doh!

do you ever have one of those moments where you're like doh!  why didn't i think of that?  and i don't mean while watching infomercials for the next latest gadget.  just something obvious that you should have realized.  this happens to me a lot.  i would like to blame it on lack of sleep, but that isn't really the problem.  i'm just scattered.  anyway.  davis has been grumpy-ish.  i hate to call it grumpy b/c it really wasn't that bad.  she wanted to nurse non stop and was drooling all over the place.  and it had started to hurt to nurse.  hmmm...if she had been a couple weeks older i may have figured it out.  she got her first tooth!  not even three months (for those non parents babies usally start getting teeth at about 6 months, though marley got hers at 3 1/2 months) old and already cutting teeth.  so it is all the way thru.  and she's much happier.  poor thing.  what with the crazyness of last week, i just wrote off her slightly odd behaviour as due to the disruption in routine. 

sister found these ears and snuck them onto davis while we weren't looking.  she didn't mind.

marls needed to show off her pretty teeth as well.

the new tooth....now to teach her to not bite momma.

styling and profiling

that would be me these days.  i chopped it off and i love it.  i think it looks ok too.  so, win win.  my hair, i mean. 

playing daddy's guitar.  she loves them.

 so it's official.  i have the sweetest girl in the world.  i came home from the doc today pretty upset.  i was crying.  they weren't nice to me.  made me feel like trash.  i'm never prepared for people to be mean to me.  it catches me off gaurd b/c i am not trash and do not deserve to be treated as such. (we're dealing with insurance stuff.)  anyway.  i came home upset and marley was wiping the tears off my cheeks saying it's ok mommy, marley's here.  and she was right. 
on a funny note my mom said to marley the other day you are such a good girl and marley responded with yes i am.  very emphatically.

this is truly awesome food.  and i made it.

 i made tofu tonight for dinner for the first time.  alll by myself.  it was awesome.  not only did i cook dinner, i watched two kids while doing it.  i know it is small stuff, but it takes a certain knack and martha stewart i am not.  but i get better with every day.  so by the time they are 18, i should have it down.  so with my dietary restricitons i am having to really think about my diet.  i think this is good.  it's making me stretch and try new things.  like tofu stir fry.  which i will totally be making all the time now.  thanks to resa, who passed on the receipe.  i know it doesn't photograph well, but imagine you are smelling soy sauce, rice, veggies, and toasted sesame oil.  mmmmmm so good.

before

i'm smiling b/c i can still eat cheez-its.  they aren't real food and thusly not real cheese.

after

the back of my head.

what i am sending to locks of love.  i find this kind of creepy and disturbing. it's almost like an arm or leg laying there all chopped off. 

adventures

this week has been full of them.  plenty.  glad things have worked out as well as they have.  today was the last carousel ride of the summer.  we went every other friday all summer long.  we only missed once.  marley will be sad when she realizes it is over.  she asks me every week: carousel?  at least we have dance class to look forward to.  she did great this week.  i did not go into the room with her and she did not mind at all.  i watched the class on a video moniter out in the waiting room.  it was so much fun to be able to watch her interact with other girls about her age.  she likes to stand back and observe everything very seriously before she joins in.  like she has to wrap her head around it first.  but once she gets it she is all about it.  so i think dance class will be a big hit.  warning: poop talk.  so davis had to have soy formula while i was in the hospital and while we were waiting for some meds to leave my system.  soy b/c of the no dairy thing.  good thing my husband is a thinking man.  i would have gotten regular and then we would of had a hot mess.  anyway.  so she was on it for about 24 hours total.  not too much.  but then we began to play the waiting game.  was poor davis ever going to poop again?  formula is not breast milk, so the body digests it differently.  there is very little waste in breast milk.  anyway, the poopslosion finally happened during the middle of dance class.  of course.  total code brown.  and mom and i are talking about it and laughing as we change her, in the changing room, and there is this high school girl sitting there listening to us.  it struck me then how weird it must all be to her.  oh well.  there will come a time in her life, in all probability, when her life revolves in some way around poop.  and it will be funny to her too.  rambling, i am.  back to the carousel ride.  after we were done we went to get in my mom's car to leave and it wouldn't start.  no idea what was wrong.  but thank god for my mom's friends who were home on friday night and didn't mind coming to resuce us!  donna and blair were sooooo nice and helpful.  we had to do the car seat tango and donna drove me and the girls home and blair stayed with my mom till the tow truck got there and then gave her a ride home.  normally a broken down car isn't that big a deal , but stranded with two babies, a girl post surgery, and 100 + degree weather can quickly turn into a nightmare.  but it didn't.  we had brought water with us and my mom was prepared with a quilt.  you should always have a quilt in the car.  it's my version of a towel.  if it's cold it will keep you warm.  if it is sweat dripping down your back hot, spread it in the non exisitent grass and let your baby stare at the sky.  i also chopped off all my hair this week.  i FINALLY had enough to donate to locks of love.  i have a before photo, but that's it so far.  my hair looks a hot mess in the following pictures.  but, as with finding a deoderant that stands up to 100+ degree weather, i am unable to make my hair look good when i am dripping with sweat.  so don't judge the new do by these photos.  wait for it.  as always i am blessed beyond what i could possibly deserve and am learning new ways to appreciate it every day.  thank you for another wonderful ordinary day.

