Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

I forgot to note this long ago. This song is Mercedes' all time favorite. I've got to get this on video! Anytime she is upset all I have to do is sing that song. Anytime. Every time. As soon as she hears the word 'Twinkle' she is calm as a cucumber. She listens & smiles. It's the cutest thing ever really. :)

How's the spit-up coming along?

F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S !!!!

Can you believe it? We firmly believe the worst is OVER! She still spits up, but nothing, nothing compared to what it was. What an amazing (& unexpected!) blessing! She's drooling like a faucet but that's ok with us. :)

I snapped these photos quickly tonight. She's just so silly. Oh yeah, she still melts my heart! Ü

How am I doing? Ugh. I'm in a nightmare situation & am probably headed to a specialist. My dr. is doing some research tonight to see if she can accomplish what the specialist can/will because it will take me months to get into the new dr. For whatever reason my body is now rejecting the antibiotic (I was afraid of that) so I don't think I'll be improving - but as we all know, miracles happen. :) Good possibility I'll have my 3rd surgery tomorrow & quite honestly, I don't know how I'll handle this one. The last one just about tossed me off the medical table. I have an extremely high pain tolerance but I really don't care to find out how high. I am so depressed over all this & I discussed that with her too. I may be a lot of things, but anyone who knows me knows 'depressed' is not one of them. :) I'm just praying there is an end in sight because believe it or not, this is almost too much for me. This is so horrible, horrible, horrible but thankfully tomorrow is a new day. Ü

Tacky comment #6.

#1-3 happened the first time we all went to church as a family of 6. (I'll reference those later.)

#4 happened at Kroger.

#5 happened at LabCorp.

And #6 - were out to eat a few weeks ago. Someone we know well/we used to go to church with walked up to my Jaguar & I quote "whoa! Did you stick your finger in a light socket?"

Come on now. She's 3. Is she supposed to know what that means? Unfortunately, she will soon enough. Fortunately the comments we typically receive regarding her hair are "oh I loveeeeeeeeee your hair!" or "you hair is beautiful!" That's more like it & so much appreciated.

Other news.

I'm now on Staph infection #3. I hope she'll give me some meds for depression because this 3rd one really has me bummed. Really. Bummed. I just can't believe it.

Social worker coming today for our last visit. Woohoo! We're clear to final with Mercedes. :) That said, Brad has been in our life for over 7 years. I'm going to miss him so much. He is amazing & has been a complete blessing in our lives.

Then we're off to Chuck E. Cheese to play.

Happy Sunday!

Kidbits.

Tonight at dinner.

Me: You just aren't going to eat that pizza, are you?

Jaguar: Nope.

Me: Do you want something else instead?

Jaguar: Tomatoes!

And that's what I gave her. And she ate every stinkin' one. :)

Today, driving thru an outside mall in a near town:

Bentley: Well heeeeeelllllllloooooooooooooo ladiessssssssssssss!!!!!

He's SEVEN! LOL Ü

Question of the day.

"So, do you foster?" asked directly in front of my children.

This actually happened when I took Mercedes for her bloodwork a few weeks ago. I didn't actually flip my lid, as the lady tried to 'quietly' ask - but failed. Turns out her parents foster children, so she was innocently asking outing of curiosity. Bottom line is, again, if all of my children were full CC, she never would have asked.

I've got to come up w/ something in regards to how to respond to these insensitive & tacky comments/questions. Husband told me I should simply say "no I don't, why do you ask?" But that's not powerful enough for me. Maybe, for the sake of my children, I should just simply ignore the comment & say nothing. Maybe that would be the most powerful statement one could make. I honestly believe that sometimes saying nothing is the absolute best choice.

Me three!

