A little funk...

Being a parent is wonderful blessing... it makes you smile every single day and there is never a bad moment!  HAHAHAHA  Okay, now that we've all had a good laugh, it's time to discuss the parenting funk we all get in every now and then.

How can you love a little person so much... and yet imagine yourself flushing them down the toilet when they act up??  I would call and ask my parents how they dealt with me, but let's be honest... I was a pretty fantastic kid, and they probably wouldn't have any advice for me! :) 

Gracie has started her grunting again.  If you're new here, and haven't had the pleasure of reading about Gracie's grunting, you can find it here!  She outgrew the grunting when she learned better ways to express herself... but apparently it's back with a vengeance!  Except now we get the grunt, the attitude, and the words to go along with it.  For example... "Gracie, finish your supper please!"  "No, mommy!!  Shush!" - Hits the table - "Errrrrrngh!"  And that's when I want to pick her up, stuff her in the toilet, and flush.  We're often on Skype with my parents when these little episodes occur... and they laugh.  Well, my dad laughs.  My mom doesn't really know how to laugh.  Her eyes close, she leans backwards like she might fall out of her chair, her whole body shakes, and she makes noises out of her nose (kinda like a snort, but also like a wheeze), but no real laugh comes out of her mouth.  Obviously (like I stated before), they find it entertaining because they've never seen this kind of attitude before!

I don't know if it's the fact that I've stopped breastfeeding, the fact that I've started back on birth control (for the first time in 3 years), or whether I'm pregnant again (JOKE!!), but I must say, my hormones are all wacky these last couple of weeks!  I'm cranky, and teary-eyed, and just feel in a funk!  I'm laughing at Gracie one minute, and swearing I'm not having any more kids the next minute.  My patience to deal with the little people has been in short supply lately. 

Danny has been off on parental leave, so I've been able to pass Gracie and her attitude off to him when I'm having an especially hard day.  I feel for the stay-at-home moms who never get the break they need!  Like I said before, being a parent is a wonderful blessing, but my lord children can be exhausting!  99% of the time we smile and patiently say all the right things when our children are acting like little hellions, but for those of us without back-up for the other 1% of the time... well, let's just say I can fully understand why 2-year-olds happen to know so many curse words! :)

My wonderful hubby has noticed the little funk I've been in the last couple of weeks... so the other day when the girls were napping (including me), he ran to the store and brought me home a little treat!

Some lovely flowers!! But the best part (because he knows me soooo well) was the fact that the flowers were accompanied by Jalapeno Poppers and sour cream & onion Pringles!  Nothing gets me out of a funk faster than cheese-filled peppers and chips!!  :)

I feel much better now... apparently it wasn't my hormones out of whack, it was junk food depletion!  I wont be letting that happen again!! :)

Sleeping like a husband!

Sleep is a luxury.  It's probably one of many things that people without kids take for granted.  And by people without kids, I mean husbands.  I'm fairly sure that people without kids realize that their sleep will be affected by kids and babies... and yet somehow, most dads didn't get the message! :)

I warned Danny that this blog was coming... his response was, "Go ahead, I'll start my own blog and tell the real truth."  I'd believe him... except he sleeps too much to keep up with it! :)

I should be fair and tell the whole truth... I'm a morning person.  Danny isn't.  So it was never an obligation of Danny's to have to get up with the kids.  It was always just sort of agreed that we don't need two sleepy parents, so he shouldn't have to get up with them.  Except that things have changed slightly from my perspective with the addition of Ella...

Gracie was a phenomenal sleeper.  She slept until 8 or 9 most mornings from the very beginning.  Ella does too... except she still gets up around 5:30 a.m. to eat.  The problem with 5:30, is that by the time I get back to bed and start falling asleep, it's 7:00, and that's when Gracie wakes up.  So I've started staying up after feeding Ella.  That means most of the time, my days begin around 5:15 or 5:30.

It's only been the last month or so that our original arrangement has started causing me some... issues. And by issues, I mean bitterness, anger, and hatred towards my husband.  Of course all of those emotions are dripping with love... and I mostly laugh while I feel them!  So it's not 100% bitterness, just a tiny little dose.

We were at my cousin's house this weekend for a bonfire, and she recently had a baby as well.  Her husband is now off on parental leave (as is Danny) and Danny asked him how it was going.  He said he gets up most mornings at 6:00 because that's when the kids get up, and my cousin sleeps in until around 8.  Danny thought that was hilarious!!

