I’ve been writing this on and off all day, through cleaning, bathing/feeding/burping/changing Alaethia, picking up the kids and eating a quick bowl of cereal for lunch (yes, lunch). I think that’s how I’m going to have to start updating, by leaving WordPress open and typing a few lines when I can. If not, I’ll probably never update again. I don’t know how other blogging mamas do it to update almost-daily, or to update several sites at once! I don’t know how I used to do it when Jaylen was newborn and Eenan was a toddler. But then again, at that time neither of them went to school so I had more time on my hands. Now I have three of them–two of which need to be picked up at various times and all three nap at various times (or not at all, heh).
The boys are a big help, though, I have to admit. Jaylen loves to feed her and Eenan loves to hold her. He surprised (and scared the hell out of) me the first time he (Eenan) wrapped his arms around her and lifted her out of the bassinet. I can always count on Eenan to hold her while I get something in the oven or get laundry in to wash and Jaylen’s always willing to bring me a diaper and some wipees. They’re excellent big brothers :). Jaylen always says, “Mom, you and Alaethia look like angels.” My, how he will charm the ladies ;).
I thought we’d hit the sleeping-through-the-night-jackpot Saturday night/Sunday morning. Although we didn’t fall asleep till 1am, Alaethia slept for 6 full hours and didn’t wake up till 7am for a feeding. I felt much more energetic that morning than I have in a long time, not like the usual tousle-haired zombie I usually am. After I fed, burped and changed her diaper we slept for a while longer till I had to wake Mario up for work. Too bad that Sunday night/Monday morning and last night she was back to her old tricks. Last night was worse though: she was up every hour from 12:30am to 3:30am. After that she slept till 6:45, when I had to get up to get the boys ready for school. I didn’t bother sleeping “again” with her from 9am to 11am like I usually do since I had major chores to do. Now the house is clean but I’m going to be nodding off in about an hour.
Alaethia smiled for the very first time on Sunday night. Not one of those smiles while they’re sleeping or gassy, but a genuine, parent-induced smile. Mario was holding her and we were both baby-talking in high pitched voices and she just lit up and smiled. I literally screamed, “OH MY GOD, SHE’S SMILING!” which scared her, so she immediately stopped and stared at me, silent and wide-eyed. She must think I’m crazy; she’s always looking at me like that LOL.
She smiled again yesterday when I was talking to her and laughing. She smiled about 3 times and then I got nothing LOL. She smiled again today when Noelia was talking to her. I can’t wait to hear her laugh when we do something funny or tickle her. I think Eenan laughed around the same time Jaylen did. I clearly remember the first time Jaylen laughed: it was the 4th of July in 2002 when he was almost 3 months old. Mary, Mom and I were in Mary’s kitchen making a 4th of July cake and Jaylen was in his bouncer. Mom was being goofy and started jumping up and down. He cracked up while she was doing this. So cute :).
Alaethia’s now out of Newborn diapers and has moved on to Size 1. I’ve got a few newborns left, so I’m using them up before I open up the 1’s. She’s filling out her wrinkly skin which is so exciting to me. I love healthy, squishy babies. Not fat, just filled out and soft :).
And a quick-ish summary of the days I haven’t updated:
Thurs. Mar. 1st – went to a tile place I hadn’t checked out and got some 2×2 tiles for the project I want to do in the bathroom. They’re not the cute 1×1 tiles I wanted, but they’ll do. Gotta return the huge bag of $13 grout they sold me for something smaller and cheaper from Home Depot.
Fri. Mar. 2nd – Mario woke up early due to Alaethia’s screams and let us sleep in. Picked up Jaylen and Eenan from school since they were sick and needed to go to the doctor. Came home to get Alaethia’s things together and Ricci stops by. We chit chat and she makes some calls about a job she’s waiting for. She has an interview on Tuesday and we make plans to get together that day after her appointment. She leaves and we head to Burger King for some lunch and paid the majority of our bills then took the kids to their doctor’s appointment. After an hour at the doctor’s office we find out Eenan is coughing again due to his respiratory problems (dates back to his bronchial tube problem he’s had since he was 2 months old) and Jaylen has sinusitis. Two hours later we finally get their prescriptions filled at the new pharmacy and we’ve spent a whopping $63. Next stop was buying them some new shoes which we found at Mervyn’s (some sage green Sketchers skater shoes). Spend the night bar-b-q’ing with the family.
