Early Birthday

Well, Abby's birthday isn't until Monday, and her party isn't until Friday, but here she is getting her early birthday present...

They're kind of hard to see through the cheesy smile and the gum in her mouth, but she got her ears pierced! She was super excited, and I didn't tell her what we were doing before we got there. She picked out her birthstone, which is unfortunately peridot... the ugliest green you can imagine. But she was very happy with them, so that's what counts. Friday she's having her friend birthday party. Four girls and her, having a sleepover at a local hotel in the poolside room. Should be a fun, if crazy, time.

Going back into the picture files... here's Ava on her birthday. She had mostaccioli (her favorite!) and then got into her cupcake. She left a ring of frosting around the tub...

This cupcake is for me?

Ooooh, that's good.

Yeah! Frosting!

Aaaah, that was good!

And on another birthday occasion at Dave's mom and dad's house...

She again did it up right!

And with Abby's birthday comes the start of school. We went school supply shopping, and it's such a chore! Two is really hard... I can only imagine when this is times four! All that stuff on the counter below is school supplies. Abby's trying to hold it all up...

I wonder where she's going?

And finally, pictures of the new baby! We went down to visit my sister today, and to meet Kate for the first time. Abby held her first, feeding her a bottle.

She fits right in with our family, just one of the kids. Hard to imagine that in a year she'll be as big as Ava, and probably more mobile!

Ava looking like one big baby here.

Hopefully Kate won't be as cranky as Ava's been lately! :)  Regardless, she's cute and precious, and just one of us!

My morning monster

My other children all slept and slept well. Oh, Abby had some issues for a little while actually falling asleep, and would holler several times before she actually nodded off, but that was when she was older. But Ava? She fights sleep with all her might. She screams when we go into her room and if I put her down before she's asleep. And then, at 5:00 AM like clockwork, she wakes up. She's obviously still tired, but restless as well, and won't go back to sleep. We'll sit there quiet for a long time, and I'll think she has nodded off, but as soon as I put her back in her crib, she's up and does not want to be left alone. I put her on the floor thinking she'll get crabby at that, but instead she crawls around and plays with her toys before finding her door and heading out to the hallway. And I'm still half asleep. So, we come downstairs, and on a regular bases, five minutes after we get down, she cries and gets crabby, I pick her up, and she falls asleep nearly immediately. And just as I'm dreaming of going back to bed, the other kids wake up, and she sleeps for another hour or two. Gee, thanks kid!

Baby Newness

My newest niece, Kate Selma Matulenko, was born last night around 5:40 PM. She weighed in at 8 lbs. even and 20-1/2" long. Other than taking longer than expected, everything went well and as planned. I can't wait to see pictures, and meet her next week!

MIA

I lack ambition lately. Part of it is that last week, when I took Ava to the doctor and also snuck in a question about me and why my throat still hurts, the doctor took a look and said I had a resistant strain of strep that the first round of antibiotics didn't clear up. So, I got a new prescription, stronger, and while it's helped the throat, it's done just wonders for my stomach!

I also went back to my kidney stone doctor for a check up. They're still there (I knew that) and he'd like to treat them again. It requires anesthesia and general yuckiness. I say if they don't hurt, leave them along. He says if I pee blood (yes, too much info, I know) I need to figure out why. I'm just not all that curious. So we settled on getting a new contrast CT scan and we'll go from there.

BUT enough about me! Last weekend we went to Dave's mom and dad's house, where we "suffered" out the heat in the pool. It was perfect, and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. Unfortunately, we came home and Dave is gone all this week, but at least we got to hang out for a few days first.

And summer is almost over. I took the kids to registration tonight for school. Abby has two of her good friends in her class, so that's good, but not the teacher she wanted. But then she heard this teacher orders pizza a lot. She thought that was pretty exciting. Nolan pretty much knew who his teacher would be, same as Abby's. But, he's in class with his good friend Kyan from across the street so he's excited about that.

13 days until school starts! I'm really not that excited about summer coming to a close, but I am excited about having a schedule again. A reason to enforce bedtimes, a morning routine, an after school routine. But I'm not looking forward to homework, rushing around, or bedtimes when it's still a nice summer or fall evening out. And really not looking to that horrible season that comes after fall. Ugh! It will be here way too soon!

That's my ramblings for tonight. Not too exciting, but it is what it is! Until another day...

Mornings with my boys

I'd be remiss if I didn't blog, at least just a little bit, about the mornings I had with the boys while Abby was at camp. A few mornings were busy with something or another, or me being sick, or whatever, but Thursday and Friday were all about leisure. Thursday the boys played Pirates of the Caribbean. They made a dungeon out of the footstool and couch pillows and made Ava and me lay in the dungeon. Of course Ava could come and go as she pleased, but I had to stay in that cushioned, confined, pillowy dungeon. Oh darn! At one point I thought, "If Dave were here, he'd get a plank, a pirate ship, a million things for them. But I was content at just laying in the dungeon, letting their imaginations take over for well over an hour.

Then, on Friday, I got up early with Ava (5:30), but then got her back down and she slept until 9:40 (9:40!). So, I was on the couch when Max got up and snuggled in with me at 6, and then Nolan at 6:30 came and joined us. We just hung out on the couch, watched cartoons and giggled until after 9. Usually their constant chatter grates on me, but that morning it was perfect.

I missed Abby, but I loved the mornings with my boys!