Olivia's Playtime

So, today (Friday), Olivia played dress-up, and I took some pics of her. She changed about 9 times today!

Parker and Olivia are still having some fever sort of randomly throughout the day. They both felt well enough to play outside, though. Their sleep patterns are all messed up, because they just can't sleep right with the high fever they've been fighting. So, I've slept even less than normal this past week.

I've missed out on blogging about some really interesting stuff that would have been fun reading, but I just can't keep up with everything. Maybe I'll start doing a video blog in the fall or something. That would be even easier for me to do, I think. I could just quickly say a few things and not have to put it into any nicely summed up set of paragraphs, etc.

Anyway, here are some pics of Miss O today:

Kittens

The kittens arrived on tax day (15th). Five of them. I won't go into details, but Olivia and I got to watch the last two as they were born. Chicken is such a good little mama. I know she's tired, and she is having a lot of pain in her uterus still. You can tell she's hurting when she gets out of the box to stretch when the babies are all asleep. If she stretches her tummy too much, she hurts. Also, when she gets her tummy bumped even slightly, it hurts her. I hope it's normal for her to still be so sore.

Anyway, the kids have been really good about leaving the babies alone. Chicken's plastic bin (one of those drawers for portable storage units that I use for shoes under Olivia's bed) is right behind the sofa table in the living room. She wanted to be near us.

So, Natalie missed the live birth, but I got the last one on video and she watched it. It was so cute when Billy got home that day. As soon as he walked in the door, Parker said, "Come on, Daddy. Come see Chicken. Come see the baby kitties." It was precious. He was so excited to show Daddy the new babies.

Sarah in Real Life

I really have zero time to be spending blogging right now, but I'll just do a quick little run-through of a few things so I won't be too far behind when I do get a chance to go back and catch up.

Nat has been sick with fever. Tomorrow will be her third day in a row to miss school. She had her family day at dance tonight, when parents and grandparents could come watch the girls practice their recital dances. I had to wake Natalie up to leave for dance, and she was crying and didn't feel like it at all. She danced through the first dance (tap), but came to me crying after that and wouldn't do the ballet practice. She finally joined in at the very end of class to do a little jump thing. She went home with Ninny and Papa and her sister after class, because I had to run home and grab the computer to meet with someone to go over a design for senior announcements and wallets. I picked up the girls after I was finished with the meeting, and I heard that Ninny and Papa and Olivia had an unpleasant dinner at the Chinese restaurant. Poor Nat threw up all over her lap. Nobody finished their dinner. I bet they won't have Chinese for a while.

Billy has been sick also since last Friday, I think. I was able to go out of town to take care of a session at a nursing home yesterday, since Billy was home with the kids. I had a really good time doing the session there. I interviewed three of the residents for a little biography thing that will go in the album. It was really neat talking to them. I'll post a few things from there later when I have a chance.

Busy, busy day tomorrow - and every day for the next couple of weeks! Gigi will be here tomorrow to watch the kids while I go do a couple sessions and run a few errands.

Saturday night, I finally got to see Dan in Real Life. I needed a little break from everything, so I took a couple hours to zone out of my own stuff and watch a good movie. I had wanted to see it since it came out. I like Steve Carell, and I think he was great in the movie. It was not anything surprising or super exciting, but I liked the family dynamics, and their little reunion time reminded me of how our family spends time together - more creatively and silly than some families. Anyway, I was pleased with the movie. It was simple and sweet. I would buy it and watch it more times.

Okay. Photos posted soon, and maybe a little video from Nat's dance practice.

I almost ended without telling something interesting:

Natalie went to the dentist Monday, even though she was sick, and we got the x-rays that showed what we wanted to know about any permanent teeth existing where she is missing the 2 teeth next to the 2 middle front teeth. I was so afraid that the permanent ones would not be there and she would end of having to have implants at some point. Not only is she missing the 2 teeth in the front (no permanents up there), but she is also missing permanents for 4 other teeth, and maybe 5. So, a total of 6 or 7 teeth are missing. She will not be able to get implants until she is fully grown - like 20 or something. She will get braces at about 12, and they will put in a little retainer type thing with two false teeth to fill those spaces in front at that point. She also has a weird sideways alignment to her bite (like her mama had), so she needs the braces for that anyway or she will have bad TMJ problems and more cavities in the back teeth because of the way they hit together. She has 3 little suspicious spots already on some back teeth that will have to be treated with a cavity-fighting stuff. The spots are because of the way her bite is, according to the dentist. Poor baby got her mama's teeth problems - except I was never missing any teeth! I've never heard of that before. So, basically, she has a very expensive mouth - when it's all said and done. Since her poor sister is also missing the two teeth next to the middle front ones, I am guessing that her x-rays next year will probably also show no permanents existing. So, we're looking at double trouble with a lot of dental visits in the future (and a bunch of money spent).

Anyway, Billy and I apparently left some ingredients out of the girl mix, but the boy seems to have all of his teeth, so I think we got that part right. He may be missing a kidney or something else odd that we just can't tell yet.

Business...as usual.

I changed my website AGAIN. I think I'll stick with this for a while. Let me know what you think, and also let me know if you find any mistakes. I finished it very, very late last night (early this morning).

Well, it's actually not finished. I have to do the details and links for some of the products and all of the links for the services, plus I'll be changing the client viewing over when I finish getting my new order system software working properly. I'm switching everything over to a new lab, and I have to get the new software working right before I do the switch, because I'll have to switch all of my current client galleries. I don't want to do that until I know they will be able to view and order with no glitches.

Nothing interesting to post - at least not anything that doesn't take too long to explain.

Last week, Natalie was at Wal-Mart with just Billy and me, and Billy was pretending that he wasn't going to let us get cat food for Chicken Nugget, because he still insists she's not our responsibility since she's not our cat. (She definitely is our cat now. Somebody dumped her out in our neighborhood, and somebody had to take responsibility to care for her.) Anyway, Natalie got all upset because Billy put the cat food back on the shelf to tease us. I just went on with the shopping in the cleaning products aisle. As Nat and I were rolling down the aisles after that - a little further from her Daddy's shopping cart - she said in a sort of whispered voice, "I think you need to get a different husband."

Graduation Tears

I just e-mailed photos of Natalie to be placed in the slideshow at her Head Start graduation. It makes me sad! The center supervisor asked for 3 or 4 photos of her, and it was so hard to pick just 4. Every time I start thinking about her graduation, I cry. I can't believe she will be 5 in May.

I'm home alone to work on paperwork stuff all day. (Still have to do our taxes.) Olivia and Parker are at Gigi and Grandpa's, and Natalie will be there after school.

Still no time to take care of the older posts I want to do. I have to take advantage of this time alone to work on important stuff. More posts tonight or this weekend, hopefully.

Happy Friday!

Velveteen Tears

I may have read The Velveteen Rabbit to Natalie for the last time tonight. I hadn't tried it again for a long time. The previous time I read it, she fell asleep before I finished, but I was crying so badly while I continued to read through to the end. Then, I may have read it one other time with her, and she said it was sad. Tonight, I barely made it through most of it, and we were both crying about 2/3 of the time. We're extra sensitive girls! Tomorrow night...a happy, light-hearted story!

Candid Camera