Four Years Down. . .and Marriage DOESN'T Suck!!!

Tomorrow is our fourth wedding anniversary! It's been a wonderful four years! In fact, it seems too good to be true!

How could marriage be this good?!  In all honesty, I was kinda bracing myself for marriage! I had heard how hard marriage was, I had seen the statistics in my major in college (Marriage and Family) and I had seen my parents marriage fail, so I mentally prepared myself for heated arguments followed by silent treatments, and crying myself to sleep. My vision of marriage came up while we were engaged--we talked about when we wanted to start having a family. He suggested we shoot for a honeymoon baby, with the justification of "why not?!"

I may have given him an earful at that point!

Why not?! Well, because marriage was going to be hard! It was going to be work! We were going to have to fight, because that's what two people do who come from different families and have different life experiences and upbringing. We were going to have to beat the kinks out of marriage before we add another kink to the rope! It was ironic that Robby was suggesting a honeymoon baby seeing as my Dad's one piece of marriage advice when Robby asked my dad if he could marry me was "don't have kids too early". . .There had to be a reason for that. I thought I was giving Robby an education in newlywedness "Robby, don't you know?. . .marriage is gonna kinda suck at first!" And Robby just responded ". . .OK" (more to say "well if that's how you feel about it" and not to say "thank you for bestowing your wealth of wisdom"). Honestly, I'm pretty lucky he married me after that! With an attitude like that, it could have become a self-fulfilled prophecy! Another thing I was preparing myself for was finding out who Robby really was after we got married, but at the same time I felt like he was super authentic, so I hoped it wouldn't be too bad. I was super blessed because low and behold

Robby was the real deal and . . .Marriage DIDN'T suck!

 Wheeeew! I'm sure glad I was wrong about it all! As wrong as I could be in fact! Robby was just as amazing as he seemed to be--kind, PATIENT, optimistic, righteous and the list goes on. Me on the other hand? I don't know what can prepare a man for an emotional female :) Maybe having five sisters?! ;) But with his optimism, he handles it like a champ! So after two months of marriage, I realized that marriage was wonderful and that probably wasn't going to change. That was nice. . .except, then I didn't have a reason to not have children. So we had one by our first anniversary :)

So what is marriage like really? I live with my best friend! I'm married to my eternal boyfriend, a man I look forward to going on vacations with, dates with, spending hum drum time with, daydreaming about, and welcoming home at the end of the day. Being married to Robby is so good that I hesitate to tell single people how good marriage is, because I might be setting them up for disappointment. After all, not everybody can marry Robby Parker.

The Karma of Parenthood

 A dear friend of mine used to say:

"Make sure your words are soft and sweet, cuz ya never know how many you'll have to eat!"

Never have I found that to be more true than in becoming a parent. Yep, karma has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you have children. You grow up thinking that parenting can't be all that hard and without meaning to, you pile up a list of things you've seen other people do but will NEVER do when you have kids:

• I won't use a playpen 
• I will never let the highchair get that gross 
• I won't let my baby cry herself to sleep (see blog post: Looking Back: Sleep Training) 
• I won't yell at my kids

 . . .HA HA HA! Riiiight.

Note: If any of these judgments describe you or your children, pretty please don't harbor sore feelings. I promise I don't judge you anymore!

Although I no longer purposely judge other parents, I think it might be too late to escape the karma of my previous judging. Just keep watching my Facebook/blog posts. I'm bound to end up with a 3-year-old with a binkie, a kid on a leash, and kids going for rides underneath the grocery cart! And to be honest, with how many times I internally scoffed at those things. . .I would be getting my just desserts!

Here's my daughter about the time I tried potty training her. . .one time.

One thing that I often judged was kids who were still in diapers. I always thought it was weird when 3 year-olds needed their bums changed. The mind-chatter surrounding my judgement went something like this: Your kids is walking, climbing, jumping, and starting to dress themselves . . . and they can't walk themselves over to the potty? Not only can they talk, they can form full sentences, count to ten, and recognize letters, and they can't tell you when they need to sit on the potty? They're aware of how hungry/full, thirsty, cold, hot, or tired they are and they can't recognize that their bladder is full? Well, going back to the karma idea. . .I'm a stay-at-home mom. My daughter turned three without any desire to potty train. Her motor skills are fine, she can physically do it. She talks like a champ; she speaks in complete sentences (almost non-stop), and she has been communicating about many of her physical needs since she was a year old. This girl had the motor skills, verbal skills, and self-awareness and yet. . .when she was 26 months old I tried the just-go-straight-to-using-underwear method and this was my experience:

