It's 3 a.m.

 . . . and I WISH I was lonely.

Did you catch what I just did there?

When I was in middle and high school I was addicted to Matchbox 20. I owned every CD they produced from 1996 through 2001. I went to their concert on my 17th birthday and Rob Thomas's sweat dripped on me and it was the best moment of my young life.

When I was younger, I would listen to the song '3 a.m.' and think about how sad it was that this lovely boy with a lovely voice was singing a song about being awake in the middle of the night and he was alone and lonely. I don't know if that is what the song is really about or if that's just what I thought it was about (probably the latter), but let's get to the point.

Oh YES, dearies, I have a point. So I heard that song the other day and I scoffed when sweet Rob crooned, "It's 3 a.m. I must be loneeeellllllyyyyy." That's right high school friends, I scoffed. Maybe I even sneered. I know this means I am dead to you all, but I couldn't help it.

Because, these past 13 days, I have NOT been lonely at 3 a.m.

Every night between the hours of 2 and 4 a.m. I am awake. I am awake with one of my children or my dog.

• Emma has been getting her molars in and wants 4.7 seconds of snuggling every 13 minutes. That means you stumble to her room, still mostly asleep, pick her up, pat her back, put her down, stumble back to bed, and JUST as you are drifting back to sleep, she starts screaming again. She has also been trying to find a way lately to be held without being touched. Good luck with that one, sister. Good Luck. 
• Lexi has been awakening for a variety of ridiculous reasons. One night she woke up because she missed Nana. Another night she came creeping into my room to tell me that her finger nails were too long. Two nights ago her room was too bright, but if she turned off one of the 4 lights (no, you read that right, four lights) it was too dark and if it was going to be dark she needed to be in our room to sleep. 
• Roxy woke up last night with a sneezing fit that could be heard a story and half away. I'm not kidding. She also awakens the house if there is a threat to our safety, such as a squirrel in the backyard. I probably shouldn't jest about that - it's a real thing, remember?
• Sometimes my benadryl just wears off and I am awake in the middle of the night pretending to hear burglars. This really happens. 

Consequence of these late nights: Momma is a mess. My hair ends up in a ponytail or messy bun most days out of tired-laziness. Lexi has learned that my parenting skills are nonexistent in the middle of the night, and thus pushes the envelope as far as it could go without postage during the nocturnal hours.  Paul pretends to sleep through all of this (even the imaginary burglars) some nights, and others I drag him down the late night rabbit hole with me.

In the morning, the late night escapades are usually comical. That or we are slap happy from lack of sleep.

Either way, Rob Thomas - you need to write a song called "I love sleeping for 12 hours uninterrupted." Then we can be besties again.

The family that sniffles together . . .

 Long time, no blog, huh? 

Well I wish I could say we have been busy having amazing adventures and I could post some fabulous pictures of that fun Holding family. 

But I can't. We haven't done anything blog-worthy for the past week. Everyone has had some allergy issues that have kept us pretty unavailable for fun. When the weather was lovely last week, we had our windows open. And ever since - the noses, they have been a runnin'. 

Paul's allergies are manageable with some over the counter meds. 

Lexi was sniffling for a few days, and then coughing, and now her little voice is all raspy and whispery. It's so sad . . . but oddly quiet around here.

Emma has it the worst. She has a bunch of teeth coming in, so the amount of drool she produces is insane! Combine that with an allergy-induced runny nose and watery eyes  - do we have one messy lady! She's a trooper though - she's still giggly and silly, just a bit of a mess. 

And me? Well I am a terrible sleeper. I sleep very lightly (no really - if one of the kids coughs I am wide awake) and have a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. So I take a Benadryl every night before bed to help me sleep - this must be the miracle reason I have yet to be afflicted with the allergy epidemic that has struck the rest of my family.

 So that's us right now. Sniffling through our days, but doing it together.

and one more thing . . . 

 Doesn't she look cute in this outfit? 

I have been sending her to the babysitter in comfy clothes since she hasn't felt well and I wanted her to be able to rest as comfortable as possible. 

Well on Tuesday her pants were too short, her tummy was sticking out of her too-small t-shirt, and I was running late and didn't have time to hunt down a cuter outfit so I sent her to the babysitter dressed in a look that could only be described as "homeless chic."

That was my wake-up call. I needed to get back in the dress-the-baby-cute game. I tried a little harder and the effect was precious.

Cutie On Duty

 My brother is a Marine. He is currently deployed to Afghanistan. 

So when my sister was in town with her kiddos, we thought 'how great would it be to dress the kids up in their matching USMC stuff for pictures to send to Scott?'

We clearly underestimated the ease of picture taking with 4 kids aged 4 and under. 

The playas: 

 Lexi

age: 4

skills: coloring, twirling, tattling

wanted: for being a diva 

 Emma

age: 1

skills: drooling, repeating, falling into stuff

wanted: for chewing on inappropriate and contraband items 

(like iPhones and cardboard)

 Trey 

age: 2

skills: breaking things, staring, hugging

wanted: for claiming dominion over all toys kitchen related

Chloe

age: 3

skills: secret sharing, loudness, awesome posing and prancing

wanted: for dramatic responses to all situations 

So here's what went down. 

We dressed 'em up, we rolled 'em out, and that was when we stopped being in control of the situation. First we tried photo-opping inside, but the toys were too distracting . . .

 the amount of drool this baby produces is RI-DIC-U-LOUS!

 really . . . someone needs to talk to Lexi about not grabbing Emma around the neck. Where are her parents???

 Cousin Cuteness

Ok - Let's move this party train OUTSIDE. Fewer distractions, better lighting - this should be a piece of cake.

 umm . . . .

 Trey playing with Emma's hair was hilarious - Lexi is singing, Chloe is unimpressed. 

 attempting:

Not quite a nailed-it, but pretty cute. 

We Love You and Miss You, Uncle Scottie!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

 A very well loved Daddy turned 30 this weekend and he had two little party people to help him celebrate.

 We kept things pretty mellow, much to the disappointment of all, I'm sure. I did not plan a surprise party and I think I was supposed to - oops. I hate surprise parties and I assumed Paul (and the rest of humanity) did too. I was wrong. Luckily - I get to try again next year . . . and the year after that . . . and so on - I have a lot of birthdays to get this right.

 My parents took the babies for the night and we met up with some friends at a bar down the street to celebrate Paul's triple decade existence.

 On Monday, his actual birthday, we went out to dinner (big mistake - I forgot my kids have the attention span of gnats) and had cake back at our house.

 For his birthday, I re-activated the XM on his new car. I wanted him to have something to open though so I had Lexi help me pick out a new travel coffee mug for Paul - she did a good job choosing a Wildcat cup.

 HOWEVER, she told me what she REALLY wanted to get Daddy was a "Prince Barbie" because he "would LOVE it" and then be able to play Barbies with her. Apparently the lack of a Prince Barbie is the only thing that has been holding Paul back from jumping in there to play Barbies with Alexis.

 Happy Birthday Daddy!