too. It was one of those moments when I was proud to be a mom and especially proud of my little girls. It was one of those moments that made the frustrating times disappear. It was one of those moments that made hopping on plane to Hawaii seem like a miserable option.

Then Lana proceeded to get down and run around Georgia's high chair. The moment was over, and I went back to Expedia to see if airplane tickets had gone down in the past hour.

It's Time to Get Things Started on the Muppet Show Tonight!

I allow the girls to watch TV every day. I know, I'm a horrible mother, but YOU try taking a shower or making breakfast without the help of Elmo or Mickey to entertain three girls. I've mentioned on here before how I allow them to watch some TV. I do try to limit what they watch and how much. It's mostly PBS or Disney with an occasional movie. However, over Christmas, my friend Melinda gave us the 3rd season DVD of the Muppet Show. We have the first season already, and at one point I tried watching it with Sonya, but she wasn't interested. That was over a year ago. It was one of my very favorite shows when I was around her age now, so I thought I'd try again.

She protested when I first went to put it on. She's always worried that whatever I might make her watch will have some sort of monster, or evil witch that will scare her and give her nightmares. So trusting. After I assured her it wasn't scary at all, she reluctantly sat on the couch and watched an episode. To say she liked it, would be an understatement. She's watched at least one episode every day since then. It's her favorite show to watch now. She loves all the Muppets and has learned about some older entertainers including a VERY young, yet still not attractive, Alice Cooper. ALICE COOPER was on the show. As well as Liberace, Gilda Radner, Raquel Welch, the list goes on and on. Plus a few people I have NO idea who they are. I'm sure my parents would.

I realized just how much she liked the show, when I was putting her and her sisters to bed one night last week. She was lying in bed kind of curled up, and I thought something was wrong so I asked her if she was okay. She said she was then she told me,

"I was just having the best dream ever." I'm guessing she was having more of a daydream, since she had not slept yet.

"Oh really?" I asked. "What were you dreaming about?"

"I dreamed I was the guest star on the Muppet Show," she said smiling.

This, I did not expect at all, and since there is no more Muppet Show, wasn't sure what to say. The funny thing is, I know this was a dream of mine as a kid too. Only, by the time I was old enough there was no more show. But who's to say they won't revive the Muppet Show sometime in her generation. I did hear Hawaii Five-O is coming back. Why that show, I don't know, but the Muppets could be a possibility. So I just said,

"Well, that's a good dream to have. You never know, you just might end up being the guest star someday." This seemed to satisfy her.

Okay, so she's not learning the same things as she would from watching Super Why or Word Girl on PBS. However, she is learning about comedy and music, and the elements of an actual good kid/adult show. I mean I certainly don't watch everything educational. Or anything, really. Well, except for The Universe, which hurts my head when I do watch it, but I digress. There just aren't great shows for kids her age anymore. Once she leaves the Micky/Elmo stage of her life, which we are heartbeats away from, what does she have? Hannah Montana and The Suite Life? For those of you who don't know these shows, you don't want to. I thought Saved by the Bell was bad. These shows are terrible, and this is what she's supposed to watch next.

I know soon enough her friends will drag her over to the Hannah Montana side of things, but until then I'd rather her stick with the Muppets. Maybe she can even influence her friends to watch the Muppet Show instead. She is rather persistent. Knowing Sonya, she'll be the one to revive the show someday. Then she'll definitely get to guest star. Hell, maybe they'll even let me.

Alone At Last

As I mentioned in earlier posts, my in-laws came to visit last week. They left on Wednesday morning, but while they were here, Andy and I took advantage of their stay. For the first time since having the girls we left for a night. By ourselves. ALL NIGHT LONG. I mean we didn't go very far, only to a fancy hotel in Hollywood, but still we got to leave for the whole night and not wake up at the crack of a kid crying. Now you may think I would have been nervous and worried, but really I wasn't. The girls are all at an age now where they are on a certain level of self sufficiency. By that I mean, there's no bottles to give, or baby food to worry about, and only ONE diapered baby to change. It's a bit easier for me to leave them now. Plus it was only one night. Andy and I have both been away from the girls for a few nights separately, but we have never been away together, so was still going to be new for everyone.

Before we left, I forewarned my in-laws about the girls sleeping habits, or in Lana's case, lack there of. They were ready for a sleepless night after all my talk, but were nice enough to stay with them anyway. I was pretty sure Sonya would be fine the whole night, but Lana would for sure wake up, with at least one cry from Georgia thrown in there.

Andy and I left later in the afternoon and went to check into the hotel. Then we went to get some dinner, before heading to the movies to be the last people in America to see Avatar. On our way to the theater, I told Andy to give his parents a call to check on the girls. It was around bath/story time, but since Avatar is fortnight long, I thought we should call before going. Andy called from the blue tooth in his car, and I could hear the conversation too.

"Hello?" said Julia, a bit frantic.

"Hey! How's it going?" Andy asked.

In the background we hear, "Wwwwaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!" from Georgia.

