CAUTION: Woman In Progress

So, Lyssabear turned eight Friday. Hard to believe my sweet baby girl is eight!!       I can still remember when she was born! So tiny and sweet. She's still super sweet but girl is getting tall! Her birthday party was Saturday and since I don't have any kids, of course I helped Sis2 out as much as I could.      The kids all got together and loaded the goodie bags. P.S. Emmy looks like a college girl!   The party theme was from one of Lyssa's favorite Barbie books/movies, The Secret Door which is basically (from what I gather) a story about how Barbie stumbles into this garden paradise where unicorns and mermaids and fairs dwell. We used her corresponding Barbie as the centerpiece decoration and I made two DumDum topiaries to decorate the buffet. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good photo of the topiaries, but you can see the top of one growing out of Lyssa's head in the photo above. haha (Also, it took about 600 DumDums to make...

Well, ya'll, as of today, the second little princess to enter my life is now, officially six years old. At her Princess Sophia Party Saturday. photo courtesy Sis1's iPhone. Where does the time go? She had a pretty terrific party, though I must admit I am too old for kid parties, I do believe. I no longer have the patience for other people's kids. BUT, Lyssa had a terrific time, seemed very happy with it all and enjoyed having her friends there so that's all that really matters. She's finally old enough to extend "thank you's" after opening each present, something she made a point to do to each individual. Not many kids know the word "thanks" without prompting from their parents (if then!) but she does and it was very sweet how she sought out to make eye contact with the giver before imparting her thanks. I was also impressed with her willingness to allow her friends to basically take over her gifts and play with them before she...

Does Alyssa qualify as a toddler anymore? She's nearly five going on fifteen, after all. (Five in August. FIVE. As in, starts kindergarden on August 7th. *sob*) Nonetheless... In case you couldn't tell, it was cookie time. We have to have cookie time, doncha know. And yes she was still in pjs. Because summer is for staying in your pjs all day eating cookies and watching Tom and Jerry . Or, Thomas and Jerry, as Lyssa calls it. She refuses to call Tom, Tom. He's Thomas, ya'll. So says Alyssa, so say we all. But back to the cookies...Actually, the little lady bird thought that Aunt Jana was going to bake cookies with her. The little lady bird just failed to mention that to Aunt Jana beforehand. I felt bad, though, because the girl loves her some cookies (as does her Aunt Jana) so when I hit up WallyWorld for pizza ingredients, I coaxed a couple of packages of cookies into my buggy. M&M cookies for the kids and Keebler's caramel coconut shortbreads for th...

Lyssa, February 2009. Hard to believe the girl was ever this little...or this thugish.

This princess don't need no stinkin' knights ridin' in to rescue her . She's rockin' her own pony.

The littlest baby girl loves the camera. This is some of her work taken back in August. She's photography genius, right? :-D Our feet. And my sexy fat calf. Contain your jealousy. And your vomit.   I'm not really mentally impaired. I just act like it.  Bobo is SWEATY. Grilling outdoors in August will do that. But we needed documentation. Also, Lyssa is the only person alive who can get away with photographing her Bobo.  The entertainment center I dreamed crashed down.  Nana who I apparently inherited my mentally impaired-ness from.  Efan at the table.  Nana carrying a plate. Love the artistic "looking up" technique she used.  Me, my belly and Libby. Okay, so I took this one. It was the only way I could get my camera back from her. I'll be acting as her booking agent for anyone interested in hiring a pint-sized photographer.

Photo by Sis2, budding photographer Though her official party was on a Saturday, Lyssa's actual birthday wasn't until that Sunday. Sis2 and Goofus wanted to celebrate it strictly just their little family. A sort of private and intimate family time, you could say. When Sis2 asked Lyssa what she wanted to do for her birthday Lyssa responded that she wanted to go on a picnic with a red checkered blanket--she was very specific about that! There HAD to be a red checkered blanket. Lyssa's not the kind of kid who asks for a whole lot. It doesn't take much to thrill her. But she does have a big imagination and a childish  romanticism about her that I find rather charming. I was a lot like that when I was her age. Sis2 was, too, now that I think about it. Unfortunately, our parents were more for practical things and while they did always try to make us happy, there was a lot of "no" in our lives. Because we were silly. Perhaps that's why Sis2 is alwa...

Lyssa has tinkled in the potty TWICE today! hehehehe (And once yesterday.) After the one successful time yesterday followed by many many MANY pairs of wet panties (she's in "big girl panties!") Sis2 decided to try rewarding her for tinkling in the potty. So Lyssa finally tinkled this morning and Sis2 gave her a sticker. The second time Lyssa tinkled in the potty, she asked her mama, "Where's my sticker?" ROFL But hey, whatever works!