1. Gave Leila a bath I got her out and said “let’s have you go potty!” she said “no. not yet!” 
2. Put her panties on--immediately peed (Potty accident #1) 
3. Back in bath, washed off I asked “do you need to go potty?” she said “No. Don’t need to go potty.” I believed her because. . .she just went. 
4. We got ready to go to the playground behind our house. As we were walking down the steps outside, she made a puddle on the stair (Potty accident #2). 
5. Back inside, cleaned up. Panties on. had her sit on potty--nothing, went outside, she went down the slide once, then looked concerned and said “wipe”--meaning she wants a wipe to clean herself off (Potty accident #3). 
6. Cleaned up. Had her sit on potty. Peed a few drops. Panties on. Went to the kitchen, sat in high chair, had a few grapes, then “wipe!” (Potty accident #4). 
7. Had her sit on the potty, not sure if it was new stuff because. . . I forgot to clean it out from last time (oops!), but the potty sang it’s victory music. Put her panties back on, helped her wash her hands (having her propped up on my bent leg as usual). . .and she peed. . . on my leg. (Potty accident #5).
8. Cleaned up. Diaper this time. Ate a few grapes. Then distressed look and “potty!” She had peed a little in her diaper (Potty “accident” #6), but then I had her sit on the potty AGAIN and she peed quite a bit! Frankly. . .I was a little too exhausted to celebrate, but I managed to cheer for her a little :)

Believe it or not, this all happened in FORTY-FIVE MINUTES!

I posted this episode on Facebook nine months ago when this happened. A friend commented that potty training will be successful when my little girl is "ready" for it. "Ready?! Oh this girl is ready!" I thought. "ya, she has sufficient motor skills, verbal skills, and self-awareness. She's ready, she's just not WILLING!" I was frazzled. But then. . .there's a lesson in that isn't there? For children, it comes down to more than child development. Adults may do things even when they don't want to do them, but with kids "willing" and "able" are an inseparable pair. Since my daughter didn't want to potty train. . .and since my brains were scrambled, we put the brakes on potty training for a time.


Through my adventures in motherhood, I've learned at least four things: 

1. Kids are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get (and I don't just mean gender).
2. Parents are people too, and sometimes us people just gotta do what we gotta do to survive the day!
3. When kids aren't progressing in various ways, it's not always for lack of effort on the parents part
4. Perhaps instead of judging those struggling parents for their children's behavior, I should have applauded them for their their patience and humility.

Tell me--what did you previously judge parents about? Or what should you stop judging parents about so that you don't one day get bit by "bad karma"?

This is my little diaper girl. . .actually this picture is a story all on its own. . .cuz those 
aren't Huggies, they are Depends. Ask me about it some time :)

P.S. The inspiration for posting all this is because Leila has been doing well on the potty the last few days. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but you might see an upcoming post about how we successfully potty-trained our daughter :)

The Allergy Adventure Continues (with Baby # 2)

I can remember back to the time that I was a new stay-at-home mom, when playgroups, middle-of-the night feedings, teething, blow-outs and all the rest of it were still new to me. At playgroup one day, a lady from my church turned down a snack for her baby because he was allergic. She expanded on this and listed the many things he was allergic to. "Wow! That sounds HARD" I thought. How awful to have to choose between either cutting those foods out of your whole family's diet or making something special for that one child for every meal! And of course, that trial paled in comparison to the worry that her child could have an allergic reaction which could vary from mild to severe. . .or even life threatening. I couldn't help but hope that I would never find myself in her shoes. Then a funny thing happened--funny mostly because of the simple circumstance which gave way to it--I felt a powerful and clear prompting from the Spirit. It was a thought that didn't come from me. It was like a voice of a parent or teacher giving me instruction contrary to what I was then thinking.  The voice was accompanied by a warm feeling of comfort that swept over my body. The thought was "it's OK. dealing with a child's allergies is doable. If you were called to pass through this trial, you could do it and so can this Mother. There are things so much harder than allergies and still so much to be grateful for." This experience took me aback a little. Allergies? Why would I have such a profound experience about allergies?! I don't have food allergies. . .neither does my husband. In such a case children rarely get food allergies. Surely my children won't. But so strong were the feelings that I had, that I kept it in my back pocket, just in case.

