Mixed reactions

Isaak got home yesterday afternoon right when nap time was wrapping up (mine included).

He goes into Marvelly's room, she sees him, no reaction yet.
He talks and laughs with her for a minute, still no reaction.
He picks her up out of her crib, still waiting for a reaction.
He brings her into our bedroom, holding her, she looks at me, she looks at Isaak....
and the flood gates open!
"WHAAAAAAAAA"
cry cry cry cry cry.
Okay?????
Isaak gives her to me.
She stops momentarily, looks back at Isaak...
and the flood gates open again.
We continued in this cycle for about ten minutes.
Every time Isaak picked Marvelly up she'd look at him for a minute and then belt a big cry right at him.
Poor kid.
We weren't sure if she was nervous seeing him again,
or if she was mad looking at him and saying in her baby way, "Where have you been Daddy?!!!"
Either way, she was over it in about ten minutes, after she got over her initial shock of seeing him again, and went back to lovin' on him in her very special Marvelly way.
Sydaleigh was much easier to read when she woke up and saw Daddy in her bedroom.
"DADDY!!!!!" I could hear her scream from down stairs...followed by many big hugs and lots of barely understandable stories (she was talking so fast) about everything under moon.
We are all so glad to have him home.

Quote of the day

"I choose joy.
I will refuse the temptation to be cynical; cynicism is the tool of a lazy thinker.
I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God.
I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God."

-Max Lucado

For fun

Just me and my best girls

my best Marvelly

and my best Sydaleigh

"Some help here please"

If you can't count on your sister to put a basket on your head while your playing than what's the point of having one!

Careful what you ask for!

Was it yesterday that I was complaining because we hadn't gotten any snow yet?
Oh yeah, I think it was.
Well, I didn't have to wait very long did I?
A whole storm of snow blew in this morning just for me.
This morning.
The one day this week that I have to run errands.
And it snows.
And snows.
And snows.
Now don't get the wrong impression,
I am happy that it snowed.
However, I am not happy that I had to drive in it.
(ha ha, never satisfied!)
It's always a wee bit scary when it's the first "drive in the snow" of the season.
I always need a couple buffer days of driving in the snow to get reacquainted with the
whole driving in the snow thing.
Otherwise it's just scary.
I can see it in the other driver's faces when I pass their cars-they're thinking,
"I'd be safer driving into that ditch than driving next to her!"
And off they go, into a ditch.
(okay not really)
So I got everything I could possibly think of in the hour and a half I was out so that I do not have to go back out in it tomorrow.
And I don't have to worry about this snow going anywhere.
It's only getting up to 15 degrees today so it should be sticking around for a while.
And now we can just concentrate on making snowmen,
rather than praying I don't slide into the car next to me while trying to make a left turn going up a hill.

Cold

Uh uh.
To say that it's cold would be an understatement.
It's not just cold.
Cold is going outside and having to wear a jacket.
We're past cold.
It's downright arctic.
You can't even go outside.
And if you do, you better wear more than just a jacket.
You better wear full body getup complete with Jason mask if you don't want to get frost bite in the 10 seconds it takes to get to your car.
It is -5 out this morning.
The high today is 8.
A whopping 8.
Wind chill: -27.
Uh huh.
-27.
Winds gusting to nearly 40mph.
Which is why it feels like -27 degrees outside.
It is 75 degrees in my house and I'm still cold.
Grant it, I am a naturally cold person anyways.
But I should not feel cold in a 75 degree house!
Just glad I don't have to pay my heating bills right now.
So it feels like -27 degrees outside.
You can't go outside.
And, there is no snow.
All this arctic weather
And no snow.
Ridiculous.
We're being tortured with frigid weather and when I look outside all I get to see is my crusty dead grass.
Somebody give me some snow!
I don't want to look at my crusty dead grass anymore.
I'm sick of crusty dead grass.
I want some snow!!
I want some snow if it's going to be -27 degrees outside.
Capeesh?

"Please stop giving me heart attacks!"

I put Marvelly down in Sydaleigh's room to play.
I step into the bathroom for ONE minute to wash a sippy cup.
I return to Sydaleigh's room.
I see these hot pink speckles in the carpet next to Marvelly.
"What in the world is that?" I ask myself.
I lean in for a closer inspection.
There is a trail leading to Marvelly.
"This can't be good."
Marvelly is laying on her tummy so I roll her over.
"BLAHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
"OH MY GOSH"
"What is on your face?!!!!!!"
Her mouth and face are COVERED in some kind of hot pink something.
It looked like she was foaming at the mouth with Pepto Bismol.
I race her to the bathroom.
I scoop her mouth out to find she was eating a hot pink tablet of PAINT!
PAINT!!!!!!!!!
"Where did you get paint child?!"
I throw the tablet of paint in the garbage.
I wash her face.
I wash her mouth out.
I freak out a little bit.
She was eating paint!
"She's going to be poisoned!" is all I was thinking.
So I call Poison Control.
Thank goodness. Poison Control said water color tablets are non toxic.
Whew.
ONE MINUTE.
That's all I was gone for.
One minute.
And she managed to find and eat a paint tablet.
A-mazing.
The girl's not even crawling yet.
I can't imagine the heart attacks I'm in for with her when she starts.

"Look what I can do Daddy!"

"Pull pull pull"

"ahh, too hard, help me!"

"Look at me! I did it"

"okay, Mommy helped"

"this is my new thing, I play standing up"

"and then I try to eat the furniture"

"Hurry home so you can play with me!"

What's that feeling?

A full belly.
It feels good.

To say that I have been slack in the cooking department since Isaak left would be right on the money. Sorry, but the motivation just isn't there to whip up a feast of any kind for one and a half people (me being the one and Sydaleigh being the half). So, we've been enjoying, far too frequently, macaroni and cheese. It is Sydaleigh's request for dinner every night; she's hooked on the stuff right now, even when it turns out really bad (I know, how can macaroni turn out really bad, it's a two step process, boil water, add noodles, the end!).

But dinner time is by far my most difficult part of the day with Isaak being gone. No one to entertain the kiddos while I'm in the kitchen trying to make food for the kiddos. There's lots of screaming (Marvelly), lots of "can I help, can I help? (Sydaleigh) which equates to a very long process of finally only having time for macaroni and cheese (which did I mention still turns out bad because I'm so preoccupied I lose track of time and end up over cooking the noodles which makes them inevitably turn to mush). I have managed to cook more than just macaroni in the weeks that Isaak has been away, but they rank up there on the "easy" scale right next to macaroni. It's just too hard to invest more than ten minutes on a meal right now.

But God bless good friends (Holly) who has graciously helped in the dinner department two times for me this week. Bless you! I love brain food. Anything non macaroni is considered brain food these days. And brain food equates to anything that makes your brain start moving fast enough again to keep up with the kiddos who strangely have just as much energy eating the macaroni that is slowing you down.

When Isaak gets home I am boycotting macaroni for a least a month. (a girl can dream right?) :)

Not again

I took Marvelly in for her 9 month check up on Tuesday.
It was a sister affair as Sydaleigh tagged along to get her flu shot with me
and Marvi girl following her appointment.
It went as follows...
Marvelly grew an inch (yay!)-she is a whopping 26 in. long.
however, she only gained a few ounces in weight and is currently tipping the scale at 14lbs. 13oz....
sooooo, we got back in a month again, for another weight check.
Told our Mimi and she has been helping come up with some creative ways to add some extra fat to her diet this next month.
We'll see how it works.
to be continued...