My first attempt

at capturing M.E.'s smile on camera
was.........

completely.......

and totally.......

unsuccessful.

But I did get this the other day while she was sleeping.......

Now that's sweet dreams for this mama!

6 weeks

My sweet Mary Ellen, I can't believe that you are already over a month old and yet I feel as though you have been here much longer. This past month and a half has been full of joy and pride for your father and me. We have watched you grow and discover the world around you more and more every day. When you are awake, you are so alert. Noise startles you easily, and you do a lot of startling throughout the day since your big sister is in the business of shrieking around the house a lot.

You love it when I talk to you, and you have recently started talking back a little, which completely melts my heart. We have seen your smile about 3 times when you meant to smile and many times while you sleep, and it looks like you have two sets of dimples on your cheeks.

Your eyes look like they might be blue, but that puzzles me a little since your daddy and I both have brown. I think you'll be a blonde.

You love to suck, and the big recent discovery for me was finding a paci that you actually like to suck on, though you still prefer to suck on my little finger.

You are a good sleeper when I can get you to sleep. Sometimes that's a challenge, but when you finally fall asleep, you stay that way for 3 hours or so, and you have started waking just once in the night, usually around 2:30 a.m. for a feeding. You usually go to bed around 8 or 9 and get up around 7 the next morning, but I know as soon as I type this, you will change that routine.

I love your hair. Sometimes I just look at you and chuckle. Your little mohawk and big serious eyes are such a cute combination.

You hate being swaddled and love to sleep on your tummy, and I have to admit that I have fallen into the habit of letting you sleep with me at night, something that I swore I would never do! The plan is to get you into your own bed soon, but I will miss you being next to me, I think.

You love to be held all the time, so the sling has become a lifesaver for me. You love being in the sling, curled up in a little ball against me, as if you were still in the womb. You stay as happy as a clam in that thing.

I look forward to the months and days ahead as you continue to grow and develop, but I want to remember all of these little "newbornisms" about you, my sweet, beautiful daughter because I know they will soon be gone.

YAY and BOO

We have power back at our house - YAY!

Our t.v. and internet are out - BOO!

So I'll be sparse on the blog and email until comcast can get things back up and running for us........

Ike Update

Well...Ike came and went. It left us with a fair amount of damage to our house and it left us without power.

During the storm we decided to stay at my Grandma Ruth's apartment because it is a very safe building. We listened to the storm winds all night in the dark of her living room. When we awoke we drove to our house. The winds of Ike blew open our patio doors and thus exposed our den to the elements. We ended up getting a good amount of water damage to our carpet and some furniture. I pulled out the damaged carpet, fixed the patio doors and locked up the house. At least its dry now. We also had some damage to our fence, garage doors and gutters.

We have been staying at Tutu and Popo's (Steph's parents) house in Rosenberg just south of Houston. They have power. Therefore we've been very fortunate and have been eating well. If it weren't for Tutu and Popo we would be waiting in those FEMA lines and eating military rations. We are very grateful for their help.

Our biggest prayer is for power to be restored in the city so that things "go back to normal." Also, please pray for those who have it much worse than us. We are very blessed to have family nearby who is willing to shelter us...many don't have that and are living in the dark.

Worth It

Yesterday was my first full day with the girls alone, and I have to say that it went pretty well. I had way more patience than is usually humanly possible for me, and thanks be to God that as I was just about to lose my marbles with my tantrum throwing two year old – it was the end of the day and we were both tired and had HAD IT being cooped up in the house with one another all day, I think - I saw my better half walk up to the front door after his first day at his new job. Saved!

I’m just gonna say it, it’s hard learning how to juggle responsibilities between the girls, especially when I’m so exhausted.

My older one is at an age where she requires my undivided attention constantly. She is always underfoot wanting Mommy to do this or that with her. She whines and complains a lot these days because my time is split in half, and she is use to having all of it.