This is a picture of Leila soon after finding out that taking her off gluten and
dairy made her much happier.

This is us at the 4th of July party. I'd like to say that Heidi's cheeks
were red from watermelon juice, but it's just the eczema. 

Fast forward months later and I found out my Leila's moody temperament was not just happenstance, but likely due to allergies (see my "Free From Gluten Free" post). That was trying at first--trying to figure out what I could make for her that didn't contain two whole food groups. At times I would be panicked because I would realize there was literally nothing in the house I could feed my child, but I soon adjusted.

When Heidi was born, she was a sweet little soul from the very beginning. However, there were times when she would seem a little colicky in the first month. Due to my experience with Leila, I decided to cut out milk to see if that would make a difference. Sure enough, not only did the colic stop, but Heidi almost never spit up! At six months of age, I thought perhaps her stomach had matured enough that I could resume drinking milk. It seemed successful--she wasn't crying uncontrollably and she kept her food down. Great! But as time went on, the eczema that she'd always had to some degree, seemed to have gotten worse. Could it be due to my drinking milk again? As a few months passed, I couldn't help but think that my drinking milk was causing her cheeks to get so red, her skin to be flaky, itchy, and even scabby sometimes. So I got a referral to the allergist.

The Doctor walked in to the old-fashioned clinic room, which made me feel like I had time warped back to the 70's. A kind, confident Doctor walked in, and before he sat down,  he took one look at Heidi and touted "yep, looks like another case of eczema". He sounded almost bored. He portrayed that he was a little surprised to have me come in for such a common skin condition, and wondered if my pediatrician had also told me it was just eczema. "Yes. But I think it might also be related to a food allergy" I said. He nodded his head thoughtfully, then said "well, in 2/3 cases the eczema is just a skin condition--one she'll outgrow, which is likely what we are going to find today. . .in 1/3 cases, it's related to a food allergy. . . But it's worth checking, so that's what we'll do!"

We were brought to another room where I removed Heidi's little dress and a nurse poked her in the back with the six main allergens--soybean, corn, eggs, milk, peanut, and wheat. She was a good sport. The sweet soul didn't cry, just looked a little confused. Then we had to wait for fifteen minutes for the reactions to be pronounced. My busy little monkey didn't want to stay put, so she crawled around the floors and cruised around the furniture, even meandering into the halls. All the while I had to make sure she didn't rub her back on anything, so that the the allergens would stay where they were--this proved to be harder than I thought. When the nurse came back she furrowed her brow and said "this isn't what we were wanting to see!" She measured each of the bright red welts on her back. Then I was brought back to another room to visit with the Doctor. He echoed the nurse by saying "these were not the results we were hoping for".

So here's the verdict: She has a full-blown allergy to milk and eggs, a sensitivity to soy, and a life-threatening allergy to peanuts! I could hardly believe it! Of course the most startling was the peanut allergy. "Will she outgrow it?" I immediately wondered and hoped. I learned that between 70-80% of children with milk, egg, and soy allergies outgrow them by the time they are 5 or 6, but only about 20% of children with peanut allergies EVER outgrow them. Heidi's peanut allergy is so severe that if she gets even a taste of it, she could go into anaphylactic shock--which means that her throat could swell up, cutting off her air flow, and she could suffocate.

Speaking of shock. . .I was shocked! My angelic little baby, the one that not only lights up a room, but an entire grocery store as she sits in the cart, has a known Kryptonite? "Absolute peanut avoidance" was one of the notes taken by the doctor. We were to consider avoiding foods even processed in a facility that contain nuts, but this was left to our discretion. Ugh! It made me want to ban peanuts! As much as I love peanut butter truffle brownies, Reeses Pieces, and Moose Tracks ice cream, I would much rather live in a peanut-free world, to avoid the risk of losing my sweet child. To think--my baby's kryptonite will be in her friend's PB & J sandwich at lunchtime at school, it will be in her bag of halloween candy, it is hidden so sneakily into baked goods at church potlucks--I know! I've been the one to bake them! 