Sat. Mar. 3rd – Spent most of the day home and finally tackled the Spring Cleaning I’d started earlier in the week. Got a lot done, especially in my bedroom. Although it was something I’d been wanting to do for a while, I also wanted to go visit Gramma since she was having a procedure done on Monday to determine what was keeping her from swallowing correctly. John had borrowed the Sentra and didn’t get home till 6pm. Grr. Couldn’t go anywhere once he was home since we were celebrating Sammy and Cat’s birthdays. The whole family was here and we had some great bar-b-q again and cake!
Sun. Mar. 4th – Mario had the day off. Get up and he, Jaylen, Alaethia and I go to Sullivan to see his cousin’s 3 bedroom, 2 bath house which is in the process of being built. He decided to be his own contractor and his house, which is very nice and spacious and has all the modern anemities, is coming out to–get ready–$55,000. Mario asked him if he’d help us out when we’re ready to build ours. He said yes. I didn’t think it was even possible to buy a house for that little.
Eenan gets home from church with Mary and we have lunch at Jesse’s. Great food, wonderful people. We always get VIP treatment since Mario goes there quite often with the guys from work since he works near there. It’s always a great experience (especially with the live mariachi singers) and the kids love going there.
We had a few more stops to make and then came home. Mario went to Eddie’s where he helped him with a system, or something like that, so the kids and I stayed home. I just watched HGTV and TLC for the home shows, which I’ve been doing a lot lately.
Mon. Mar. 5th – After picking Jaylen up from school, Jaylen, Mom, Alaethia and I headed over to Gramma’s nursing home so that Mom could accompany her to her appointment at the hospital. Her transportation would be departing at 12pm. We got there at 12:01 and they’d already left. So I had to drive all the way to the hospital to drop Mom off. Find Gramma, nice old couple can’t stop talking about how cute and alert Alaethia is for her age, spend some time talking to Gramma and then my kiddos and I leave since Alaethia was hungry and was beginning to scream. Feed her in the car with Jaylen’s help and we stop by Mario’s. Go pay storage, pick up Eenan, eat a late lunch of Jalapeño Tuna, get in car with kiddos, pick up John and take him to cash his check and drop him off at home and then we leave to pick Mom up from the nursing home. Talk with Gramma a bit and then we leave. Stop by Mario’s to pick up our JC Penny personal bill. He sends me to get ice cream for he and his coworkers. Drop it off then pay the bill. Did you know the JC in JC Penny stands for James Cash? James Cash Penny–it’s almost as if he was destined to be rich, huh?
As for today, well, like I mentioned before I spent the whole morning cleaning. Ricci didn’t visit after all, but I sure hope she at least made it to her interview. It seemed like they really wanted her for the job. It would be a shame if she didn’t get to make it for some reason. I took the boys to get their hair cut since they were looking shaggy. Mom and John accompanied us. Poor Mayra had pink eye and was about to close when I called her. She kept the salon open just for us; I felt so embarrassed. Eenan was being a goofball. He makes this weird face where he crosses his eyes all funny. When she was done cutting his hair he made the face and said, “How do I look? Lemme see…I look nice” all while making that strange face LOL.
We went to H-E-B afterwards. Only John and I got down while Mom stayed with the kiddos who were watching a movie in the car. John was being a total dork as always and was making me pee my pants while we were shopping. I could hardly breathe and was weezing up a storm on the way home, which happens when I laugh too much.
And now I’m here, waiting for Alaethia to fall asleep so I can get a shower in before bed. I don’t think it’s gonna happen though and Mario probably won’t be home till late since it’s Tuesday and all. Wing Night. Grr >_>. I might just take a chance and take her in there with me while she’s in her carseat like I did a few weeks ago. She’s really happy and quiet right now, I’d hate to ruin it by sticking her in the carseat :(. She’s been smiling at me all night, I love it! I say “Hi Baby!” and “Helloooo” really high-pitched and she just smiles her gummy smile. I can’t wait to get in bed and cuddle with her. Let’s hope it’s a good night.
