hello, stranger.

I have been sort of absent from the Blogosphere.  I know it.  And I am going to try to do better.

I have been busy.
And tired.
(Mostly tired. LOL)

My littlest girl is three weeks old as of day before yesterday.  Time is already flying.  And she is already changing.  She is fast becoming more awake, more aware of her surroundings.  And she eats non-stop like a teenage boy.  This kid LIVES at the boob.  At her two week appointment last week, she had gained an entire pound since birth (so more than a pound if you count what she lost after being born) and grew THREE INCHES!! What I am serving up at the 24 hour diner must be good. LOL

And the bigger one... she amazes me everyday.  She is talking and imagining and becoming a little human more and more each day.  She makes me laugh so hard.  The things she says never stop surprising me.  It is nice to have someone to visit with - someone with interests and opinions, who listens and tells jokes, does numerous Sesame Street impressions (My favorite is when she counts to 10 and follows it up with, "AH AH AH!" like The Count.) and spends her days playing "cook" in her little kitchen and coloring (sometimes on things she isn't supposed to) and bugging her new baby sister. 

Hayden's favorite things to do to with  her sister include shoving Carly's "binking" in her mouth, being a pest while Carly is sleeping, and loudly declaring, "Alright, Tarly Tate!" a million times a day.  I'm not quite sure what she is expecting "Tarly Tate" to do, but she is ready for her sister to do something.  She stands just far enough away from me while I am nursing her sister to eat some old cereal from the couch cushions or show me something she colored all over, or try to sit in the baby swing - all while scolding herself, "Naughty!! No No!" and laughing an evil little laugh and running off to no doubt do something else while I am busy.  I'd say she has figured out that I am not as quick to react when her sister is latched on as I usually am. LOL

I'm not gonna lie - she tries my patience everyday, too.  But I love every minute.

(Usually I would put a picture of Miss Hoots here -  but today she wasn't in the mood to have her picture taken, so not today. Haha.)

And as for me, I am slowly finding a rhythm with my two under two.  My house is still a disaster area 95% of the time, we have eaten more frozen pizza than I'd like to admit, and two of the three of us are still in our pajamas right now at 11:30am.  (The only reason that it isn't all three of us in PJs still is that Carly pooped on hers and was forced to change. LOL)

Life is certainly different than our pre-Carly life was. 

We have less routine.  Things are messier.  I am tired.  My patience is thinner. 

We play it by ear, one minute at a time, celebrating small victories.

Small victories like days where all three of us get a bath or a shower, days where I wear pants that actually have a zipper, days where we make it out of the house - even if it is just to the bank or the gas station.

If you could see me as I type, still in my pajamas, unshowered, nursing the baby for the umpteenth time today, listening to Hayden beg for lunch (she is immediately STARVING as soon as I have her sister on my boob), you might wonder if survival mode is even working.  But we are surviving - I swear! :-)

Stay tuned for more from the trenches - like I said, I am going to try to be better - and eventually, I hope that "surviving" turns into "thriving"... someday. :-)