This peanut allergy means I will have to be careful, which is an adjective that simply doesn't describe me. (ex. in about six months I shattered the screen on my cell phone twice and lost another phone). But now I've got to kick it into high gear--I'll have no peanut butter or peanuts in my house. Not only that, but I need to warn all caregivers of this allergy and train them on how to use an Epipen! Yep. She's got one of those now! If I have anything to do with it, there will be signs on the doors of the nursery at church and school, indicating that this is a peanut-free zone.

Yes. I could be evolving into that mom 

My new staples

It's hard to imagine that peanut butter is a common household staple across the country and all my little 9-month-old, 18 pound baby has to do is be a human vacuum (which is one of her favorite pass-times around the kitchen table) and pick up a crumb of peanut butter cookie and . . .but wait. What about that peace I felt 3 years ago; the one that I can recall so well, even today?

It reminds me of a scripture:

D&C 6:23

 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things. Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?

So as I get upset about this trial, I need to look back upon that quiet moment in the park and that peace I felt in my heart. Heavenly Father gave me peace and instruction before I even knew that allergies would ever be a trial in my family. And I DO know that this isn't the hardest thing I could go through. I feel for the parents who have to struggle daily with their child's severe physical and/or mental handicaps. I can't fathom what they're going through. But what is significant to me is that Heavenly Father knew that having children with allergies would be a trial for me. And what matters to me, matters to him. I don't know how things are going to pan out with our darling girl. I don't know if we'll be making multiple trips to the emergency room, and if administering an epipen will become as second nature as popping Tylenol, but I do know that  Heavenly Father loves us and will take care of us :)

Proverbs 3:5-6 

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Relating to Life in The Book of Mormon- The Story of The Broken Bow/ The "I Can't Do This" Syndrome.

The Book of Mormon is amazing! Robby and I are just weeks away from reading it together for the 6th time and I have read it personally a dozen or so times (if I were to guess) and, like the Bible, I don't tire of it, I learn new things every time! It’s something I find I can easily relate to--finding parallels to my own life, tendencies, and trials. Some of those of you who are reading this may be familiar with the story of the broken bow from the Book of Mormon, but for those who are not, the full story is here, but I’ll also give a synopsis:

Nephi was one of a party of people caravaning through the wilderness toward a promised land (think the Children of Israel in The Bible). This group of people hunted for their food. Nephi, who had the last working bow and arrow, broke his weapon. Now it seemed that the family was doomed to starvation. Nephi’s brothers were angry and everyone, including his father, the prophet, whined and complained. 

*I should point out here that I’m not judging them! When I get hungry and I don’t know when I’m going to be able to eat again, I get “hangry” (hungry/angry), so I know I would be right there with them.*

Nephi on the other hand, had a different approach. He decided to DO something about his situation. If there’s something I’ve learned from my two-year-old, it’s that whining doesn’t get you what you want :) Amazingly, the same thing goes for adults, but some of us (like me. . .and Laman, Lemuel etc.) are slow learners. So what he does is he makes his own bow and arrow, asks his Father (because he’s the prophet) to ask the Lord where he should go to find food. Everyone humbles themselves, Nephi’s ne’r-do-well brothers behave--that is until the next chapter when they whine and complain about having to help build a ship (See 1 Nephi 17: 17,18, 50, 51 and 1 Nephi 18: 1-3). Nephi’s Father Lehi directs him where to go to find food and Nephi comes home with dinner. 

OK. Now for the current-day application. 

Sometimes we are given trials that overwhelm us and responsibilities that seem beyond our ability to fulfill. We may want to murmur and complain like Laman and Lemuel and say “this is hard! I can’t do this!” . . .I tend to do this a lot, particularly about the difficulties of motherhood; but when I think like this, I just sink into a downward spiral of ingratitude, self-pity, and hard-heartedness. Instead, I can choose to trust the Lord (like Nephi) by calling upon him for strength to do the things that I feel are beyond my capacity. I can ask where I should go, or what I should do to make life better, or to simply find peace amidst the storms of toddlerhood. I can act! If I do, I will still have hard things in front of me (heavens knows there are harder things than having a child in her terrible twos, or even than not knowing how you’re going to get your next meal) but if we call upon the Lord for help and are willing to act, Nephi and I. . .and all of God’s children, can face trials with courage, increased capacity, and an assurance that the Lord won’t let us fail. See below for more.

Post-Script 

Here are some of my favorite "you can DO it!/be happy" scriptures. 

