Well, it had to happen sometime...

And, in fact, I'm amazed it took this long.

Saturday morning, I was getting my hair cut, T was at soccer practice, and PJ was home with Monster, Mace and Miss E. I pick up T and come home after about 2 hours. I'm catching up with the baby and finally look at MaraJade, thinking, "Man, her hair is really matted on that one side." Pull her closer and see - no....it's gone!

I immediately know what happened, since she and Mace do everything together these days and Mace's current obsession is drawing items (Ben 10 Omnitrixes, Green Lantern rings, his favorite superheroes, etc.), coloring them, then cutting them out (and wearing them, in the case of the Omitrixes and rings). So obviously they took scissors to the next level. And who knows, maybe they knew I was getting my hair cut, so....?

Anyway, PJ was - how shall I say it - not pleased. I'm not sure Mace has ever seen his dad so angry with him. And I couldn't get a straight story out of either of them. All Mace could say (um, sob) was, "MaraJade gave me the scissors!" Oh, and, "I'm sorry!"

MaraJade was appropriately despondent when we informed her that we would have to cut the rest of her hair off to match the chopped section.


So, once the yelling and tears had abated, we made an appointment with my hair stylists (completely awesome, BTW!) to have them fix it. I probably could have done it, since I've always cut the boys' hair, but I wanted to see how they do it first. Plus, I thought it might have more impact for her? Who knows. Off to Teal Salon! Super Janelle's awesome work! (You can't see it, but there's glitter spray on the top.)

Side note: Later that day, I found this stuffed in one of Eowyn's toys:
Of course, we still can't get a clear picture of what happened from those two, but close as I can figure, they somehow matted the heck out of several chunks of her hair, tried to wash and comb it out, then decided just to cut it. To keep from getting in trouble, of course.

MaraJade, the Union Rep

Last night, we let Monster stay in the boys' room for a while after "bed time" (yeah, right - during summer that comes 1-2 hours after we send them to bed) to play and such. PJ was making popcorn, when suddenly she appears in the kitchen and says, "Um, we were wanting, um 3 (holds up 3 fingers, just in case) po'corns for us." We say yes, and she runs back into the boys' room, yelling, "Yay! We gonna get po'corn!" Look out, Norma Rae!

**Note: this was also Eowyn's first popcorn. Holy cow, I couldn't bite off kernels fast enough for her! She was yelling at me every few seconds until I gave her more. Looks like we've got yet another popcorn fiend in the house!

7 Months Old!

7 months ago today, after much drama and chaos, this sweet baby girl finally made her appearance. To be honest, towards the end I wasn't sure if she would really be worth it. (Hey, it was a long, rough, arduous pregnancy.) But she's made almost every moment since a true joy.

She's so very happy almost all the time - well, as long as Mommy is around. As tiresome as it is sometimes, I have to admit kind of liking this. None of the other babies so completely favored me and my presence over anyone else. It's kinda nice to feel so loved. She just lights up when she sees me, leaning and straining to get to me. Which doesn't mean it doesn't get old sometimes - but overall, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

But she really just goes with the flow, playing with her big bros and sis, yanking on whichever appendage the foolish dog happens to leave within her reach, and just being in the middle of whatever is going on.

She's trying hard to crawl, currently wanting to be on the floor rolling around and scooting all over the place all the time. She'll push up on her hands & knees and somehow maneuver her little body far from her starting point. Soon she'll be everywhere!

The first of many (many, many) waffles!

Man, I love this baby girl!!

6 Month Pics & Kids

Much as I'd love to get the super cute, creative family and kid pics that are so popular these days, I don't quite have the budget for them (or the connections - darn!), so off to JCPenney we go! But when the subject(s) is so cute, you can't go wrong!

13 Years and Still Going Strong...

You know, it really shouldn't have worked. 2 teenagers, meeting in a dark, smoky, disreputable dance club 16 1/2 years ago, where one-night hook-ups were the expectation. Nothing long-term should have come of such a night. It should likely have ended as just a brief high school romance. From 2 different backgrounds, living in 2 different cities. Nothing obvious to so closely bond us. Yet time passed, and together we stayed. Through the remaining years of high school. Through my senior prom, the night we became "officially" engaged - much to some family members' extreme concern. In fact, moments before I walked down that aisle, I was advised by a family member that, "It's not too late. If you're not totally sure, you can back out now." But I didn't, and here we are, living our own happily ever after.

Eowyn's Rough Week

Teething has reared its ugly head, characterized by an unusually cranky little girl, random crying and fussing, lots of chewing on fingers, middle-of-the-night party fests (my favorite), burning hot head with no recordable "fever", runny nose, etc., etc., etc.

Then, last night, the poor thing was the first of our children to be dropped on her head, compliments of her oldest brother. Luckily, he was sitting on the low couch when she flipped out of his hands, but as PJ and I didn't see it happen, and thus couldn't discern what part of her head hit the floor first, or just how hard she fell, we called the advice line for our insurance. They wanted us to take her to the ER, but I then remembered I could call the pediatrician's office and talk to the on-call ped (DUH!), who preferred to have us watch her for concussion, but deduced that she was probably all right.

Fast forward to 1:00 am, when we have to wake her for her 4-hour concussion check. She wakes up a little and is responsive - yay! 4:30 am, I wake to nurse her and find her scorching hot. After she nurses, I get the thermometer to find out for sure, and she's running around 101. So I lay her back down with dad and run to the computer - I can't remember what kind of temp is dangerous in a baby her age. I just find out that she's mostly past the danger-age for that kind of temp, when she starts screaming. I run back to the bedroom where she's crying hysterically. I try to calm her with little success, then she throws up on me, and I literally felt her fever break. She went from boiling hot to just kind of warm in about 5 seconds. She calmed down and fell asleep 1 minute later, with me still propping her up, staring, and waiting for her head to spin around or something. I, of course, didn't get to sleep for another hour or so, just laying next to her, waiting for something else horrific to happen. But today she's mostly fine, running a temp from high 98s to low 100s, so she must just be fighting a bug.

Man, this baby stuff is exhausting.