Meeting Great Grandma Verla

I've mentioned it before, but it's worth mentioning again: My kids are extremely lucky. They have four Grandparents who live within 20 minutes or so of us, and another four Great-Grandparents who all live less than an hour from our home. They see all of their Grandparents at least fairly regularly. Great-Grandma Verla lives the furthest away though, and is unfortunately the one we see the least. We were last out to see Greg's sweet Grandma for a 4th of July family party. Held on July 5th, we left the party with the promise we'd be having this baby ANY day now (I was already 6 days overdue -- I had hoped that Murphy's Law would dictate that if we drove the hour or so from our hospital down to Grandma's house, I was bound to go into labor when I was there, since it was the furthest we'd been from the hospital in a couple months. Turns out, labor got started within hours of us coming home that night and I had Isaac very early the morning of the 6th). Since then though, with three small children and Greg's work schedule, we had not made it down to see Grandma and introduce her to one of her newest Great-Grandchildren (Isaac is one of many coming the second half of 2010 and early 2011 -- the kid will have a plethora of 2nd cousins his age on this side of the family.) So today was Greg's first day off work this week for this set of shifts, so we headed out to introduce Isaac to his Great-Grandma. I may be biased, but they both seem smitten . . .

Here's Greg, Annie, Ellie, Grandma Verla and Isaac.
How ridiculously happy do the girls seem?
And how huge is Isaac?! This is a 3-6 month outfit on my 7-week old. And not the first one he's worn!

Ellie and Annie acting like the best of friends. This lasted the first half of our visit. Then they went crazy and fought over everything and cried at the drop of a hat. Which, I assure you, is about the funnest thing when you're visiting members of your husband's family that you see less than you'd like. It's all me going, "Oh, they're just crankier than usual today!" and "We had to wake Ellie up when we got here . . . " and "I guess she's not the only tired one!" Sigh. :-)

After a couple hours, I decided it was time to leave when all three of my children had been reduced to tears on multiple occasions in less than five minutes. Annie had the all time biggest freak out though, when Greg and I asked her to please go at least attempt to use the bathroom before we left for an hour long drive. But of course, such a cruel request can only be met with A SOLID TEN MINUTES of weeping, crying and screaming at us. There was foot-stamping and foot-dragging as well. This is on the heels of Annie's many recent freak outs at home, and such previously-unheard-of-from-Annie comments like "You can't tell me what to do," to HER GRANDFATHER at Sunday dinner with Greg's parents, when I bravely ventured out with all three children by myself (Greg was working) to his parents' house for the afternoon and evening. This kid is embarrassing Greg and I in front of his sweet elderly Grandmother, pushing every last one of my buttons, screaming at Ellie for the slightest reason AND being disrespectful to her elders. All in less than a week.

Unrelated and just thinking out loud here . . . but do y'all think USPS or UPS is the cheaper way to ship a kid to Siberia?

(My well-worn mantra right now: It's all just a phase, it's all just a phase, it's all just a phase . . .)

Annie is cute as a button with her little brother though -- singing to him, bringing him toys, talking to him in sweet voices. And when she wants to, she just melts my heart by gushing about how much she loves me and loves spending time with me. And dang, she can be adorable with Ellie. Helping to dress her up in giant wings and showing her the correct way to wield a fairy wand. I'm trying to focus on this kinda stuff right now. (But seriously!? "You can't tell me what to do," to her Grandpa and a ten minute screaming meltdown in front of her Great-Grandmother!?!?) [Deep breaths, Hilary]. Have I mentioned she's going back to preschool next week? And how EXCITED we both are? (For completely different reasons, I'm sure. Actually, on rethinking that, she's probably as ready for the breaks from me as I am from her. It's been a long summer for both of us, and a little time apart is probably just what the doctor ordered. Not an actual psychiatrist type of doctor or anything. At least, not yet.)

(She is freakishly adorable though, isn't she?)

And just to prove she isn't the only one sportin' attitude around here . . .
(Poor Isaac, he has NO idea what he's in for growing up in this house!)

Here's Isaac, just being all chill and not an emotional-whirlwind-of-tears . . .
(His tears are mostly related to wet diapers, and wanting to eat!)

Again, when they're happy . . . freakishly adorable . . .