I think all of the aggression towards his sleeping started about a month ago, when I started to sleep train Ella.  I was letting her "cry it out" in the middle of the night and just getting up in the morning to feed her.  After the second night of the crying, I said to Danny in the morning "did you hear how long and how many times she cried?  I hope it didn't keep you up."  I actually felt bad.  And then the little bugger said, "no, I didn't hear anything.  I put in earplugs."  Earplugs?  EARPLUGS?!?!  Something about that made me so mad.  I guess I felt that if he didn't have to get up, he could at least have the decency to be inconvenienced by the noise!  Nope, he wears earplugs to bed now.  So when Gracie is up at 7:00 and she's in a particularly heinous mood, and throws 15 temper tantrums before 7:30, and I'm on the verge of having a mental breakdown... Danny doesn't hear a thing.  Because he's wearing EARPLUGS!!

Most mornings Gracie and I come in and wake Danny up between 9 and 9:30.  He rarely comes out on his own.  The other morning, after I had been awake already for nearly 4 hours, we went to wake him up.  We sat on the bed and played for a few minutes, then he had the nerve to say to me:  "Sammy, can you take the girls out and just give me 5 minutes to myself to wake up?"  I stared at him.  I don't think I said anything... just stared at him!  Imagine, after nearly 4 hours with the bed to himself, he needed 5 minutes to himself!  

When he came out, we had a lengthy discussion about sleeping... It started with me saying that I realized that it was our arrangement that he sleep in while I get up with the girls.  But that was before my mornings began at 5:15, and I was probably getting a little burned out since I felt kind of bitter every time the lazy bugger crawled out of the bedroom at 9:30.  He agreed about the bitter part... apparently he had noticed! :)

I said, "I think I just need like one week where I can sleep in and you get up with the girls.  Just  like 5 days."

His response:  "5 days of getting up at 5:30??  That's crazy!!"  

I think the fact that my eyebrows raised into my hairline and my mouth opened so wide and yet no sound came out was probably the giveaway that he had said something stupid.  I started laughing, and said, "you think?!?!"  He laughed too, and when I asked him if he was laughing because of how crazy that sounded, he admitted that it was.  He knows how lucky he is!!  I think the next thing I said was, "I hate you... just so you know.  And I want to punch you in the face."  I told him, "oh buddy, I'm soooo going to write about this."  He laughed.  He knew how ridiculous he sounded.  He knew he was busted!!

I have to cut him a break though.  Danny's a phenomenal dad.  He really is!  And it was my idea for him to sleep.  I really do believe that it's pointless for him to be up and tired if I can handle the girls in the morning by myself.  But the female part of me also wants to blame him for something that isn't his fault.  It isn't his fault that I agreed to let him sleep in, then get mad when he does.  It isn't his fault that Gracie has mornings where I swear she is the spawn of Satan!   But that doesn't matter to the female part of me... the female part of me comes in to wake him up after a morning like that, sees him snuggled into bed all comfy and cozy, and wants to smother the poor bastard with a pillow for having the audacity to actually sleep like I told him to!  It isn't his fault when he comes out, and I sweetly ask, "how did you sleep babe?" that I want to kick him in the teeth when he says "really good, thanks!" because I think he should have at least had the compassion to have a crappy sleep if I had to deal with screaming children all morning!

Really though, our arrangement works 99% of the time.  Danny is lucky to have a wife that is a morning person and doesn't mind him sleeping in most of the time.  And he would totally get up at 5:30 this week if I really wanted him to feed Ella (even thought he really does think 5:30 is crazy!), and he would get up at 7:00 and deal with Gracie if I needed him to.  But I don't.  I just need to vent sometimes about how lucky he is.  I need to threaten him with bodily harm, tell him he's a lazy little bugger, and swear I'm going to murder him in his sleep sometimes.  He knows I'm joking... and if I wasn't, he would never hear me coming because of the earplugs! :)

Don't poop in there!

