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A New Favorite

I've said before that some people expressed their...how shall we say, disgust, in the way we "welcomed" our children to our family...I found a quote this past weekend that I shared with Molly and we both shed a tear over it. It emulates everything Sean and I were thinking when we choose to "bless" our children the way we did.

Here it is:

"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."

-Dalhi Lama

We have NEVER regretted our decision and this furthers the fact to us that we made the 100% right decision...for us and the people who love our children.

Hmmmm.....

Cate at 5 months....

Kiera at 5 months...

Mommy at 5 months....

Thoughts??? :)

First Tooth!!

YEA! and NAY! Caitlin has her first tooth!!

We are really excited that our baby girl has cut her first tooth...much in the way Kiera did...WITHOUT us KNOWING! But on the other hand, she's still a baby baby and I just want to keep her that way FOREVER! That toothless grin that can melt a heart has now become a toothy grin that can melt a heart. *sigh*

We knew that she'd probably have teeth sooner rather than later because not only does everything go in her mouth, as babies tend to do, but she was drooling like her life was depending on it. And yesterday, while chewing on my finger for the hundredth time that day, there it was...a little rough spot of tooth...and our newborn has a tooth...so sad...yet happy. Not sure how to feel :) So we'll end with YEA! (and nay!) our baby has her FIRST TOOTH!!!

Five Months Old...&...Almost Two and a Half!

Well, it's been almost a month since I wrote last and I can't believe that it's been that long! Time is flying by so quickly that I can hardly stand it.

Caitlin Maria is FIVE months old already. She's a ray of sunshine that we never could have prepared ourselves for. Last year at this time I was so sick with morning sickness, overwhelmed by the prospect of being a mommy of two and saddened that Kiera would have to share our attention. Now, today, we could not imagine life without her...she's just amazing! It's most definitely like she's always been here.

Having a five month old alongside a vivacious two and a half year old is such a breath of fresh air. She's the calm and Kiera's the storm...in a good way :) Cate loves to chill out on our laps, watch everything that's going on, talk, put her feet in her mouth (and anything else she can get her cute little hands on), laugh, suck her (right) thumb (Kiera sucks her left), and is just generally THE best baby! She looks so snuggly in her PJs and just adorable in her Kitty-Cat hat courtesy of Aunt Mimi :) She has this scream that is too much for any of us to handle. It's AWESOME. She's currently eating baby food and loving every minute of it. She's taken to the bottle like a pro...thank goodness because stopping breastfeeding was hard for me with Kiera and even harder now with Cate knowing that it's my last time. We want Cate to stay this small and innocent forever...just thinking that she'll be as big as Kiera is now in two short years blows our minds. We love it when she falls asleep on our chests, puts her tiny hand on ours, and runs her hand along our cheeks. *sigh*

In September we had her welcoming day alongside friends and family from all over. We had made the decision with Kiera that we're not religious enough to have our children formally baptized, so we chose this instead. Our very good friend, Molly, is a very spiritual person and respects all aspects of religions and spirituality. We therefore chose her as our guide through this and we were honored to have her do both "blessings" where we welcomed our girls to the family. My sister Michelle and Sean's brother Jason are Cate's "God" parents...with that we simply have given them the role of being there for our daughter, to guide her along a positive path and to simply be the people she can go to if ever she needs. I have some negative people in my life right now who have expressed their opposing feelings to this and to that I say, to each their own. We've chosen this path, their "God" parents have accepted and our girls will be raised with amazing people surrounding them to lead them down the proper roads in life. I feel really great about our decision and I know that Sean does too. We've done what's right for our family and the people who love us and our girls are coming along for the ride...and all we know is that those who love them will always love them...no matter what! We feel so overwhelmingly blessed with our family of four, our biological family that's here for us no matter what and loves us unconditionally, and our "logical" family as Molly puts it-those we choose as our family and who have stepped up to the plate more than we could have ever hoped for...we couldn't be any happier!

