Sorry for the delay

I'm also posting over at Victim of the Momarazzi!

Look Out Now!

Three posts in a week! Get outta town!
Really I just had more cute pictures of my kids that I wanted to share.
Molly's friends Henry and Mary Scott had a circus-themed birthday party today. Their moms were sweating the weather and even moved the time of the party to avoid the rain. I hoped they were relieved at the end of the evening because every one had a great time!


Molly put on this rainbow wig and wouldn't take it off. It made it so much easier to spot her!
Molly is older than most of her friends. So she fed Ryleigh popcorn, told her the best parts of the party, and showed her how to eat a cupcake.
And the firetruck came out!
Molly and Emma refused to get any closer together than this!

Give and Get is Here!

Give and Get is Here!: "Enjoy 30% off from November 11-14 at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy plus we'll make a 5% donation to a non-profit."

It's Me Again, Margaret!

Where does the time go?
I know, I know. Y'all have been requesting that I blog more. My primary internet connection is my iPhone and I cant get any blogging apps to work for me. I know what the issue is but I can't find a way to fix it; I may end up changing blog addresses. I'll keep you posted.
Johanna took her 6 month pictures today and she has just been a doll all day. She worked over all the senior citizens in Wal-Mart and even said her first word ("bye bye") to a kind gentleman in the frozen foods section.
Without further ado, here are the products of our date with Portrait Innovations this morning.

Graduation

In February of 2009, Molly and I visited Shreveport for a few days. We needed to find two things: a job and a daycare. While I didn't leave with a job, Molly left with her name on two waiting lists.
Fast forward to 6 months later. We've moved to Shreveport, but I'm still jobless, so it doesn't matter that Molly is daycare-less. A few weeks pass and I'm picking a job. Suddenly I've got to find a daycare. And the heavens open.
Mrs. Janet calls, asking if I still need daycare. Oh, do I!
Molly came from a corporate chain daycare in Baton Rouge which met our needs of extended hours while I was working the ER.
Switching to our new daycare in Shreveport was different. There were less than 40 kids in the whole school. Molly was at an age where she was more aware of her social circle and formed strong bonds. But we knew it was only temporary; Molly would age out of the program when she turned 3.
The middle of August brought an end to our time at our sweet, small daycare. Molly had been talking about her "new school" for months.The teachers and I talked for weeks about not looking forward to the day. But, regardless, it came. I cried. Mrs. Shannon cried. Molly and Johanna were none the wiser.
The past year was full of so many transitions for our family; we lived in 3 different houses in 2 months, for goodness sakes! We started 2 new jobs in 2 new cities. We had 2 new dogs. And we added another sweet girl to our family. But her teachers and directors loved our Mollygirl through all those changes.
Molly and Mrs. Shannon
Molly and Ms. Nicki

So this Monday we started preschool and daycare at the other school whose waiting list we got on back in February 2009. This new school has better hours and is closer to our house. There is also the potential of going to "real school" there.
Thus far, they've both done great. I'm spending less time on the road, but I'm still working on adjusting. This school is so big; no one knows our name or notices if we're absent. I don't know how much lunch Molly ate or if she took a good nap. I'm going to have to remind myself that this is preschool, not daycare!

That Point

Recently, I've been thinking about what I post about on my blog. First it was my dog, then my job, and now my kids. This post is about me.
Johanna is now 3 months old and sleeps completely (like 10 hours) through the night 3-4 nights a week. This is, in a word, tremendous.
I have been off of work for 5 straight days.
During this time, I have reached "that point."
I think most new moms hit "that point," but I'm going solely on personal experience here and not from anything I learned in my training.
"That point," I believe, is a culmination of many things: the lifting of the fog of sleep deprivation, feeling confident in your ability to take care of your child, etc.
"That point" is when you start to feel like yourself again. You are still by all means a mother, a wife, a daughter and all the other hats you wear, but you regain some semblance of self-awareness.
Let me provide some examples. During my recent time off, I have begun to do the things I like to do again. As I sat in Minute Maid Park Saturday surrounded by thousands of people (with my baby on my lap and my sister next to me holding my toddler), I felt one of those tingles of happiness, one of those moments where your heart is so happy because you are doing something you love. Maybe it's not kosher to bring an infant to a professional ball game, but good gracious, it made me feel alive. (And to the guy who wolf whistled at me as I nursed my baby, you're the freak, not me.)
Tonight I went running after we tucked Molly in bed. I love running at night, covered in darkness and worrying more about what I may roll an ankle on than what pace I'm keeping. I ran for 20 minutes straight, clocking 11minute miles. Yes, there was a time when I ran for 90 minutes at a pace almost half that. But there were moments as I ran downhill and was able to let the stroller coast that I was completely free and I felt incredibly alive.
I bought some new clothes today as well. My old ones don't fit yet, but I am so excited to wear something that doesn't have a belly pouch. No, they aren't the size I wished they were but Stacy and Clinton surely would appreciate my attempt to fight the frump!
I hosted 14 women at my house last night and served them a home-cooked meal. It was a fantastic estrogen fest. For the first time ever, there were no children at a gathering at my house.
I am still who I was a month ago, but I feel like I'm wearing another merit badge now as opposed to a sandwich board. It's nice to be a woman with all my hats instead of just a sleep-deprived food source. "That point" is just that-a marker on the journey, a dot on the map. Here's to waking up tomorrow and doing it all again!

Molly and the "Big Dirt."

The other day John told Molly he needed to get her a sandbox. I interrupted, saying sand boxes were for city kids, that country kids play in the dirt!
Lo and behold, he had a load of dirt delivered on Friday. Molly's eyes grew round when she saw that big pile of fun sitting in her driveway. So Saturday we headed out to have some good "clean" fun while Johanna took a nap.
Yesterday, he promised her she could play in it again as soon as she got up from nap. When she woke up, the first words out of her mouth were, "I wanna play in the dirt."
Surveying her territory
Little girl, big dirt (as she calls it)

Little toes in the dirt

And this is the only picture I took on July 4th. I think Johanna and James look like little hot dogs!

Ring of Fire

Molly has a small obsession with Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." It all started with the Valentine's Day card I bought John that sings the song. She quickly attached herself to it and will tote the card around the house singing the song at will.
She gets confused sometimes when we talk about "Johnny;" she'll ask if we're talking about "Johnny pizza or Johnny Cash."

It was just something funny she did around the house until last week when this note was sent home from daycare. Apparently her teacher found her singing "Burns, burns, burns" and trying to teach it to her friend Cole. When the teacher told John, he said, "yeah, she's a big Johnny Cash fan." And Molly pipes in with, "Yeah, I a big Johnny Cash fan."
Apparently performances are a limited edition because her babysitter tried to get her to sing it over the weekend and she refused.
Never. A. Dull. Moment.