Who Are You?

Sometimes I think my (small) obsession with vampires is rubbing off on my children. I'm starting to suspect that Juliet is really a vampire. Here are my reasons:

1. She doesn't sleep at night. Maybe this is because that is the natural time for her to be out and about. Here this whole time I've been trying to get her to sleep all night like a normal girl when maybe she isn't "normal".

2. She doesn't grow. I thought it was just me not being able to get past thinking of her as an 8-month-old, but not so. I just took her to her one year visit yesterday and she pretty much hasn't grown. She's just under the 5th percentile for height and the 10th for weight. You'd never know with all those rolls that she's actually a total shrimp! She hides her petiteness well.

3. (and this is the most convincing) The girl likes to bite. She will try to bite me repeatedly on the arm, leg, wherever she can reach, and cries or screams when I say no. But this is nothing, NOTHING, compared to how enthusiastically she tries to bite other babies' heads. She will claw and kick her way to them in her frenzy to reach their little heads, and fight and shriek when I hold her back. Really its quite disturbing (and hilarious).

Where does this come from? Did I read too much Twilight and watch too much Buffy while she was in utero? Is it because she shares her name with the actress who plays Drusilla? Is it because she was welcomed into the world under the soothing tones of Spike's Ballad (sung by my awesome sister)? Or are my suspicions true and she's been changed? Maybe she's a half-vampire like Renesmee (only with an infinately better name).

Hmm, this post kind of paints me in a crazy light doesn't it?

This Year's Girl

My baby girl is one year old today. I can't believe it! She seems so much younger to me. I don't know if its because she is short for her age, or that she still nurses so much and wakes up throughout the night, or if its just that she's my baby, but I just cannot get my head around the fact that she is already a year old.

Exactly one year ago I was having my incredible, intense, crazy waterbirth. Its strange how labor can hurt so very much, and yet I still feel nostalgic for the experience. I guess its sort of like running a marathon or climbing a mountain or something, where it feels like hell while you are doing it but afterwords you feel the most amazing sense of accomplishment (plust you get a baby out of it!). I still sometimes watch the birth video and think to myself, "I can't believe I did that!". I've witnessed many a birth and done it twice myself, but it still amazes me that we can actually grow a person inside our bodies, and even more amazingly can push them out. How is that even possible??

Anyway I digress. Juliet is no longer my little newborn, she's my babbling, standing, smiling, bouncing, peek-a-boo playing, clapping, waving, banana eating, cuddling, loving one-year-old little girl. And that, my friends, is just five-by-five.

Here she is just seconds after being born

And here she is celebrating her first birthday!

Living Conditions

We're moving again! See, we're not very clean people. We tidy a little here and there, but every once in a while the mess builds up so much that its actually easier just to move houses than attempt to clean.

Ok so thats not true, but it is true we are moving! We renewed our lease in December, but I've been feeling quite cramped in our two bedroom apartment. Not that its a small place, but having the girls share a room at this age is HARD. Juliet already wakes up several times a night, so when Lydia wakes her up even more it is pretty infuriating. So yesterday I was sitting there in frustration when I realized, hmm, maybe we can do something about this. I talked to one of the managers and found out that there was a 3 bedroom apartment available here for only $35 more a month than we're paying! Woo hoo! Today we went and filled out the transfer paperwork and toured our new place. I love it! Apart from another bedroom, it also has a nice big laundry room and, best of all, a back door to our own little patch of grass. Yay! Otherwise the apartment is pretty much the same (except its a mirror image, which made me a bit dizzy).

We'll be moving the last Saturday of March. Or more precisely Jamie will be moving, as I will be in California. I did not plan it that way, but that is when we must move. Poor guy--I've been unable to help in our last 3 moves. If anyone is interested in helping (or volunteering their husbands to help) my sweet husband move us a couple hundred yards away, I'd be eternally grateful! Or if you just want to donate a box or two.

And for those who need to keep track of our new address (hard to do since this is our 4th address in 3 years) we will now be 3052A instead of 3046D. Everything else is the same.

I'm so excited!

Teacher's Pet

Not a giant Praying Mantis, but a small Cockatiel. Meet Ron.

Lydia and Juliet just LOVE him. I find him amusing. He's very friendly and we can get him out and hold him and pet him. When he wants to be let out he hops to the bottom of his cage and paces back and forth really fast. And he likes to groom our hair when he's up on our shoulders.

Come meet him!