The Last First Day...

Tuesday, Claire had her last first day of preschool. That just doesn't seem possible. I remember taking her the very first day of preschool and remember telling her teachers that we were working on potty training and now she's gearing up for kindergarten!! She was so excited to finally be going to school like Lauren. She was up early and picked out one of her most favorite outfits to wear!! She walked right in to school and just waved good-bye. I was okay this time. I know next year when I walk her on that first day, I will be a big ole fat mess of tears!! Gotta enjoy this last year!!

Lauren is still doing great in school. We normally have a few problems the first couple of weeks getting adjusted to the routine of going back but this year, we haven't had any problems whatsoever!!! I'm ecstatic!! She has had great behavior and really seems to be enjoying her class. Right now, her class is learning all about embryos, incubation and humidity, they have baby chicks growing!! She is also going to sign up for the art club and hopefully will make it in. The art teacher gets to choose the students so we are keeping our fingers crossed. I asked Lauren why did she want to be in the art club and her reply was, "Because I'm good at art." Gotta love the confidence!!

Brooke is still good, growing like a weed. She did a real laugh for the first time on Wednesday night. I loved it!! She is getting such a personality and becoming more social. In a couple of weeks we get to start rice cereal. That should be fun!!

The big girls are having a sleepover with their Mawmaw tonight. They are both so excited. They haven't done that in a while. Mark and I are going to have a date night with Brooke. Should be fun for all!!

Happy Friday everyone!!

ps..I'll have pics of Claire on her first day soon!

Preschool and poop....

My most favorite time of year is right around the corner and I am most excited!!! I LOVE FALL!! I can tell the seasons are getting ready to change. The sky to me seems more blue and you can just feel it in the air! I love fall!! Plus, my birthday is in October so that is another reason;).

Today we went to meet with Claire's preschool teachers. This is her last year of preschool. Wow, that doesn't seem real. Anyways, I think she is going to have a great year. Two of her best friends will be back and she has another good buddy that is joining the crowd this year!! I think I'm more excited about that than Claire! Brooke just sat in her daddy's lap, taking it all in. In a couple of years, Brooke will be heading off to preschool....I'm not even going to go there.

Speaking of Brooke, let me just tell you about this baby. She is doing great, sleeping completely through the night, starting to get into a routine. But, she doesn't poop. Hardly ever. This past time she went 10 days without pooping. I have talked with our pediatrician about this and he doesn't seem too concerned. She is solely a breast milk baby so I know that she is completely digests all of that. She had been going once a week on Saturdays, and then it moved to Tuesdays and now who knows. I finally called the nurse and she gave us some pointers to try,which included giving diluted apple juice, to try and get things moving. Brooke didn't seem to care for that too much but it did the trick;). But you know, to not have pooped for 10 days, she has been the most content and happy baby ever!! I love her, stopped up and all!!!

A whole bunch of stuff...

Lauren on her first day of 2nd grade

Today is the first day of school here at the Magic McCain's. Lauren is a big 2nd grader. Gosh, I can't believe it. She went to bed a little teary eyed last night, worrying about failing and getting in trouble with her dad, and school hasn't even started. She is growing up way too fast for me. She is getting out of that little girl stage and I can't stand it. She looked so grown up this morning with her pretty new outfit and ears pierced.

I had the girls pictures done this week. Can I just say awesome!!! Lauren and Claire did great and so did Brookie!! She was all slobber and tongue showing for most of the pics because she was "talking" but we got tons of smiles from her too!! She is 3 months old....whew, that flew by!

I posted this on fb but I'm going to elaborate on here a little more. It was Tuesday when I had the girls pics done. I worked this past weekend for the first time since Brooke was born. Now for those of you who know me, Tuesdays are usually my recoup days. I'm not good for much of anything on that day cause I'm trying to play catch up. Well, I only got a couple of hours sleep on Monday. I woke up on Tuesday at 11am (and yes, all 3 of my children slept that late!!). Our appointment was at 1:10pm. Needless to say I started in high gear. Had to iron all of their clothes, pump, get everything together, get the girls ready, feed the baby and take a shower. Thank goodness I had my Lauren. She and Claire got their own clothes on while I gave Brooke a bath and then Lauren fed Brooke while I took a shower. I did not fix my hair or put on good makeup. Mama's can get away with that sometimes;). Then we went and picked up my niece, Cambridge, so she could help me out. We made it on time for the pics, praise the Lord!! Well, after the pics were done, we ate at the best ice cream place and we all did a little shopping. While helping Cambridge decide about some clothes, there was a lady in the dressing room with her two daughters, who were about 13 and 15. They were getting school clothes. This lady turns to me and says, "Excuse me, but I think you are so beautiful. You should be a model, you are so pretty." I'm sure my jaw dropped 15 feet! I had to ask her if she was talking about me and she said yes! I touched her on the shoulder and said thank you and that she had made my day. Now, let me tell you I was looking some kind of rough. My hair was crazy frizzy, my clothes looked bad and no makeup. That lady made me feel so good!!! It's been a long time since I had someone other than family tell me that and you know, it really made this tired, fat, losing hair, face breaking out, stressed a little mama feel really special! Maybe I still have it....

