No Title Could Do This Post Justice

This was by far, one of the worst weekends in my memory.

So terrible, and so ridiculous, that at one point, during one of my many tear streaked breakdowns-

Between my sons nearly choking to death on a pretzel in the middle of a tantrum, and his completely out of nowhere allergic reaction to hazelnuts. Somewhere after my husband got called in to work another 12 hour weekend shift, for the second weekend in a row, but before his scooter broke down on his way home, while the kids were waiting in their pajamas for him to walk through the door and read them to sleep. Probably riiiight around the time when I opened up the fridge and stared at the half empty can of pumpkin and the drawer full of almond cheese, wondering what I could make with the two of them, since I had literally no way to get to the store, since we couldn't go car shopping this weekend, because someones gotta "keep em flyin"-

I started laughing, wondering if there was any way it could possibly get any worse.

And of course, it could.
It always can.
And so it did.

I can't even count all of the stupid status updated that I typed out on my cell phone keyboard, and then deleted because of how depressing and whiny they were, only to throw my phone into the couch cushions, and bury my face in my hands, sobbing uncontrollably, begging for a break, and feeling completely alone.

My head was spinning. My vision was blurry. My ears were ringing.

And then something amazing happened...



I sat down on the couch at the end of the night, eyes swollen and puffy from my mental mess, my glasses not even working anymore, clumsily undressing the baby to get her ready for bed-

and as I was lifting my robotic head after changing her neglected diaper, her gaze met mine, which erased the anger from my wrinkled up forehead, causing me to use my I'm-exhausted-but-I-still-love-you silly mom voice and loudly say, "I tickle tickle your tummy!"-

And she chose that moment, to open my heart- she laughed for the very first time.

My baby laughed! And she laughed for me!

So again, I cried. Water pouring down my cheeks, but more silently than the times before, and this time triggered by joy.

Not only did she laugh when I tickled her tummy, but she laughed when I tickled her cheeks. She laughed when I tickled her knees. She laughed when I tickled her nose.

She just kept, laughing.

I don't remember when Eleanore first laughed. I don't remember when Charlie first laughed. But I will always remember when Evelyn first laughed.

I tickled her until her laughter wore her out, and she fell asleep in my arms. And then rather than putting her down in her swing or bassinet, and rushing off to finish the dishes or tuck stuffed animal friends into their pretend cradles- I held her in my arms for the rest of the night.



Angels exist.

Flashback Friday- Making A Christmas Card

Getting a late start, this Flashback Friday.
I thought it was Thursday.

Really though. I watched Greys Anatomy last night, I mentioned something about "so glad tomorrow is Friday, and hubby and I can have our on the couch with cable date night!", I even made a comment about Thanksgiving being in exactly one week.

...yet I still woke up, thinking that today was Thursday. Again.

So anyways. Since I've got Christmas card making on the mind (we're taking pictures for that this weekend, and I'm brainstorming), I thought I'd go back through my files and pick out some of the pictures from our photo shoot that we had at the Air Park (we live on an Air Force base, with miles of vintage parked planes on display) last year.

We went down there on Veterans Day, Santa hats in hand and briefly on heads, and played it by ear. It was just Charlie and Eleanore back then, Charlie not even walking yet. Eleanore mostly just wanted to run through the grass and pick flowers, rather than wear her holiday hat, but we managed to get at least one Christmas looking shot of her...




Yep, that second one there is the one that made the cut.

Charlie wasn't yet obsessed with planes, so he spent most of his time crawling around, in search of the most delicious looking rocks.




Yumm, must have found a good one.
Ok, but before you break the few teeth that you have...



There we go.

Oh, wait, whats that?
You're sitting right next to ant hill?!
Well of course you are! We're awesome parents, and totally saw it before we put you down.

Oh my God somebody please pick up the baby!



This was one of my favorite pictures of Eleanore. Sitting there all pretty in the grass, blowing the seeds off of flowers.



And this was another one, because she never sits still for pictures with me. Ever. This one didn't make it to the card, but it is in a collage frame in our living room.



And my boys.
Love these boys.



Me and Christopher.
Obviously.



Aaaaand the money shot. The centerpiece of our 3 blocked collage card.

I literally had to run, after setting the timer on the tripod. I think we did this shot 3 times before we got one where I had actually made it to the bench before the timer went off.

Oh wait wait wait! Theres one more!

As we were leaving, walking back to the car, a random shirtless jogger, an elderly man, stopped to take our picture. He came up, asked if he could get a shot of our "beautiful family" (he mentioned how beautiful we were at least 5 times, and kept thanking us?), suggested we take it "over there", and then proceeded to take my camera, stand us all in the sun, blind us, and wash us all out...



Ok but after playing with it a little, the photo turned out to be kind of perfect. Probably because of the half naked sweaty man who took it.


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Flashback with us! Go through your polaroids, scrapbooks, old crappy cell phone pictures- whatever you've got. Scan them, upload them, get them onto the computer somehow, and then share them with the world! Or... with us at least. Post them onto your blogs, write a little bit to go with them- tell us your story. When you're all finished, grab one of our buttons from down below (wayyyy down there at the bottom of our page) and put it somewhere inside your post (or link back to us the old fashioned text way). Come back here to this post, and add your link to the photo list below!

And if you've got a minute, maybe go poke around some of the other flashbacks posted, and leave a comment on another blog or two?




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