Mail & More

Well to answer the Disney question y'all have been asking... we're going to Disney over Mother's Day this year, with my MIL. Then the day before we leave my family is coming in for a week, so we'll be spending some time with them as well... it's going to be slammed pack with family, fun and craziness! YAY! I can't wait to take Maddy into the parks - and my MIL hasn't been in years! We'll probaby be at the hotel alot, since Madeline is so little still. But I'm looking forward to getting to spend some good time with Lizzy and Jay. I swear we all kind of high five each other hello and goodbye these days. Jay is staying VERY busy - which is great, but also means we can't plan an extended trip because he can't be gone too long since we're already backed up with work. So I'm really looking forward to seeing my hubby for a few days with no work interuptions (though I'm sure he'll be on the phone a lot booking appointments... but I'll take what I can get. LOL)



SO! I've been stocking up on fun outfits for the girls (I think I mentioned that yesterday, but I can't remember.) Anyway, I went to BRU this morning and found some great deals! I had a couple gift cards that I was planning on saving for diapers - but seeing as how I still have several hundred diapers waiting in the closet, I decided to splurge a little and do some shopping for the girls. Now, Madeline really truly doesn't *need* any new clothes - but that doesn't mean she didn't get any. ;) I got the girls two matching outfits from the Disney Pooh line at BRU. One of them is bright orange and yellow, Maddy's is a one piece sunsuit and Lizzy's has a shirt that matches Maddy's and then jean capri's with Pooh on the bottom cuff. SO CUTE! The other outfit matches exactly, I got them both lavender tank tops with white shorts - the tank has a big sparkly Pooh on it. Then I picked up a couple more outfits for Liz - they had a ton of them on sale for $7.99 - Love that deal! Lizzy needed new summer clothes as she really only had a couple of dresses so far.



Okay, onto the Mail part of the update! I've received 4 really fantastically fun gifts in the mail the last few days (weeks)!!! 6 if you count the two cards filled with giftcards and money from my Uncle Jay and Grandpa Fagan! But the gifts came from Chrissy, Nibbs, Aunt Jill and Aunt Sharon. (The Aunts being *my* aunts, the girls great aunts.) Chrissy got Madeline this wonderful Mustela gift set full of bath goodies for Maddy. Mustela is my *favorite* baby splurge. It all smells SO good and works SO very well! I love it! And she put in an adorable little lamb as well. Nibbs sent us a box filled with fun goodies as well, an adorable bunny hat and bunny slippers to match, some duckie bibs (which I found out match the one's she got Anya! So fun!) and Maddy's very first bunny rabit! (It even says that right on the bunny.) ;) And my favorite part of the gift, a note from Nibbs herself. :) Love you Nibbs! Aunt Sharon sent a box full of baby clothes she's been collecting, including some really cute sunsuits and a little red sailor outfit which I can't wait to put Maddy in! And a check for Madeline as well! :) Aunt Jill sent a huge box of goodies for both the girls, including a giant Minnie Mouse for Liz which *must* sit on her pillow every night right beside her head. Aunt Jill, Ally and Abbie put in a really cute Gymboree outfit with strawberries that I think I'll get Madeline's 3 month pictures taken in - it's SO cute, some carter's sunsuits, a ton of coupons and some socks for Liz. All in all our mail lady has been visiting our door a lot and Lizzy and I have had SO much fun going through all the wonderful things y'all have sent us! So again, a BIG THANK YOU! I love you all so much and your gifts were so thoughtful and sweet!



One little update about our lives as well... I've been having a hard time balancing my time between Elizabeth and Madeline. Lizzy needs sooooo much attention right now, more for her to mentally grasp the whole sharing mommy thing than anything. While Madeline actually *needs* me, but doesn't complain when I leave her in her seat to play with Liz. It's been a struggle for me as Lizzy has been acting out a lot in hopes of gaining any attention at all from me, be it negative or positive. She doesn't care - and now it's carrying over into her sleep habits as well... the last couple nights in a row she's woken up in the middle of the night coming into our room, slamming the door, waking up Maddy, Jay and I with yells of "I pee'd!" or "I can't find B!" (her blankie) it's been very frustrating and is causing her to behave even worse in the mornings because she's so tired all the time. She wakes up telling me she's tired and sleepy and wants to take a nap - but she won't go back to sleep. I spend SO much time with her, but it just never seems to be enough. I hate this. Any attention I give Madeline when Elizabeth is around turns into Lizzy doing something very naughty to get my attention... eg: emptying an entire bottle of lotion all over herself and then begging for a bath, making huge messes and then pretending to be hurt so I'll put Madeline down and go comfort Liz instead... and on and on. It's a constant battle. Liz will look at me while I'm feeding Madeline and say "Stop feeding her mommy. Put her down. Talk to me." It's heart breaking to hear and I feel like I'm doing something wrong. There's got to be a better way of communicating to Elizabeth that while mommy loves her SO very much, I *have* to feed, change, rock, etc. Madeline too! I fall in bed exhausted at night and most days just work my way through it. Elizabeth doesn't act out towards Maddy though. She always directs things at me. I'll pick up Madeline and Lizzy will rush over and yell "MY MADDY!" Another thing is that she's been having trouble when I drop her off at school. Remember those days at the begining of the school year when I would tear up because she would run off to play with her friends without so much as a backwards glance or goodbye mommy? Well those days are long gone... now I have to pry her off my leg every morning that I drop her off with major tears when I leave. They say she calms down within a minute or two and then is fine - but I hate seeing her so upset like that. Another thing is that when she get's up in the middle of the night, usually Jay's the one to put her back to sleep - we made a deal that I'd get up as much as needed with Madeline at night but that if Liz get's up, he'd get up with her so that I wasn't up ALL night long. Well Lizzy will lay in bed and cry for me until I get up and go tuck her back in bed. It's frustrating Jay, wearing me out and making for a generally miserable family.



Now... this isn't all the time, not at all. Just now and then. Most days we pull through just fine, and the time I spend with Lizzy seems to be adequate in that her acting out is mainly just when I'm feeding or changing the baby. But it's still the constant battle of "when will she go off next?" and "am I doing a good enough job?" or "what's wrong with my parenting skills that my toddler is doubting my love for her?" Those are the things I think about constantly...