Long time, No Post!

I cannot believe I've let so much precious time go by without posting to this blog. I sat down today for the first time, in a long time, and the tears just flowed all over the keyboard. I'm so disappointed in myself for not keeping up with it. I can't explain why I'm so sad....maybe it's because this blog was always more than just a blog to me. It was like a diary for my son to read years from now. To be quite honest I used to get caught up in who was reading this and how many viewers I had which weren't many, so I kind of just gave up. Didn't feel it was worth spending the time on. But after looking back over this today, I realize what an awesome gift I have here. A gift for my children to read when they're older. A gift for myself! The only important viewers I should ever care about are fast asleep upstairs. This is for them, and I vow to keep up with it from now on.

So, so much has happened since my last post!



Meet Ryan Caitlin. Born November 16th, 2009. Boy is she something! She is 6 months old already and just adds to the beat of our hearts, yet she is another reason this blog had hit the dumps. From the day she was born until about 12 weeks old, I gotta be honest, she was not a happy baby. The husband and I were beginning to wonder how much we could get for her on eBay. (kidding!) No, really though, it was a very stressful time in our lives. In a nutshell, she was born. She wasn't happy. Brendan wasn't happy she was born. Nobody was getting any sleep. The screaming was unbearable, from each member of our little family. The holidays came and went and really are just a blur to me. I was surviving on roughly 3 hours of interrupted sleep each night. Brendan was completely out of sorts. He was so used to being the prince of the family that it was really, really hard for him to adjust. Everyone kept saying "what's the big deal? He'll get used to it....didn't you get used to your siblings?" People just did not realize how the world stopped whenever Brendan was around and now that he was sharing the spotlight, things got a little hairy for awhile there.

BUT....here we are. We survived that chaos and now have two beautiful, mostly happy children. Here is Ryan (aka Beast) now at a little over 6 months:



She is such a riot. She's nonstop. Nothing like Brendan was. You could put him on the floor and he wouldn't budge. Okay, so he was quite chunky and physically could not budge if you poked him with a knitting needle, but she is sooooo different. He didn't crawl until 11 months old. I'm giving her maybe one more month before she's ruling this roost on her hands and knees. She doesn't miss a lick. She's already aware of strangers, yet loves when they coo and drool over her.

Brendan loves her, and also loves to annoy her. He hides her binky's. He throws toys at her and blames his Woody doll. He takes her toys and stuffs them under the couch. But he also covers her with blankies, talks to her in the cutest voice, and will pat her on the head and say "you're so cute Baby Ryan!" when he thinks nobody is looking. I have a feeling that once she starts walking and shows a little interest in his cars, he'll have a best friend for life. I mean, he's too young to take money bribes for poses like this, so he must like her a little bit.



So here I am, now the mother of 2 children. It's hectic. It's tiring. It's downright physically and emotionally exhuasting. I know that I complain, a lot. But at the same time, sometimes I look at my family and wonder how I got so lucky. What made me so fortunate to deserve all of this? This is my family. This is my life. Thank you, God, for believing I deserve this.