I was on my way to take Libby to the vet with a little swelling issue when Mama called. Sis2 thought her water had broken and she was waiting on the doctor's office to call her back. By the time I got out of the vet's office ($74 poorer with some meds for the DP) when Sis2 called back and asked me to hurry. Doctor's office had told her to come on in to the ER and she needed to get Alyssa dressed and some things packed and such and no one else had made it home yet. I pulled into the apartment lot about the same time Mama did and she got Sis2 packed while I got Lyssa dressed and by then Goofus was there and they whisked away to the hospital with us hot on their trail. I think we were all a little dazed. This wasn't the way we'd planned it, at all. She was scheduled for a c-section on Friday and they'd already made plans to be moved into their new house by Thursday. But you know the old saying, if you want to make God laugh, tell him YOUR plans? Yeah. We're so...

We took Alyssa to out to lunch for her birthday. She had a grand old time eating and monkeying around. We gave her cupcake... And she enjoyed it... Alot! And the presents, too.

Ah...how quickly a year passes. Was it really a year ago that I was sitting in that cold, cold hospital waitng room trying NOT to strangle Sis2's mother-in-law while we waited for Alyssa to be born? It both seems like forever ago and just yesterday. A year later she's a spunky, spirited, animated, sweet and demanding little girl. She's crawling to the point of almost walking, she's eating table food, bobbing her head to music. She's got a personality and she's not afraid to show it. So glad this isn't this time last year. Happy first birthday, sweet angel.

(More pictures scattered below!) Oh wow! I don't even know where to start! This week...Well, the most important thing is that I have a healthy and beautiful new niece named Alyssa Renae, to be called Alyssa. So ya'll know Sis2 was scheduled to be induced on Tuesday. Alyssa had other ideas. I was sitting at the reference desk at work Monday morning and I get a phone call. It's my mother. She asks, You ready to go to the hospital? [Sis2's] water just broke. Or at least that what she thinks it is. She's calling the hospital now and will call me back and I'll let you know what to do." So picture me all giddy. I know I told my supervisor and a co-worker who were in the area when I got the call. I sat back down and was going to fire off some giddy emails and maybe a blog post while I waited on my mother. They pulled me out of my chair and sent me packing, though. Said to go ahead and go home so that I could get Libby dropped off to be boarded. I snuck back to my...

I will be an aunt again, one way or the other. Wha-hooo! Sis2 went to the doctor today and he says that if she doesn't deliver by this weekend, he's going to induce Tuesday morning. So, Tuesday if not before, I'll be an aunt again! Yay! I'm kind of hoping that she waits until Tuesday so that I can make arrangements with the vet to have Libby boarded. Otherwise, I don't know what I'll do. It's almost two hours to the hospital where she's having the baby so I can't just leave her at home because we'll likely spend the night. I can't just take her with me, either. And I DEFINITELY want to be there with Sis2 while she's in labor. She's asked me to and the one time I mentioned that I might not be able to, she got really down about it. Anyway, it'll all work out the way it's supposed to. But yay! New baby soon! Finally. hehehehe

Okay, so I've been working with periodicals for FAR TOO LONG lately. LOL But were I to split the weekend reviews into volumes, nos. and years, I'd be on something like volume 3, no. 17, May 2007. Not that I, you know, sat down and calculated that or anything. hehehehehe Anyhoo, here's the 4-1-1 on the weekend ala me. Friday: Averted crisis of impending house guests Friday night by citing severe PMS crankiness as a potential liability. (It's true. I was severely cranky most of last week. Warned Sis1 that should she and Emmy persist with their plans of taking up space in my residence for the night I might inadvertently hurt their feelings, offend or otherwise annoy them.) Sis1 played it smart and skipped my house, did not pass go and went straight to the folks' house Friday night. Blessedly, it was just me, Libby and Ghost Whisperer Friday night. Joy! (BTW, how creepy was GW? I'm sooooo hoping they're not leading to ending the series. Heard any gossip Trix?) S...

I'm tired, dusty and sooooo ready to go home. *sigh* You know, I'm really starting to kick myself for not being as diligent in my job as I should have been. This getting stuff squared away before I change jobs thing is really kickin' my butt. Oy! But there's no rest for the wicked. I have to be up bright and early in the morning for a baby shower planning session. My mother and aunt are supposedly planning one of Sis2's baby showers. I wasn't supposed to have to do anything for it. I certainly didn't want to run myself and my credit card to the ground like I did when she got married. I co-planned two showers for her back then. And while I enjoyed it, I had no plans of repeating that for any baby showers. Mostly because I'm such a control freak when it comes to that sort of thing that I knew I wouldn't really want to work with anyone else. (for the two bridal showers, I did all the planning and prep. The people who co-hosted with me either just provid...