The Dreadful Winter

Life has felt so hectic lately.  The girls got colds last week which had Liliana sick for the first time since she was 5 months old (so over two years!).  She was sick at 8:00 am and perfectly fine by 10:00 am. HA!  BUT I kept her home with me and though I had to stay up until midnight working, we went shopping, got cupcakes, and just had a great day together.  Now everyday she asks me if it's Mommy and Liliana's date day.  Breaks my heart to say no. 

And then there's Gloria.  She's not built like an ox like her sissy and just hasn't had a great winter.  She got sick for a day after Liliana and then got a stomach bug this week.  She vomited once and has gone to the restroom ... lord ... I lost count.  At least it's not throw up, but lord knows I'm sick of cleaning the poop.  She had to come home from school today b/c of it and I'm just tired of it.  I realize that sounds bad "I'm tired of taking care of my kids."  But it's just tiring to TRY and do that and TRY and work countless hours a week with my business.  By the time it's "business" time I can't do much more than keep up with orders.  I want to clean up listings, list new things, take new pictures, but it's just exhausting. 

To make matters worse Gloria is an angel even sick. She just smiles, moves around, giggles, and poops ... lots. Ha.

It's also tough to do it all on my own.  In the last 2 weeks I will have had one home 3 out of 10 days which basically means I'm 3 days behind.  Evan has helped 3 hours of that.  He came home for 3 hours and I'm sure that in the resident world that's incredible but life isn't a balance right now.  And I realize that I'm supposed to be the supportive wife, but I just want some ME time.  I want FOR ONCE to feel like this, my job can be a priority too.  I'm flawed.  It's very true.  It's frustrating.  I'm selfish.  I don't know the answers. 

So through all of this, needless to say I felt like I needed something ... SOMETHING to look forward to.  Evan's on vacation in less than 2 weeks and yes I'm looking forward to that, but I wanted a vacation.  Time to relax.  To take off work (I haven't taken a single day off work since July.  Not ONE day.  I even worked some on Christmas).  To just be ... RELAXED!!!

Evan sends me an email "wanna go to on a trip?"  Apparently he found out yesterday that he has a conference to attend in a few months.  For four days.  And instead of making it a "are you serious?  This is going to be TOUGH!" he thought "wanna go with me?"

And ... we MADE IT WORK! 

We have babysitters covered for both kids by sweet family and we're going to go away (well he has conferences during the day but still!)!!!  His airfare and hotel are covered so we're only paying my airfare. 

I spent a while yesterday looking up swimsuits (and other items, :) ) on victoriassecret.com.  I hit the gym hard and it's going to be a different kind of third honeymoon (since he'll be hearing all about prostates, penis trauma, and kidneys throughout the day from boring people) but nonetheless it's our trip.  OUR trip.  And we're counting down the DAYS.  It's still a heck of a lot of days, but it'll have to get me through this dreadful winter.

My 7 month girl

Gloria: 

Your Daddy wrote you your 7 month letter before I did, I'm so sorry!  BUT he didn't attach pictures, so boom!  :)

At 7 months I can't say anything but amazing things about you.  I think you've cried a total of 5 minutes in your entire life, haha.  Sometimes we're just amazed by how easy going you are.  You're smiling all the time, you're jumping up and down in your exersaucer constantly, you're moving around (not crawling yet but starting to try and get on all fours) a TON by scooting backwards, rolling everywhere, and more scooting.  You seem to have an obsession with scooting underneath furniture so we'll think to ourselves "where's Gloria?" and there you are under a chair, silly gal!
 

You're wearing 6-9 month clothing and a size 3 diaper. You continue to grow like a weed.  You get a bottle around 8 pm and wake up around 8:30 am (yes, you are just a great a sleeper as your sister!).  You only take one nap a day, but it's a really long one, around 3-4 hours. Somehow we have managed to have you and your sister take naps at the same time EVERY SINGLE DAY on the weekend which I must admit is nice.  It gives Mommy and Daddy time to cuddle, talk, get things done, go grocery shopping, etc.  It also means we can go out and run errands easily b/c we know when you'll be getting sleepy!  You eat 6 oz every 3 hours and love your formula and feed it to yourself, but you're not a big fan of food.  We put some in your mouth and you look at us with this look of disgust and swallow b/c you think you should, but you're definitely not in love ... at all! haha.

If I had to guess though the most alarming thing about you is your speaking!  Your Daddy and I can't get over it!  You're saying "habla, hermana (sister in Spanish) (your sister reminds you to say this to her 50 times a day!), Mama, Dada, Abu" and then this week you said "backpack!"  Yes ... the word backpack.  For a 7 month old baby!  Your Dad and I just turned to each other and were like "did she seriously just say that?  Holy crap!" (except don't say crap until you're older ya hear now?)

Now your sister?  MAN ... that is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.  You laugh constantly with her and Liliana is still obsessed with you.  We expected some jealousy.  We really did!  We haven't seen ANY.  Whenever I think Liliana's doing something suspicious, I look and she's just going to get a blanket to cover you with or a book to read with you.  It's the sweetest thing.

Having you is just amazing.  Your Daddy and I feel so content and happy with our two girls, so very in love with our life.  You are exactly what our family needed.  You are the perfect addition and we just can't wait to continue getting to know you better.

I love you Gloria Isabel.  You are our sunshine.

Mommy