Brain Dump

• The other day I realized something about timing. Before I had kids I arrived everywhere about on time, maybe a few minutes early. Once I had Emmie I seemed to always be 10-15 minutes late but then I adjusted my timing and got to the point where I generally arrived on time again. When I had Ellie I ran on what my dad calls "airport time"...15 minutes either way is considered on time...I was usually on the 15 minute late side (my mother is probably having a stroke...she has always been 30minutes early to everything). Most of the time I still can't quite manage to get places right on time but I have found that on the rare occasions I go somewhere without children I find myself arriving horribly early...good thing I usually have my Kindle in my bag!
• I may have mentioned this before but awhile back I read a review that mentioned something about it being for "mommys" and in my head I imagined my mom. Later I realized that they were talking about ME and people my age...EEK...I'm a mom! Sometimes I'll go to kiss the girls goodnight and it feels a little surreal that I have TWO children.
• Right now I'm watching a Big Bang Theory rerun on TBS. I LOVE BBT...the characters (especially Sheldon) are perfectly cast.
• I called in sick to work today to take care of my sick kiddos and take Ellie to the doctor. I debated all day yesterday about whether or not I needed to take her today or wait and see how she was doing tomorrow when I'm off work. I'm REALLY glad I took her today...she has bronchitis again (which I figured she had) but it looks like this time we caught it earlier than last time so we're just doing nebulizer treatments a couple times a day to open her lungs up a bit but she also apparently has a pretty yucky ear infection in her left ear...no clue that was there...no fever and no ear pulling! So we're also on amoxicillin. I'm really hoping that she'll be feeling better by her birthday on Saturday!
• I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have to go back to the doctor this week...Emmie started with the cough and stuffy nose yesterday but she seemed a little better this morning so I didn't take her with us to the doctor...then she woke up from her nap sounding horrible and acting really puny...she perked up a little later and I'm just praying she can fight this off on her own!
• Everyday I feel like Emmie is becoming more and more independent. She can now mostly dress herself...she normally needs help with her shirt but other than that she does really well. She's getting better and better at fixing her PB&J sandwich. She does the whole potty thing by herself. She can climb up into her carseat by herself. Sometimes it's really nice especially since I still have to do everything for Ellie but it is bittersweet to see her growing up a little more everyday.
• Ellie was so sweet today. When Ellie got up from her nap Emmie was already up and being really puny and laying around and Ellie kept patting her and Emmie was laying down and Ellie leaned over and rested her head on Emmie and cuddled with her....it was super sweet that she just instinctively knew that Emmie needed some love. Tonight when I was putting them to bed I was singing and they were cuddled up beside me in the chair and I started playing with Emmie's hair and Ellie reached over and started playing with Emmie's hair too.
• I love that both my girls are so loving and nurturing. A few weeks ago Ellie picked up a baby doll and a doll bottle and pretended to feed the baby...she was holding her right and everything. Today Emmie set up camp with her bear. Emmie's always taking care of her stuffed animals. She'll often put her big stuffed bear in her bed, cover him up, turn on the white noise machine, and close the door to the room. If you go near her room she'll tell you "shhh, my bear is sleeping". Super cute. 
  
  
• For someone who started out as such a horrible, horrible sleeper Ellie has turned into a great sleeper. She's so easy to put to bed...read a book, sing a song, lay her down and we generally don't hear a peep after that until it's time to get up (she still doesn't wake up very happy but I can empathize with that!). My girls are classic examples of why you don't rock a baby to sleep but instead you lay them down awake. Emmie still has trouble getting herself to sleep (although once she's down you could drive a train through her room and she wouldn't wake up) and we do battle most nights getting her to stay in bed...I've learned she does better though if she has music on. Ellie has no problem getting herself to sleep. The other night I thought she was asleep and I busted up in her room to get something out and she was just laying there quietly with her eyes open kind of in the twighlight zone.
• Today I put Ellie down for her nap and then went and put Emmie to bed. After I put Emmie to bed I heard Ellie talking quitely in her room so I peeked in and she was sitting up in her crib reading Goodnight Moon and a few minutes later she leaned over and patted her brown bear and then I guess at some point she laid down and went to sleep!
• I've been trying to encourage Ellie to play with her books more. Until she discovered Brown Bear, Brown Bear she had NO interest in reading and then she would tolerate Brown Bear but that was the only book she would let you read to her. We're slowly adding more books to her repitoire. Now she likes Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Goodnight Moon, Wheels on the Bus and a few other books. I'm so glad she's getting interested in reading. My parents are giving her a bookshelf for her room for her birthday and I'm hoping that we can put a fair amount of books there and that will help her become more interested in books. Until recently all our books were in Ellie's room and now she has a little basket of books in her room and when we're sitting in her chair she'll lean over trying to get a book. I want my girls to love reading as much as I do!