Oh the Bliss!

New Glasses for me, woohoo! This girl has a smile that will break hearts across America someday. Oh Ben, you are so fun. Dirty, silly, messy loads of fun. Is purple her color or what? No cavities and and new glasses! Yippee for me! I was dreading going to the dentist... I thought for sure I'd have cavities. If I have less than 5 I'll be happy is what I thought walking in the door. But look at me! Cavity free! I took Addison with me, something I would've never dreamt of doing with my 0-60 boy. She showed off her adorable self to everyone, staying sweet and content the entire time. Man I love this little girl.

Addison is asleep in her very own room. I miss her already.

POLISHING MEMORIES I have no time to sweep the floor. The piano collects dust like never before. The wastebaskets are full; there are marks on the wall. The telephone’s ringing - - - can’t take any calls. I’m sitting here rocking my tiny new son. Closing my eyes to the days work not done. I know from experience the future becomes past. These moments are treasures; I want them to last. Long after he’s grown I’ll sit in this chair and feel the soft touch of his baby fine hair. I’ll rock by this window till the first star appears, polishing the memories of my childbearing years. ~Patricia W. Hiscock This poem has been framed and sitting on my parent's piano for, I dunno, 15 years at least. There was a few years there, believe it or not, that I dabbled in the fine art of piano playing. I think I realized, however, that piano playing wasn't for me when I'd play in recitals not to show off what I had learned but for the creme puffs my teacher served afterwards. It wasn't that...

Here's a throw back to the Guest Speaker bit from the days of old. My sweet friend Ali is here tonight hanging with me and the kids while Mark is away for the weekend. So far we've had a very productive day. It's very nice being friends with an OCD case. (She told me I could write that.) We've done 5 loads of laundry, cleaned out the play room, re-did Ben's room and picked up everything that's been sitting around oh, forever. We've decided that I need a little bit more of her in me and she needs a little/A LOT of me in her. (Again, she told me I could write that.) Honestly though, Ali is dear to my heart. A faithful, kind, and generous friend whom I'm so thankful I've gotten to know much better over the last year or so. She LOVES our kids and they know it. It warms my hear to see her with them. I am extremely thankful for her friendship. So, without further ado... Ali's Thankful list... ~ the Fitzpatrick family. (hee hee, that's me) ~ church ...

... she writes me notes like this one... "every time you say to me, "Mom you'd be so proud of me....." (about something you have done or are doing)..... In my mind I am thinking, "My dear, sweet daughter, I ALREADY AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!" And I am proud of her, too.

There is a spot on the female body which only appears after child birth that I'll refer to as the ARB or Automatic Rocking Button. The ARB allows a mother to sit with a crying, fussing, sickly or simply a cuddly baby for extended periods of time and rock, back and forth, back and forth, keeping a steady pace and rhythm while both child and mother are sound asleep. Addison abuses my ARB.

I forgot D. I did it, it was my fault. I'm sure every mother at one point forgets their child's blanket, bear, pacifier etc. right? We went to a friend's house, a place Ben had never been, with the intention of putting him to bed there. Easy enough, we've done it a thousand times before in various locations and we've never had a problem, but (and this is a big 'but') we've always had D. We didn't realize D's absence until bedtime, of course, and I sort of panicked. I was ready to drive home and get it, but Mark was confident Ben would be fine, he is, after all, a grade A sleeper. Lorin offered us a makeshift D. Yeah right, I thought, she obviously doesn't know the gravity D holds in Ben's life. I took it anyway, just to be nice. We did everything as normal. Pjs on, cup of milk, sing a song, say a prayer and put him in the pack-n-play. All was calm until his head hit the pillow. This is it, I thought, his entire sense of security stems fro...

(Stop me if I've written this before...) At the risk of jinxing this phenomenon (because I'll take good parking karma when I can get it) I have to share this somewhat frustrating/somewhat fantastic fact of my life: Where is the only parking spot when I have my kids with me at Trader Joe's? The furthest spot from the store, of course. Where is the only parking spot when I DON'T have my kids? Front row, every time. Every. Time. It kills me.