It's about that time....

Tomorrow my sweet girl will be 12 weeks old and that means it's time for me to head back to work. My lovely hiatus is over. I go back to work this weekend. I'm sad but at the same time looking forward to it. I'm ready for some adult conversation and some stimulation to my brain! I went in today for a little while just to get reacquainted with our computer system and workflow. I also needed to have my passwords reset so that I could log on to the computer so I could work. I felt like a fish out of water. I think I'll be okay though. It all started coming back to me after a few minutes. I just hope I don't have anything weird happen because then I'll definitely be up the creek. This mommy brain just doesn't work as well as it use too. It was good to see all of my coworkers today. I think they have missed me;).

Please keep me in your prayers and Mark as well. He is going to have to tackle all 3 girls on his own this weekend and he hasn't had to do that yet. I know that he'll be fine.

Also, my precious girl turned 7 today. Lauren has had the best birthday this time around, or at least that is what she has been telling me. She got her ears pierced last week, had two parties on Saturday (a friend party and then the family party), went to Wet-n-Wild water park, went swimming with a good friend, then slumbered in the most beautiful place in the world with her sister and Aunt Allie. She definitely has had a good 7th birthday. Happy Birthday, Lauren!!!!!

It's Been A While....

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. We've been busy here at the Magic McCain's. We just got back from the beach this past Sunday. We went to Kill Devil Hills/Kitty Hawk for a week. We had a great time!! A real vacation. We went to bed late, slept late, stayed in our jammies most of the day, went to the beach late and ate, ate, ate!! It was awesome! I had some extra hands as well to help me with my girls. We brought our niece, Cambridge, this year with us to help with Brooke (and with the big girls.) She was awesome! Anything I asked her to do, she did!! I want her to come live with us!!

Brooke did really well in her new surroundings. We put her in a pack n play for bedtime with her snuggle nest and she slept just like she does at home. At the beginning of the week, she looked so small in the pack n play but by the end of the week we were questioning was she still going to fit in the bassinet. She had a growth spurt while we were gone!

Summer is definitely flying by way too fast and in just a few weeks I'll be done with maternity leave. I'll be back to working every other weekend night shift. Hopefully by that time, Brooke will be sleeping through the night. Mark doesn't do well without sleep (neither do I but that's neither here nor there.)

Brooke is 2 months old today and I just can't believe it. She is smiling and cooing and trying to make a laughing sound. It sounds more like she is sucking in air. She definitely has a mind of her own, she lets you know when she isn't happy. She has a high pitched squeal that comes out when we don't move fast enough for her, meaning feeding her, picking her up. She is wearing size 3-6 months, still a few 0-3 if they are two pieces. She wears a size 1 huggies diaper but not in the pampers baby dry (those are way too little) so she is in between a size 1 and size 2 diaper. She still has blue eyes but they haven't gotten any lighter and she hasn't lost any of her hair!! We had the baby acne that started at 4 weeks but it only last about two weeks. For the most part she is sleeping through the night. I started putting her on her tummy (I know, I know, bad mama) and she slept through the night both times. She'll nurse on occasion if I'm feeling up to the challenge but she still takes her bottles like a champ. She's up to about 5 ounces each feeding and I still feel like a dairy farm! I need to sell some of my milk, or so my husband says.

Claire is doing great, just being Claire. She's been going to a preschool program sponsered by Quaker Lake and having a great time. She's enjoyed being at home this summer and slumbering with her sister (meaning staying the night in Lauren's room. She needs to get used to that, she'll probably be moving in there before too long.) She likes to carry around a pad and pencil so she can write her "lists." She is so precious.