Before we begin, I have a confession to make... my daughters have seen me naked.  On numerous occasions.  For those of you who aren't parents and think this is weird... believe me, it is not!  In fact, I don't think I've gone to the bathroom alone since the day Gracie was born.  Okay, that's not exactly true, but I do have company more often than not when I need to go!  Getting changed alone is a luxury as well.  Not to mention showering.  It's so nice to have a shower all to yourself, instead of having a little person pulling back the curtain every 3 seconds to have a chat or to make sure you're not using "my shampooooo" as Gracie likes to call it (as if I'd want to walk around all day smelling like blueberry sherbet!).  As much as I could complain about the showering thing though, I'm sure it's worse for Danny... who has to answer the "what's that?" question when Gracie peeks in on him!  The fact that I'm also a breast-feeding mother also means that, inside my home, my breasts are exposed more often than they're covered!  Cause really, who has time to tie blankets to bra straps to make sure you're covered inside your own home!  So, needless to say, Gracie has seen her fair share of naked mommy.

We're in the midst of potty training Gracie.  We haven't had to clean a poopy diaper in weeks (yay!!), and when Gracie needs to go, she always yells, "potty poop, Mommy!"  or "potty poop, Daddy!"  and off we run for the bathroom.  When we were first teaching about potty-pooping, we used to say "we don't poop in our diapers anymore, we poop on the potty!" and everytime we would run to the bathroom and still have a clean diaper, Gracie would get some praise "Yay, Gracie! No poop in there!"

So all this nakedness and poop talk is quite common place in our house these days.  And it never even occurred to me to share it with strangers... until Gracie did it for me today!!

On Monday mornings, Gracie goes to swim lessons at the pool on base.  We usually get changed in the women's locker room, but I discovered that the family changing room is actually heated... so we change in there now.  When we got changed in the female change room, I would just wrap a towel around myself and get changed under it.  Since the family change room has mommies and daddies in there, they provide you with nice little changing rooms.  Today was a very busy day at the pool.  The change room was full of mommies and daddies and babies!  After Gracie's swim lessons were over, I changed her in the main part of the room, then took her to a change room to get myself changed (I didn't want to try the towel trick in front of other daddies!).  The change rooms are actually just shower stalls with an extra wall in them, and they are thisclose to the main room.  We went in and shut the door, and since it was just Gracie and I, I dropped the towel and my swimsuit!  Gracie laughed and yelled "mommy's naked!!!!" and I heard a few giggles from the main room.  I'm not quite sure what Gracie thought I was about to do next, but all of a sudden, in her biggest, loudest voice she yelled "NO MOMMY, NO!!  DON'T POOP IN HERE!!" All I could hear was laughing from the main room, and I have to admit, I was actually embarrassed!!  Not that any adult in their right mind would think I would go potty in the change stall, but still... I felt like I had to defend myself! So I had to say in a loud voice too, "don't worry Gracie, mommy's just getting changed," to which she replied, "Yes mommy.  Poop on the potty. Don't poop in here."  At least that time was a little quieter... but I felt like I had been scolded.  When I had my pants and sweater on, Gracie came over, rubbed my leg and said, "therrrrre, mommy," like I was a good little girl for not pooping on the floor.

I can just imagine the conversation Gracie had with her little friends when she got back to daycare.  I can picture her standing there, with the group gathered around her, "you wouldn't believe what my mommy was going to do today at the pool... but I stopped her!!"

This may be the first time that Gracie has embarrassed me in public... but I'm quite sure it wont be the last!  Eeep!!

A little bit of Gracie...

Gracie is one special little girl!  She's all grown up, with an attitude to prove it! :)

Our day just isn't complete without a little bit of attitude thrown our way by this little girl.  I should have realized this was coming when I wrote my first blog about Gracie's attitude... and she was barely 1 years old.  I remember thinking... "this is just a phase."  Nuh-uh!!  That attitude is bred right into her, and I think she gets it from her mama! :)

Gracie isn't all attitude, though... she's got a nice mix of sweet and gentle in there too.  She is the kindest sister I could ever imagine (other than mine of course, who never practiced karate on me, convinced me to fall backwards off the kitchen counter onto the floor after a promise to catch me, had to be told to "only hit with open hands, your fists will hurt them," or anything else like that!!), and is so sweet to Ella it makes me smile just thinking about it.

