I just realized that I didn’t take a single photo of the cupcakes Annalie decorated for her birthday party today. I took the photo above of one of the unfrosted cupcakes, because happy cupcake is happy, and that’s kinda neat. I took a few shots of the kids eating cupcakes at the party, but the decorations probably aren’t very visible, and who knows when I’ll get around to downloading those photos off the memory card anyway.

I’m bummed that I don’t have a picture of the cupcakes, because she really had fun decorating them. But I also think, “Eh. Whatever.” And that indifference bums me out a little bit too.

There was a reason I was kind of distracted today, though. Sonja—one of my favorite people on this or any other planet—was busy having her baby yesterday and today, and I was checking my phone every time I even imagined it might have beeped or buzzed, anxious for news. From the little I’ve heard, the day was far more exciting than they would have liked, but everyone is fine. Whew. Also, yay! Baby!

I was going to try to blog every day this month. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want to make a big thing of it, I just wanted to set myself the goal and see if I could reach it. I did great for nine days. Maybe I should just be thankful I got that many posts written, and work on keeping myself afloat until there’s another calm week when I can write a post every day. Maybe intermittent blogging is all I can do right now.

I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that it’s impossible for me to do all the things I need to do in my daily life (homeschool an 8-year-old and parent a toddler, be a halfway decent wife/daughter/sister, keep the clutter and dishes and laundry from taking over the house, cook the occasional meal, crochet baby blankets and golden snitches, keep up email correspondence with friends, sleep more than four hours a night) AND ALSO blog on a regular basis. At least not like I used to, with lots of photos and thoughtfully composed paragraphs.

I just…can’t. And that makes me really sad. I don’t know what else could possibly give at this point. I guess I could give up reading and TV. I’ve already basically given up painting, and am trying to find a way to cram exercising back in there somewhere.

Sigh.

I was astonished when I realized that I hadn’t done a post of Annalie’s tweets for over a year. A YEAR. How did that happen? I have no idea. Let’s start fixing that, shall we?

MARCH 2011

“Oh! Sorry I didn’t brush my teeth yet. I got carried away with my imaginationings.”

“I know four things that catch fire: cars, forests, any kind of buildings–like restaurants or homes or movie theaters–and hair.”

“Ah, nothing’s better than a good burp.”

“She’s the cutest little thing. I could just eat her up like an ice cream cake.”

“Perhaps you would like some e-musement? I’d be happy to give you some.”

“Laughed their butts off? That’s impossible. No one can laugh THAT hard.”

“I think I’ll hula-hoop for a bit. It might calm my nerves.”

“My baby has beautiful blue eyes…just like yours truly.”

“Now I shall begin my quest for my village!”

“(in a deep voice) ‘You look wonderful, dipped in magical. You look golden, like you are made of love.’ (falsetto) ‘Why thank you, sir!’”

“When I add the friction between the fractions, should I use seconds, minutes, hours, or days?”

“When she grows up she’ll be just like her mom, a fierce predator! But even then she’ll still be my baby, Kitty Clover.”

“Soon everyone will be my butler, and I’ll be generous to everyone. Who’s nicer now!?”

“We have an escaper! I repeat, we have an escaper! Katy escaped!”

“Would you like to try my vegetable salad? It’s famous! It won Healthiest, Tastiest Salad at the county fair. I only use FRESH ingredients.”

“Yesterday in Sunday School we learned about shepherds and what they technically do.”

APRIL 2011

“A clean restaurant is a happy restaurant, I always say. Or at least I’ll start saying it now.”

“This looks like a job for…Super Sis!”

“I’ve been workin’ on my beatboxin’.”

“The recipe is: two buns, one burger, lettuce, a pickle, and exactly one thousand sesame seeds–no more, no less.”

“When I see a patch of green, green grass it makes me want to spin and jump and run on it.”

“I think I’ll go back in time and ask a genius scientist to invent Pokemon.”

“Circus peanuts are my only weakness.”

“Let’s blow UP this pop stand!”

“I don’t care if they’re called jellybeans. I’m gonna call them jelly EGGS.”

“That is one freaky vehicle. ”

“I’m just the cook and the waitress; I’m not the person who points the way and shouts the name of the Chicken Pot Clock.”

“We’re wasting time! And if we’re wasting time, we’re wasting wind.”

“Note to self: coconut shampoo does not taste as good as it smells.”

“Airplanes are not my preferred mode of travel. I prefer to travel on the ground. A nice, fun, relaxing trip in a car–that’s what I like.”

*cough, cough* Gracious! It’s dusty in here, isn’t it? Let me just wipe away these cobwebs and blow off the dust…there, that’s better. I’m a little embarrassed at how I’ve neglected things around here. I have resolved to do better in May. Wish me luck.

My mom and my niece Aurora are here visiting us for a few weeks! It’s fun having them here, but my mom and I have been a little surprised by how much more exhausting it is to have three kids in the house (two of them toddlers) than it is to have only two. Of course, this is partly because Aurora has never been to our house before, had never flown on a plane, had never been more than a couple hours’ drive away from Omaha before. And Aurora is very two right now. In fact, she’s just about two and a half, which means she’s entering that period of disequilibrium that kids often go through around their half-birthdays. (I’ve talked about this before with Annalie.)

Since Elliora is almost exactly a year younger than Aurora, she’s been going through a bit of disequilibrium herself lately, which isn’t surprising. She’s changing so fast these days, adding new words every day and even putting them together in short sentences. Three of her first-year molars have just popped through her gums, and at the park the other day she was climbing all over the big-kid play structure and going down the slides without any help from anyone. She cracks us up every day with mannerisms and reactions that seem older than her 18 months. She regularly eats more than her big sister, and when we have brussels sprouts or asparagus (!?) she eats as much or more than I do. She is meeting life head-on and keeping up with her cousin and big sister just fine.

Annalie, meanwhile, is almost eight! Her birthday is only eight days away. She’s been simply FANTASTIC with her sister and her cousin. She’s been patient and calm through tantrums and craziness. Since they’ve both been sitting in the back row of the minivan, Annalie has been buckling Aurora into her carseat every time we go anywhere, and unbuckling her at the other end. She’s willingly shared food and toys with the littles, and more than once she’s cheerfully agreed to wait to do something she wanted to do until naptime. I think I’m gonna love eight.

What have you guys been up to?