carousel riding

granny love

me and my girls

waiting for a lift~thank goodness granny was prepared with a quilt!

davis's first time to lay on a quilt and stare at the sky...it's just been toooooooo hot to go outside.  we miss the outdoors

making beads the other day.  her reward for being a big girl and lasting thru the night without a potty incident

giraffe butt cuteness

momma's little giraffe

look at those muscles!

yeah, no way this onesie was fitting on her. 

this photo cracks me up for some reason...can't quite pinpoint it but i love it.

are you ready for some football?

chocolate soy ice cream...not quite as good as bluebell but it'll do.

i love how she sleeps

in response to smile pretty

the grin she gave me when i got home from the hospital was priceless and heartmelting.

holding on herself

keeping a firm grasp on her momma, even while she's asleep.

wham bam

you know how you go along just getting along day by day?  and then WHAM!  the shit hits the fan.  well that happened to us this week.  we started up doing football sundays this past sunday and i didn't feel great, but i thought it was just something i ate.  woke up monday and still didn't feel good, but not that bad.  and then i took a nose dive.  from about 1130am i went from being really sick to around 145pm i needed to get to the hospital stat.  i was barely conscious.  it was pretty scary.  i remember fighting to keep my eyes open and trying to follow what the nurse said so i could answer questions.  i had an emergency appendectomy monday night.  those things are no joke.  who knew such a useless organ could cause such havic?!  luckily ben and i have an awesome support system and were able to get my mom and resa over to watch the girls.  by some miracle i had started pumping my breast milk and storing it in the freezer, and on a whim we bought bottles for davis this past weekend.  and luckily davis loves to eat.  she didn't fight the bottle at all for my mom. 
i think i'm a pretty good person, but i have my share of faults and the past couple of days have highlighted them for me, and probably for those around me.  i like to be in control.  i was sooooo not in control this week.  i freaked out crying before surgery.  the idea of general anesthesia freaks me out.  luckily the guy doing it had an awesome bed side manner and promised that i would wake up again.  i have too much to live for.  as the general practitioner said to me in the er in response to "but i don't want to have surgery", well you can have surgery or you can die.  those are your options right now.  gee thanks.  when you put it that way.  i am also a very hands on momma.  i don't think that is necesarily a flaw, but i can be a bit over protective.  i mean i didn't leave marley anywhere until she was six months old, and then only for an hour and only with my mom.  to be honest my mom is still the only person that has ever watched her.  i mean besides ben and i.  and here davis is not even three months old yet and i am having to leave her for 24 hours.  i knew she was in good hands, but she wasn't in MY hands.  i would like to say that this experience has helped me to conquer my fears and nerves, but that would be a lie.  it has made me think about them.  and it has made me enjoy my girls, my husband, and my family all the more.  by the way, all this went down on ben and i's wedding anniversary.  i have pictures from the past couple of days and a fun video, but i am all tuckered out.  enjoy your ordinary day.  it is special and priceless.  mine are.  thank you for the love, my dear dear family. 

quiet celebration

as i make my way tip toeing down our squeaky hallway, having successfully put marley and davis to bed for the night, i hear crowds cheering hooray as balloons and confetti rain down...in my head of course.  ben has been working second shift, which means dinner, bath, and bedtime fall on me solo most days.  i actually prefer this schedule as it gives us maximum time for family adventures.  i think i am getting the hang of the evening hours pretty good.  but it is far from routine, for me at least.  the girls have their routines.  i just feel like the big cheese when i am actually able to do it.  it should get easier as time goes on.
on another note, i have been bitching and moaning about no ice cream for no reason at all.  we have an ice cream maker.  so tomorrow we are making soy ice cream.  woo hoo. 

marley and gg and the quilt

 so my grandma made this amazing quilt for marley.  it has a different sunbonnet sue for each month.  my grandma did TONS of hand work (which i don't do) and each month she used bits of material that she got from my mom.  scraps from the dresses and oufits she had made marley.  it is a priceless treasure.  and beautiful to boot.  i'll post a better picture of it soon.

all aboard!

 we did the old toy bucket shuffle and look what we found!  a train conductor's hat!  marley was very excited.  we got this when her great grandpa gave us a tour of a historical dayton, ohio park.

she is serious about her choo trains

roller skates take two

she LOVED the turtles.

i loved watching ben try to squeeze his butt on to one

pickle face...hehehe

more pickle face

davis's cheeks mean business

and we're dancing!

marley's first dance class was tonight and it was a HUGE success.  didn't cry for momma once.  just jumped right on in with all the other little girls.  so proud of my dancing queen.

all ready to go!  carrying the dance bag her aunt resa made for her momma when she started dance.

very excited

shaking her grove thang

listening very intently

she loved every minute of it

ballet leaps

and to end the night a popicicle