Home with the little girls

It is yet that time again when the big girls go back to school and I am home with the two little girls. It seems weird to think this time last year we were still in our old house... in ways it seems like we have been in our new house FOREVER. Funny how some things just feel that way.

School schedules are crazy, I find myself at 8:15 ready to get on with my day but can't because Emily isn't at school yet. She normally is up and ready by then, which frustrates me because that is the whole reason I want her in the 8AM schedule. But oh well... so like this morning, it wasn't even 8:30 yet and Emily is ready, the girls are ready for the day, I am ready for the day... I have groceries to get and I want to go do it... but can't because school doesn't start for Emily until 9:15. Finally at 15 minutes to 9, we got everyone gathered and ready to get in the car. Amber forgot her shirt (her security blanket really) so I went back to fetch it. Emily was upset that she was going to be late. I told her she had plenty of time, it was only 8:54. We got Em to school and then we went shopping.

Samantha is normally ready for her nap around 9-10am so it makes for a hard morning for her because she is wanting to go to bed yet I can't put her down until we get back from taking Emily to school. Lots of times there are other errands I have and figure I might as well do them at that time too. One morning after taking Emily to school we came back to the house and I was sorting through coupons... Samantha has mastered getting the gate at the bottom of the stairs open (so much for child proof gate), and she had gone upstairs. She has also mastered coming down the stairs by herself too (although she doesn't walk yet). There are more toys up in the loft up there so I sometimes just let her go and chase her down in a minute or two. When I went up there, she was laying on the floor by her crib and had pulled the side of her blanket with the tag on it (she loves those tags) through the crib slats and was cuddling it on the floor with her while she was sucking her thumb. She was nearly asleep. I guess she was just putting herself to bed. I wish the rest of the kids would do that. I felt really bad for her that she was snuggled up on the floor instead of her bed.

Amber has been going out with me when Samantha is sleeping to work in the yard. We have planted some flowers in the front. She loves to find all the praying mantises. We have a TON of them. I have never really seen them before... I did see one ONCE on our corn stalks at the old house. They are all over here. I see them on the side of the house, in the rocks, in the flowers, in the grass... Nearly every time I go out I see at least 2 of them without searching for them.

Amber also has been having some bad dreams lately. She woke up in the middle of the night saying there was a monster in her bed. There was a red one and an orange one but the orange one was trying to bite her. She later told me that the red one was nice but when the orange one was angry it would try to bite her elbow. She also was saying, "When I close my eyes they go away, but when I open my eyes they come back" as she was demonstrating closing her eyes really tight and then opening them. She ended up back in our bed early this morning because of the monsters again. She wouldn't go to bed in her own bed last night, she fell asleep in our bed and later Robert put her in her own bed. Early this AM Lindsey brought her in our room because Amber was saying, "Lindsey the monsters are back, I want out!" (She is still in a crib and hasn't ever tried to climb out. I tried to take the side off so she could get in and out by herself but she was upset that I changed her crib. Oh well, less stress for me.) Luckily this morning as she came in she went back to sleep... the other night she was up for about 2 hours wanting a drink and another and another, then she wanted to watch TV, then she argued that the sun WAS coming up and we should get out of bed... by this time it was 3:30... I kept telling her she needed to go to bed and be quiet. Finally about 4 she fell asleep. Then I couldn't sleep because she is a little oven when she sleeps, all sweaty... I went down stairs to get a drink myself and open some windows. When we got up the next morning, Robert asked while smiling, "how did you sleep last night?" It is strange how he can just go right back to sleep or sleep through it all. I am a little jealous he can do that so easily.

That is pretty much what has been going on here... oh yeah, and Emily got her hair cut. It is still long, but we cut about 4 inches off. When she sits on a stool it no longer touches the stool seat, but it to the lower middle of her back. It looks really healthy and still looks long. I think she was bummed that no one at school even noticed. I told her to cut another 4 inches off and people would notice. She wasn't for doing that.