My girl. My beautiful, spunky three year old. My little princess fanatic. She's the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life. Don't I say that about all of my children? Ü

I noticed some time ago that when someone makes a comment, regarding something they want to eat or somewhere they want to go or the like, Jaguar, in agreeance, yells "me three!!" Typically, you or I would say "me too!" I never paid much attention to Jags' response until it happened the other night in the pool. Audi said he was going to do something in particular & Jags responded with her "me three!" At that time it dawned on me that she's says this because she is three. She's not two. LOL Cute. :)

Jaguar also has a great fear of hand dryers. The hand dryers you find in a bathroom. She calls them hair dryers. :) It's a deep, genuine fear where if we open the door & she sees one, she immediately starts shaking, crying & trying to get out. She'll cover her ears & plead with me "no hair dryer no hair dryer!" It's really the saddest thing. So of course we wash our hands & either use a towel or drip dry. The interesting thing is that we were in Target one day & hubby picks up a regular hair dryer & the episode began. He immediately put it down & calmed her down. I wonder when she will outgrow this? I feel so bad for her but not much I can do about it.

The two photos above were taken inside, manual, with flash. All of the photos below are taken inside, manual, with no flash. Still learning. I have a long way to go! But I'm getting there. :)

The photo below is my all time favorite. Love it. :)

Yep, she has on a life jacket. Every day. She'll walk around in anything she can find. Usually Bentley or Audi's pajamas - on top of her clothing. One day she came down in a long sleeve shirt, sweats & her swimming suit on top of it. And she's getting quite frustrated that she can't fit in her baby doll's clothes. Ü

I love her. ♥

So I don't jinx it.

I will not talk (type?) loudly.

The last two days, yes two, have been minor spit up days from Miss Mercedes. :) At the end of the day, I only have 4, yes four, burp cloths to wash versus 20. She is doing so well I cancelled her 2nd GI appointment that was scheduled for this a.m. I will reschedule if needed. Doctors are not God & even though they are trained, they don't know everything & God has His own plan. She also is off all medication now (except for Thyroid) because none of the medication worked. We made the decision that we will not put her back on any reflux meds. We're going with the flow (heehee) from here on out.

Could it be she actually will stop spitting up at 6 months? Really, could it be? We have been in heaven the last few days. Especially her - my Happy Spitter. Ü

Photoshop.

Just want to make a note about Photoshop. This is my personal opinion only - I'm not a fan. I think Photoshop is being taken advantage of. I think the program is fantastic for certain tasks, but severely over-kill for overall photo retouching.

What do I mean? Ok. Look at all the internet/magazine images of celebrities. Most of them are Photoshopped. Those are not natural photos (trust me, I know. My bil is one of the best 'Photoshoppers'/retouchers there is. That is my husband's business - advertising - they make a living doing this). People are not flawless. The more I'm learning about photography, the more I read & the more sites I visit - professional 'every day' photograhers are joining the trend.

What this tells me is that numerous photos out there (not necessarily celebrity photos, but just 'regular' society/people photos) aren't the real deal! And personally, I don't like that. I don't think Photoshop is pure negative, but I want to photo & I want to see a photo, of the real deal. I've seen tons of family photos which are beautiful, but they've been touched on. To me, that's fake! Are they (whomever they may be) going to look back in 10 years & say "wow, great photo, but we didn't really look that good" etc. I want to see natural. I want to see pure, God given beauty. I want to see sincerity. I want to see emotion. I want to see the pure joy. I want to see a person/family that has lived or is beginning to live. Untouched. Unscathed. Un-Photoshopped. Ü

Just an observation I've recently made. Another thing I have noticed is people copying other people's work. Get real. Get creative. Be yourself & find your own nitch. Leave other's people's creativity & hard efforts for beautiful poses/colors alone. Take your passion & make it come alive. That's where my passion lies. :)

Mercedes' photo below is all natural. Taken outside, beginning of dusk, no flash, on manual setting. Is it perfect? No. Could I have taken a better, possibly lighter, shot? Most definitely. But that's her. Beautiful skintone, receding hairline (LOLOL!!), chubby cheeks with adorable dimple - the whole nine yards. *That* is where I'm headed w/ my photography. :)

Have a great weekend! Ü