Happy (half) Birthday Baby!

Hubby turned 31 yesterday! I am sooo bad at surprises, so I am really proud of myself for pulling this one off. I farmed the kids out to my parents and took my hubby to DC for the weekend. We went out for dinner at a great Tapas restaurant and to see the Capitol Steps perform and stayed at a hotel across the street from the White House. It was very funny and we really enjoyed ourselves. The best part was the uninterrupted sleep!! We stayed in bed until 10am. This is our first time away from all 3 kids and it was awesome. We really got to talk about our move and the decisions that are coming for us. It was a great birthday!

Hubby and I have birthday's exactly 6 months apart so his birthday is my half birthday and vice versa. Now most of you may not celebrate half birthdays, but you don't know what your missing. We have so much fun with it. Even the kids are in on the celebrations. We don't really do presents but it is a great excuse for cupcakes, costumes and pancakes. We put up streamers and blow up balloons, the kids wrap up old toys and exchange them, it's so much fun. The kids all know when their half birthday's are and we love any reason to party. In fact we celebrated the 2nd birthday of an orange stuffed Koala Bear named KO-KO a week ago!! Birthday's ROCK!

Sister, Sister

So let me just start this post by saying, "I love my kids, my husband and my job". That being said. I just got an email from my oldest youngest sister (does that make sense). She is jobless, homeless and penniless ( I can say this because I know for fact that she WILL read this). She is madly in love with a Spanish man that she met at a hippie festival in the desert of Nevada and she has dropped everything and flown to Spain to follow her heart. How cool is that? She is bumming around Spain with the man that she loves selling jewelry that she makes on the beach and I don't think I have ever heard her be happier. AAAhhhhh, to be young and carefree again. No mortgage to pay, no boss to answer to, no snotty noses to wipe. I just hope that she soaks up every last drop of joy and love. Weather or not it works out with this guy, it takes a strong woman to trust her feelings and take a risk. It's been 10 years since I met my hubby, everyday spent looking forward......

Hang Over

So, I have been at 5 births in the last week and half and I am completely drained of compassion and wisdom. I was telling hubby that I think I am hung over from birth. It takes days for me to recover from the lack of sleep. 3 of the births I was at were over 15 hours, one lasting an amazing 39 hours. Of course it is all worth it when you see the look in mom and dad's eyes the first time they hold their baby. But I feel like I am walking around in haze. This makes me feel so old. If I was 20 I would have the energy for this. Being gone from the kids for this long makes me feel like I need to reprioritize a little. I am going to spend the day at Marco's school tomorrow, volunteering in the class. He is very excited about that.
I went to a dinner and movie lat night with my mom and sister. The Secret Life of Bees. It was a good movie but I cried at least 5 times. I probably should have gone to bed early, I am still exhausted.

Long Live Georgia

Hubby has a strong emotional investment in seeing the "our friends" the Georgians win this conflict with Russia (he spent some time training their military forces). He is not shy about it either. I chalk it up to a mama bird wanting to see her little chickies learn to fly (or eaten by the great communist vulture lurking around the corner). So I was not surprised to find my baby bird literally wrapped in the flag of the Fledgling democracy! He was crawling all through the house playing peek-a-boo with the darn thing.

Date Night

So last night Husband and I went out for our weekly date night. We have really made this a priority during the last year and it has done a lot for our relationship. We have a great babysitter and the kids are old enough now that we don't really worry. We try to go out to dinner or a show or a movie but last night we just couldn't get it together. So we spent the night running errands (craft store, ToysRus, Target). BTW, Target without kids is awesome!! About half way through the night I started feeling like a total looser for paying a babysitter to do this crap. But what can I say, we had adult conversations without being interrupted and I didn't have to buy candy for anyone (except me). So I call that a success!

A Mother born...

Iam an Aunt again!! My sister in law gave birth to my first nephew Christopher and my neice Lyla last night. She was awesome. She is such a strong incredible woman. Both babies and mom are doing great. Marco is thrilled to be adding to the boy cousins while Maya is pissed off that the twins are not ours. She keeps insisting that I should have made our baby a twin!

Gratefull

The Bridal shower was a success. Orlando was pretty. The Bachelorette party was fun, but boy am I grateful that I don't have to do the single scene anymore. The clubbing, drinking, flirting phase of my life is so far behind me that I was in a little bit of culture shock on Saturday night. It must have been pretty obvious because at one point one of the other bachelorette guests leaned over to me and said "doesn't this make you grateful that you have a family to go home to?". It sure did. Young Women in Orlando don't find it necessary to wear any clothing on the bottom half of their bodies (yes, I do realize how old I sound now). Seriously they just belted a long shirt and head out the door. Needless to say, I saw a lot of vagina on the dance floor Saturday night, more then I see even at work!! Home Sweet home......