Sleepy

Last night was another rough night for Finn--which means a rough night for me and Mike. And just after he finally quieted down, I could hear Madie coughing in her room. It was a lot of coughing, so I went in, sat her up (she was already awake with it), gave her a drink, and tried to help her get back to sleep. She wanted me to sleep with her, but I said I had to go do something (I was starving by this time) but when I was done I would check on her and if she was still awake I'd lay down with her.

I ate something, did a few dishes, then went back up to see how she was. Of course she was still awake. So I laid down with her until she fell asleep. I never did go back under until I went down into my own bed though. In all, I lost 3 hours of sleep last night.

My only major problem with losing this much sleep is that it puts me on a war path the next day and I feel bad all day for being so rotten to my kids. Poor little tykes. Incredibly, today hasn't been as bad as all that--it's literally a miracle.

None of us even got after-lunch naps!

But now it's 5 pm. Finn just woke from a late nap, Madie is in the middle of one (THAT'S gonna be scary), and I'm trying to nurse, cook, and clean before the missionaries from our church arrive for dinner and a spiritual thought.

And of course Mike had to go pick up the car (that we were going to take in yesterday but didn't get to until today) from the repair shop--and he's biking. This is the longest hour and a half of my life.

I'm wicked tired, but at least it's quiet and peaceful. 

MOWvember

Have you heard of Movember? No? Well, you should look it up because men are far less likely to take the time to have regular checkups than women, and it's recommended they have a yearly screening for things like prostate cancer after 40. Men also happen to have a shorter lifespan than women by 5 years. Coincidence? Maybe...but probably not. Historically, men lived longer than women.

Movember's mission is to bring awareness to men's health. You can register as a Mo Bro or a Mo Sista. (Mo Sistas do not have to grow any extra facial/body hair. They simply support their Mo Bros.)

This post, however, is more personal than just talking about Movember. I'm talking about MOWvember. Instead of growing, I'm mowing.

People who do my hair are always surprised by how much I have.  We joked about sending it to my mother-in-law to have a doll made out of it. My little sister though I meant an actual doll of hair! Ew! But no, they're just porcelain dolls with human hair--like baby hair.

And as Movember is to support men and their health awareness, Mowvember is to support my kid sister:

Kit-Kat and her new 'do! Is she not just the third-cutest thing you ever saw? (I've got two kids, people, cut me some slack.)

Daylight Savings

I hate you. That's all.

Branch Halloween Party

 We had a lot of fun getting together with our branch for the Halloween party this year. Madie got just enough candy, we had a little pot luck, and got to know a few people. Madie had a blast running around. Our only regret was we didn't get a picture of all of us in our costumes! We went as pirates. Mal had this awesome, ragged dress for Madie to wear. But, Madie insisted on wearing her princess dress and insisting she was a 'pirate princess'. So, we just played along...even though we had an awesome costume for her! She was so excited to be a pirate princess, she was dancing in a circle singing a song about her being one.

Evidence.

Yummy sugar cookies.

Joey got her baby fix by holding the Finn-Man. At first I was going to make him my parrot, but couldn't come up with a parrot costume. So I just threw a bandana on his head and called it good.

We looked especially good.

Takin' the loot!

I'm A Big Girl

This post is dictated to Mallory by Madeleine. It is pondering on what a big girl Miss Madeleine is.

I can get my baniwa milk by myself. "Baniwa" = "vanilla" as opposed to chocolate.  I reach for it and get it and then I drink it. So I'm a little bit bigger. Not too much bigger, like that (points to Mallory), but a little bit.

Yeah, a little bit bigger.

So what else can you do?

I just colored. I colored blue and purp-- oh! Not purple. And I go potty by myself. And I tell you when I'm hungry. As opposed to crying. I'm telling I'm hungry. You tell me when you're hungry. Right. What else? No! I'm hungry! Oh! Okay. Well, what does a big girl do? Please get me fooooood! Right, but a big girl says what kind of food she would like, right? Hmmmm, no food.

I go upstairs by myself. I'm going to swimming (lessons). What else are you going to start doing? Next week? (Counting off on her fingers) I'm going to friends, and Ms. Wendy, and Ms. Meagan.

That's right folks! Miss Madeleine is going to start preschool next week! And please excuse the photos--the light was bad in the first, so I made her turn around but it turns out that was the most normal shot I could get. I include the others because it's Madie exerting her independence--she insisted on these poses!

Island Life

Saturday was such a beautiful day in New England. We decided to take advantage, especially with the forecasters calling for six days of rain.

This beach is literally 10 minutes away from our house, so cool!

Like most things, Madie was reluctant to see the beach at first. But once we got down there, she was running all around and climbing rocks. She was pretty disappointed when we didn't stay longer than 10 minutes.

The Finn-Man was especially happy to get out.

We hit the Ocean Path and saw a lobster fishing boat in action, which Madie couldn't get enough of.

What a confident looking guy.

Scoping out the granite cliffs.

Madie loved running around the rocks. We had to help her step around some of the larger rocks.

I was playing with Madie in our backyard the next day, and she was helping me step down the slopes and rocks. It was cute to see her re-enacting us helping her around the rocks along the Ocean Path.

Thanks

I think right now is a great time for a thankful post. I'm going to try to be very specific right now rather than more general--like "family." I mean, of course I'm thankful for my family, but rather than say something like that I want to keep it more precise so I can read this years from now and remember exactly why I feel the way I do.

First and foremost, I am so thankful for Alexa's call yesterday. I needed a good, hardy laugh, and when Alexa's on the phone I'm almost guaranteed to get one. And yesterdays what harder than usual--I don't know why that story never struck me so funny before, Lex, but I was just in tears (for the second time!) laughing over it with you. And I love thinking of all the things that could have happened in that short period of time.

                  Officer: You fell from the car? Where's the car?
                  Me: It left.
                  Officer: Who was with you in the car?
                  Me: My grandmother, my mum, and my big sister.

Hahahaha! I'm laughing to myself even as I type this and Madie keeps asking me, "What?"

I'm also thankful for what a great big sister Finnegan has. Madie is hard to deal with some days, but she is always a sweet big sister--even if sometimes her love for Finn is a little overwhelming.

Speaking of Madie, I am sooooo thankful (and hopeful) that it looks like her eating habits may slowly (oh, ever so slowly) be turning back to the way they were before she turned 2. She has been much more willing to lick things lately that she doesn't think she likes.

And on that note I'm also thankful for Dr. Seuss and coming up with the phrase, "Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them Sam-I-Am!" because Madie loves it when we say that after she's tried something new. (Only we modify it to fit whatever she's tasted.) Hallelujah for putting ingenious authors on the world for us all to enjoy.

I'm also thankful for rainymoods.com. Finn is finally asleep. :)