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Owen is losing his first tooth. It has been super loose for about a week now, yesterday I took a look at it and noticed something interesting. The adult tooth has popped up well behind the baby tooth. I imagine this is a sign of orthodontia in our future. We have a dentist appointment in two weeks, hopefully he can tell us how much money we should start putting aside each month to pay for the braces and headgear that I am sure will be required. That combined with Maddie's love of her thumb should make us very popular to some orthodontist.

I am hoping he loses the tooth in the next 30 hours. He leaves on Wednesday with my mom and nephew for a 10 day trip to Washington. So if he loses the tooth on his vacation I will be very sad, no one in this house has the stomach for speeding the process. We agreed to this trip months ago, and now are nervous about how long he will be gone. It will cut down on the amount of fighting, I am sure Maddie will still be her stellar little self, but at least she won't have a big brother pestering her all the live long day. We are sending an envelope for each day that he is gone. I plan to include a variety of things, notes saying we love him, gum, maybe stickers or tattoos. Any other suggestions?

How do you get three kids looking cute, smiling and no red eye all in one picture?


Is it safe to assume we got this outfit for the humor factor, right? No one actually believes a baby will wear this without crying?


I am afraid to even wash it, I think the flower on the front will fall apart. But she is very stylish.

BFF

My very best friend (V) is going through some tough times. We met in high school and have been friends for more than 20 years. Her husband is an alcoholic and she has decided to divorce him. He has become progressively more verbally abusive over the last year. We live about 10 hours apart, and I just got a call from one of her friends. Her husband has been threatening to take their son and make sure she never sees him again. He has also been threatening to kill himself, and making vague threats against her. She is staying with friends tonight, and they have called the police. I wish I had some way of helping her, if I had not just given birth I would go visit her. But I really can't take a new baby (or any child) into that situation, and I can't leave her here because I am the food source. I don't know if V can come out here right now, she will need to talk to her lawyer first. If she can, I think it would be good for her to escape the situation for awhile. I can't imagine what she is feeling right now. She has worked really hard over the last year to improve her life, she has lost almost 70 pounds, she teaches an exercise class, and she has found new hobbies. She was hoping he would want to make some changes for himself, but apparently not. I remember at their reception telling him if he ever hurt her I would kick his ass, apparently I have some ass kicking to do. Maybe it will help get rid of the baby weight.

An Officer and a what?

I just finished watching An Officer and a Gentleman. I do love that movie, and with my awesome post partum hormones I got the weepies. But not at the expected part, the end when he goes to the factory to sweep Debra Winger off her feet. No I started crying during the scene when Mayo has his last chance to break the record for the obstacle course, but instead he helps the girl who has never been able to get over the wall. For some reason that was really touching. I hope that I can raise my kids so they are willing to help others.

And an update on the mushrooms.... I totally got the idea to use meringue a few months ago, when I went to Allrecipes to find a recipe I found this so apparently I wasn't the first one to think of it. I wouldn't have thought of the cocoa powder. I am also trying to figure out other uses for the meringue. Because it was so fun to make. Also I am a cooking dork.

May Madness

Whew, we are finally done with the birthdays. I'm sure next year will be great with three kids birthdays in 3 weeks. I think considering I gave birth this month that everything went well.

Owen doesn't like cake (????) so he wanted an ice cream cake, and he also wanted pizza. His party was a breeze, other than finding something to wear 5 days after giving birth. He had another dinosaur birthday, his third dino party in six years. At least he is consistent.

Maddie wanted Tinkerbell, which was a lot of fun. I had fun making her cake, it turned out better than I expected, but the pictures didn't really turn out so well.

I made the mushrooms from meringue, they turned out really well. And they were super tasty. I lost the candle that I bought for the cake, luckily Bud bought her a small Tinkerbell doll for her birthday, so I used that instead. Here is a close up of some of the mushrooms.

I can't wait to see what cakes I need to come up with for next year.

What kind of party will this one want?

Hot Potato

The whole third child thing is going well. Ellie is a great eater, she would nurse all the live long day if we let her. She is also a prolific pooper, like her brother and sister before her. And she generally sleeps pretty well. So the baby part is good, I am recovering pretty well. Until today.

I have a habit of getting stupid injuries, and I think today is a perfect example. I was heating up my lunch in microwave. When I took it out the juice from the pot roast splashed me, burning my hands. I hurried up and set it down so I could put my hands under cold water. Then I noticed my foot was also burning, somehow one of the potatoes escaped the plate, landed on the floor and I stepped on the searingly hot potato. Which was stuck between my toes. So I hoisted my foot up to the sink, while being cautious of the ho-ha stitches. I have been sitting with an ice pack for a few hours now, and the toes seem pretty burnt.

Bud was shocked that I managed to hurt myself in the 5 minutes he was in the shower. But he has not once but twice been hit by cars, so he has no room to judge.

Look Who's Here

Here she is....... Ellie Marie was born on May 4th at 10:08 am. She weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long.

I will do a more indepth story of her birth at some point. The birth itself was pretty uneventful, except for a certain older sibling getting sick as I was actually pushing this one out. Also for those about to give birth, I recommend going into labor early in the day. If you go into labor at night you will never get that sleep back. But she seems worth it.

Owen and Maddie are totally smitten with little Ellie. Notice their hair color? Can you understand our surprise that Ellie has dark hair?

Also any recommendations on how to get rid of the retained water? Bud keeps making fun of my "Fat Bastard" feet. They are so swollen the skin hurts. I have tried keeping them up, but it hasn't helped much yet. Oh and my " Fat Bastard" boobs came in last night. I need to wake the baby and make her eat before they explode.