In preparation for the arrival of our third child, we booted Karenna out of the nursery and set up a crib for her in Avelyn’s bedroom. What fun! Sisters, sharing a room, keeping each other company and deepening their bond of love. Hahahhaaaaaaaaaaa!

It’s been horrendous.

The first few nights they stayed up until nearly 10:00, even though we tucked them in at 7:00 PM. They were fairly happy to be together, so I didn’t fight it or lay the smack down. The problem was that they were still waking up at their usual time, so after a few days of losing three hours of sleep a night, they were both grumpy beasts (well, even more grumpy and beastly than they usually are). No fun for anyone. Then the novelty of sharing a room seemed to wear off slightly and they were both falling asleep within a half-hour of being put to bed. It’s cute to hear them chattering with each other and I love that they enjoy each other’s company.

But.

Karenna, who is ALMOST TWO, is still not sleeping through the night. (This is where I ask you to please kill me. I can’t take it anymore.) For the most part, Avelyn has gotten used to her sister’s night-time shrieking and I’ll often find Avelyn curled up in her bed in the fetal position, both hands over her ears as she sleeps, in a feeble attempt to block out the noise.

I am just at such a loss with what to do with Karenna. We started different variations of sleep training with her once she hit about seven months of age and I was like, “um, I don’t think you need six bottles a night anymore.” We tried the Baby Whisperer method, the Cry-It-Out approach, the We’re Putting You In A PlayPen in the Basement Because We Can’t Handle Your Screams Anymore technique, and nothing has worked. She’ll randomly sleep through the night, then we’ll be right back to square one with her rousing once or twice a night and I have HAD IT. I can’t help but feel anger towards her, this little two year-old, for not having her act together enough to just go to sleep already. I feel like just letting her cry it out isn’t really an option anymore now that she’s sharing a room with her sister, because then I’ll have two little girls wailing at 3 am (like I did last night…it was super fun). Gah. No clue what to do next. And, oh yeah, we’ll have a newborn in the house next week, so that should really add to the peaceful flow of our nighttime routine.

I am just so tired. And I know I am only going to become exponentially more tired once the baby arrives and I’m not feeling up for it. How will we make it through, how will I be able to keep up with pumping every three hours in the night and dealing with a hollering toddler?

It’s stuff like this that makes me feel like I kind of suck as a parent and wonder why the things that seem so simple for everyone else are hard for me. Kids have been sharing rooms for centuries, so why is it such a challenge to make it work for our family?

Anyone else been there?

If you’re not a Facebook friend of mine, you might not know that I’ve had violent diarrhea for the past four days straight. (What, you don’t use Facebook as a means to keep family and friends updated  on the consistency of your stools?) It’s been awful and I feel drained (ha! I mean that literally) and exhausted and I kind of miss my appetite (we’re usually quite close). And if I hear one more person tell me that diarrhea is a sign that labour is imminent, I am going to go and take my next watery dump on her doorstep. Because that’s a LIE. I actually went to the doctor today and she’s pretty sure I just have a 5-day viral case of The Squirts. If it keeps up, I get to walk into a lab tomorrow with my head held high, clutching some vials of my excrement, and see why I still feel so crummy. Just what a 38-week pregnant lady needs.

I am tired and hot and trying to enjoy these final days with the girls, which would be a lot easier if they would stop fighting and pulling each other’s hair and wanting to TALK TO ME.

The baby’s room is ready, my bag is packed for the hospital, the breast pump is sterilized, the carseat is installed…I am ready! Which means, of course, this kid is going to come two weeks late, right?

In other (slightly less grumpy) news, a local artist we know did a couple paintings of Avelyn from photographs I had taken. Anyone recognize these?

The originals are for sale at Sleeping Giant Winery in Summerland. Kind of cool to see our girl immortalized on canvas like that!

Summer means beach-swollen diapers,

late-night dinners and jammies at Nana’s beach,

swimming until the sunlight’s all gone,

and eating 18 freezies a day.

It’s been a good summer so far. Lots of time outdoors with family and friends, lots of memories, lots of sweatily waiting for this new baby to make her debut.

This photo is of Steve’s brother, Trevor, and his foxy new wife, Laurell on their wedding day. Along with the grumpy, uncooperative niece they would probably like to Photoshop out of this picture. Oh, good times!

*Photo by the amazingly talented Jamie Delaine.

Cherry harvest in our orchard is tomorrow so we went down to snag a few of the ruby gems for our personal eating before the trees get picked clean and the fruit sent to the packing house.