Every morning when she wakes up, I go into her room to get her out of bed.  Lately she's been waking up crying, but it doesn't matter because the minute I open that door, she jumps up, stands at the edge of the crib with her bear in one hand and her doll in the other and says "Morning mommy!" with the brightest, happiest voice!  I go over and ask her if she's ready to get up, and she says yes... but she can't get out of bed until you've kissed and hugged every single animal that she's leaving behind in her bed and she lines them  up or tucks them into the blanket.  As soon as I pick her up, she always asks, "I see my daddy, mommy?" and then "Is Ella sleeping, mommy?"  When it's time to wake Ella up in the morning, it's everything I can do to get her to whisper down the hall because she is so excited to finally be able to see her sister for the day.  She usually ends up so excited that she presses her face against the bars of the crib and she screams "Morning Ella! How you doin'?" before Ella's actually fully awake and scares the bejeezus right out of her! :)  One day, Ella will appreciate how sweet those morning wake up calls are!

Gracie has quite the vocabulary.  She knows lots of words (including a few *ahem* unsavoury ones!), and she uses them... all day.  The girl never stops talking, unless faced with people she doesn't know, in which case she will only stare at the floor and say "no" when they try to talk to her.  She picks up expressions from everywhere and everyone, and they quickly become part of her everyday vocabulary.  Her newest one is "aye aye aye," like a little Mexican! :)  She also likes "oh my, oh my" and "what's that noise?"

We are in the midst of potty training Gracie, and after having a fairly impressive poop in her diaper last week, she said to Danny, "Oh my, oh my!  Big one in there, daddy!  Aye, aye, aye!"

She's also very concerned about noises lately, and any unfamiliar noises will scare her.  We must hear at least 30 times a day, "What's that noise, mommy?"  "What's that noise, daddy?" and she usually ends up stopping dead wherever she is and covering her face with her hands.  I really hope this is a phase she outgrows, because most of the time I don't hear anything, and she gets so scared I'm half convinced she hears dead people talking to her... which really creeps me out! :)

The newest phrase she's picked is "mine."  As in, "mine toys mommy!"  She's usually not too nasty about it, she's just informing you that whatever you have in your hands actually belongs to her.  She doesn't mind sharing though!  She can get quite upset when you take things that  belong to her though. Every morning we come upstairs and when she sees that the table has been cleared off from the night before, she gets quite agitated:  "Where'd mine supper go mommy?"  I think this has more to do with her obsession with eating than with not wanting to share her things.  One thing she is quite possessive off is Ella.  Apparently when they discuss Ella at daycare, Gracie is sure to tell everyone "that's mine Ella!  Mine!"  And when we bring Ella with us to pick her up from daycare and all the kids gather around the carseat to have a look at her, Gracie comes over and puts one arm around the carseat and introduces her to everyone very proudly, "This is mine Ella.  How you doin' Ella?"  Oh, if only that would last! :)

When the attitude does come out, Danny is able to stop it pretty darn quick.  Me... not so much.  It's not that I don't do the exact same things Danny does... I just think his stern voice is much scarier than mine and gets her attention much quicker.  She tells me no a lot.  A LOT!!!  Actually, she yells it at me.  "NO, MOMMY!!" and because that's not an acceptable way to speak to your parents, we always correct her.  So the next time, she raises her voice 3 octaves and sings it, "No, mommy!!" as if using her "happy voice" will make it okay.  I try to not to laugh at her then, because at least she's trying! :)

Every night at  bedtime, Gracie has her pee on the potty, gets into her jammies, and we read a couple books.  Then she turns out the light, and we go to the window to say goodnight to everything outside "Goodnight cars.  Goodnight flowers.  Goodnight birds.  Goodnight grass.  Goodnight sun.  Goodnight doggies next door."  Then its hugs and kisses, and into bed she goes.  We line up the right amount of animals and dolls, throw on 2 blankets, and say goodnight.  When we get to the door, we have to stop, say "Goodnight Gracie.  Love you."  to which she responds, "Night Mommy. Uvv you. Muwaaaah.  Night Dadd.  Uvvv you.  Muwaaaaah.  Night Ella.  Uvv you.  Muwaaaah."  Then we go back upstairs to continue our night, but I always turn the baby monitor up to listen to her fall asleep... sometimes she just keeps repeating her goodnight message until she passes out cold, but most nights it's "twinkle, twinkle, twinkle star.  Ow I wonna what you arrrrre.  Uppa bovva word so hiiiiiigh.  Yika dima inna sky.  Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle star.  Ow I wonna what you arrrrre."

*Sigh*  I do love that little girl!! :)

A little bit of Ella...