Click on the reference to go to the actual scripture:

John 16:33 

Synopsis: We can be happy in tribulation because Christ, through the Atonement has overcome all tribulation. The Lord wants us to find peace in this truth. 

2 Nephi 10:23 (Robby’s favorite scripture)

Synopsis: You can do something about your life--that's something to be happy about! 

Helaman 14:30-31 

Synopsis: If you do good things, you'll get good things back, at least in the long run (kinda like a spiritual Karma). 

D&C 78:18 

Synopsis: You can't handle everything right now, but be happy, The Lord will help you! 

D&C 61:36 

Synopsis: We are still learning and growing like children, it's OK that we're not all the way there yet, God hasn't given up on you. He will help you!

Sunday of our San Francisco Trip

So I got up in the morning and decided that the smell was just too much. Not only could I not live with that for the next few days, but if this nice Chinese guy kept trying to rent it out to make money for his family. . .the reviews would eventually prevent anyone from wanting to stay there! I thought that was pretty unfortunate seeing as he seems like a really nice person and aside from the wonky drive leading up to the house, the accommodations were really pretty nice! So I decided to go to work cleaning the floor! Luckily he had a huge package of our favorite cleaning agent--Costco wipes! So I started in right around the main perpetrator--the toilet. He swore they had cleaned it, but one wipe without even scrubbing and the cloth turned from pure white to . . .pure brown. EEWWWwwww! I kept going and used probably around 20 wipes cleaning the floor just around the toilet. Robby pitched in and cleaned the rest of the bathroom floor using several wipes himself. 

This was the garbage can we were done cleaning.
And can you believe this was actually the top of the pile!
The ones further down were worse! We could have kept
going, but decided we should probably get ready for church.

 I took a shower and scampered across the freshly cleaned floor. All throughout church I kept getting a whiff of a HORRIBLE smell. . .I think my feet had been tainted by the smell of the floor! Oh so gross! Good thing we weren't moving into that ward! Talk about bad first impressions! Yuck! . . .I use too many exclamation marks don't I? . . .! :)

After church ,we walked around the temple grounds a bit. It's so fun to go
to different wards on vacation and to visit different temples. What a blessing
that there are temples all over the world to help families to be sealed together for eternity!

We went to the visitors center at The Oakland Temple. 

We also took Sunday naps :)

It was a nice, chill vacation day!

San Francisco Trip

I like May long weekend! That's when Robby and I get to reset for the year. Robby and I like to travel, so we make sacrifices in some areas partly so that we can splurge in that area. Traveling together, particularly without children, really refreshes us. This is especially true of Robby. He will talk about our last trip until the next trip! He'll say "wasn't that New York trip Great?!" or "Thanks for going to "New York with me!" We have almost been married for 4 years and May has always been a time to look forward to! Here's our travel record just for the month of May:

2012: Miami (I was 7 1/2 months pregnant with Leila)

2013: Thailand (ALONE!) AND Mexico (with Leila). It would have been nice to split up trips so as to spread out the fun. However, we already had our Thailand trip booked for months when Robby's work told us they were taking us on a Mexico trip. 

2014: New York City (Alone and 5 months pregnant with Heidi)

2015: San Francisco!!! (with Heidi--the cute little thing isn't into baby food or bottles, so she can't be far from Mama for long).

Robby has a work conference this week. So we decided to take advantage of the fact that there is a long weekend beforehand and I came out with him to Cali for a few days before I go to Utah solo to wrangle the kids while he soaks up education to apply to his job.

We got here yesterday--Saturday. We left Utah where it has been raining for what seems like 2 solid weeks and hoped to see some good California sun. It was actually pretty similar in Utah when we left as it was in California when we arrived--pretty overcast. But we continued with our plans to go to Muir Woods anyway--a Redwoods forest. 

On the way there we stopped for lunch at a Farmer's Market in Marin, CA. I love Farmer's Markets! It's interesting that the people who man the booths--entrepreneurs of sorts, often believing in organic fruit, all-natural lotion or homemade yogurt as though it were their religion, can be so chill, almost hippy-like! It's such an oxymoron to me--laid back salesmen.

We split a brat hot dog and a chicken, mushroom, cheese, sour cream stuffed buckwheat crepe. Both were very yummy! Then we sat down and enjoyed our food while watching a little band.

