Well, we're still here

Annie is 7 weeks old now, and things are definitely not back to normal. We're all still alive and kickin', but not in our usual routine, which is difficult. Jack is having a difficult time with the new baby. He's not been sleeping well, acting out and we've really been struggling with the potty. We've been focusing on giving him more attention and positive reinforcement and he's been doing better for about the last week, but I'm writing this so in the future I'll remember this, because he's going to owe me big-time when he's older.

Lily's been great. She's been helpful, but is honestly not that into the baby. I think she's just a little intimidated by the baby, which is fine, because so is Jared. She's finishing up her year of pre-school. Jared's birthday was a big day for her. Grandma taught her how to ride her bike with no training wheels and she lost her first tooth. When we told her about the tooth fairy, Jared decided to read a story about the origins of the tooth fairy that he found online. He didn't proof-read it and it was a little freaky and weird. That night when I put her to bed and reminded her that the tooth fairy would come, she got all teary and scared and said she didn't want the tooth fairy to come into her room. I had to tell her that it was all just pretend and not to worry. I had to do the same thing with leprechauns after she had an upsetting day at preschool when a leprechaun came and messed up the classroom while the class was gone. She's a very sensitive little girl. That night, Jared and I forgot about it (I have a newborn, back-off!) and luckily she woke up about 4 am and asked me about it while I was up with Annie. The tooth fairy then delivered 86 cents which was then spent on candy corns the next day. The next day when we were talking about where the tooth went, Jack said very sternly that "someone stole it!".

Jared's been doing a lot of yard work and yesterday he finally got the new lawn mower he's been yearning for for the last 5 years. Jared's work had major layoffs and miraculously he survived them. It was very scary and some friends lost their jobs. We're always so, SO grateful for Jared's job. He had his 34th birthday. He got a new, inappropriate and funny T-shirt (the only thing I can ever think of) and a couple's massage (Happy Jared's birthday to ME!), because he's never had a professional massage before.

Annie's growing so fast. She's already outgrown some clothes. She's sleeping better and her schedule is getting more predictable. Nights are still really difficult, sometimes waking up every 1 1/2 hours, which is torture. Best of all is that she's learned how to smile, which is the sweetest thing in the entire world.

It's really hard for me to be stuck in the house, so we've been doing what we can to get out of the house. Here we are at Thanksgiving Point, which has a big dinosaur museum, farm area, gardens, stuff like that.

We've also been doing stuff around the house to have fun. Lily had a birthday party for Baby Burro. Here they are having a tea party, Lily's animals were invited and she let Jack's tractor participate, too.

Baby Cate, Hannah's baby came to visit for a week. We love her.

We decorated Easter Eggs.

We had a great Easter egg hunt in our backyard, which is wonderful for egg hunts.

We're all looking forward to Summer, even though we don't have any big plans. Tomorrow we're planting our garden and having the first backyard cook-out and campfire of the year. I think we're all just looking forward to getting out of the house a little more.