Stephanie Howell

Checking In

September 1, 2008

Firstly, Thank You all so very much for the kind birthday wishes!

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend.

J sent me these:

And I treated myself to this:

So I’m a happy camper!

I honestly don’t have much to share, I just took some photos this weekend that make me really happy and I thought I might share them,

I hope these aren’t boring to you!

These are all Harper and Sadie on my birthday,

i know, i know, I’m not in any of them…well actually my legs are, does that count?

and my arm! hehe!

I’m taking H to Mother’s Day out Open House tomorrow.

Please pray for us that she does not

a. scream like a banshee

b. cry

c. tell anyone embarrassing stories about me.

Love to you all!

xoxo

Ohhhh the Things She Says

August 29, 2008

After I sneezed really hard (and said ohhhh no under my breath) she said “UH OH MAMA…need harper change you?” and she said it so compassionately as she was rubbing my knee.

“When Daddy comes home, no Harper sleep in Mama’s bed, Harper sleep in Harper’s bed!”. And when I said “why?”. She says “because mama and daddy need special time, mama daddy need PLAY!” And, bless her heart, I had to bite my tongue.

The sweet little thing said this b/c every time Sadie naps, we have special time together and play games, but of course I have my mind in the gutter, and this cracked me up big time.

“oh oh, GOODNESS…where my keys? Harper need GO. Harper need high heels!”

where are you going harper?

“i go date with daddy”

oh really?

“harper go ahh gannistan”

(when I put her in the bath) “OH THIS BE COLD! THIS BE NICE! THIS BE SO ‘FRESHING!” refreshing? really? heeee

“Harper want to wear dress. I loooove fashion!”

“mumblemumble LOVE YOU!”

oh, i love you too, baby!

“NO MAMA I LOVE MY COOKIES!!”

(looking at cookies tenderly with head cocked she says in a small voice)

“i love you so so much”

upon seeing me snack on Goldfish

“NO DAT BE GLUTEN FREE. DAT HURT HARPER’s TUMMY”

to the little boy playing with the train at barnes and noble

“SHARING BE CARING!”

when she sees that the barney at our LSS has no eyeballs

“where go EYEBALLS? i eat them”

me- what did they taste like?

“CHICKEN!”

what do you want for supper tonight?

“diet chicken!!”

Just a small taste of the whirlwind that is Harper.

Do you see why sometimes, at my wit’s end, I say

HARPER!

could we

just

quiet

for a second?

can we

just

sit

quietly?

mommy’s brain hurts.

Ain’t No Sunshine When He’s Gone

August 21, 2008

it’s been six weeks today. not bad, but when i put that in context of what is

ahead of us, i sort of freak out.

so i can’t do that. i can’t look at this thing as a whole. i have to take it day by day.

by the grace of God i wake up each morning and make it through

one more day with the girls.

I watch Sadie begin to crawl, knowing he missed this with both girls.

I wonder if he will ever see one of our babies at this age.

I look ahead and imagine him missing her learning to walk, to talk…

and i think about how hard that must be for him.

I watch Harper get taller every day, watch her make sense of the world around

her with her neverending questions.

I listen to her when she wakes up and says

“‘Member Daddy? I ‘Member Daddy!” And she lists every single thing

they love to do together…(including DADDY TAKE ME IN CAR AND PWAY MUSIC WEAL LOUD!!!!) but i’ll let that one slide.

I lay in bed every night and hold my pillow thinking about him,

about the way he smells and feels, and how much he loves me.

About the way he is so protective of us, and about the cleft in his chin.

And every night I imagine the moment when we will see him again,

the girls in their yellow ribbon tutus, and me in some seriously cute,

way too expensive outfit.

I think about his face when he first sees us, and I think about Harper yelling “DADDY!”

and that is how I fall asleep every night.

I refuse to let that what if

invade my mind. There is no other option.

Theoretically Speaking

August 19, 2008

If you were to leave the room momentarily,

and come back in to find your 2 year old sharing some of her lunch meat

with your 6 month old, would that be bad?

And would it be bad if said 6 month old had huge ecstatic eyes

while sucking on said lunch meat?

