sleep,

we actually got some last night after Bella successfully soothed herself to sleep. We were almost at the breaking point of exhaustion (so was Bella with dark circles under her eyes), finally we let her cry herself to sleep last night for bed and it only took 30 minutes. She slept wonderfully, waking for her bottles without screaming inconsolably, she went right back to sleep and if she didn't, we let her cry a bit and within a few minutes she was asleep. I like to call last night a breakthrough of sorts. We all got some sleep and when Arabella woke up this morning at 7 AM she looked so rested and happy and cheerful. What a relief. For the past two weeks the cold threw Bella in this terrible cycle of being so tired she couldn't sleep well or nap well, which just made her more tired and hard to console. My knees and ankles hurt from so much bouncing and rocking. I'm hoping last night is the start of a new healthy sleeping era in our house.

This morning Justin was in the mood to play with the girls (especially after a Hokie win against Marshall coupled with a good night's sleep).

Lucy's favorite spot

rain, rain, go away

It's been raining here for the last three days straight. Today it rained so hard all the streets were flooded. It took Addie and I an hour and a half to get home from school. I wish I had my camera in the car to show everyone how some of the local kids were literally splashing and playing in the water like it was a pool. The rain was getting to us so when the sun peaked through the clouds this afternoon all of our moods were improved. Bella took a two hour afternoon nap (totally not normal), and we all were feeling pretty good.

Addie's new favorite thing is stamping herself. Thank goodness Grammy bought us a washable stamp pad.

me

I never get photographed unless I ask Justin to take a picture of me with the girls. Here is Bella and I on Saturday after my haircut. I figured it won't look this nice for awhile again.

Bath time

Bella has moved up to the next position in her bath tub. She grabs her feet the entire time she's in the bath so she teeters on her little bum cheeks. Here she is all bundled in her towel afterwards too.

Dinner with friends

I've been meaning to get the girls in for professional photos. It's been since Bella was two weeks old. She's clearly a different kid now. I hesitate to go for a number of reasons. 1. It's expensive. 2. Addie most often sits in front of the camera looking anything but smiley and happy. 3. Bella would probably cry. 4. It's stressful. 5. Why when I've got an amazing camera at home. I open up the windows in my room and let them snuggle in my bed. I need a really sunny day to make the light perfect but it worked out OK this afternoon while it was cloudy. I really prefer the natural light over the flash.Our lovely neighbors invited us for dinner since Justin is gone. I sat and ate my meal as if I wasn't the mother of an infant (slowly). By 5:45 PM Bella was screaming to be put to bed so I ran home and got her asleep then came back to get Addie. It was so nice. Addie loves playing with their two boys. In fact she has a little crush on the four year old, Isaac. A week or so ago during a nasty thunder storm in the middle of the night, Justin went to check on Addie in bed. She turned over and sleepily asked "Isaac?". Justin was like "No, it's Daddy!". She's dreaming of boys already!

This Mama needs a vacation!

It's been a rough go of it since Saturday evening when Justin left for Australia for the week. Just the organization and planning that goes into managing both girls at dinner and bedtime is enough stress to frazzle me. It feels like I ran a marathon when they've both been bathed and are asleep. Monday was a sad day because my helper, Cora's, sister passed away from a head trauma from an accident that had occurred a week ago. She headed back to her Provence for two weeks. She left me with a friend of hers to help with the cleaning. Man, I didn't know how good I have it with Cora. Before Cora left I bought a serious amount of frozen crap food to feed myself this week since I knew I would have little time for cooking. I can't believe I'm eating chicken nuggets. (actually, as I type this I am eating two mini cheese (cheese food product) burgers and a big fat brownie). We all came down with a cold. The girls now are the two with stuffy noses. Poor Bella has it the worst. She can't sleep and is just plain miserable. We were experiencing some successes with Ferberizing her for naps and bedtime (she almost wanted me to just put her down and cry it out). Now with a cold I don't have the heart to let her cry. We'll start over after she's better. Lucy has ear mites, the kitchen sink backed up, my driver's about to go on paternity leave, Bella won't tolerate the stand-in yaya (even for a few seconds), Addie's being TWO, I've given up dairy to help eliminate the old-man style farts Bella produces. Just a ton of issues to deal with this week.

A good example of how our days are going is the following: Bella wakes up 25 minutes after falling asleep for a nap. It was just enough time for me to think I was going to get to snooze a bit, only to be disappointed. I hear something in Addie's room and assume she's waking up from her nap too. I open the door to find Addie without her diaper on, rubbing a bar of soap on the hard wood floors. She tore off her wall decals and put them all over her bed. When she saw the look on my face she dropped the bar of soap and ran. She now is grounded from TV. (which I swear is the source of all her evil and she's come to love it WAY too much)

Good news is we are experiencing success with potty training. After the second time Addie took of her diaper today we put on panties. She told Loni (the fill-in yaya) twice she had to pee-pee and ran to the potty to go! I'm so proud of her. It's all clicking now.

I can't wait for Justin to return. It sucks doing all the parenting by myself. It's nice looking forward to 6 o'clock when Daddy gets home. I'm so lucky to have Cora's help during the day and I dearly miss her healthy delicious cooking. I hate having to decide which crying daughter to tend to first, the sick screaming baby or the pleading two year old who just wants me to sing one more song before she goes to sleep. I miss the Daddy!