Aiden Is Four!

I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to figure out how old Aiden was when I met him. I am really, really bad at this, but I think I've figured out that if he turned 4 in July 2010, he turned 1 in July 2007. I feel like Karen and I became friends in the fall but I've always thought I met Aid when he was 10 months old. Well, no matter if he was 10 months or 14 months old, he was a teeny tiny thing. I will never forget the little jeans and flannel shirt he was wearing when Karen came over to our house for our first playdate. He was sooooo cute!

That cute little dude is four years old now. Four! All grown up and calling me "Mrs. Mom." Sam and Aid have gone from diapers and naptimes to preschool and dinosaurs, but they have a relationship that knows no bounds. People at Aiden's birthday party were even commenting on their infatuation with each other. They LOVE each other.

(Speaking of that party...it was at 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon. Eric was on call and that is dangerously close to bedtime. I was 50% sure we would be going. Then Karen, that rat, said, "I asked Aid what he wanted for his birthday and he said, 'A bucket of dinosaurs, a bucket of dragons, and Sam.'" How could I not go to the ends of the earth to make sure Sam was at Aiden's party?!)

Karen took these pictures of my kids at the party. It was a huge backyard blowout and my kids were naked for most of it. It was awesome! Sam couldn't have been any more excited about Aiden's presents than if they were his own. What a great party!

We LOVE the Bures family!!

Bargain Victory

Matilda LOVES her babies. I've watched her cover them with a blanket and shush them, share her Cheerios with them, and pull her own Nuk out of her mouth to cram into theirs. It is truly so sweet.

I got out my old doll highchair and cradle several months ago. It was a nice set meant for older kids and Matilda destroyed it pretty quickly. She sat in the highchair and in the cradle and soon they were in pieces.

I wanted to find doll playset furniture for Matilda to play with. I've been looking online a lot trying to get an idea as to what was out there. Imagine my complete elation when I found the Graco Baby Doll Playset yesterday - at Goodwill! It was new in the box and the pieces were still in plastic. I spent $9.99 on it. That is a lot of money for one of my scavenging trips - I usually allot just a few dollars for garage sale/thrift store treasures - but this was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up.

I put it all together as soon as the kids and I got home. Sam and Matilda played with it for hours. I'm pretty sure this set will be destroyed, too, but I know they'll get more than my $9.99's worth of playtime out of it.

Shading My Eyes

Well, hello.

I'm emerging from my emotional hibernation like a bear in the springtime. I'm groggy, disoriented, and hungry. It isn't a literal hunger (though I could really go for an entire package of Peeps right now), it's more of a hunger for normalcy. I still don't feel like myself. As I read through old posts yesterday I was surprised to see that I was feeling like this as long ago as April.

I now know that avoiding the blog doesn't help anything. It actually gives me guilt as this is the only record of Sam and Matilda's lives. I'm not good at taking pictures or journaling. This is it. I'm going to try my best to catch up.

Bless all of you who have told me that you've missed my posts. Bless all of you who never said a word.

I'm back, y'all.