Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For those of you who are unaware, I happen to adore St. Patrick's Day. For some strange reason, it's seriously one of my favorite holidays! I'm not Irish, I don't drink beer, but I just love to celebrate the day where we wear green and all pretend we are Irish. You see, I've secretly always wanted to be a red headed, green eyed, Irish gal. It's true.... I even got green contacts in high school and dyed my hair red. Yeah, for real. I know - I'm crazy. But you all knew that already, right?

Some of you may recall what I did last year, though I forgot to take pictures of our yummy Irish Stew. This year I am (finally) in DC, so I didn't get to go crazy with my celebrations. Jen, however, knows about my psychosis and we had green lime-ade, green grapes, green broccoli, green salad, and potatoes (with all those yummy toppings). We also dressed up our munchkins in green and pulled out the camera. Check out the fun:





Aren't they adorable? We're planning their wedding already. Ok, I'm kidding - but ya know, we have to joke about it! The first time we put them next to each other, Timmy tried to grab Caroline's hand and she leaned in for a kiss. Looks like I'll have to keep a close eye on her as she gets older!!

Well, it's time for girl's night, so I should go. I leave you with a few pictures of my princess, who has really been an incredible angel on this trip.









Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Pretty carpet, no?

This is my current view. Stuck at the Portland Airport. It's ok, though. In all of this fun, I'm ending up getting to stay the night with my sister in Phoenix. Luckily, this is what's been hanging with me for most of the day.



Except now she is mad. So, I am going now.

Hope to be in DC sometime tomorrow!

Losing My Mind

Someone asked me today how old Caroline was. I said - Almost 4 months old.

Someone asked me about 20 minutes later how old she was and I happened to be looking at my watch at the time. My watch has the date on it. Apparently she IS 4 months old. So I corrected myself.

Then I wondered how I could have missed her little 4 month milestone.

I sometimes feel like such a crummy mom because I've watched so many of my friends coo and love all over their babies and celebrate each moment with joy, pictures, bragging, and all of that kind of stuff. Me? I miss half of it, record even less, and don't do nearly as much hoorah-ing or picture-taking. What's wrong with me? It's not that I don't care. It's that I'm a scatter-brained idiot quite frequently. This is why I have to write everything down. Like, seriously, everything.

Anyway - so this is me saying - HEY, CAROLINE, I recognize how old you are. May you look back at this entry and realize that your mom is just as spacey as you probably think she is.... but she still loves you.

Also - it really needs to warm up. Soccer practice is COLD.

Such a Kidder!

Yeah... I'm a kidder. I was totally joking about posting every day. Really. I bet you fell for it, too, didn't you? Bwahahaha!

Caroline rolled over from her tummy to her back yesterday. There was much clapping. I'm sure it's only a matter of time (duh!) until she can roll the other direction. This will mean no more hanging out on the couch/bed/other surfaces for her. Oh well! I just don't want to discover that the hard way... ya know - her falling off the couch because she's figured out how to roll and I haven't figured out that she's figured it out. Did that make any sense? It's late and I'm tired.

Soren started soccer last week. He practices at a school about 15-20min away. That's kinda annoying, but I'm just glad to have him back in soccer! We are excited to start going to games and showing Caroline the ropes - even if she won't remember them. Gotta get her into the family sport!

I think I've gotta start setting less ambitious goals for myself. Blogging every day is a little much for me yet. I am really close to being to that point, but I'm just not there yet. My new responsibilities at church mean another change, plus my trip to DC, plus I've got to re-evaluate my health when I get back. So for now.... I will update as I'm able. What I'd REALLY like to do is start including more pictures! Goodness! I haven't had the camera out in ages, just my cell phone. I do have quite a few cute pictures on there.

Caroline also had her first taste of cereal on Monday. She wasn't a fan. We'll try again after DC.

You know what's good, though? I'm finally getting out of the house. Today I had a meeting (for church), then headed to the park (it was FREEZING, by the way - the wind was killer) for a friend's son's birthday thingie that ended up getting cut short because of the cold. But, ya know, it was worth it - even though we weren't all there for very long. I got to visit with people. Then I took a break (so Caroline would sleep), but after that I was running errands. After that I cooked dinner (Chicken Fajitas - it was Mexican night... have I talked about my theme nights for dinners? I love it!), then dealt with screaming like a wild banshee girl.

Did I mention that Caroline screams a lot? She does. But at least she smiles and giggles and squeals enough now to balance out the screaming. Mostly, anyway.

I'm looking forward to my trip to DC. I'm also looking forward to coming back home and really getting into the swing of post-birthing a baby life. I finally feel like I'm ready to move forward. Hooray!

Ok, it's time for me to find my pillow. Plus, I think the Cobert Report is on. That show cracks me up.

Night!

Barely Squeaking A Post In

With 52 minutes left in the day, I'm posting. It's going to be short and quick because I'm exhausted.

Caroline must be going through a growth spurt because she's been a mess today and had a lot more food than usual. So she's been screaming and trying to eat my face and I'm like - WHY are you trying to EAT me? You JUST ate! Goodness! So it's been a long day and not very productive, but also not NOT productive, either. Have I confused you yet? Good. Stay with me.

