Party of Five

Hello there, dear devoted readers (ha!). It's been one year and 27ish days since my husband hijacked the blog and posted for me. That made me feel like a little less of a woman, by the way. I'm back, though, in a big way. Don't even worry about it.

I had a busy year though. I made a new person. More on her later (of course it's a 'she'- that's all we can make, I think). First let me catch you up on the rest of the Fam.

Eric

He's still a stud. He helped me to make a person. Like, on purpose even. Still travels the world although he's been in town a lot lately. Something he's proud of: he finished Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged' and is now able to discuss John Galt. Hmmmmm.... what else? Oh- he still loves me in spite of my three baby body and my new penchant for random anxiety. I love him.

Me

My newest interests (that sounds better than fixations, right?) include: Reruns of 'Bones' on Netflix, Pinterest, the Tooele Joann's store, Cloth Diapers (weirdly consuming), and Running at night. I'm working hard on getting back to my pre-pre-pregnancy size. I could use some support on that. Anyone up for some competition? I'm so happy the sunshine is finally here! Somehow I forget about sweat and mosquitoes every year, though.

Olivia

She's going to be a third grader! Insane! She was just baptized and loved every second of that day. I loved seeing her smile so much. And Eric took her skiing for the first time! This will embarrass her, but she is growing into such a beautiful girl. She's tall and willowy and tan. Such a good girl. The other night at a wedding reception, she came skipping towards us with a big smile on her face when her flip-flop (flip-flops are totally fine for a wedding reception) caught on a paver and she went down. HARD. Oh my. That girl was so tough. She was mortified but held back tears and hobbled back to our table. Oh, it makes me want to hug her, just thinking about it. She's not a little kid anymore.

Frances

Oooo-eeeee. What about Fran-Fran? She is brilliantly willful. Amazingly argumentative. But also hilarious, generous and sensitive. She just graduated from pre-school! Weird. I swear she should be in high school by now.

At her pre-school graduation, her teacher handed out books to the parents and in each was a bunch of questions she asked the kids and their individual answers. When Eric and I read Fran's, we almost wet our pants. Her answers are, like, a paragraph long.

Here's a photo of our favorite. The question was "What scares you the most?" Her answer is at the bottom. You know, where it says 'Frances'.

And..... the Newbie. AKA Maybel.

"Maybel, Maybel. Set the table." The girls sing this to her often. Not quite sure where it came from. Miss Maybe (not a typo- it's a nickname). She's four months old already. She is a little chub chub, she toots incessantly, spits up on ev-er-y-thing. But we are all madly in love with her. She's pretty much the sweetest, most edible little thing around. I can't believe how much I don't accomplish these days because of her. I had completely blocked what it was like to have a newborn. I got a new iPhone a few days after she was born and because I am constantly holding, feeding, changing her- there are more than SIX HUNDRED photos of her on it now. Six. Hundy! Oh well. She's my life these days. It will all pass soon enough. So, anyway, that's our baby.

This post was a tad long-winded. So sorry about that. From now on, I think I'll just post pictures and captions (thanks for the inspiration, Ketryn) because I don't have a whole lot of adult interaction during the day, and I tend to ramble.

Excited to be back, people!