been a long time...

I haven't actually fallen off the face of the earth. I've just been busy.
Here's a quick recap...

Since we have last spoken, our friend Doug came to visit, Sara went to her first dance/tumbling/general craziness class, and we went to Odessa to take Sara to an allergist.

While Doug was here we went to Santa Elena canyon and Sara walked her first hike because I was carrying Caroline in the front carrier and was not about to carry a baby on the back and the front, I may be super mom, but I am not THAT super. She did well, we did not go all the way into the canyon, we quit while we were ahead, but she walked at least a mile and a half I would say. Sara has some anal retentive issues when it comes to walking in the sand. She does NOT like it. She will freeze up and the arms go up signaling "carry me!" I guess she doesn't like getting it in her shoes, or the texture. Who knows. But there is alot of sand on the Santa Elena trail, so it was a slow going process.

Dance class was hilarious. My yoga teacher does it on Wednesdays at noon. She also has a little girl who will be turning three in a couple months. It was just us and another little girl from the park who is Sara's age. Three little girls, three moms. Three little girls running around not really paying attention and the moms were in the middle doing the hokey pokey. I'm serious.
But when the trapeze bar came down Sara perked up and payed attention. When she saw a piece of apparatus that would allow her to swing around and act like the monkey she is she was into it, sitting calmy and stretching....not so much. But we will keep going because it's something to do and it will be good to expose her to a structured class situation.

We went to Odessa on Monday, had an 8:45 appointment so we left here at 4:45 am, got home at 6 pm. Yes we are insane. But you know what, I realized that, quite honestly, sleeping in a motel with Sara would give me just as much sleep as waking up early at home. So we save ourselves the motel money. We are waiting on results of a blood test to see what, if anything, Sara might be allergic to that is causing the hives that she has been waking up with for the past three-ish weeks.

My dad and brother are leaving Chicago today to drive down here to visit for a bit. My brother is home from China for a month so he is getting all his visiting in. He goes away for a while and comes back to two new babies to meet!

Iffy's working a bunch of late night shifts this week, i.e 3pm-12 midnight. That will suck. But they have switched the rangers over to 9 hour shifts which means that every other week they will have a three day weekend which will be nice.

well, here's some pictures. Enjoy.

The Hot Springs, which Sara did NOT emjoy. I didn't think the water was too hot, but I guess it was. As soon as I put her in she started screaming bloody murder.

Sara and Uncle Doug on the Santa Elena trail.

Sara comforting a crying Caroline. She's patting her on the head, but seems to be saying "yeah, yeah, I'll comfort you but don't distract me from drawing on my knee with this chalk"

At the rest stop between Marathon and the park on the way home from Odessa the other day. I stopped to feed the baby. Sara ran around with Daddy. I told Iffy it was like we were on vacation because we were at a rest area and the car was trashed. How does a car get SO messy in a couple hours? and what will it look like whenever we do go on a big road trip?

Monday evening mountains

Oscar puts up with a lot of crap from Sara, here she is putting a blanket on him. But he just sits there and takes it. Elsie not so much. Sara has discovered that chasing Elsie around elicits barking and Elsie trying to avoid her at all costs. Someday she is going to get nipped. Oscar, by the way, does indeed have a fungal infection. He will be on meds for at least three months, maybe more. He has lost weight, doesn't eat alot, still kinda limps around somedays. Hopefully he will pull through.

Caroline is still sporting the blue eyes! They do look bluer in pictures then real life. It is possible they could stick around. My dad's got blue eyes and Iffy said his grandma had them so maybe she will too. I know they can still change, but Sara's were alrady brown by now.