I found out today that a little girl who's life I have been following for nearly a year passed away due to complications after a heart transplant. She was almost a year old and was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. I found this out quite early on in the day and I have to say that it led to some emotional outbreaks off and on all day. No, I do not know the family personally, but I've been following her story for so long that I feel like I know them. It just broke my heart to hear that sweet Gracie was gone from this life... Ugh! I just want to hug that whole family.

Anyway.... I spent the day getting a few things done around the house. I'm a step closer to cleaning up all the paperwork in my bedroom. I hope to have it done before I leave for DC.

Oh and since I stink at commenting in response to my comments:

Trina ~ Same calling as you! I hope I enjoy it as much as you seem to be!
A-Dog ~ Girl, you better know that I'm going to be seeing you! I plan on being at church on the 15th so be there, yo! Also, are you going to Mer's baby shower? Cuz I'll be there, too.
Tiff ~ We're excited to see you, too! Sorry that I'll be a little late showing up but at least we'll get a day or two together.
Jen ~ Dude. So freakin' excited to see you. SO excited.
Nancy ~ My stroller is too flippin' big and bulky. I might regret it later, but for now I will take my cozy Moby and call it good. If I had a more compact or easy to travel with stroller I might think about it.

Did I miss anyone? I'm sorry in advance if I did. But seriously - I'm going to go to bed in like... 2 minutes.

Ok, I'm going to take my 'feeling out of it and wondering if I'm getting sick' self and lay my head down on my pillow and find Mr. Sandman.

Night!

March.....

It's been brought to my attention that this month is NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. Maybe this will be a good opportunity for me to regain my posting habits. Ever since our sweet angel entered the world, nothing has been normal, scheduled, or very habit forming. Nothing, that is, except catering to the whims of a very opinionated and vocal almost-four-month-old. We're slowly getting things in order, but this might help. I have no lofty goals of posting every single day, but I'd like to post more often. I'm missing documenting things and that's crappy.

Like last Sunday (Feb. 22nd), Caroline laughed for the first time. It was one of the cutest things I've ever heard! And this morning she woke up WITHOUT crying for the first time ever. It was so nice to just hear her cooing and squealing instead of screaming like a wild banshee. Oh, but don't worry - she still does plenty of screaming! Haha!

So trying - just trying - to post once a day will be an improvement.

Here's a recap of the days of March I've missed already.

March 1st - Sundays mess up any slight sembalance of schedule we've formed in our lives. But that's ok. We'll still go to church! I've got a new responsibility at church now. I'm back in the Primary with the children (shocker!) but I'm NOT leading singing time. This time I'm in the presidency. So that should make our Sundays even that much more interesting. Caroline will get swapped around between me and Alan and, occassionally, I'm sure my parents will get her. In some ways I'm excited to be back in with the kiddos and in other ways I'm wondering if I'll ever spend more than a few months in with the adults again. I'm sure it will come - eventually. Maybe? Haha!

March 2nd - Considering this was only yesterday, it's sad how little I remember. Let me think. Oh yeah! Post-Sunday schedule reformation. I had grand plans to get up, take Soren to chess club, head to the grocery store and pharmacy and be back in time to feed Caroline and then head to Mommy & Me singing time. Bwahaha. Caroline nixed that idea. She decided that eating was over rated until AFTER we dropped Soren off, so I had to come home and feed her. Then she fell asleep and screamed every time I moved (yeah, she fell asleep on me). So I gave up and let her nap. Then the day just was messed up from there. I did manage to finally make it to the grocery store where I carried her around in my new Moby Wrap which I love. I never thought I'd be into 'baby wearing.' And really, I'm not. But she is such a fussy baby that it's nice to be able to just toss her in the wrap and do what I need to do without her screaming. I bought the wrap because we are flying standby to DC and I won't be taking a stroller or carseat. I needed something to transport her in while wandering the airport for an undisclosed amount of time. Anyway, I'm just loving it - especially as she's becoming awfully hefty to lug around in the carseat and she's not sitting up yet. Wow - tangent! Anyway. I made Coconut Thai Curry Chicken for dinner (not a fan - but my dad and Alan both loved it) and then I was exhausted. A running theme in my life is exhaustion. So then it was Mario Kart and off to bed.

Today was another "this is my plan" kind of day and then Caroline tossed a wrench or two in that, so I am grateful I was able to get a few things done between the feeding, cuddling, snuggling, playing, and loving. I also got a phone call about soccer this morning that caused a domino effect to my day. Apparently our first game is on Saturday so our first practice is on Thursday. This caused me to have to reschedule Soren's piano lessons to Tuesdays (it would have made his Thursdays horrible to keep them there) and - guess what? - today is Tuesday. So off we went right after school to piano lessons. Then it was home to cook dinner one handed because Caroline was screaming. I actually had to pause and feed her in the middle - good thing it was Taco night! So now it is after 10pm. I'm going to play one round of Mario Kart and then call it good. I'll switch laundry in the morning and attempt to tackle my bedroom (for the hundredth time) after my doctor's appointment tomorrow morning.

Yes, I am addicted to Mario Kart.

Haha!