Emme, Amelia's party, and challenges

Hello all,

I know you think we've forgotten about our blog, but it's just been a bit crazy here. Nearly two weeks ago we all started getting sick, and Emme and I are still holding on to it. Amelia doesn't have as many symptoms, but she's been unusually tired and definitely not herself either physically or emotionally. My mom just came down with it too, and with my increasing work load, and trying to get home early to take care of the kiddos, it hasn't been easy. Work is picking up which is great (my goal is to sell alot before mid-July), but I have a never ending closing with a tiny commission that's causing way more than it's share of aggravation and heart burn on my part. I played counselor to the business buyer yesterday, but was already so drained after running errands with the kids, I felt like throwing up my hands and saying "I can't help. If you're getting cold feet, it's not too late to call it quits!". Instead I just listened and tried to be reasonable. Who knows if it helped. I also have some very desperate/motivated sellers too. I really don't like emotion in my work, and had no idea that buying and selling businesses would cause this level of emotional dependency on the broker. I only have so much available to give, and I think my kids should get first dibs! (Sorry about the work rant, but it somehow makes me feel better.)

Amelia turned 4 on February 8th, and we celebrated with a birthday on a ranch. The kids were able to take pony rides, a hay ride, visit a petting zoo, and use a bouncy house. It seemed to be a big hit. Lots of planning and crazyness as you can imagine. We were all sick, so I had to wait until the morning of the party to buy and prepare all of the food. Thank God for our dear friends Allyson and Kris who were life savers as usual. I must drive them nuts. They're always so prepared and together that I can imagine that my natural procrastination combined with my list of good excuses to wait until the last minute must be mind boggling to them. We literally arrived at the party when it was to start and we still had to assemble the platters on site since we did not have enough time to do so prior to. Fortunately, all of our friends with kids are notoriously late too, so we still managed to beat everyone by at least a few minutes. The food turned out great. We even prepared for the cold weather (it was in the mid-50's) with one hot dish and hot cocoas. Thank you Allyson and Kris!!!!

Emme is a great kid, as usual. We went to court for the re-adoption this past week, and will be issued a Florida birth certificate as a result. The judge was fascinated by her and seemed to enjoy spending time with us, but she would have nothing to do with him. He even ran to get his robe so we could take a photo with him. We didn't think it was a big deal as she was ours anyway, but apparently most people think so as did the judge who would have loved if she would have gone to him. Apparently, she is attaching to us well, and she's even starting to be a bit more "snugly" with us (me!). I got about two hugs in the evening yesterday and she actually wanted me to put her to bed instead of Michael. I'm so used to my snugly Amelia, it's been an adjustment getting used to her impatience with being held quietly, hugged and kissed. She's walking all over, continuing her extreme levels of curiosity, and taking more of my time (instead of just Michael's) and I think it's taking it's toll on Amelia. She's been defiant, aggressive toward Emme, and sometimes downright mean to us all. It's really difficult to see since she's typically so kind and gentle. I never thought I would see her misbehave like she has. We've tried the typical time outs to no avail, so then we started taking away toys, still no improvement. We've even spanked her a time or two. We've concluded she's definitely more of a positive reinforcement kind of girl, so we're trying to make her more responsible as a "helper". We're also going to set aside "special" time with her without Emme.

Michael is great as usual, picking up the slack where he can. Aside from the cold, I actually feel pretty good, although my energy level is probably around 75%. Oh, and my stomach is huge. I had no maternity clothes (although my friends were able to share a few things, but let's face it, whose this tall?), so I dragged everyone to a special consignment sale and bought a ton of stuff. It was actually quite exciting for me to have something to wear to work for a change. Next Wednesday we should be able to find out whether this one will be a boy or a girl. We'll definitely post on that one.

So you see, busy is an understatement to say the least. I think we're panicking to a degree because we're trying to figure out how to get the first two under control when the third is only 5 months behind! There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not still astounded at my pregnancy and growing belly. If the activity in there now is any indication of what he/she will be like, we're in big trouble. I didn't get kicked in the ribs with Amelia until close to the end. This baby is active all evening and yesterday seemed to have a body part in my rib cage all afternoon. Michael and I are still trying to have a date night. We were shooting for this weekend, but with my mom under the weather, we'll have to post-pone for another time. We're trying to get one of the twins from across the street to come over to help entertain the kiddos when we're not here. Hopefully we'll be able to get a couple of hours to ourselves and that things will settle down here soon!

Stay tuned for the unveiling of baby #3's gender next week!