"Oh, it's fine, everything is good. The girls had their dinner...." She started to tell us.

"MMMMAAAAAMMMMMAAAAAA!!!!" Georgia yelled.

"And Daddy (my father in-law) is giving Georgia a bath now," Julia continued.

"WWWWWAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

At this point Julia was obviously trying to get us off the phone. "She's going to bed in a minute, she's really tired. Everything's fine though, have fun."

"MMMMAAAAMMMMMAAAA!!!"

At this point I'm trying everything I can to not burst out in laughter. This is what my house sounds like on a daily basis when I'm trying to get the girls to bed. If you call me on any given day around that time, you'd probably hear something similar. The only difference is I'm so used to it, carrying on a phone conversation is second nature to me. I don't like to do it, though, except with my mom and sisters, because they're able to tune it out like I can. Julia, was having a bit more difficult of a time with this.

Andy tried to ask her another question, but I think Julia had the phone half-way into hang up mode because all he got was,

"Yeah, okay, we'll talk to you later. Bye." Then the phone went silent and I let my laughter erupt. I'm sure if I was a nervous mother or had no faith in my in-laws I would have made Andy drive home that minute. But I know my girls, and I know that was normal and that my in-laws were doing their best. Georgia was fine, she really was just tired, and doesn't always like to have someone else give her a bath. Besides I was not about to ruin my first night away, by running home for no reason. I had Avatar to go see! In 3D no less! Which, in case we weren't the last ones to see it, I recommend seeing it. If for nothing else, how beautiful it looks. It really is a pretty movie. I liked the story too, although, some people might take exception to it. But really people, it's just a movie. Get over it. And there's my 10 second movie review tangent for you.

After the movie, Andy and I went back and um.. relaxed at the hotel for the night. We'll leave it at that since my Dad does read this blog. We slept until 9am and woke up to breakfast room service. One of my favorite things in the world. Andy called his parents in the morning to see how the night went. To our surprise, they went quite well. NOBODY woke up. Not even Lana. Figures I miss the night they sleep all night long. Damnit! It happens about once every week and a half to two weeks. I suppose it's a good thing I got to sleep at the hotel that night because I won't get another night of uninterrupted sleep until at least next Friday.

I can't complain though. Andy and I had a great time being alone and kid free. Although, by noon both of us were ready to go home. We were missing the girls. It hadn't even been 24 hours, but that's what happens when you have kids. You miss them when you're away from them. Then you get home and remember why you needed the night away to begin with.

A special thanks to Robert and Julia for taking great care of the girls.

Welcome To The Family

Last night, or this morning rather, at 1am, my brother-in-law David called to let us know that he and Brenda were on the way to the hospital. Brenda was in labor with their second baby. I was excited to hear the news. I guess my girls must have sensed something too, because it was at that point that nobody slept for the REST OF THE NIGHT. Lana had woken up earlier in the night, but then she was up at least two or three more times. I'm pretty sure Georgia was awake from 2am until 5am. Then my in-laws were awake at 6am getting ready to leave, which meant everyone else woke up. Yeah it was good times here. I know it may sound like I'm blaming David, but I'm not. Well, not fully. I mean he was only trying to pass on the exciting news. Had he just called my house once instead of both his parents cell phones, which only ring at the level of LOUDEST OF ALL, we might have been okay. I guess he didn't realize they were staying with us their last night here, and thought they were still at the hotel. I also don't blame him because on any given night Lana won't sleep and Georgia will sometimes follow suit, so it could have been just coincidence.

Either way I got no sleep last night, which is always fun the next day. My patience is about ice thin right now and the girls are skating all over it, trying their best to crack it. I just keep counting to ten with deep breaths. Kinda like you do in labor.

It was all for a good reason. David and Brenda had their baby girl, Moira Zabel this morning around 8:30, I believe. She was only in labor for five hours from start to finish. On the one hand I'm wowed by that, and on the other hand, the one that spent twenty plus hours in labor with all three girls, that hand is calling Brenda a bitch right now. But in the most loving way possible I assure you, because I do love Brenda. And she's been a big supporter of this blog from the beginning. Hi Brenda! Anyway-I'm so happy for them that their second baby made it into the world safe and sound, and as a present for her big sister, Brigid, whose birthday happens to be tomorrow.

The other reason I'm okay with my lack of sleep today, is because I know the girls will sleep better tonight. Therefore, I should sleep better tonight. Brenda and David now have a newborn again. They will not have sleep for at least six months. If this baby is like Lana, maybe two years. As much as I sometimes miss those newborn days, I do not envy that kind of sleep deprivation.

Good luck guys and have fun! Now the real craziness begins since you have two. If you have any doubts go back and re-read some of these blogs. Most of all, CONGRATULATIONS!!! Everything will be great, and I can't wait to see my newest niece. Oh, and really most importantly remember, breast feeding is NOT birth control. Again-if you have any doubts...

An aside to Brenda-I promise I'm okay with you guys calling last night. No worries!