So. freaking. cute.

Charlotte is the cutest baby ever. Seriously. You would not believe the comments I get when we go out.

Plus she has a great personality.

I love her.

So freaking adorable.

Charlotte is the cutest baby ever. Seriously.

Sneak Peek

Here is more or less what Emily's quilt will look like. I am working on sewing the last row of hearts (hopefully to do that tonight) and then I'll start putting this together. I'm still debating how to quilt this. Any ideas? I was thinking that doing some echo quilting around the hearts and then stippling in the hearts would be nice, but I don't know if I should reverse that idea (echos inside the hearts, stippling outside) or if I should just leave the hearts empty.
I am having trouble finding time to work on the quilt. I usually have some time after the kids go to bed at night, but by then I'm so tired that I'm not in the mood for sewing. Today I would have been able to sew because all three children are napping right now (CRAZY!) but Matt is sleeping and I can't get my sewing machine. Oh well. I figure if I can at least get the top done and it quilted a little bit before her birthday, that'll be good enough.

The truth is...

.....that I'm completely exhausted.
.....that I think Charlotte is my cutest baby so far.
.....that I wish someone would let me sleep for even 8 hours uninterrupted.
.....that Nathalie's big brown eyes have gotten her out of lots of trouble.
.....that I wish Matt were home and awake more.
.....that I feel a special connection with Emily.
.....that I can't wait to move into a bigger place.
.....that I feel guilty when Emily and Nathalie watch a movie while I try to put Charlotte to sleep.
.....that I feel guilty when I don't get enough cuddle time with Charlotte.
.....that I ate two bowls of Applejacks tonight after the kids went to bed.
.....that Matt works really hard for us.
.....that the girls have watched 3 movies this week so I could take a nap.
.....that laundry is the most obnoxious chore because you're never done.
.....that air conditioning is the most wonderful thing ever.
.....that Nathalie is really going to miss Emily this fall.
.....that Emily can't wait for preschool.
.....that I'm glad it's almost August because fall is my favorite season.
.....that Emily's birthday quilt is going to be super cute. If I get it done in time.

Reality Check

It was a grumpy day. I was tired. And hot. And discouraged. And worried. And annoyed.

We walked Matt to work just to get outside even though it was so humid there was sweat running down our faces the whole time. The girls and I dropped him off at work, then played around his work for a little bit. Finally we set off for home. Again, read the first sentence.

I was especially getting irritated because the girls didn't listen to me all day. I would say these 7 times and they wouldn't even acknowledge I said anything. Everything was a battle. My voice was getting hoarse from all that talking.

You know that kind of day?

We reached a few blocks from home. Emily climbed up on someone's stairs and when I said, "Emily, let's go" she smiled at me and said, "No." I put Nathalie back in the stroller (she'd climbed out), hoisted Charlotte back on my shoulder (she is there most of the day) and said, "Then Emily, you didn't listen and I told you I'm going." I started walking. Emily, predictably, got a little upset, came down the stairs, hopped on her bike, said something that I didn't hear and started riding toward me. Annoyed, I said, "Emily, you need to listen the first time I tell you something." She said, "But Mom..." And I said, "No, Emily. You need to listen."

Then she said again, "But Mom....did you hear me say I love you?"

Ouch.

FYI

If you can't seem to be able to publish a post on Blogger and your computer recently updated to Internet Explorer 9, the problem is this:

When you open the "new post" page and create a post, you need to click the "torn paper" icon. This activates the Compatibility View, which for some reason I don't understand, allows you to activate the publish post button. If you don't have the torn paper icon, I believe you can find Compatibility View settings in the Tools section.

That's why I haven't posted in nearly a week.

I get to see this little girl every morning. She has really grown up lately. She can start a movie all by herself, tried to make a bottle for Charlotte and is getting so big. She turns 4 in just a little over a month.

All of a sudden, Nathalie ADORES Charlotte. Overall, probably a good thing. Nathalie is in the terrible twos now. It's annoying. She's still cute....except when she has a tantrum/is defiant/sneaky/ etc. You know how it is.

I adore Charlotte too. She's almost 3 months! We're really turning a corner. She's a lot happier, has been sleeping more. She loves me. I can feel that she really loves me. Right now she occasionally smiles for Matt and the girls but she always smiles for me.

We now have two girls in cloth diapers. After fiddling with them a little bit, we found that Charlotte does best with it snapped on the second rise of snaps, and have 2 or 3 snaps between the tabs. The organic inserts are simply too bulky for her, but the homemade and stay-dry inserts work fine, although I like the homemade better since they're trimmer. Nathalie and Charlotte both wear disposables at night however. With two in cloth, I can barely keep up!! I'm going to need a few more covers and inserts....

Waste not, want not

Our dinner chairs were ugly, dirty and torn. We know that eventually Matt will make us some matching chairs, but for right now we decided to re-upholster them. We found some cheap fabric and he went to work!
Seriously, he did an AWESOME job. Don't they look great?! They wipe up clean so far, although I think we are going to put some plastic on a few of them and designate those as "kid chairs".

Where's Charlotte?

This is an outfit my grandma got Charlotte. I LOVE the tutu! Emily loves this outfit too...and so it spends a lot of time on her teddy bear.
Matt and I were making dinner one night and I put Charlotte in the highchair for a few minutes. Emily and Nathalie came in and decided that Charlotte needed some babies to keep her company!

We're moving along here. I'm still pretty tired. The girls are okay, although they are sick today. Matt is in school and working. Question for all of you: I thawed some breastmilk today since my supply is low due to fatigue. Charlotte wouldn't take the bottle, which I wasn't really expecting since it was her second bottle ever. But when I smelled the milk, it was rotten! Have any of you ever had that happen? Is all my frozen breastmilk going to be rotten?