Then we continued on our way to the forest--It was beautiful--the sun came out which broke through the thick forest canopy and warmed up the fresh, moist air. 

Redwoods can get about 300 feet high!

After the forest, we drove back toward where we would stay for the night--in Castro Valley. On the way we drove over Golden Gate bridge!! I know. It's just a bridge. But I've dreamed of seeing that bridge since I was a kid and watched Full House :) Right beside it is Golden Gate park. We took a walk around there for awhile. Heidi squawked at the Canadian Geese (I think she was saying "my Mom's Canadian too!!) and the pigeons. Since then, she periodically seems to make purring noises like a pigeon. There were also some cute little turtles in a pond.

My phone was dead at this point and that was our only camera. So I didn't get pictures of the park. I'm learning something though--just because you don't have pictures to prove it, doesn't mean it didn't happen!

After stopping at a Sub place called Togo's for a quick dinner we headed to our accommodations. We would be staying in the basement of "some guy's  house". That's generally how we do things since we use airbnb.com. I've said this before, but it's a website where people can rent out whatever they have and it ends up being more of an adventure and less expensive than a hotel. We were thinking we had hooked ourself up with some pretty sweet digs when we pulled into this neighborhood of townhomes. However, when we called the guy, we found out we were. . .in the wrong place. 

This is the right place.

You can't tell from the picture, but to the left, there's a makeshift barn with hay bales inside and a tarp as a wall. To the right is a run down house, further down is scrap metal all over the place and at the end of it all is the place we would be staying. . .home sweet home (for three days).

When the little Asian man and his 4 year old boy showed us around the basement suite, the first thing we noticed was the smell--raw sewage. STRONG! Everything else seemed just fine. Everything seemed in good condition. He made certain to point out the new kitchenware including a new pan on the stove. The place had been renovated recently with new laminate floors and fixtures. When he showed us the bathroom, the stench was almost overwhelming. He said "it looks not so clean in here, but we cleaned it". It wasn't the looks so much! Goodness, could he not smell that?! Anyway, he finished showing us around and Robby asked where the playpen was. Before we came, Robby had called the man to find out if he had a playpen for Heidi to sleep in. We thought this was pretty likely seeing as we could tell from his online profile that he had children. He had affirmed to Robby that he did have one.  Heidi was about an hour past her bedtime when we arrived, so we were ready to put her down as she was getting pretty fussy (hence our promptly inquiring about the whereabouts of the playpen). He looked confused and said "play. . .pen?" "Ya. . ." Robby said. "for our baby to sleep in". "Ohhh! I thought you meant a pan. . .to cook in. I asked my wife "what is a plate pan and she also thought it was a pan!" No wonder he had called special attention to the pan on the stove! Now where was our baby going to sleep? . . .Hmmmm... Robby probed to find out what he had. It turned out he had a wooden bed with railings at another house. He went out to retrieve it while Robby went to the grocery store to buy food for Sunday. After probably an hour and a half to two hours, the bed was finally setup and I was able to lay Heidi down. You'd think at this point she would pass out instantly from exhaustion, but no. This wasn't her crib, so she cried for around an hour. Ugh! Traveling with babies is not such a relaxing get-away, but we're still having fun. 

Leila-isms (#2)

Sorry to just take from my Facebook posts, but somehow I feel like a blog is a better way to preserve memories than Facebook. . . Maybe because some of my friends/family don't do Facebook, so this way I can include them :)

Another reason is because I'm lazy and I haven't written in my blog for a month now, so it was time to just go ahead and write something!

Here are a couple of Leila-isms that happened lately:

Leila: does Keilani have a baby sister?
Me: No. She has a baby brother
Leila: what's his name?
Me: Noah
Leila: am I going to have a baby brother?
Me: maybe one day.
Leila: what's his name going to be?
Me: little Robby
Leila: (knowing that her dad's name is Robby) ... Will we have to get a new dad then?
Me: no. You would have the same dad. You have the best dad ever!
Leila: . . . but if we broke him, we'd have to get a new dad! 


Me: I have two BEAUUUTIFUL girls!
Leila: I have FIVE beautiful girls: Heather, Jennifer, Natalie, Megan, and Sarah!

 (I think her saying *five* beautiful girls must have been a fluke! Could she really have calculated or known that Robby has five sisters?!)

This is a shot from Easter weekend. Oh my! I have cute girls!