I hate potty training!

Banana Girl took up finger painting yesterday.  I'll give you 3 guesses on where she got her "paint."

New name

So I'm laying in bed next to our new baby girl, just watching her sleep, and just marveling at how different she already is in so many ways from our other two girls.  Not quite sleeping peacefully, but too tired to make a full protest, she slightly struggles against the swaddling that keeps her wrapped tight and begins to make a noise I've become very familiar with: a tiny, discontented ... squeak. 

Yep, she squeaks.  The cutest little squeak, like slowly rubbing your finger on clean plastic Tupperware, during church (slowly and intermittently, hoping nobody will notice.)   It may be the precursor to her waking up and grow into a cry, or she may just squeak a little bit in protest and then succumb to sleep once more.  I don't remember my other girls squeaking like this.  Maybe I've just forgotten, but I don't think so. 

She squeaks all the time when she's sleeping, whenever anything is bugging her.  It's a noise that I wake to several times each night, wondering if I need to change a diaper, or feed her, or if I can just go back to sleep and wait for a more serious complaint.  A sound I dread when I'm exhausted, but for some reason, laying there tonight, just looking into her sweet face, the squeak was so endearing, so uniquely hers.  It made me smile.

And I thought, "What a perfect blog name!"  So, I'm thinking from now on, Beebee (which I knew was only a temporary name anyway) will hereby be blog named Squeakers or Little Mouse... or something like that. 

What do you think?  Will it stick?  Anyone got an opinion on a name? 

Resolution Update

I did it!!!  I finished scrapbooking 2007; my first digital scrapbook!  I went online today and ordered all my work printed into a book.  It should arive in the mail in a week or so.  I can't wait!

Wow! What a week!

Hello, I'm back!  When I chose the title for this post almost a week ago, it fit perfectly; but somehow I didn't get the actual post written until now, so it's really been 2 weeks now, but oh well.  As Alex posted, our newest Leahy was born on March 13th.  Beebee (until I can come up with a better blog name) joined our family in the wee hours of the morning while half of the household still slept.  One day later and we would have shared a birthday, but I guess she wanted to have her own day.  Here's a couple more pics of Beebee on her birthday.

Look at all that black hair!!!  Princess M & Banana Girl were both blond baldies; so this has been a fun change. 

Daddy with his newest princess

This is my mother-in-law, Lynda.  She came to visit us at the beginning of March and has been the HUGEST help both before and after Beebee was born.  She brought her two little shiatsu dogs with her and they have provided endless hours of entertainment for Princess M and Banana Girl.  Walks to the park nearly every day, playing with the dogs in the backyard, trips to McDonald's for ice cream; not to mention all the times she cleaned my kitchen or helped the girls pick up their toys.  She was an absolute angel.  She left today to go back to Mexico and will be sorely missed.  Thank you so much Lynda!!!

24 hours later after the birth ushered in my birthday.  Lynda made the day very special for my girls.  She drove them all around town, buying flowers, balloons, and gifts; and then helping them sneak around the house, as they all planned my "surprise" birthday party together.  The girls had a ball!  Alex cooked me steak and baked potatoes for dinner (one of my favorite meals), my sister made the cake, and we had a lovely party.  (I even got out of bed, showered, and did my hair and make up for the event.)  Top off the evening with a little Ticket to Ride after the kids were in bed, and it was a great birthday!

Almost the whole party (Alex was taking the picture)

This is my sister, Maryle.  She graciously left her own family of 3 children for a week to come help me with my third.  She arrived Saturday night from the airport, exhausted from a day of flights, and slept right through the entire birth.  Even with 3 midwives bustling around the house and everything.  She woke up in the morning wondering why nobody was up and getting ready for church.  Once she understood the situation, she woke up the girls and took them to church without us; providing the rest of us another 3 hours of peaceful sleep.  What a blessing it was that one adult had gotten some sleep that night!  The rest of the week, she entertained my kids and helped them feel loved, while their mother was laid up in bed so much.  On top of that, she filled my freezer with a bunch of really yummy freezer meals.  Here she is on Wednesday making the most beautiful St. Patrick's Day cookies with the girls.  Watch the cooking blog for the recipes that she'll be posting soon.  They really were gorgeous cookies!  Thank you so much Maryle!!!

