Life is...

Good.

Busy, but good.

Kaitlyn is officially done with the third grade.  Her report card was fantastic.  One B and the rest were all As.  Her only B was in geometry.  Considering her lack of motivation to do her homework at the beginning of this semester and how hard it is to concentrate in the summer, we were really proud.  She scored advanced in all of her tests and was "marked" excellent in everything else.  She was really glad to be done with school. That is, until the day came and she realized she would be away from her friends for the summer...

Last week, I spent hours upon hours in her room cleaning it.  When you walked by, it looked just a little messy.  As I started to work "with" her, I discovered a lot of hiding spaces.  Spaces filled with a lot of things from our little pack rat.  She decided she would rather go to sleep at 7 then finish helping.  I have no idea how she slept through me cleaning, Charlotte crying in her room, Samantha running in and out and the lights on full blast.  But, she did.

Our goal now is to have her keep it clean.  To my standards.  Everyday, I go in and check all the hiding spots a few times a day.  If she keeps it clean for two weeks, to my standards without being told, she can get her DVD player back.  Right now, I'm still reminding her a couple times a day.

Samantha is as cute as ever.  She has the sweetest voice and says the cutest stuff.  For example, if I ask her where something is, say her cup or a piece of garbage I know she didn't throw away she says "It disappeared" with this little grin.  She'll always follow it up with "what should I do?" and put her hands up and shrug her shoulders.

Her memory is great, she's constantly mentioning things that happened days ago.  She has started remembering who Matthew is, but not really understanding who he is to her.  Does that make sense?  It's hard, with Kaitlyn we had a hard time telling her what happened, but she knew him.  She knew he was there and that he then wasn't.  Samantha doesn't have the luxury of knowing him as anything more than a memory she doesn't share with us.  Sometimes, I worry it will separate us into two groups as a family, before Matthew and after.  But, I try not to think too far ahead or too deeply.  If I did, I would probably go crazy.

Samantha is starting to get better about liking to go places.  Her sleep is not improved at all.  If we skip the benadryl, she's up all night.  And, she refuses to use the potty.  So far, she'll recite this list of things we will get her if she uses the potty: princess scooter, Team Umizoomi DVD, sparkly shoes, candy and chocolate.  She'll run around in big girl underwear, sit on the potty when I tell her too, every 5 minutes after a ton of Gatorade, juice, milk and/or water, and do this for hours.  Then, she'll say "I caaaaaaan't go on the potty" and ask for a diaper please and then pee in it.  She says she's too little.  I remind her that her big sissy doesn't wear diapers and her favorite big cousins don't wear cousins and she gets so excited.  Then, I ask her again if she wants to go on the potty and she sweetly says "no thank you."

UGH!

Charlotte is doing great.  At about 4 months, we started giving her baby food.  Her doctor thought it would help with the weight gain and spitting up.  I knew from experience that it wouldn't, but she did show all the readiness signs so we started.  She gets about 1/2 a jar in the morning of fruit and the evening another half a jar of veggies or meat.  Both are mixed with rice cereal to thicken it a little.  She loves it.  She also loves watermelon.  She's no closer to sitting up on her own, but she is super fast at getting from one side of the room to another.  She has also decided that most of the time she hates riding in the car.  That has been less than fun.  It's actually been absolutely stressful at times.  She will just scream and scream, never tiring herself out.  When she's going and Kaitlyn decides that it's a good time to ask about angles and the history of California's state flower it can be hard to concentrate to say the least.

She absolutely loves her baby cousin though.  She will just stare and stare at him.  He is adorable, so I can't really blame her...

Dusty and I are doing great.  We went out to dinner, just the two of us, for the first time since Charlotte's been born.  Yeah.  We had a great time, Charlotte not so much.  She cried and cried the entire time we were gone.  Which pretty much broke my heart.  But, it was nice to eat an uninterrupted meal with both hands.  And, having lunch with my best friend is always something I look forward too. 

It's funny, we have treated all three girls pretty much the same since birth, but Charlotte has really been the one to like for me to hold her.  Which makes doing pretty much everything just a little bit harder.  Considering how much work we've been doing in the backyard, how much I've been working and the to-do list I have for the upcoming weeks, my back hurts and I'm exhausted.

We have so many things we're planning right now.  A few little getaways, some beach side family portraits, baby showers and I'm pretty sure we're going to plan a vow renewal for our 10 year anniversary next August.  Exciting things...