Besides Christ raising from the dead, and I'm not making small of that by any means, but besides his raising I think I found the other major reason for the season... Easter DRESSES! Nana and Papa Dan made a lovely addition, and a lovely breakfast, for our Easter morning. Favorite picture to date, I think. Oh no she didn't - OH YES I DID! How could I resist? Didi and Gma made a lovely addition, and a lovely dinner, for our Easter evening! This weekend was wonderful. We went to a fantastic Good Friday service at Mariners then we had my parents, Carrie and the kids and the Caruanas over for dinner. The thought that kept running through my head as I reflected on what Christ did on the cross was 'he did this for ME. And if I were the only one, he'd still do it for ME.' A sobering thought crossed my mind during the church service; if i were the only one on earth then I would've been the one to nail Jesus to the cross. As I thought about that it's as if I felt...

Cold and flu season officially ended on the last day of March, why is it that both Ben and I are sick NOW? Ooh, but I'm so thankful for these things... ~ Keri Stock's blog. ~ strawberry muffins I made, and they actually turned out pretty good. That's encouraging because my last few muffin attempts have been pathetic. ~my happy, healthy 11 lb 8 oz, 24" baby girl who is, as of yesterday, 2 MONTHS OLD! ~ time with my dad on Sunday. It was especially nice because he sat in the "baby" lobby with Addsion so Mark and I could go into the service. And boy, that was such a gift because the worship was AWESOME! I was so thankful to be able to really hear it and enjoy it live. (As opposed to on a tv screen in a BIG room with LOTS of babies. Not a good combo for this self-diagnosed ADD girl.) ~ a fantastic walk with Carrie and the kids. She is an inspiration because her heart is so sweet and constantly striving to show Jesus, I love that about her. ~ Joanna being in town ...

Yes, this is my hot, hot husband. Keep in mind - it's against the 10 commandments to covet. All smiles from this little one. When she fusses a bit to get my attention I'll look over at her and she just smiles the most heart melting smile and sort of laughs/coos. Unbelievably cute! Bring on the dimples!! I love that she has dimples, it makes her look like my mom, and my mom is sooooooooooooooooo pretty. I think they even have the same hair doo. LOVE it! 8 weeks? That's nearly two months, can this be true? Could my baby girl already have lost her infant-y look? Not only was today a big one because Addie turned 8 weeks, but today Mark went back to work, sniff, sniff. Ben was bummed when he woke up from his nap and daddy wasn't there to greet him, but we called him later and that made him feel better. I am so thankful, so so so thankful, that we were even in a position to have Mark take that time off. He worked hard last year and saved his hours and we really reaped the b...

Nonny and Howie looking fabulous with Ben and Addison. Since Mark goes back to work this week (sniff, sniff) we decided to spend his last weekend off in Simi Valley with his parents. Our good friends were in town from Oklahoma (wishing it was Keri and her family though) so we were able to spend Saturday with them and a bunch of the guys that Mark grew up with. It is always a good time when those guys get together. Gma is hiding behind Addison for some silly reason. Papa Paul let Ben take the wheel of his Mustang. Got to start 'em young. He really did have this hat on as he slept in the car on the way home from our fun filled weekend. (Tell Gavin not to worry though, Carrie, the football helmet was put on as soon as we got home.)

We had some very special guests visit us all the way from beautiful Nashville Tennessee - my cousin Tyson and his bride of one year Jonie. She is such a sweetie and is so good with babies. My parents, along with Jason and the fam all came over for dessert (and a few drinks, hee hee), so she and Tyson got their fill -and then some- of the kids. But Jonie, man, she charmed each of them on their own level, she even had Ez cozied up to her at one point! I like her, Tyson did a good job finding this gal. My only complaint is they live too far away. Even Tyson is baby friendly, who knew? Carrie and Addison looking oh so cute! They had some quality cozy time as well. I am so thankful for... ~ MOPS today. We got all dressed up and had a tea party at each of our tables, it was lovely. ~ seeing my family last night. Why can't we all just live within minutes of each other and be able to see each other whenever we want? Oh, because that would be creepy and a little on the compound-esque side...