Babies are pretty useless!  Now, I would just like to say that I have spoken to other mommies, and they tend to agree with me!  Between the day they're born and around, say, 2 or 3 months old, babies are useless!  They're cute to look at... but that's about it! They eat, they poop, they sleep, they cry.  Basically the first 2 to 3 months is just surviving.  After that is when things start to become fun, when having a baby is really worth it!

Ella is starting to get to that point now.  You smile at her, and she smiles back.  She laughs now.  She holds her own head up.  She talks and coos and carries on a conversation.  Of course I don't have a clue what she's saying, but she's still talking along with me!  I can put her in the exersaucer, and she'll play for hours (or 20 minutes, which is hours in baby time!).  When she gets in the tub now, she gets so excited and splashes all over the place.  She's just getting cute, plain and simple! :)

This little girl can talk too!  Holy moly... she will talk your ear off.  Her favourite time to talk is during dinner, or when changing her bum.  She loves to lay on the change table and talk and talk and talk!  Here she is, having a little chat with Aunt Tricia on Thanksgiving.  She was pretty tired by this time of the night, but she was still able to carry on quite the conversation!!

Ella is also a smiler!  Gracie smiled very early, and Ella did too... the difference is, Ella gives them away for free!! :)  Gracie used to make you work for her smiles.  And most of the time, while you were making faces or funny sounds, she would look at you with this very serious look on her face, as if to say "Come on puppet, is that all you have?  Entertain me!"  Ella is the total opposite!  All you have to do is look at her, and she smiles away!  I sometimes compare them to Garfield and Ottis.  I'll let you decide which one I think acts like the goofy puppy! :)  Even now, Gracie is quite serious!  She's not a fan of people she doesn't know!  It's not that she's shy, she's just very choosy about who she will speak to.  Ella is only young yet, but I can tell that her personality is going to be the complete opposite of Gracie's!  I'm looking forward to meeting Ella's personality in the near future.  It's hard to imagine your second child as anything but exactly like your first... before she was born, the only image I could conjure of her was Gracie as an infant!  And since Gracie's personality (and *ahem* attitude) is all I've ever known from my children, I'm looking forward to watching a new and different personality develop.




It's hard to believe that nearly 3 months have passed since Ella was born.  Every day is a new adventure with her, and it's exciting to watch her grow and develop and learn new things.  Time seems to pass faster each and every day, and I have a feeling things aren't going to slow down any time soon.  So while I can, I take tons of pictures, and record all the memories.  Because soon my little Ella will be big like Gracie, and Gracie will be... well, she'll be bigger too!  So as much as I'm glad that Ella is out of the "useless baby" stage, I do kind of wish that the world would spin just a little bit slower... 

Enough is Enough

Last week I wrote a little about being thankful... thankful for friends, for family, for people in our lives.  Today at church, my priest spoke a sermon about being thankful for things.  For being happy with what we have, instead of always wanting more.  

He asked us, "when is the last time you met somebody who was truly happy with what they had?"  And the truth is... I don't think I ever have!  It's true that I'm happy with what I have... but do I want more?  Absolutely!  There are days when the toys are all over the floor, and the boxes of children's clothes are piled 6 high, and the laundry baskets are overflowing, and I think "I need a bigger house."  There are days that I stand in my closet, staring at "nothing" and think "I need more clothes."  There are days that I stare in my freezer or cupboards, full of food, and think "there's nothing to eat."

There's always going to be more stuff that I want... and when does it stop?  When I get a bigger house, will I be satisfied?  If I can go on a clothes shopping spree, will that make me happy?  If I fill all of my cupboards and fridge with the freshest foods, will I be able to make dinner more often?

Danny and I said we wanted to raise our girls with respect.  We want them to respect people, but also things.  They should recognize that they are lucky to have the things that they do, that not everybody is able to have as much they do.  We always said we didn't want a house full of toys, and at Christmastime and at birthdays, they will have to donate old toys to make room for new ones.

This afternoon, Gracie found some money while she was playing in my closet.  By money, I mean 35 cents, but to her, it could have been a million dollars!  We went grocery shopping, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to show her the value of money.  She wanted a treat, and I told her treats cost money, so she would have to hand over her money if she wanted to take the treat home.  She thought really hard about it.  She really didn't want to give up her money.  But of course, in the end, the lure of a chocolate treat won out and she handed over her 35 cents.  Of course the little chocolate that she bought was more than 35 cents, but we'll save that lesson for when she can count! :)  The point is that she traded in her money for her treat, and she was happy.  She didn't need both. 