Lauren is definitely enjoying her summer. Staying up way late and sleeping way late. She is her mother's daughter. We had great news today! She had her yearly eye doctor's appointment and our optometrist says she is ready for contacts!! What good news! She has been begging for contacts for 6 months. She looks adorable in her glasses but I understand the want to not wear them anymore. So her trial pair will be here in about a week and then she'll go for a fitting and be taught how to put them in. I'm so excited for her!!

Our next adventure will be to plan for Lauren's 7th birthday. She wants a friend pool party, a family party, and then a visit to the local water park. I'm gung ho about the first two, not so much about the latter. I worked at said water park while I was in college and I personally am not a fan. But, being that is the only thing she has asked for for her birthday, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and take her. She also is going to be getting her ears pierced this birthday. This 7th birthday is going to be monumental!!!

Here's to a busy end of July and crazy busy August!!

Our Benny

(This was a picture I had taken when we first brought Benny home. He had grown quite a bit before he died.)

I haven't posted in a while, been a wee bit preoccupied:) We are doing okay here at the Magic McCain's. We lost our sweet puppy this past weekend. We were at a friend's birthday party and he was hit by a car. We found him on our way home. A good Samaritan called and left us a message about sweet Benny. I called him back, it was a young man and he told me he had moved Benny from the road. I cried and told him thanks for caring for our dog. I have really taken this hard. I don't know if its a little postpartum kicking in (I developed PPD when Claire was 6 weeks old, and Brooke will be 7 weeks old on Friday.) I cried all weekend and felt forlorn all day yesterday. The girls took it okay, I'm not sure they realize the finality of his death. Claire really wasn't upset, in fact she just said we could get a new dog (she had a love/hate relationship with Benny, he liked to bite her dress tails). Lauren cried and had a little drama fit but other than that she has seemed okay. She may understand death, she knows about Heaven and maybe she does realize the finality of it all. Sometimes, I think, that I don't realize her comprehension and understanding of events in life. She probably understands just fine and is okay know thing Benny is in Heaven and is okay and one day we'll get to see him again. I, for one, miss looking out my kitchen window and seeing him playing with the torn up bouncy balls or throwing his rope around. I really loved him:( Mark reminds me, "Val, he was just a dog," but he was more than that. I guess this time around, since we picked him out and brought him home to us, I just knew that he would grow up with our girls and become a loving dog. I could look years down the road and see him being the protector of our girls, watching them play, I could see him doing the rounds with Mark. Just being our dog. I will definitely miss him, even him tearing down my clothes off the clothesline:)

What Do You Think?

That is the question, what do you think? I constantly ask this question to my husband, my mom, my sisters, my friends, what do you think about this, what do you think about that? So, I'll ask you guys, what do you think? What do you think about me leaving my 5 week old baby with my sister for a full 24 hours so that my husband and I can enjoy some time together?

Lauren was about 6 months old before I even left her for a long period of time with anyone. I think she was almost a year before I let her stay the night with anyone. I cried when I left her the first time. I kept thinking I was a bad mom leaving her so soon, would she be okay, would my mom or my sister be able to care for her like I do (please note that they both had WAY more experience, typical first parent syndrome.)

Claire was about 3 months old when she stayed the night with someone. I don't think I cried at all. I think I was ready to be child free for a short while by that time.

Brooke is 5 weeks old and she and her sisters stayed the night with their Aunt Sonja and her family on Sunday night. I had absolutely no problem leaving her, I didn't cry. I was fine. Does that make me a bad mommy? I kind of felt bad for leaving her but she isn't attached to the "girls." She takes breastmilk from a bottle and my sister and niece are more than capable of feeding her. It was just for one night and believe me, she had enough milk for at least a week:)

We needed this. We needed this time to reconnect from the chaos of having a newborn in the house, a almost 7 year old trying to adjust and a 4 year old just along for the ride. We needed time to be with each other and enjoy something without constantly having someone calling our names to get them something or break up a silly argument or change a diaper. It was a chance for us to do something fun and spend quality time with one another and catch up on some sleep.

So, what do you think? Do you think I'm a bad mom for trying to get back some sanity and have more patience with my girls? I hope not because I feel like I'm being a better mom by taking care of my needs so that I can take better care of my kids needs, and it was only 24 hours:)