This is Ben's newest head cover of choice. Feeding his hunger for hats, Gavin gave this helmet to Ben and saying he loves it would be putting it lightly. He has worn it pretty much for the duration of two days. It's funny to watch him ride his scooter (which has Disney princess's on it because it was a hand-me-down from the neighbor girl) with this big old helmet on. He sort of fell without it on yesterday and promptly said "uh oh, helmet on" and ran to go put it on. Mark and I spend a great deal of our days just laughing at Ben. The other day he showed me a picture and said "mommy, Dinosaur!" and I said "yes Ben! That's a triceratops." And he looked at me so seriously and said "no mom, dinosaur." Couldn't argue with him on that. Although we do frequently spat over colors. He likes to tell me things are green when he knows they are yellow. From the stories I hear about what Mark was like when he was a kid I think Ben might be ...

The water in our shower takes a long time to heat up and by "long time" I mean we'd turn the water on in the shower then go have a bowl of cereal or make some eggs for breakfast, by then the water might, MIGHT be warm. Other than it being very annoying, we were wasting what seemed like tons of water. So Mark talked to our awesome plumber and found this cool little devise that he had installed right under our sink in that bathroom which circulates the water faster, without having to run it, and the water is hot when you turn it on in the shower. All this at the touch of a button. Now I have this little button on the side of my bed, this is no joke, it looks like a doorbell, and all I do is push it (while still snug in my bed, mind you) and in less than a minute piping hot water is at my beck and call. I justify this novelty by reminding myself of how much water we're saving by not having to turn the water on so far in advance of actually using it. Happy, happy, spoiled...

I know you're here for the pictures... so here you go. :)

Addison is already one month old, and Mark turned 29 on the second! We had a very fun weekend celebrating with friends and family. Is it summer time?? We are loving the weather, playing outside for hours and enjoying our backyard and the park. Addie is one good joke away from starting to smile it seems. My mom swears, and I believe her, that she has smiled for her. I think I've seen the beginnings of some smiles myself. I love those little peeks into what cuteness is to come. She's sleeping like a champ still and nursing perfectly too. Ben has taken an active role in helping burp her, he's very good at it. :) Last Friday Mark and I got all dolled up and went to a fancy-shmancy banquet thrown by First Team Real Estate for those who've sold over a certain dollar amount in 2006. I am so proud of Mark for "making the cut" so to speak. He was the youngest guy there by at least 10 years. We left the kids with my mom and were able to really enjoy our evening together...

That isn't eye shadow, Ben got his first black eye this weekend. He sort of fell off a chair in a funny way that actually gave him a small cut on his eye lid. He was quite shaken up about it - for about 30 seconds. Each day it's a different color, so it's been a nice little game for us to play together ... what color is Ben's eye lid today?? He loves it. In related news... Ben's right knee has also been added to "wounded" status. He walks around with it, rubbing it every now and then saying "ow, boo boo knee." Coincidentally, this new "wound" surfaced just hours after Mark had surgery on his right knee. Hmmmm, interesting.

Well, life is just getting away from me these days! It's been so good though, so much better than I thought having two could be. People ask me all the time how Ben is doing, and really, it seems like he's sweeter, funnier, cuter than even before Addie was born. He has even offered his beloved blanket "D" when she's been upset. If that isn't the ultimate sign of sacrificial love I don't know what is. I thought for sure when I was pregnant that as soon as the baby was born I'd have to say goodbye to my little boy. I thought I'd never get to hold him or play with him at the drop of a dime anymore. I thought he'd hate me for abandoning him and I thought for sure we'd never have time to just sit anymore like we'd been in habit of doing every so often together. Even though some of these activities have decreased in time a bit, nothing has decreased by means of quality. We still build forts and "big tall towers". We still laugh and m...