I’m just curious.

I might have heard that that happened to someone else.

Anyway, moving on…

Bought one of these yesterday:

Sadie is SO close to crawling and there is no way in Hades I’m going to miss

it when she first does. Jimmy has to be there with me, so I’m going to take this bad boy everywhere.

Realistically speaking

I’m sure I’ll miss it anyway, b/c I’ll be cleaning up vomit

or pee or something…

And I bet you a million dollars that while I’m cleaning she’ll

crawl across the house and eat my dinner off my plate

but you never know,

stranger things have happened.

I also bought one of these:

My Canon printer went kaput, and I was told that the cost of shipping,

fixing it, etc. would be just as much as buying a new one.

So I took that as a sign I should just buy a new one.

You see, things tend to break as soon as Jimmy leaves.

I’m just grateful it was only the printer.

It’s been the car on previous deployments, so I’m counting my blessings.

I’m pretty sure the printer isn’t the only thing acting up around here.

I’m fairly confident that she isn’t silently telling me she loves me with those eyes.

I think it’s closer to disgust.

I don’t know why….perhaps it’s because most days I don’t make it out

of pajamas by noon, much less brush my hair.

Or maybe it’s because I’m always losing something or tripping over something

or forgetting the word for something,

saying harper, can you help mama with the ummm, ummmm, ummmmmmm

and harper completes my sentences saying

laundry?

toys?

corkscrew? (JUST KIDDING ON THAT ONE).

Okay, that’s all I’ve got..oh, except a new Webster’s Pages page.

Hope you have a beautiful day!

Random Randomness

August 16, 2008

1. I’ve been asked to help out with something extraordinary. Read below and then make your way over to NYC Scraps. I’m honored to join Hillary, she is doing an amazing thing.

2. Those paper towel commercials make me sick.

You know the ones I mean…”no…it’s a ONE SHEETER!”

I call bull lady.

You try using one sheet on the mess when your 2 year old

pees on your jeans (oh yes, you read that right).

or when your baby spits up DOWN your pants INTO your underwear (oh yes you read that right as well).

or when you spazz out and drop an open gallon of soy milk AND an open container of squash baby food onto the floor

the same

time.

Yes, all of these things have happened to me in the past 2 days

and one sheet ain’t cuttin it.

I know b/c this morning when i dropped the milk and the baby food,

one sheet was all I had left. And I was praying it might work b/c you know,

they say it will on the commercial???

And I could even wring it out and reuse it later…

which quite frankly is disgusting, and honestly..i’m not that cheap.

Come on.

Well, one sheet doesn’t work. Not even close.

Which explains how at 7 a.m. this morning I was on the floor in my nightgown

scrubbing up babyfoodmilkslop with a bath towel.

lovely.

This is what I have become. A maid who has pee on her jeans and spit up in the crotch of her underwear.

3. All packed up and ready for my class today..I’m so excited.

Thanks for all of the encouragement!!

4. Check out Harper’s evil subterfuge yesterday:

hmm..what’s that? you bought sadie a new toy? and it is hers not mine? oh, that’s fine…i don’t really mind, i’ll just stand over here.

no really, it doesn’t interest me whatsoever.

i’m just going to sit down realllly quick so sadie can see how much i don’t care.

what? what you lookin’ at mama?

sadie, honestly…why do you look so concerned?

i’m merely trying to share some of the clearly superior knowledge

that i possess as your worldly older sister:

now if you could just move over a teensy bit..

just a little more…

that’s it. perfect.

THE WORLD IS MINE!

THE WORLD IS MINE!!

pooooor sadie.

wahhhh wahhhhhh.

Okay, I’m aware there are a zillion photos in this post, so I will post part

2 of the sisterly saga tomorrow.

It is the part in which Sadie tells mama she doesn’t really care that Harper

stole her toy, because that means she gets to hang out w/ mommy uninterrupted.

she even lets mommy take some photos, but then, as usual,

harper has to join in the photo shoot.

b/c everyone knows the world revolves around harper, right?

heheheheh!!

happy saturday everyone!

xoxo

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