Guess Who's Here!

Liliana Jean-Jane arrived at 11:16 last night, all 6 pounds and 14 ounces of her. She's healthy, she's beautiful, she's perfect in every way, and I'm over the moon!

P.S. She really was born last night, not in 2007. Bob needs to fix the date on his camera.

Big Weekend

We went to Kayla's 7th birthday party today, at a place that is not Chuck E. Cheese's but is like Chuck E. Cheese's on steroids. Oh, yay.

First, there were party favors and pizza:



Then there was cake:



And then it was time to play.

Britt played a round of golf:





And rode some stuff:



And played lots of games:



And found a dinosaur dispensing goodies:



She was surprisingly good at shooting baskets:



But not quite as good at air hockey:



But bowling was totally her favorite:







Then, after a spin around the racetrack,



we traded the 558 tickets she had won for a stamp set, a dinosaur and a crocodile and got the hell out of there. At 8:15. The party had started at 4:30.

Aaargh, exhausted. (And I haven't even mentioned the drama. Oh, yes, there was drama. But I can't talk about it right now; I still have a million things to do tonight.)

Alas, there was no rest for the weary. We haven't gotten around to buying me a new zipmobile yet, so we drove halfway across the city to rent me a car to drive to Wichita tomorrow morning. But we're finally home and I still have to do laundry and take a shower and pack so we'll be all ready to go.

Because, if everything goes as planned, by this time tomorrow we'll have a brand new baby girl in the family.

Picture this

It'll be time for school pictures again very soon and, frankly, I'm worried. Britt is a total ham -- until you point a camera at her. It's getting harder and harder to get a good picture lately; if she doesn't turn her head or throw up her hands, she looks at the floor or squinches her eyes shut:



So I took some test shots to see how she might react to a photographer's instructions, such as "look at my finger":



Or "watch at my hand":



Oh, yes, I feel ever so much better now.

(***sigh***)

Happy Birthday, Bridgie!

Avast, matey! Mommy loves you! Arrr!

(Today is also International Talk Like a Pirate Day.)

Birthday Girl

I'm not fully recovered from all the excitement yet, so I'm throwing these pictures up here with minimal commentary.



There should be pictures of the Happy Birthday Singing/Blowing Out Candles ceremony here, but I was busy with the video camera. Bridgie, you need to bring your camera over in the next day or two so I can see what pictures you got.











Hmm, it looks like someone else around here is not fully recovered yet either:

OMG I'm so glad it's over

Burgers, cake, lots of fun, and way too many people crammed into my house. Lots of presents. Very happy little girl. The veneer on my left lateral incisor went all wobbly. And my dog set herself on fire.

Sher, you missed a helluva party.

Pictures tomorrow, maybe. As soon as I get fresh batteries for the camera.

Pre-K Fever

Bethany is currently enrolling kids for Pre-K for NEXT year. They have 80 spots available. People are CAMPING OUT at the school right now -- IN THE RAIN -- to be one of the first 80. Mikey is one of them.

Jeez.

We talked about sending Britt to private school but the cost per year is about the price of a small car, so I thought she would go to the elementary school about a mile from our house. It's a perfectly nice school in a perfectly nice neighborhood and I could be there in five minutes if she got sick or hurt. We never talked about Bethany.

But Candy called Sunday night and told him about the enrollment this week, and he's been a man possessed ever since. He's so consumed by it he can think of nothing else. I can't even get him to help me plan Britt's birthday party this weekend.

Anyway, Andrea camped out over there last night and put Carlee and Brittany on the list. We're #26. So if there's a list, why is camping out for another night necessary? Mikey cannot explain this to me; he's just doing what he was told. So he's over there with a lawn chair and a blanket and a book, and we're supposed to go meet him at 8AM with all our papers to do the actual enrolling.

And, you know what?

He never even asked me if I wanted to send her to Bethany.

This is some majorly crazy shit, man.

UPDATE: Mikey called at 6AM and said they were going to start enrolling between 7:00 and 7:30, so we got dressed and went up there. Cops and news photographers everywhere; apparently there was quite a tussle over line-cutting or something two years ago.

Anyway, the deed is done; acceptance/denial letters go out in May.

I hate say I told you so but...

Sorry, Jess. It looks like the September trend is going to hold.