Just Life.

Life is busy. I am working on what feels like a thousand projects at once. I chip away at things as I go. I have empty picture frames on my bedroom wall, and half of my kitchen wall is coated in primer. I have a stack of books that I am 75% of the way through. This doesn't bother me like I thought it would, or like it would have in the past. I need the most important thing right now to be spending time with my family, and I am relieved to say that I have been doing just this. I never thought about being a stay-at-home mom, but now that I am here, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. And, of course, you always just find a way to include the kids in your home projects.

Oh, yes, that's the real stuff.

This week has been fun. We had a water play date with friends earlier, and I took Lara to the circus with a friend and her daughter. It was Lara's first time at the circus and she enjoyed it pretty well. We really liked the elephants-especially when the one elephant sat down on the other elephant's head.

Claire had her 2mo well baby visit this week also. She weighs 13lbs 6oz, 24inches. This is big and long, btw. She got an excellent report. She's not had her 2mo vaccinations yet, because we're being smart about it this time around. Claire is not sleeping as well as I would like her to nowadays. She will still usually sleep about 5.5 hours straight; she'll wake up around 3am to eat. But after 3am, she is up an awful lot. On top of that, for the last week or so, we've been hard pressed to get her to sleep without being held the whole time. I think this has a lot to do with her growth and development. She is growing so quickly and becoming so responsive and aware of everything around her, so it's hard to get in a good deep sleep. However, she continues to be very happy and healthy. She's very easy to take care of!

Lara is completely potty-trained. If she is wearing a diaper (for sleeping times), she will still just go in them, but otherwise, we've worked out all the poo-poo issues, and she's such a big girl now! Below is a darling picture of Lara watching Sleeping Beauty. She had to stop the show to put on her dress-up clothes so she could dance and sing along with Rose. And she is wearing her sock puppet. Lara is able to walk now without her braces, slowly, but surely. She is doing such a great job, we just need her to do these things on a regular basis, and not just at therapy!! Lara's vocabulary tends to improve, and I love it when she says things like, "Mom, do you need a blanket, hon?" or "Move please, sweetheart." We were playing at the park the other day, and some kids were in Lara's way. She just goes up to the middle school boys and says really loud, "Hey!!! Excuse me! ExCUSe me!" And those boys scrambled out of her way faster than she could say please.

A lot of things need to happen for Lara here in the next couple of months. We need to look into getting therapy at the school and to start the home-schooling process.

I'm off to nurse the baby and think of something fun to do with Lara when she wakes up from her nap!