Blog Time!

The baby is napping; her sisters are watching Sesame Street; the house is mostly clean; and my sister says I need to write a blog today (and I always cater to her every desire!), so here's the latest:

Baby J. is pulling up on lots of stuff. She survived her first non-nursery babysitting, and (I think) she didn't give the babysitter too much trouble.
She seems to enjoy eating yogurt and most finger foods - but she is still gagging on things she thinks are too big or too thick. She doesn't really use the chewing motion much. We have a doctor appointment next week - I don't remember all the food-related rules/milestones so it will be nice to consult the doc!

The girls are starting to recognize songs on the radio and sing along. B. will go around singing little snips of random songs to herself or just sing about whatever she's doing. It's very sweet. My favorite so far is her rendition of my new profile song (if you're listening) by Toby Mac. She sings the chorus: "I don't want gain the [insert some garbled guesses at words here] and lose my hole." :)

We are currently working on using 'soft' voices. I've noticed recently that my house is loud. It makes me crazy. I need a lot of quiet. So, instead of just hollering (and adding to the din) to the girls to be quiet, we are now learning about proper volume. I've been wondering why I get so on edge by the end of the day and then last night we were at the table and I noticed that the girls were almost yelling their conversations. No wonder I'm frazzled!!

Last week I decided to brave Wal-Mart by myself with the kids. I really needed baby wipes and an ingredient for supper... I should have figured it was a bad idea when I went to push the cart and could barely get it rolling (granted we were on the uneven surface of the parking lot) because my children weigh about 85 lbs total. Add to that the fact that two 4-year-olds will probably never ride well together in the basket of shopping cart....imagine trying to push a cart that is swaying from side to side with the movements of two heavy bodies. I was able (barely) to at least keep them seated, but at one point thought someone was walking by who had just had a perm, but realized a few minutes later - when B. started screaming that A. had squirted her in the eye - that the girls had found the bottle of sunscreen/bug repellent.
Baby J. was well behaved for the most part, but since we had already been to story time and the park, she kept pointing at my chest and whimpering to remind me she was hungry. So, I've decided that there really is just nothing (ok, hopefully nothing) that I need bad enough to ever take three kids by myself to the store again. Besides, we all sort of enjoy our family Wal-Mart outings :)

Well this is a sorry attempt at a post - but at least sister will have something new to read ;) I'm having trouble thinking straight after a night in which A. came in around 1, woke up the baby, got sent back to bed, started crying, wouldn't stop crying until Mama came in, started crying again after Mama left to go tend to crying baby who woke up and cried every time Mama went to attend to A. I can't remember if it took 3 or 4 visits to A.'s bed before she stayed asleep - but I was able to remain calm and comforting (I was awake enough to stay rational!). And of course a night like that only happens when we have a stressful, early morning appointment!!!

I just realized that I wasted my Sesame Street snooze time writing this blog - boo!!! Thank goodness for Sesame Street, though :)

Oh! and I made it in for early voting today (thanks to a friend watching my kids in the neighboring park) - so I did my democratic duty - woohoo!