Quick 5

Hello February!  Blessed birth month!  (Unless Baby Meatball decides to come two days late, and ends up in Loathsome March.)

1.  Having Joya in a toddler bed has clued me into what an early riser she is.  She comes out of her room anywhere between 6:30 and 7:00 most days, although we did see two days in the last month when she slept in until 7:45.  But mostly it's the early times.  Alaina will most often sleep until around 7:00, although sometimes she'll come out early too.  Last Saturday was an early morning.  I was getting ready as usual and Lee was still sleeping when the girls made their way to my bathroom door.  I told them to be quiet because Daddy was sleeping, and they hung out with me for awhile.  Then I told them to go wait in their room for me while I found my socks.  It took about four minutes, and when I walked in their room to get them, this is what I found:

SO CUTE

2.  It's a good thing we decided to go for a toddler bed with Joya, because she's fallen out of that thing like, 3 times already.  She cries every time, probably from the surprise of ending up on the floor in the middle of the night.  What would she do if the bed was more than three inches off the ground?

3.  On Wednesday night Lee had a special meeting with his men's group, so I had to take both girls to Cubbies.  Usually only one of us takes Alaina and then Joya gets to go to bed on time.  Anyway, we left the church around 8:20.  It was past Alaina's bed time, and it was WAY past Joya's.  I turned on the classical music to help them settle down, and this is what I hear from the back seat:

Alaina: Mom, I'm pooped!
Joya: Yeah, me too.  I poopy.

We then had to explain what "pooped" meant, although I'm not sure Joya fully grasped the expression.  (She wasn't actually poopy, but she's in the "me too" phase and will never be outdone by her sister, if she can help it!)

4.  Alaina got into the charter school!  We are officially enrolled, I think.  Or at least we will be when I send back the confirmation letter in response to her acceptance letter.  I'm so relieved and thankful.  I'm very hopeful that this charter school will be a great fit for us.  It's a small K-12 school, which I've always liked.  Since we can't do private school and have ruled out homeschool for now, then we're excited about the charter school route.  Alaina is going to LOVE school, and while I will probably cry when she goes, this is definitely an experience I want to watch her have. 

5.  Drum roll please...the baby's room is done!  Or 98% done.  There are still a couple of tweaks to make, but everything is mostly in place and most of the baby laundry is done.  Now, before any of you freak out about me having it all together, let me explain a few things about me and my preparedness.  I have fully embraced the fact that I do NOT deal with change well, which is a fantastic quality to have when you're facing a Huge Life Change event like having a baby. (Just ask my sister-in-law, who witnessed me sitting down and bawling the day we moved into our house for no other reason than the fact that the house was in complete disarray.)  Anyway, I know that the first three to four weeks of Baby Meatball's life will be emotionally unstable enough without me having to wonder where her clothes and diapers are.  The simple act of learning to balance a newborn's schedule with the busy lives of two other girls will already be more than I can handle.  So it was very important to me to have the baby's room ready and the majority of the baby stuff set up a month before she comes.  So grace to you (yes, YOU Christina!) if you didn't have half of your stuff ready.  I have always wished I could be more spontaneous and go with the flow, but I'm just not.  And having a baby is not the time for me to try act completely contrary to my natural inclinations.  I'm really hoping that simply recognizing the fact that I don't deal with change well will be half the battle, but that remains to be seen.  Anyway, here is the baby's room:

 That's a wrap!