Evelyn Claire Miller

Evelyn Claire Miller was born December 13th. After finding out the Monday before that the induction for her arrival set for December 12 had not happened the date got bumped to the 13th. Friday the 13th. Thankfully I am not a superstitious person, nor has anything bad happened since her arrival on this day. Evelyn tipped the scales at 8 lbs even and was 21 inches long. Life since her arrival has made our house full. I am one who loves the company of kids, and I can honestly say, for the first time, I feel like there is NO void. Life is crazy busy, she is a true sweetheart and her big sisters love her to pieces. Welcome to the world my sweet Evie Claire, we can't wait to join you on this wild ride called life!

Number 3

Number 3. It seems so surreal. Really, I am going to be a Mamma to three? How can this be? I think of people having this many kids as being old, but the reality of it is, that I truly am old enough to have three children... and if not sooner, on December 12th I will. Suddenly I will become a Mamma to three girls. Kind of a dejavu of sorts considering I too, am one of three girls. I am beyond excited to see what these girls lives have in store. Having them be no more than 5 years apart from one another I look forward to the hope of them having a close bond. I cannot wait to see how Number 3 will fit into the mix. Nora and Reese share such a great love for one another I can only hope they extend this love to their baby sister. To see the two of them together melts my heart. They truly are loving and it is a RARE occasion when they disagree. For this I am extremely thankful. I wonder if number three will be like Nora, like Reese or a totally different little girl. I wonder what she is going to look like. I wonder if maybe, just maybe she will get my dark hair, or will she have the same traits as her sisters? Will she, too be her Daddy's little mini-me? Or mine? Or a great combination of the two of us? I don't know. Will we be able to decide on a name out of the list we have made, or like Reese, will we totally change our minds when we see her and name her something completely different? I don't know.... I guess only time will answer all these questions... until then I wait... patiently, but oh so impatiently at the same time.

Stripes

Today Reese and I went to lunch with Ryan. While there, Ryan was sitting in the booth resting his head between his hands, thus squishing up his cheeks. Suddenly Reese asked, "why does Daddy have stripes on his head"? I said, "stripes"? To which Reese replied, "yeah, stripes, all over his head, right here" (pointing at her forehead). I explained to her that they were not "stripes" they were wrinkles. She immediately started busting up laughing and saying, "oh wrinkles, that's funny". Silly girl, way to point out that your Dad is indeed aging.

Not to the Top Yet....

While I was upstairs cleaning, I happened to look over our banister only to see Reese two stairs from the top (approximately 20 feet from the ground) climbing the outside of the railing. When I told her to get down because that was dangerous her reply was "but I am not to the top yet". The sad part of this story is I am not one bit surprised, BUT some day she might just kill herself!

33

Today is my birthday. It doesn't seem real. Every since my Mamma was diagnosed with a terminal illness, birthdays have a whole new meaning to me... It's like its an opportunity to thank God for allowing me one more year to spend on this earth, or to have the person celebrating their big day be on this earth. As a kid, I don't really remember my birthday's being all that special. We went about our day, and in the evening we would open presents and maybe, or maybe not, have cake. Sometimes I had a party, and sometimes I didn't. I don't regret this. I know my Mamma had her hands full, but it is something that when I had my own children I made the decision that celebrating their life was going to be a big deal, and so, around here, it is. This morning, I woke up, went and snatched my "beautiful mess" aka Reese out of her bed, snuggled her, and thought, man how did I ever get to the point in my life that I am 33. 33 seems so.... OLD... like I should be so mature, yet I still feel like I was just walking across Washburn's Campus yesterday... or uh, 8 years ago!! Time goes by so quickly, life happens, and things change so fast. I am sooo incredibly thankful for the life that I have. For the (almost) three girls that God has given me, for the loving, supportive, hard-working, ALWAYS providing husband I have been given (even if I sometimes want to kill him) and for the wonderful true friendships I have made. This 33-year-old girl couldn't ask for much more and for this I feel blesssed!

Feeding Goats... Or not...

Today was yet another fantastic day at the Miller's. Princess Reese had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Because of this, rather than Ryan taking her to school, I took her so that I could go on the field trip and Ryan could head on to work. Apparently, the switch-a-roo in this routine was not a-okay with Reese and from the moment she woke up this morning she let us know. After finally bribing her into the car after many minor incidents, one which included intentionally urinating on the clothes I wanted her to wear seconds after I had forced them on her, we made it to the pumpkin patch. All was "yucky" while there (Reese's way of saying she doesn't like something), but the icing on the cake was when it came time to feed the goats.... Reese's sweet old teacher who has to be nearly as old as my Mother handed out goat food to all the kids. Reese gladly took hers, acted completely fine about taking it, and then proceeded to throw the food AT her teacher's face.... I was mortified and thankful that we made the decision for her to stay at her "special" preschool all at the same time. Afterall, I am sure that poor teacher has probably had worse things than goat food thrown at her!! Now, to figure out how to make things in this girls life a little less yucky a little more often is the next task I need to conquer and quickly before I have to live through anymore mortifying moments!

The Shitcident

Okay, let me just brief this with the reminder that I told you I was going to start talking about the real life here at the Miller's... SOOO here it goes.
Today was a fantastic day. No really. I couldn't have asked for it to go any better. It was our early day for school, so I managed to get both the girls to school on time clear across town with no rush. I honestly thought to myself as I pullled into Reese's school that things were oddly perfect. There was no traffic in the usual spots and we were going to walk in nearly 10 minutes early, despite leaving the same time as we always do AND I was even showered. I dropped her off, spent two and a half hours by MYSELF doing what I wanted to do and then was lucky enough to get to go to lunch with my husband on the Plaza with a oddly well behaved child. On the way home, oddly well behaved child fell asleep and took her first nap in MONTHS. I was certain she was going to wake up with a fever, but much to my surprise she slept for nearly two hours and woke up fever free.... I may or may not have rolled down all the windows in my car, pulled it into my garage and left her there to nap while I decorated the house SANS KIDDO HELP for Halloween. I also may not have driven her to pick up Nora and left her in the running locked car, with the emergency break on while I ran in to get her big sister from school for fear that if I woke her up she might have peed her pants while sleeping and then I would have a big problem on my hands... Nope, not me...
Best day ever...UNTIL the Shitcident. Yep, you heard me right... SHITcident... It was a doozy... I was busy getting ready to head off to church for the evening finishing up dinner in the kitchen and getting the girls plates made. Meanwhile, the girls (yes both of them) were in the bathroom pooping. Reese on her potty chair, Nora on the toilet. Knowing this was what was going on, I went to check on them. The door was locked which is never a good thing so I demanded it be open. MISTAKE. Rule follower Nora jumped right off the toilet to open the door... problem is poop must have been coming out of her butt at the same time because it was EVERYWHERE. Meanwhile impatient Reese who had finished her business had gotten tired of Nora's hogging of the regular toilet and decided dumping her potty chair debris into the SINK. Being overly anal about the cleanliness of my main floor bathroom (I may or may not clean it multiple times per day) I FREAKED... I used words I shouldn't have. I screamed at my children, and then after I scrubbed them with nearly a package of wipes, I scrubbed the floor, the toilet, the walls and oh yes, the shit filled sink... It was a fantastic time.... all the while after I got my feelings out, Nora said to me, "but Mom, you said to open the door"...and I thought to myself, little girl, you are right. I did... but next time it is okay if you wait until the shit stops coming out of your ass =0)