everything sounds cuter when you are 2

I love listening to Alexandra talk...she really has a fantastic vocabulary for a little girl who is not yet 3...but, i have to admit my favorite words and phrases are the ones she makes up..

She talks about hippolagatamus', and her ya-ya mommy(Ashley), I am mommy-mommy..and her Nik-Nik, and Bubba..and other words, i am not really certain how to spell..

I also love how things sound so much better, when they are duckies, and juicey, and milky...and even eggesy..

I am more easily persuaded to make scrambled eggs and toast when it is eggesy with brown bread..no r's pronounced..

Life is sweet, and goes by so very fast, so it is time to get off here, rock my baby, with her favorite bookie, and blankie and dollies, and miss bunny...then we're off to bed

Happy Birthday Alexandra

Today on the Feast of St. Lucia, we are celebrating the birth of our daughter Alexandra. She was born 3 weeks early, a week before my scheduled c-section in the midst of a horrendous ice storm. I developed pre-eclampsia, and missed a Dr.s appointment due to being trapped by the ice storm, when the highways cleared enough to attempt the trip to OKC, i insisted Ben take me in.

He thought we should sit tight, because i was scheduled to deliver in another week, but i knew something was really wrong with me. I had never felt so strange(ha-ha) in my life.

Bobbi Sue not only insisted i pack my bag, and take it with me, she went with us to my appointment. They took my blood pressure, 4 times with-in 10 minutes, and then my Dr. said you are going straight to the hospital...

I had the most horrendous nurse, she insisted there was nothing really wrong with me, and if i laid completely still, on my left side, they could lower my blood pressure, and i just needed to go home, and stop taking up space for the really sick people...

My dr. ordered the 24 hour urine collection, but my nurse did not bring the equipment in for 6 hours, at shift change she brought it, my Dr. almost had the stroke, she was furious...

Bobbi Sue and the nurse got into an argument, Ben and the nurse got into an argument, my head hurt so bad i couldn't open my eyes or sit up....to the nurses chagrin my Dr. wrote orders to keep me...

They decided to perform my c-section at 8:00 p.m.on the 13th so Dr. Nanda could attend her daughters Christmas program, We called the children, and they were loading up the van to have the family at the hospital before my surgery...

A little before 5:00 2 nurses came running in my room, they started grabbing my i.v., pulled the sides up on my bed and were racing me to the OR. I had no idea what was going on, and I thought they were, at the least nuts, at the worst, had the wrong patient.

It turns out my blood pressure had spiked so high, i was in critical condition, and my surgery had to be performed immediately...

The nurses never prepped me for surgery during the day, so everything was done in the ice cold operating room, in full view of everyone...i was alert enough to be irritated. They gave me a spinal so they could begin immediately, and this was a difficult section. I had significant scar tissue, and it took forever to reach her. She was also very high up and they had to use a vaccum extractor to bring her down far enough to pull her out. My dr. used a new tool, it cut and cauterised at the same time. I almost threw up, from smelling the burning flesh since it was mine...they gave me something for nausea, and after i saw and heard my read screaming dark haired, dark-eyed daughter, they put me completely out...thank God!!!

I rejoice today that we came through the ordeal with no ill effects, she is a happy healthy little girl, I am tired...

Today we celebrate Alexandra Rose with pink cupcakes, dinner, ice cream and punch. She is loved, she is cherised, we are grateful.

no peace

My life is officially over, not only can Alexandra climb every counter and cabinet in this house(think Sound of Music/Climb every Mountain)that's the background music playing in my head...she can now open every door in the house(I keep front,back and side doors locked)...I can't keep her out of my room, the bathrooms...anything downstairs, she now has access to...got to go Christian is screaming Alla is on the cabinet, and she has the hot water running...He said i told Alla to turn turn it off, and she said No!

I walked in the bathroom, and she said Hi Mommy!!!

in here, i'm hiding

It has been a very hectic day, my clock says 12:09, my body says bedtime...It started out okay,but i should rephrase that, because at my house normal is not normal.

Christian got up and went to the bathroom, i stripped my bed, then Alexandra went in the bathroom, then Christian yelled help Mom, the toliet is spitting water at us...now i don't know about you, but i get totally freaked out if the toliet is behaving like a volcano. With fear and trembling i peeked into the bathroom and sure enough the toliet gods were angry, very angry...there was enough toliet paper to sink a small ship and water everywhere, i mean everywhere...

I stuck the screaming babies in the shower, turned off the water, ran to the other bathroom to retrieve the dirty towels i had already hauled to the laundry room to try to stop the flood. 20 minutes later the mess is cleaned up, the towels are in the washing machine, i strip the flood ravaged children, and we all get in the shower...

Then Christian asks why do you shave your legs, you don't have a beard on them, i think thats' weird...it probably is weird, i never really thought about it, it is just something girls do.

Ben finally got my frantic phone message, and proceeded to speak to me in tongues...plumber talk, it went something like this...take the top off the overflow, if nothing happens then this is wrong, if something happens then this is wrong, and if something else happens then it is something else altogether....are you kidding me, i just cleaned all that up showered 2 children and got out of the shower myself, i am not angering the toliet god and risking the water volcano again....he said or, you can wait til i get home, and i will figure it out...option 2 it is.....

I thought things had calmed down, and Christian wanted breakfast again, and i didn't care if they ate cereal again, so we did. My first mistake was thinking we would play nice, and then maybe do a few chores, eat something we could call lunch and take a nap...I switched the laundry and asked Christian where the baby was? In there, I look in the dining room, no baby, i start calling her, she says in here mama, i look in her room, under her crib, under the iron bed, i call her again, she says in here mama, i look in the closet, under the kitchen table, in the pantry , no baby, i call her again, i can't find you, where are you? in here mama, i'm hiding...then it dawns on me, her voice is coming through the open dining room window and not the house. She was on the front porch hiding in her favorite spot, sitting on the fresh hay, in the puppies barrel...