Thursday was St. Patrick's day.  We all wore our green outfits, with green painted toes, and we tried corned beef and cabbage for dinner that night.  (It was pretty good. We loved the veggies and the sauce; I think I'll use a better cut of meat next year though.  It was just too spongy with fat for my taste.  I'll post that recipe on the cooking blog too.)  By the end of the day I had decided that it was time for a trim as well.  Maryle helped me chop off two ponies for Locks of Love.  This always seems to happen around the time I have a baby.  It's just so much easier to deal with a new baby, when I don't have to deal with hair at the same time.  Turns out Maryle was around to cut my hair when I chopped it all off after Banana Girl's birth too.  This may just become a tradition.

Right after the butchery.

After the professional cut: and touch ups by Maryle at home.

What do you think of my new do?

Friday the chord fell off Beebee, so Saturday we gave her her first bath.  She tolerated it ok; can't say that she loved it though.  That'll come in time.

Alex recently got a new bike to ride to work on.  I picked up a child seat and some helmets for the girls for the occasion.  They took their first bike ride together on Saturday.  Don't they look so cute in all their gear?

Banana Girl was thrilled for the ride; and promptly fell asleep in the seat soon after starting out.  I'll have to remember that for future nap opportunities. ;)

This past week has mostly been pretty laid back after all that excitement.  We've been enjoying our new baby and just getting back into the swing of things.  We've been so blessed with Beebee.  She's the best little baby ever.  And she's already learned to sleep through most any noise; a necessity with 2 older sister running around without any concept of volume control.  I've been told that third children are usually pretty mellow, and Beebee is determined to prove it.  Lynda was joking with me that she didn't believe I had had a baby.  She almost never cries and she sleeps for 4 hour stretches day and night.  We've really been blessed with an easy start.  Let's hope it continues this way for a while. 

New Baby!

Alex:  The newest addition to our family arrived this morning at 3am. We called our midwife at 12:15am to inform her that 'something was a-coming' and she arrived soon thereafter. We had enough time to fill the little swimming pool that we were using for the birthing tub and soon after slipping into its warm waters, the baby was born, 8lbs, 11oz. 

For those of you that like details, I apologize for the brevity of the post. Perhaps JoDee will wax eloquent on the subject later to the satisfaction of all.

It's the best month of the year!!

Ok, so I'm probably a little biased, since my birthday falls in this month.  Still I've always loved this month.  St. Patrick's day is fun (Leahy is Irish by the way, so I can take more pride in the holiday)  but most exciting about March is the first day of spring (and Spring Break if you're in school).  I just love, love, love seeing the first signs of life after a long winter.  The Little green sprouts coming out of a snow covered ground; the crocuses sending up the first colorful flowers of spring; the buds beginning to form on the trees, proving that those dead looking sticks survived the chill of winter and are really teaming with life underneath.  All of these things invariably happened in March.  (at least they did in Colorado where I grew up.)  March is when I start itching to plant a garden and start participating in the miracle of life.   It's very exciting!

And my birthday is in March.  And my next child's birthday will be in March too.  Yep, I'm still pregnant.  Not too surprising since the due date is on my birthday.  But Banana Girl came 2 weeks early, so it was possible that this next angel could have been a February baby.  But not so.  She's still in there; and I'm absolutely HUGE to show for it.  I got some stork pictures taken last week.  They should be ready in about a week to post, so stay tuned. 

However, now it's March, my pictures are taken, my midwife is back from her vacation today, my mother in law arrives tomorrow, I'm no longer sick with a cold, and everything is ready for this new baby to enter our world.  Ok, Little One!  You can come anytime you want now!  Really...  anytime!  Sooner would be awesome!  No pressure.  I think I'll take some long walks tomorrow... maybe do a few jumping jacks... no reason.