Liner Notes 2/13

First, I want to thank everyone for their awesome kindness and high-fives on the (fingers crossed!) house. Tomorrow's inspection day and I couldn't be more excited to spend Valentines day on my knees with Esteban and my... hard... hat.

We have an awesome agent we adore and have spent the last week driving past the house daily to blow it kisses and send it love and affirmations (in case it's having doubts). I've already had two dreams where we were all living in the house, Archer's cars peppered throughout the hallways and me tripping on them as I do, here, all day long.

Today Bo and Revi are five months old and I'm totally lagging on taking their monthly photos (complete with kicky-legs video action). This is because A. up until two days ago my camera was broken and B. time has bastardly hands. And yet...FIVE. MONTHS. Five months! My babies are five months old with giant five month old faces and smiles and eyes and bubbles andandandand...

...Even crazier, I only found out I was pregnant last Valentines Day. So one year ago today I was just chillin' with a couple'a kids and a couple'a sore boobs and BOOM, one year later, here we all are. Sitting in car seats and wearing polka dots and eating each other's pajamas.

This week I took my ten year old dogs to the vet where both of them received clean bills of health -- HUGELY relieving when you have old dogs, specifically an old Boxer who was given six months to live four years ago.

Zadie.

Cooper.

(they kiss)

We're getting better at leaving the house as a team. I took my first SUCCESSFUL solo mission with all four kids the other day. We picked up dinner and dessert, visited some of our local shop owners who in the past couple of years have become dear friends. We sat in various windows and doorways and watched the traffic go by.

Speaking of outings, we were finally able to get out of the house this past weekend and spent Saturday afternoon at the public library downtown, one of our favorite family haunts. It was the first time we were all six of us there together and minus the half dozen bathroom changing table trips, was surprisingly relaxing and really kind of wonderful.

A few other things that happened. Fable and I went to the swap meet on Sunday where she picked out a pink skull bracelet made out of a belt...

... Bo became a world record holder for most-hours-spent-in-one-Ergo....

... and I finally bought a new camera lens this weekend after procrastinating for the past two weeks. (I've been shooting on my Olympus PEN which I received as a participent of the PEN READY project and have since become obsessed with its awesome. So obsessed that I already broke it. But it's fixed! It's fixed!)

reading books with Fable before school

I got in a car accident this morning. The woman's response to crashing into us. "But my blinker was on?" Everyone was fine, of course, minor damage to my car and her but I was suddenly so overcome with rage for her hitting us and putting my children in danger and then NOT owning up to her mistake that I flew into full on hysteria and broke out in hives. Lady would not hand over her drivers license and insurance information so I got into my car and did what was expected of me according to apple commercials: I asked Siri to help me. Maybe it's because I just got an iphone and still don't know how to work the thing but Siri was EXTREMELY unhelpful. She didn't know how to call the police. She didn't know how to take notes or listen to anything I had to say. She didn't even know how to respond to my questions! And then my hives got worse.

Woman stayed in her car until her husband arrived so that he could... I don't know, help? Meanwhile, I tried to turn the ordeal into a really fun adventure! Hey, we're on the side of the road! DANCE PARTY! Woohoo! We all get to be late to school! Let's pump us some Biebs!

In the end, everything was fine. Information was exchanged. I didn't need a husband or Siri to help me through the situation. The kids were happy as clams watching everything transpire through the window as I explained that "when you get in an accident, you exchange information and write down numbers and then when you get home you call your insurance blah blah blah blah blah..."

Later, in the car, as we merged left and back onto the road, I saw Archer and Fable flash each other smiles I couldn't read. They reminded me of faces my brother and I would have made after a similar situation. Like, "that mom, she's a real piece a work, eh?" Like, only THEY knew what this moment was like, as spectators in their mother's freakout fest. They were a team, rolling their eyes at me and my poor attempt to entertain them while flailing around my glove compartment, crying and yelling at my phone like it was a person.

"You guys okay?"

"We're fine," Archer said.

"Yeah. We're fine." Fable said.

And then Archer laughed.

And then Fable laughed.

And I still haven't the slightest idea what was so funny.

GGC