So it's a little late....

Dear Eily,
Mommy really messed up on this one and didn't make your birthday montage until four months after your birthday. In fact, if Daddy hadn't requested it I probably would have forgotten about it completely.

You are something else. We thought Claire had a strong personality but we didn't have any idea what was in store for us with Eily. You are incredibly independent. Your signature sentence could be, "No, no. I can do it." And then you do. You are smart and you are a smarty pants. Your speech has been so advanced for your age but unfortunately so has your sauciness. You keep us on our toes, that's for sure.

You love your sisters, wholly and completely. You call them "my gors" and are very lost when they go visit somewhere without you. You fight and argue but you also laugh and giggle. I'm so glad that you ended up being our third girl. What fun to watch you all play together and grow closer.

You can count to 15, say the alphabet and the Pledge of Allegiance and somehow, without any help from Mommy, you have learned some of your letters.

I can't wait to see what all you learn in your third year of life. We love our Eily Edith, our Thumper, our Pee Wee, our Evil Edith, our Necked Frog,
our baby girl.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Today was our first official day of school. It really was a lot of fun. Claire woke up bright, shining and ready to go. Elaina? Not so much.

Yes. She posed herself.

Claire + Eily =

Less hair for Claire

Geez Louise

I didn't take pictures this time but tonight I was down in the studio with Elaina and Jason and I realized that it had been several minutes since I had heard anything out of Claire and Eily. I told Elaina to go check on them because when they are quiet for more than two minutes it usually means they are doing something bad. Elaina came running back in yelling, "Bad! Bad! Bad!"  I found them in Eily's room. They had decorated their bodies and the floor in mineral makeup. Mineral makeup, by the way, doesn't come out of carpet easily. As I was coming out of the room to get the vacuum cleaner, I walked by the kitchen and saw that they had also dumped tea and water ALL over the kitchen floor. It was like a mini lake in there.

I'm sick. Boo.

Hello nausea.
 I'm more of a wimp this time around. I guess I was so used to it by the time I was pregnant with Eily that it wasn't really that big of a deal but there has been a long enough gap that I don't remember how to ignore it.

A new Claire + Eily = post coming soon. It involves scissors.

Claire + Eily (#3) =

This:

Claire + Eily (#2) =

This:

And This:

And This:

(at least this one actually look like something.)

These are some things I have been thinking about.

1. I wonder if holding the Mac in my lap/on my tummy so often somehow hurts the baby? Perhaps I should place a barrier between the two. Like a pillow or blanket.

2. The girls are sweet and school is going to be fun. We had a mock school day this afternoon. Eily was "napping" (ha) and I did a few school things with Elaina and Claire. We don't officially start until the last week of August but it was fun to get a feel of what it is going to be like. Elaina is an educational sponge eagerly awaiting to be drenched in learning. Claire is entertained. And wiggly.

3. I enjoy this blog and hate when I let so much time go between posts. I had thought of a few good ones this week but I never had the time to sit and write them until all the thoughts had melted away.

4. I took my toilets for granted. No more.

5. Not having Jason home is no fun. :( You military wives are incredible. I miss looking at his ears and scratching his back (really I'm searching for pimples but don't tell on me, ok?) at night.

6. I've always had a strange fascination with pimples.  They gross me out yet I cannot resist messing with them. Dan should receive an award for his patience with my pimple popping obsession.

7. My hair. It perplexes me.  Should I cut it? No. I really miss it being long. But I love it short. But I love it long. And so it goes, back and forth, back and forth until I decide not to decide until later which ultimately will end in it being long. Then I will finally decide, yes, I do want it short and I will get it cut. And I will love the cut but will still immediately start growing it out and questioning whether I really want to grow it out or keep it short.  And then I will do something drastic that I will hate and I will wish that I had just let it well enough alone.

8. I want to always be in the middle of reading three books.

9. It's interesting to watch my life-long relationships change. Some have changed for the better and some for the worse. Some have the same level of intimateness (yes, that's a made up word) as in my youth but still are so very different.

10. This week I have:
hurt
grieved
cried
yelled
laughed
perspired
shivered
cleaned
destroyed
shared
hoarded
wasted
saved
and slept. A little.

Yes.

Claire + Eily =

THIS.

 

(My. New. Curtains.)

Food Diary

My friend, Joanna, wrote me after this post and said that I should feature a recipe that I make once a month or so. It's a great idea that I love but have never actually put into effect. So, Joanna, here is Food Diary entry #1.  Marsala Mushroom Chicken or Something Else That You Think of That's Clever.

First you sprinkle a nice layer of instant rice in the bottom of a casserole dish.

Usually, I chop mushrooms but I was out of mushrooms so I decided to use an eggplant and see what would happen. It was not a wise decision.

Chop your mushrooms eggplant and toss in a saute pan.

Add in 3 tbls or so of butter and let the butter melt and the mushrooms  eggplant soften.

Shred a rotisserie chicken and sprinkle over the rice.

Now that the butter has melted and the softening has taken place, add about a cup of Marsala wine and maybe about half a cup of heavy cream. I just eyeball the mixture so I'm not exactly sure of the measurements.

Then add about 2 tbls of flour and let the mixture thicken.

Sprinkle in a little parsley, pepper and salt.

Pour the mushroom eggplant mixture over the rice and chicken.

.

Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Then grate (or sprinkle) parmesan cheese over the top and bake for another 5 minutes or so.

With mushrooms, this is some serious yum. No one liked the eggplant. It was very bitter and chewy. Next time I'll just do without instead of trying to come up with a substitute.

I now know how I will go.

By drowning in a pile of dirty laundry.

This is really neat. They took over 60,000 photos to get this right and I think they developed over 9000.

Oh yeah,

And she's really cute.

Wow. I really need to adjust her straps. Please ignore that. Thanks.

Let's talk about this.

Several things come to mind.
First, the size of my head does not match the size of my neck and shoulders.  I'm a bobble head.
Second, what color are my eyes? Blue? Brown? Green?
Third, can we say deiviated septum?
Fourth, I'm not feeling overly confident in Claire's current photography skills.

Construction!

We've been working on the bathrooms at our house.
This is our bathroom after I peeled up three very smelly layers of linoleum.

Isn't that disgusting? Claire thought it was too.

And then, Philip came over and took out the sink and cabinet. It was a lovely moment. (I cannot turn the photo. I've never had this problem before. Sorry.)

And then the toilet was removed.

Here's Philip our wonderful friend and a pretty good handyman as well. :)

Then yesterday I painted the walls a color called Ante Meridan.

And here is the main bathroom. I haven't cleaned the black dust from the grout off the floor yet.

Tomorrow the plumber is coming to install the sink and the toilet in our bathroom and secure the above toilet. Pictures will be taken.