So if we expect our children to learn these lessons, why is it so hard for us, as adults, to be happy with what we have?  Maybe we all need the innocence of children, who think that a chocolate treat at the grocery store is the greatest thing in the world.  They see the chocolate in their hand, and don't even see the 300 other chocolate bars inches from their face.  When playing at home, Gracie can spend so long just laying on the floor, playing with her crayons and scrap paper.  She doesn't need toys that sing and dance and flash lights.  We can go outside and run around on the lawn for hours.  She doesn't need electric toy cars.  She can wear the same outfit 10 days in a row, and still look in the mirror like she does every day and say "I'm pretty, mommy."

Danny and I have spent so long talking about the things we want our children to learn from us, but I think sometimes the things we can learn from them mean so much more.  We need to just start paying attention, and try to soak up some of that innocence.  They are so happy with what they already have... somehow, in their little time in this world, they've already learned something that adults have such a hard time grasping, the greatest lesson... that enough really is enough!

So much to be thankful for!

Today is Thanksgiving... and I have tons to be thankful for!

This weekend, one of my oldest and bestest friends got married!  The weather was fantastic, the ceremony was amazing, and the bride was beyond beautiful!  I had the honour of standing with Leah as a bridesmaid, and there is no where else I would rather have been this weekend than sharing in her special day!  The wedding also gave me the opportunity to catch up with some friends I haven't seen since high school, and we had a fantastic time.  Watching how happy everybody was for Leah and Dave, and sharing in that happiness, makes me realize how lucky I am to have such great friends in my life!  True friends are always just a phone call away, even if those phone calls are far and few between, knowing that they will always be there for you, no matter what, no matter when, is pretty darn special!

My parents made the trip from Fredericton to Digby for the wedding weekend too.  I needed someone to watch the girls so I could be in the wedding, and Danny could come as well.  Driving all that way, just to babysit??  That's my parents!  They would do anything for Danny and I, and we are so grateful for everything they have done for us!!  Someday, we will be able to repay them for all of their troubles, for all of their generosity, for all of their selflessness.  Until then... we will give them the pleasure of caring for and spoiling their grandbabies! :)

Thanksgiving Dinner with the family.  Being away all weekend meant that
Colonel Sanders had to cook!! :)

My sister is also pretty awesome to me.  We forgot about finding someone to watch Charlie for us while we were all partying in Digby this weekend, and Patricia didn't hesitate to take her for the weekend.  I text her some mornings... "Come visit.  Bring tea."  And she always does!  Gracie adores her, and she's there to babysit when we need her.  I know that I don't have to worry about leaving my girls with her because she loves them like they're hers!

There's my husband as well, and I'm thankful for him every day.  He's really a very special guy, who doesn't hesitate to show how much he loves me and the girls!  Sometimes I take for granted how lucky I am, but then I see a dad who complains about having to stay home to "babysit" his own kids, or who rolls his eyes when his wife asks him to help bathe the kids... and that's all it takes to remind me of how amazing Danny is.  He doesn't think twice about helping out with the girls... not because he knows it's his job... but because he truly enjoys being a part of every aspect of their lives, the good, the bad, and then dirty!

And then of course, there's the girls.  Every single day with them is a gift, and I need to slow down sometimes and savour every moment!  Like this morning, when Gracie unrolled the toilet paper roll while sitting on the potty.  Instead of noticing the mess on the floor, I should be thankful at the success we're having with potty training.  Instead of being annoyed at the fact that Gracie talks alllll day, every day, without taking a single breath, I need to close my eyes and listen to the sound of her voice... thankful that she wants to talk to us, grateful that she's such a smart little girl who can make us laugh all the time with the things that come out of her mouth!  Instead of being frustrated when Ella is crying, I need to be thankful that she only cries when she's hungry, and not all day long like some parents have to endure.   I'm thankful watching my girls grow!   Seeing how strong Ella is getting every day... she can hold her head up without any help now, and sits up straight with us barely holding her hips.  Gracie is an amazing big sister, and helps out however she can with Ella.  When I go to get Ella up in the morning, Gracie has to follow behind me, yelling "Morning Ella" all the way.

Thanksgiving only comes once a year, but I think it's important to take a few moments every day and realize how lucky I am to have the life that I have, how lucky I am to have the friends that I have, and how luck I am to have the family that I have!