Karenna had just woken up so I plopped her in the stroller and she just kind of sat there like a sleepy lump while we filled our bowls.

Avelyn has been eating fresh cherries by the pound and I keep waiting for the inevitable sprint to the bathroom. So far, so good. She can hold her fruit. Good thing she’s a farmer’s daughter.

After a chilly, rainy start to summer we are at the beginning of our first full-fledged heat wave and I am not entirely ready for it. We’ll just be at the beach, downing ice cubes and freezies and cranking the A/C while we try to stay cool.

In other news, Avelyn had her first professional haircut. I had done an uneven hack job with our kitchen shears a few months ago and the ends were in dire need of a trim. So on a whim I took her to the ghetto salon in our local mall and she looked so grown up sitting in the chair with the big, dark cape around her neck. She looks decidedly less like Mowgli from the Jungle Book now and her hair is much less tangley and easier to comb through now that she’s had a decent cut. I just wish I had brought my camera. Guess I’ll just have to store that memory in the ol’ grey matter instead.

I hope your summer is off to a lovely start, just like ours!

Ahhh. Did you hear that? The sweet sigh of a rested mother? Yeah, that was me. We just got back from a stunning wedding weekend at God’s Mountain Estate where we celebrated the marriage of Steve’s brother, Trevor, and his stunning new bride, Laurell.

The entire weekend was like something out of InStyle magazine and we had such a great time enjoying amazing cuisine, fantastic conversation with friends and family, and the chance to just unwind and relax. We had some friends watch the girls for the weekend so we were truly able to enjoy the occasion. Avelyn and Karenna made an appearance for the ceremony.

(This is the one photo Avelyn actually cooperated for. When it came time to take family pictures, she turned into an angry, floppy, scowling noodle. SO FUN.)

It was so nice to spend some quality time with Steve and here’s to a Happy Father’s Day to the poppa of our two (and 3/4) girls. We love you, Steve!!

Best wishes to Trevor and Laurell as they begin their lives together. We couldn’t be more happy for you two!

This photo* was taken last year when we were at our church’s annual Family Camp. That weekend goes down in history as the pinnacle of Avelyn’s difficult stage and the entire experience was filled with embarrassing meltdowns, irrational tantrums, unbearable clinginess, and mind-numbing hopelessness. I doubted she would ever grow up to be anything more than a demanding brat, and I feared I was failing miserably at motherhood.

Shortly after that weekend I was told about the book “Connected Parenting” and I felt as though it were written for our family directly. I started implementing some of the author’s techniques and we saw noticeable changes in Avelyn very quickly. Oh, how I needed to see that: the potential for something better than barely scraping by. It’s been almost a year since then and I cannot believe the strides she has made. She is a sweet girl with an astounding memory and imagination, a laugh that bubbles out of her with ease, a fiery will that she’s ready to defend at all times, a gentleness with animals and her younger sister, a sensitive soul that needs honouring, and a free spirit that loves that loves to dance in the rain.

The other night we were sitting in the living room, moving boxes everywhere and the house in a state of disarray, and Steve put some music on while he was setting up the stereo system. Avelyn, Karenna and I all started dancing together and it was a moment I’ll never forget. Karenna was buck-naked wearing nothing more than a pair of mary-janes, Avelyn was in her princess jammies, and we were spinning and dancing and jumping and laughing. After that, I sat on the couch and Avelyn brushed my hair softly, telling me how pretty and long it’s getting.

It might not sound like much, perhaps even border on cheesy, but an evening like that, after so many years of meltdowns and unrelenting discipline and wearying doubts about my parenting skills, was perfect. To be able to enjoy our girls, see them grow into kind souls and dance like funky white girls in our new living room…worth it all.

*Photo, again by Angella.

In her first 21 months, Karenna has been obsessed with: shoes, coats, rubber boots, winter parkas, bicycle helmets, life jackets and now….

swim goggles. She wears them everywhere.

What a weird little kid!

I sure do love her crazy quirks.

We got up at 4:30 this morning to catch the first of our three flights home. We are tired. And a little bedraggled (see above photo…that’s what 12 hours of travel will do to you)! But so happy to be fully reunited as a family. I’ll tell you all about the trip once we’re caught up on sleep and get the dozen mounds of laundry done. A HUGE thanks to Nana (Steve’s mom) for watching Karenna…she went above and beyond the call of duty and we are so blessed!