The Making of M.O.M.

I know it's been a while but nothing kicks off the weekend like a laugh, huh? So welcome to this week's edition of Das Not Funny! Friday. Not sure what Das Not Funny! Friday is all about? Well click here to find out. I've made a few changes since that first post, mainly just eliminating the Linky. So, if you'd like to write you own post just leave the link to your blog in the comments section so we all can laugh ~~at you~~ with you.

I should have tons and tons since it's been a sweet forever since I've blogged about our funnies but I've been horrible at writing them down so here is the one I remember (only because I texted it to myself).

Last weekend we went to visit our friend Kevin at his college. As Kevin gave us a quick tour of his campus Ashlee decided it would be a good idea to mark her territory. We scurried into the nearest bathroom and since the bathroom was completely empty and there was not another person in the building we were in, I instructed her to go, wipe, wash and then come out of the bathroom where I'd be waiting for her. Wiping is a new skill for her, you see. We have two 4 year olds and I'm now down to only wiping 50% of our resident 4 year old butts. Ashlee is a self wiper these days so you can guess who is lazy in the self cleaning area.

Actually, I could just clap my hands because out of the 8 butts in our house, I'm down to only being responsible for wiping 5 of them. It's a milestone really. Seriously, there was a time when I was responsible for 7 of the 8 of the butts in our house. That's overwhelming on so many levels, folks.

Sorry for the over load of wiping details but I mean really people, I have 6 kids 6 years and younger. Don't read my blog if you don't expect some details about poop and it's related issues.

ANYWAY, after a few minutes I hear her yell from the bathroom stall, "I'M ALL DOOOOOONE!!!"

I poke my head in the bathroom and say, "Ok. Well, wipe."

"I can't," Ashlee retorts.

"Why not?" I ask, less than enthused.

"Because. I gots to know how many poo poos there are so you can wipe them."

"Excuse me?" I question.

So I guess she thinks maybe speaking more slowly will help me comprehend, "I...said...I...gots...to....know...how...many...poop....there...are....so you can wipe them."

Obviously the slower speech did not help. "What? Why can't you just wipe yourself Ash?" I ask, bouncing Ella on one hip and less then thrilled that Ashlee is taking SOFRIGGIN'LONG in the bathroom.

"Mom! I don't know how many poops there are so I can't wipe good!" she exclaims, almost as weary as I am from all the not understanding.

"Um. Okay. Can I just hand you the toilet paper then?" I question.

"Yep, and I'll count."

I rip a few squares off, hand them to my toilet perching daughter and she says, "One...." a few more squares..."Two...." a few more squares..."Three...." a few more squares...."Four...." a few more squares..."Five...okay, just one more I think..." a few more squares..."Six! That's how many!"

"Um. So Ash, do you count how many poops there are and then wipe that many times?" I ask, stifling a chuckle.

"YES! And there were just too many poops to count this time so I couldn't do it by myself," she says cheerfully, clearly relieved I finally get it.

"Oh. Good to know," I laugh.

We wash, wipe and exit with Ashlee skipping away joyfully and me amazed at how differently God created each of my babies.

Now, if Lucas could just get a handle on counting maybe this wiping issue would resolve itself.

Half a year. Wow. Time has flown with this little princess. I can hardly believe she's already 6 months old. I still maintain that she's the sweetest, easiest baby I've ever met.

Even when she's cutting teeth. All (almost) 8 of them. What's that? You didn't know that 6 month old babies could have nearly 8 teeth? Yeah, ME NEITHER. But, she's sporting 4 all-the-way-in teeth on bottom and 4 more are pushing their way through on top.

When I posted with her 5 month pictures, I said that I was planning on waiting until she was 6 months old before giving her any solids. Well, what can I say, I caved. Which is fine because she was days older than 5 months when I started offering her baby cereal, which is well beyond the recommended 4 month mark.

As much lip smacking and head turning as she was doing at my food, I was sure she'd LOVE the cereal. Plus, PLEASESWEETJESUS eat something solid so MOMMACANSLEEPALLNIGHT.

So Grace held her, Luke snapped photos and I eagerly spooned baby cereal into her mouth.

Her reaction was less that what I had hoped for.

"Grace! Have you tasted this crap they're feeding me? Blech."

But keeping with her good-natured self, she continued to humor me bite after bite.

I especially love this next photo. Our laptop is set up so that the screen saver is all of our photos on a looping slide show. They circulate at random showing photos as old as Elizabeth's birth photos to ones I've just loaded that day. I love that the next photo shows our oldest girl getting her first bites of cereal at the same time our littlest girl is getting hers. Awesome, huh?

After Ella realized that I wasn't backing off on the spooning of yuck into her mouth, she began looking at me like this...

Then grabbing my hand as if to say, "Whoa lady. Seriously? Where's the milk?"

Finally I realized she'd had enough.

I haven't been as consistent with offering her solids as I should but she's now sampled bananas, applesauce, which made her gag, and just last night she had carrots for the first time.

Sweet Ella Joy has begun babbling "baa baa baa" and is rolling to get to whichever objects are out of her reach because clearly Momma doesn't know which toys are the best thankyouverymuch.

She's sitting up for extended periods of time but will still flop over after a bit, landing on her face or cheek then rolling over and offering up a huge grin as if to say, "Man, I'm so proud of myself. Did you see that dismount?"

She's still waking up 1 to 2 times a night, usually just to nurse for comfort, and is finally, FINALLY sleeping unswaddled. This is big people. Truth is, she's too chubby for any of the swaddle blankets I have so we had no choice but to unswaddle her.

And, she still melts my heart with each of her huge, toothy grins and makes me fill with joy with every single belly laugh. I love her more than is explainable.