Moving on to our Kiera Rita...she's a PISTOL and we LOVE it!!! The things that she says, does, understands...it's just amazing. She's so talkative and says THE funniest things. She sings all the time and demands certain songs on a daily basis. Everything is hers...the sky, the moon, every single toy in the house...etc. Everything is her "Favorite!" and she gets SO excited about it. She can count to 28 which blows our mind. She loves to play with other kids...especially her cousins Nicholas, Andrew and Jason who she calls, "my boys". She's surrounded by insanity and takes it all in stride. She currently loves to play tea party and insists on real tea in her cups or she gets quite angry. She will only wear certain shoes and anything else is unacceptable. We've gone from one lamby to THREE! My fault, fine. And her hair is getting SO long and I refuse to cut it :)

I'm having SUCH a problem uploading pictures to Facebook to share with our friends and family, so please forgive me...I'm quite far behind...plus, with being back to work I hardly have time to be on the computer at home so I don't get as much accomplished on there as I'd like. Things are hectic and wonderful and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Sunday Nights

There are very few nights in my life growing up that hold stronger memories in my mind like Sunday nights. Not only of course because I was always sad to see the weekend go, but because I can clearly recall how the light looked in my parents' bedroom, the sound of my mom's laughter while watching "America's Funniest Home Videos", and the feel of her nails as she scratched my back ever so lightly while I laid on my dad's side of the bed watching her little TV along side her.

Those are the moments that I miss with such fierceness that it hurts. Those simple times when everything was OK. When you never thought your world would be turned upside down before your eyes. When you had your mommy and never in a million years thought that you would lose her and her finger nails running down your back so soon.

I wish she were here to do this with our girls....two hands, two backs.

I only hope that I can make those memories with our girls...even if I die when I'm 101 and they're in their 70s...I want them to always remember Sunday nights.

We're Rolling On...

We're in the third week of school and things couldn't be moving more smoothly...now that I've said that the world may explode, but we'll knock on some wood and be ok :)

The girls are so happy with Jaime and that couldn't make us any happier. Cate has taken to the bottle with ease (thank GOD!) and Kiera plays, does crafts, goes to the library, and sleeps like a champ when she's there. We were SO lucky to find her and are incredibly grateful that our girls are somewhere where they're taken care of as though they were home.

Being back at work has been good as well...even though I miss them with all my heart, I do appreciate the balance of things and enjoy having some adult time...or time to sit and type a blog during my half an hour lunch break. My class is delightful and seem to have it together for the most part, which really helps. I absolutely LOVE teaching...if I didn't I really wasted something like eight years in college for this! It brings me such joy and I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to be both a Mom and a Teacher. Is it hectic? Are there some mornings when I just want to lounge around with the girls in our PJs all day? Certainly. But this gives me a really flexible schedule to be able to do both throughout the year.

Sean's schedule is slowing down too as the fall approaches, which is great. There's nothing I love more than when all four of us are home and are able to spend some real quality time together...when there's no laundry, cooking, cleaning, or work to catch up on....which is rare :) Kiera just adores him and it warms my heart to see the two of them play and play. When Cate's more mobile, she'll be right in there with them...I'm so excited to see it.

I'm doing a little "cleaning house" of my own head and heart recently as well. I've decided to really focus on my own mind and body instead of worrying about what everyone else thinks about me. There's been so much negativity coming at me recently, but also in the past few years when I should have been ecstatic for so many reasons. The burden of thoughts that people have put on me have been so unhealthy and ridiculous that it's time to detach...forever. Instead, I'm going to put my attention towards my amazing husband, our gorgeous girls, my loving and fantastic Dad, and our family and friends whom I know love us and our family to pieces...no matter what.

So we continue on with a great start to my "year"! I have a wonderful aid in here with me who I don't know if I'll ever be able to live without...we're making an amazing team! I have a great class who are going to spoil me this year!! I have the most well adjusted to any situation girls who are loving the care they're being given! And I'm loving life!