And the smart cookie that she is, she has quickly caught on to manipulating her daddy and me. When she wants our attention, especially when we are with Mary Ellen, she tells us she has to go to the bathroom, yet when we get there (she still needs assistance), nothing comes out 90% the time, and she says, I don’t have to go anymore. After 50 trips to the restroom in a morning like this, I start to get annoyed and frustrated. Then the one time I decide to ignore her, she goes in her pants – AAAHHH!!!!

The younger one, just four weeks old tomorrow, can’t self-soothe yet. And even though she is relatively a good baby and sleeps a good part of the day, she’s generally not too happy when she’s awake unless she’s in my arms or lap – so like her big sister was! And to get her to sleep requires huge efforts on my part. As much as I have tried to put her down “drowsy but awake” she has let me know that she’s not ready for that yet. So I lie with her until she’s off in dreamland and then creep away, or I lend her my finger, which she loves to suck on, until said finger sends her to slumber. She will not take a paci. She’s no fool. She wants human contact. And she will not fall asleep in the swing.

So I have to steal moments away to try to put the baby down. I feel like it’s a constant juggling act. Getting Hattie set up to play with playdough should give me ten minutes to put the baby down. Putting “Little Einsteins” on the t.v. gives me 25 minutes when the baby is extra hard to get down....it’s a juggling act.

I know eventually Mary Ellen will find her thumb and self-soothe to sleep, and I look forward to it! I’m sure she’ll be a thumb sucker the way she goes to town on my little finger. She’s even found her hand a few times but gets quickly frustrated that the whole thing won’t fit perfectly in her little mouth. We’ll see if my prediction is correct.

Today was easy. Hattie had Mother’s Day Out this morning. Mary Ellen slept the whole time pretty much, and I was able to doze on the couch – forget the mountain of laundry I need to get to.....

Last night, though, after I took a long hot shower followed by a long hot soak in the bathtub where I sat and dwelled a little about how hard this transition of having two young ones really is, I was reminded of something I read a while back. I don’t know if it was a quote or something I read off of another stay-at-home mom’s blog, but I liked it, and it encouraged me. It went something like, Mothers are the only ones who get to take their life’s work with them when they die. We will hopefully get to enjoy the fruits of our labor, our children, for an eternity when they come to meet us in Heaven. I know this, but I never really thought about it this way. Everything else is fleeting. Every other effort and investment we make won’t last forever, except our children.

So it’s definitely worth it....the transition.....the lack of sleep.....the hard days. It’s eternally worth it. And I hope that'll be my focus when the bad days work their way into my household.

Happy 28, Sean

Sean's #1 birthday wish came true.....the Aggies won - WHOOP!!



So, as Hattie would say, "Happy Birftday, Daddy!"

We thank God for you, honey, and hope He blesses you with many many more birthdays filled with homeade cakes and Aggie victories because we know what really puts a smile on your face :).

Coming Up for Air

Yesterday Mary Ellen turned 3 weeks old. I don't even know what I've been doing the last three weeks. It's a bit of a blur. All my days kind of run together. The biggest blessing for me is that Sean has been home for almost the entire 3 weeks. He landed a new job right after Mary Ellen's birth, so he's been enjoying some paid time off before he starts his new job on Monday. I'm gonna miss him being here. I'm a tiny bit nervous about how I'll handle the two solo on the amount of sleep I've been averaging each night. No more sleeping in until 9 when I have a hard night with the baby. No more naps whenever I want one, unless I get both girls down at the same time. So pray for me!

And because my brain is too fried right now to come up with anything else to type, I'll leave ya with some pictures that we've taken over the last few weeks with my added interesting commentary :)..........

The newbie doing what she does best right now.......napping after nursing.


The big sister doing what she does best.......primping with Mommy.


Ooooo, pretty lights and constant vibration = content, alert baby!


Mimi turns 30 again :).


Wendy and Aunt Laurel come for a visit. Hattie and Wendy share a love/hate relationship that only two year olds can truly appreciate and understand.


And probably my favorite event of all, tons of water seeps under the house during a storm, so we get new drainage about $2,500 later.

Gotta love home ownership and what it does to the bank account! Oh, and the perfect timing of when things go wrong with the house.

So if you were wondering, that's what we've been up to in a nutshell, livin' life with our two girls.