I asked Christian why he unlocked the storm door, and he said the little puppies wanted in, and Alla wanted out. I reminded him, I keep the storm door locked so Alla can't get out...I breathed a sigh of relief, my baby thought we were playing hide and go seek...

I so need a nap after this....now if the toliet will just behave until Benjamin comes home....

what time is it anyway?

Alexandra did not get the flu when everyone else was sick, but i guess we had too much going on this weekend for her. We went to Wanda and Bobs' for popcorn balls, and the kids rode on his train...we went to the school indian taco dinner, and the children played the carnival games at school.

Sunday, Nicole, Connor and I went to Mass, and then Mon. night we took the family to the All Souls Mass. tues. , Bobbie Sue kept the little ones while i went to the Dr.s office. It seems i had some abnormal test results, and Dr. Barlow wanted to rerun my tests...

Yesterday, my little girl seemed"off" last night she coughed and screamed from 9:30 to 4:00. We went to sleep sometime around then, and she slept fitfully until about 11:00. Christian and I sat on the bed with her to watch her breathe. By noon she seemed more herself and hit the ground running. She has recovered much better than i have.... We are all still in our pajamas. It is only 1:00 in the afternoon, in 2 hours we have had breakfast, and lunch, i broke out the Dr. Pepper, and i am about to take my baby crawl back onto my bed with a bunch of books and eat some chocolate....If i can hold out until the children get home, i can even take a shower before i take off my pajamas today, and then it will be time to start cooking dinner....

Maybe Nicole will take pity on me, and cook tonight. i could use someone to take pity on me....Alexandra was brutal last night...or was that this morning , i have lost track....

only a moment

I only turned my back for a moment, honest, it was just long enough to walk from the laundry room to my hamper, and back, and in that short amount of time my dear Alexandra dumped her drink inside the washing machine on top of her clothes....

I am going to hide in my closet and drink Dr. Pepper and eat copious amounts of chocolate....

confuddled once again

I have been down with pneumonia for the last week, and while i am recovering,it is going very slowly. I tire very easily. It takes all my energy to keep up with the two little ones, and i must confess, i look forward to the children coming home to help me.

We have had adventures in potty training with Alexandra, she does fantastic one day, and then the next day she refuses to use the toliet... we are at an impasse. I had Tiff buy her a package of big girl panties, thinking it might help.

I told her not to peepee in her big girl panties. Her solution has me stumped, and i surrender and admit to being outwitted by a 21 month old. She takes off her pretty panties, and pees on the floor. Yesterday, she stood in the floor of my room, with her new panties in her hand, and said i peed on you lop-lops, i sat up and looked, and sure enough she didn't get her new panties wet at all, but my lop-lops were a different story.

I am still so sick, but i am at a loss how to handle this one, just when you think you have seen it all, someone pulls a new rabbit out of the hat, a rabbit you have never even seen before.

I think i will go back to bed....

mistress mary quite contrary

Contrary is a very useful word, it describes Alexandras' mood lately to a T...she has been extremely difficult today, to the point that Andrew asked what in the heck is the matter with Al, and i said she is almost 2, and has contracted contraryitis...

This morning, I tried to put her on the potty, but she was having none of that, so after i put her panties on her and got ;her dressed, she decided she needed to go...i pulled her panties off, and started that mama cheer thing...hurry lets get to the potty, she said no pee here, and before i could blink, move , or stop her, she peed all over the bedroom floor..I asked her, what are you going to do about that? She went to the bathroom, and came back with a roll of toliet paper.

I said good thinking, but that is not going to clean up that mess, try a towel. She went back in the bathroom retrieved a towel cleaned up her mess, and said there....I am not certain what we learned from this, or who exactly learned what...i learned not to take her panties off until we are in the bathroom, and she learned mama is not as fast as she used to be????

lop-lops

It is true, Alexandra comes by her shoe obsession honestly. Nicole and I love shoes. It was bad enough, when she raided my closet, pulled all the shoes off the shelf, and paraded around the house, but now she wants to take the shoes right off strangers feet.

At Shayla's wedding reception, a lot of women kicked off their shoes and left them on the edge of the dance floor. Tiffiany and I had a heck of a time trying to pull them off her feet, and return them to the proper owner. She ended up wearing Tiffianys' lop-lops most of the night.

At the butterfly palace, instead of being totally entranced by the butterflies landing everywhere, she became interested in another little girls shoes, Lola wanted to engage her in conversation with the ulterior motive of running off with her shoes.

We bought the 4 of us new lop-lops at the 5&10 store in Branson for a 1.00 each, however, i did not anticipate the nine hour drive home with her stealing Christians shoes, and wearing hers, his, and mine, yelling lop-lop, lop-lop everytime they fell off. It was quite a ride.

She stole Ashleys' shoes the other day, and they were locked in a full blown argument. A 17 year old, and a 20 month old fighting over shoes. I did what any reasonable rational parent would do, i told Ashley to stop yelling, and give the baby the shoes. Thats' not fair Mom, they are my shoes. Like i care about fair, i just want her to stop screaming lop-lop at the top of her lungs.

i told Ashley, don't you think she has my shoes too...Give the baby the lop-lops...she wears them to bed, she wears them on the toliet, she even tries to wear them in the bath....I just want peace and quiet, and a lop-lop free life....