Something's Missing

I could have sworn she had 2 this morning...

Is It Spring Yet?

We have two little triangular garden plots in the back corners of our yard. I'm going to turn them into little veggie EDENS this spring! Yes, I am gung ho about raising my first crops of edible masterpieces, to say the least! I've decided to document the journey from dead winterscape to fruitful (hopefully) harvest. Here are pics of what the gardens look like right now:


Above are the remains of the garden raised by the previous occupants of our home last summer. There were tomato plants and raspberries in this plot. I'm going to try several varieties of tomatoes and a variety of sweet bell peppers over here. Maybe some lettuce too.


These were sunflowers. I'd like to grow melons and pumpkins over the course of the year in this plot.

I have a lot to learn about gardening (basically everything). I'm currently reading The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book and thoroughly enjoying it. I know, I know...I'm a nerd.

Charlotte Smiles

I wanted to post a photo of Charlotte's real smile. The other night when I took the other photos she was tired and wasn't doing her light-up-the-whole-room smile. What can I say, she is precious!

Drama Drama Drama

We love our Drama Queen, Miss Hannah. She is always entertaining and thrilled to have an audience anywhere we go. This girl belongs on the stage. She is also expanding her language horizons. She is a fan of Dora the Explorer, and therefore is convinced that she knows Spanish. A few months ago while in a local McDonalds, Hannah heard a couple speaking Spanish. She bounced right up to them and exclaimed, "Hola!" Then she proceeded to bust out any word she could think of that was remotely Spanish-like. Luckily, the couple thought it was adorable. We did too.

Hannah is a huge High School Musical fan (like her mother - HSM3 comes out tomorrow, baby!). She has pretty much memorized the entire High School Musical 2 soundtrack and often chooses a song from it for her bedtime song. Ashley Tisdale (Sharpay) is her favorite character, of course. Hannah loves all things FABULOUS, like Sharpay. Plus, Sharpay has a pink convertible and a pink golf cart. Pink is the best color EVER, according to Hannah. Right now her outfit must include some pink or it is unacceptable.

Hannah continues to amaze me every day. She is the best big sister I have ever known. She adores these little ones in our family and loves to make them smile. I am so thankful for Hannah's bright smile, enthusiasm, and help with her sisters. We are registering her for Kindergarten next week. Can you believe it? She starts the end of August. I'm having mixed emotions. I remember when she was 2 and 3 I would look ahead and think, "when is school going to start?!!" or "I can't believe we are still 3 years away from Kindergarten!" And now I know I will miss her smiling face while she is at school every day. Not enough to home school, of course :O). Now I understand why mothers cry when they drop their child off to their first day of Kindergarten.

Our Budding Virtuoso

Mia is our little pianist at the moment. She begs to have someone lift her up and put her on the bench so she can play. Our keyboard has a kids program that plays different instrument sounds in peppy little tunes. She sways back and forth to the beat and squeals with excitement every time she hears them. She is so musical already. You should see her move her hips back and forth to music. It's a hoot!

Physiological Anisocorea

After careful examination of the above image, you may notice that Charlotte's right pupil (left on your screen) is larger than her right. I noticed this not too long after she was born, especially while I was feeding her in dim light. I thought, "this is weird. Her pupils don't dilate the same. I don't remember her having any head trauma but I've never heard of this for any other reason but a concussion." Decided I should have the Dr. take a look at her. This is when things got interesting:

Our pediatrician (who is FABULOUS) told us that he had never seen this condition in an infant except for the week before we brought Charlotte in. He had seen it in a little boy about her age, and had read up on it. What are the chances of that? We felt really blessed that he was already prepared before we came in. And, what's an even greater coincidence is that I had met and chatted with the mother of that baby boy in my OBGYN's waiting room before either of us had given birth! Small world. Anyway, different sized pupils can be indicitive of serious problems or can indicate nothing at all. Our pediatrician decided we should have a specialist look at Charlotte to determine which scenerio we were facing. Our appointment was last week. We found out that Charlotte's condition is called "Physiological Anisocorea" which means, simply, that she was born with different sized pupils. They will always be that way. It's just part of who she is. She is now a member of a very small percentage of the world's population and will always have something really cool to share for show-and-tell!

Pictures of Charlotte!!!!!!!

We got a new camera today!!! Hooray!!! Here are some pics of Charlotte. She is 3 months old and just SO sweet. We love her.

Not So Picture Perfect

So, remember that promise I made a couple months ago that I would get to the bottom of the problems we are having uploading photos from our camera? Well...I'm STILL working on it! Sheesh, I don't know what is going on with the technology in our house. It's so frustrating! Anyway, I do have some adorable photos of the girls to post and a pretty darn spiffy pic of a fruit pizza I made tonight. I will conquer this.